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Maroon Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas
Now in its twenty-fifth anniversary edition, Maroon Societies is a systematic study of the communities formed by escaped slaves in the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States. These societies ranged from small bands that survived less than a year to powerful states encompassing thousands of members and surviving for generations and even centuries. The volume includes eyewitness accounts written by escaped slaves and their pursuers, as well as modern historical and anthropological studies of the maroon experience. From the recipient of the J.I. Staley Prize in Anthropology.
429 pages, Paperback
First published January 2, 1973
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October 23, 2022
Thanks for being the basis of every paper I write for my capstone.
August 11, 2021
This book is comprised of a collection of in depth essays analyzing the numerous societies of runaway / fugitive African slaves throughout the slave colonies of the Americas, also known as the “Maroons.”
As editor Richard Price made clear, Maroonage was the most common form of organized slave resistance throughout the “New World.” This book excels at detailing the rise, development, and fall of Maroon societies; and their relations with one another, their European oppressors, and their Amerindian neighbors. Ultimately, the book serves as a mini history of the colonial slave societies of the Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, and Dutch Americas.
The great value of this book is in how it drives home enslaved Africans’ undying longing for freedom and independence, and their persistent and ferocious attempts at achieving it. It’s astounding that across vast territories of seemingly unrelated European slave colonies, Africans fled and established communities of their own in order to protect themselves and their culture from the ravages of white supremacy. However, despite this astounding and inspirational legacy, as the book details, the Maroons also had significant challenges and shortcomings that were more often than not too difficult to overcome. First, the Maroons could never quite sever their dependencies to the colonial / plantation system. Second, many Maroon societies ultimately chose (or were forced) to negotiate for their sovereignty in exchange for giving up attempts at freeing their still enslaved African brethren. Finally, a lack of unity among the various Maroon bands stifled the revolutionary potential of these fugitive communities.
Despite these (and other) challenges, the Maroons terrified the colonizing elites, shook the entire foundation of the colonial order, and cemented their legacies as standard-bearers for African resistance and self-determination. This is a must read!
As editor Richard Price made clear, Maroonage was the most common form of organized slave resistance throughout the “New World.” This book excels at detailing the rise, development, and fall of Maroon societies; and their relations with one another, their European oppressors, and their Amerindian neighbors. Ultimately, the book serves as a mini history of the colonial slave societies of the Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, and Dutch Americas.
The great value of this book is in how it drives home enslaved Africans’ undying longing for freedom and independence, and their persistent and ferocious attempts at achieving it. It’s astounding that across vast territories of seemingly unrelated European slave colonies, Africans fled and established communities of their own in order to protect themselves and their culture from the ravages of white supremacy. However, despite this astounding and inspirational legacy, as the book details, the Maroons also had significant challenges and shortcomings that were more often than not too difficult to overcome. First, the Maroons could never quite sever their dependencies to the colonial / plantation system. Second, many Maroon societies ultimately chose (or were forced) to negotiate for their sovereignty in exchange for giving up attempts at freeing their still enslaved African brethren. Finally, a lack of unity among the various Maroon bands stifled the revolutionary potential of these fugitive communities.
Despite these (and other) challenges, the Maroons terrified the colonizing elites, shook the entire foundation of the colonial order, and cemented their legacies as standard-bearers for African resistance and self-determination. This is a must read!
December 23, 2025
“Silence no history no matter the shade, or weight of its ugliness or degradation. Let us all see it, feel it and not repeat it.” Quote by Deb Smith
This book is not an easy read whatsoever. It reads like research or a doctoral thesis with annotations and educational terminology. I pressed on and skimmed through some out, of my true curiosity about the Maroon communities that formed out of the enslaved desire for freedom. I will say that if this level of reading is not your cup of tea, save yourself and skip this book. Even for me at times it was tough and frustrating. Tough because I wanted there not to be so many annotations in the middle of the reading. Many other books that I have read annotate and reference the information at the back of the book. Having to skip through parentheses in the middle of a sentence or paragraph was annoying. And frustrating because there were so many times I wanted the author to summarize and get to the point.
