Intimate Direct Democracy: Fort Mose, the Great Dismal Swamp, and the Human Quest for Freedom

by Modibo Kadalie, Andrew Zonneveld (Introduction)

From the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, many African people who were enslaved in North America emancipated themselves and fled into vast swamplands and across colonial borders, beyond the reach of oppressive settler-colonialism and the institution of slavery. On the peripheries of empire, these freedom-seeking "maroons" established their own autonomous, ethnically diverse, and intimately democratic communities of resistance.



In this new volume, Modibo Kadalie offers a critical reexamination of the history and historiography surrounding two sites of African The Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia and North Carolina; and Fort Mose in Florida.



In these communities of refuge, deep-rooted directly democratic social movements emanating from West Africa converged with those of indigenous North Americans. Kadalie's study of these sites offers a new lens of "intimate direct democracy," through which readers are invited to re-examine their notions of human social history and the true meaning of democracy.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics

178 pages, Paperback

Published March 31, 2022

Reviews

[JRT · Rating 4 out of 5]

In “Intimate Direct Democracy,” Gullah-Geechee author, historian, and ecologist Dr. Modibo M. Kadalie seeks to weaponize the histories of Native American and African social organization in the Southeastern regions of the Great Dismal Swamp and Fort Mose, for the purpose of inspiring readers, activists, and organizers toward a more democratic existence. Kadalie does a great job briefly detailing the historic occupation of these regions, first (and continuously) by various statist and non-statist Native American inhabitants, and second by formerly enslaved Africans who chose a life of Maroonage, rather than bondage in the British and Spanish Empires of the 18th Century. In doing so, Kadalie stresses the non-hierarchical, eco-democratic nature of the Great Dismal Swamp (and later the settlement of Fort Mose in Florida), arguing that this site served as a multi-racial, multi-cultural, and multi-generational space of resistance to enslavement, colonial dispossession, and genocide. Kadalie also described how the residents of the Great Dismal Swamp often formed the core of some of the largest revolts against English and Spanish colonialism in the region (Yamasee and Tuscarora wars of the early 1700s). This short book contains valuable information on how African and Native American peoples sought to transfer and reinvigorate their non-hierarchical societies of old into new democratic spaces on the periphery of European empires. While I wished the book contained more detail on how to go about building intimate democracies and how the societies examined maintained their democracies, Kadalie’s general point reads loud and clear.

[Libertie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short work of regional Afro-Indigenous history by veteran organizer and scholar Modibo Kadalie, whose previous book, “Pan-African Social Ecology: Speeches, Conversations, and Essays,” has inspired numerous events at our bookstore since its publication in 2019.

In this new text Kadalie draws from the historic record, recent archaeological discoveries, and his own movement experience to explore the idea of “intimate direct democracy” through two relatively-unknown experiments in human freedom. In both Spanish Florida and what is now the border of Virginia and North Carolina, self-emancipated Africans mixed with Indigenous peoples and poor whites to form centers of resistance to colonialism. While the history itself is fascinating, the book shines as a result of the author’s wry commentary and political insights. Kadalie detours into reflections on the social ecology of swamps, provides a new vocabulary (plantations are “enslaved-labor farms,” self-sustaining towns and villages are “eco-communities,” etc), and critically examines the role of charismatic leaders. In this way, “Intimate Direct Democracy” shares a spirit with AK Press’s “Dixie be Damned: 300 Years of Insurrection in the American South” (2015), my longstanding favorite work of anarchic Southern history.

"Contrary to the dominant and bogus narrative that Fort Mose was built by the Spanish colonial government 'for' African refugees from the English colonies, we must affirm that these freedom-seeking people created this sacred fortified place on their own authority... Government policy does not create social movement; it is a response to it. So it was in the case of Fort Mose."—Modibo Kadalie, Distinctions Between British and Spanish Enslavement Policy

Whether or not you live in the South, this is a book you don’t want to miss! I'll also flag an upcoming virtual discussion with author Modibo Kadalie and editor Andrew Zonneveld at the end of April. Free registration can be found at https://firestorm.coop/events/2983-th...

"Readers who are unfamiliar with the region may be surprised at the depth and complexity of political and social history of this region, but in the twenty-first century we can no longer afford to avoid learning about the South. As one of the most ethnically diverse, ecologically diverse, and economically poor regions in North America, the Southeast exists on the frontlines of the struggle against racism, climate change, and capitalism."—Andrew Zonneveld, Introduction

[Charles Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant book of possibilities for organizing Black communities by a veteran sage organizer