This book was extremely long but extremely informative. “Maroon Societies”, is exactly what the title states. In my own words, a Maroon was the title given by European enslavers to African origin, Native American born and Creole Black slaves who escaped the bonds of slavery in the Americas and Caribbean Islands during the 1500’s through the 1800’s until it was abolished. This book takes a very thorough approach to describing the nature, origins, locations, struggles, conflicts, building, destruction and legacy of Maroon communities and societies as a whole. It is very informative. It was extremely eye opening. When the subject of slavery is discussed, for those of us living in the U.S. it is often a very singular conversation. Singular in the fact that it is not often discussed that slavery was a disgusting practice that encompassed the entire “so called” new world. Europeans brought slavery to not just North America but all of South American and all of the Caribbean islands on this side of the world. Open a map, take a look at this and one realizes that was a tremendous amount of people. That was a tremendous amount of destruction to the lives of enslaved people. They weren’t just numbers they were PEOPLE. People who were worked like machinery night and day until they were of no use and then killed or replaced. They were worked in fields of cotton, tobacco, coffee, mining silver, mining copper to name just a few. They slaved as unpaid skilled workers. They slaves as domestics. They slaved at any task deemed hard and backbreaking work. Most times they were under fed, under clothed, sleep deprived and overworked. They were beaten and whipped and amputated and abused physical, sexually and verbally. They had their family, children, fellow slaves sold, hung, killed before their eyes. They were treated as animals but they were men and women and children and babies. All of this lead to the need for hope and that hope came in the form of the escape. They risked their lives and escaped by themselves or with family or fellows to the swamps or to the mountains or to the forests. Because anything was better than what they had endured. They would rather die trying than endure living. They took to the unwanted hidden places. They formed groups, communities and organized societies. Some lasted months. Some lasted years. Why? Because their captors came after them. They came after them with swords and muskets and militias and soldiers sometimes to negotiate backhanded treaties of freedom but most times to kill them. If they couldn’t rule over them, if they couldn’t control and lord over these people whom they didn’t see as people they must die. The people called Maroons spent their time continuing to escape and move and run and protect themselves from the organized murderous stalkers who were their former enslavers. Many people were captured and given back to their enslavers. Many people were resold on auction blocks. Many people were killed in skirmishes fighting for their freedom. There were Maroon wars. Wars, asserting that they were their own mini nations. Many people died from hunger and starvation. Many people died of the weather conditions. Many people died struggling to live. Many people lived to tell the story of the Maroons. This is definitely a truth that needs to be told, albeit in an easier read format.
My other gripe about this book was that there was not enough information about Maroon societies in what became the U.S. I assume this is due to two reasons which were alluded to in this book. One that at the time of this books compilation there was more documented information available to the author on all of the other slave inhabited locations. Two that there has been (and currently still is) an agenda by the descendants of slave owners to silence any and all slave history due to their guilt and embarrassment. To that I say, silence no history no matter the shade, or weight of its ugliness or degradation. Let us all see it, feel it and not repeat it.
I recommend this book to the scholars with us.
I give it 4 ⭐️ stars, only because it could be more approachable for greater consumption.
This book is not an easy read whatsoever. It reads like research or a doctoral thesis with annotations and educational terminology. I pressed on and skimmed through some out, of my true curiosity about the Maroon communities that formed out of the enslaved desire for freedom. I will say that if this level of reading is not your cup of tea, save yourself and skip this book. Even for me at times it was tough and frustrating. Tough because I wanted there not to be so many annotations in the middle of the reading. Many other books that I have read annotate and reference the information at the back of the book. Having to skip through parentheses in the middle of a sentence or paragraph was annoying. And frustrating because there were so many times I wanted the author to summarize and get to the point.
This book was extremely long but extremely informative. “Maroon Societies”, is exactly what the title states. In my own words, a Maroon was the title given by European enslavers to African origin, Native American born and Creole Black slaves who escaped the bonds of slavery in the Americas and Caribbean Islands during the 1500’s through the 1800’s until it was abolished. This book takes a very thorough approach to describing the nature, origins, locations, struggles, conflicts, building, destruction and legacy of Maroon communities and societies as a whole. It is very informative. It was extremely eye opening. When the subject of slavery is discussed, for those of us living in the U.S. it is often a very singular conversation. Singular in the fact that it is not often discussed that slavery was a disgusting practice that encompassed the entire “so called” new world. Europeans brought slavery to not just North America but all of South American and all of the Caribbean islands on this side of the world. Open a map, take a look at this and one realizes that was a tremendous amount of people. That was a tremendous amount of destruction to the lives of enslaved people. They weren’t just numbers they were PEOPLE. People who were worked like machinery night and day until they were of no use and then killed or replaced. They were worked in fields of cotton, tobacco, coffee, mining silver, mining copper to name just a few. They slaved as unpaid skilled workers. They slaves as domestics. They slaved at any task deemed hard and backbreaking work. Most times they were under fed, under clothed, sleep deprived and overworked. They were beaten and whipped and amputated and abused physical, sexually and verbally. They had their family, children, fellow slaves sold, hung, killed before their eyes. They were treated as animals but they were men and women and children and babies. All of this lead to the need for hope and that hope came in the form of the escape. They risked their lives and escaped by themselves or with family or fellows to the swamps or to the mountains or to the forests. Because anything was better than what they had endured. They would rather die trying than endure living. They took to the unwanted hidden places. They formed groups, communities and organized societies. Some lasted months. Some lasted years. Why? Because their captors came after them. They came after them with swords and muskets and militias and soldiers sometimes to negotiate backhanded treaties of freedom but most times to kill them. If they couldn’t rule over them, if they couldn’t control and lord over these people whom they didn’t see as people they must die. The people called Maroons spent their time continuing to escape and move and run and protect themselves from the organized murderous stalkers who were their former enslavers. Many people were captured and given back to their enslavers. Many people were resold on auction blocks. Many people were killed in skirmishes fighting for their freedom. There were Maroon wars. Wars, asserting that they were their own mini nations. Many people died from hunger and starvation. Many people died of the weather conditions. Many people died struggling to live. Many people lived to tell the story of the Maroons. This is definitely a truth that needs to be told, albeit in an easier read format.
My other gripe about this book was that there was not enough information about Maroon societies in what became the U.S. I assume this is due to two reasons which were alluded to in this book. One that at the time of this books compilation there was more documented information available to the author on all of the other slave inhabited locations. Two that there has been (and currently still is) an agenda by the descendants of slave owners to silence any and all slave history due to their guilt and embarrassment. To that I say, silence no history no matter the shade, or weight of its ugliness or degradation. Let us all see it, feel it and not repeat it.
I recommend this book to the scholars with us.
I give it 4 ⭐️ stars, only because it could be more approachable for greater consumption.
February 10, 2024
Maroon Societies was thrilling journey across the breadth of Maroon experiences in the Americas. Though an older work that uses some terminology that is offensive or deprecated today, and one that certainly does not benefit from the latest work in the field, the primary sources and depth of the scholarship hold up to this day. It was fascinating to read about details like alliances and mergers between Indigenous and Maroon communities in different places and times, marronage as one of the varied strategies enslaved Black people turned to, and interplays of war and peace between Maroon and white planter societies.
The geographically organized chapters foreground the unique circumstances and contexts of each region, such as Jamaican plantation owners' incoherence and ineffectiveness in the face of the culturally cohesive and highly competent Maroon bands, while also commenting on larger patterns such as factors that made some enslaved people likelier to choose the difficult and risky path of permanent escape, or grand marronage.
An astounding array of narratives emerges from the tragic to the humorous, such as all the able-bodied enslaved workers on a French Caribbean plantation called Deshaies hiding away to successfully thwart the sale of the plantation, or a British posse leader in Jamaica entertaining the wife of Maroon leader Bulley trying and failing to get her to betray her husband.
The various Maroon societies' peerless ingenuity and the rich, diverse complexity of their organization are on display across time and space. The abundance and quality of many of these communities' agricultural cultivation in the wilds were recorded in admiring detail by the colonial soldiers that found (and then destroyed and pillaged) their fields. Many Maroon communities survived and thrived on trade with freed Black communities and white planters, and enjoyed deep relationships of support and exchange with enslaved Black communities. In numerous cases, Maroons achieved military triumphs over planter armed forces through brilliant strategems, careful preparation, and courageous maneuvers. The fortifications and traps that embattled quilombos in Brazil built against approach and invasion by enslavers were marvels of engineering and resourceful uses of terrain.
Through this vast array of accounts Maroon communities, together with the freed and enslaved African diaspora communities they were so often intertwined with, foreground themselves as active agents and creators of history, frequently fighting planter societies into suing for peace and establishing themselves in Jamaica, Suriname and elsewhere as key political players in the process of nation-shaping.
The accounts also do not shy away from the troubling compromises many Maroon groups had to make, foremost among them agreements not to accept any more escapees from enslavement or even agreements to cooperate in the capture of such fugitives. It is a sobering reminder that the triumphs of Maroon bands generally took place against the backdrop of the military and industrial might of enslaving colonial societies.
It is fitting that the final chapters focus on modern Maroon-descended communities, specifically communities of the Djuka people in Suriname, living at peace in societies of their own making. The lively descriptions of their customs and organization as of the late 20th century were windows into African diaspora societies' creativity and complexity in drawing from diverse influences including ones from Africa, such as Akan-originated matrilinearity among the Djuka, while taking received traditions in different directions such as more equal divisions of inheritance among the Djuka compared to the Akan people and general tendencies toward economic parity within communities.
The book closes with an account of Surinamese Maroon Granmans (Paramount Chiefs) traveling to Africa for a tour across the West African regions their ancestors were abducted away from centuries before. The colorful and entertaining narrative was also a poignant testament to the Maroon communities' survival in the face of heartbreaking injustices and incredible adversity to build vibrant societies and cultures, and to their complex yet real ties to distant ancestral homelands.
I won't say Maroon Societies is a quick or easy read. There are unflinching descriptions throughout of antiblack cruelty, murder, and enslavement (but I repeat myself) that readers may find traumatic, and it is no single-sitting page-turner for the vast majority of people given the scope and sheer length across 21 chapters by almost as many contributors. Nor does it offer a pat, unifying grand narrative as bestselling popularizations of history tend to. Rather, the different contributions do the hard historical work of puzzling through minutiae and complicated conclusions while being accessible and readable throughout.
The good news is, the sprawling and decentralized nature of Maroon Societies means it is perfectly valid to read chapters about regions or subjects of particular interest. The book does not have to be read in particular order, either. It does not even have to be read in full, and seeing how reasonably priced it is for such a long work I would say a few chapters of reading still makes it a bargain.
Reading the book in full, however, makes for an incomparable experience, both a high-level view and intimate scrutiny of Maroon and associated African diaspora experiences in the Americas and the Caribbean. I didn't hurry through it, reading chapter-by-chapter over the course of about a year with plenty of breaks, and was rewarded with a rich telling of these remarkable communities' stories in all their dazzle and darkness. It was an inviting entry point to the large and dynamic field of Maroon scholarship, and the single most epic reading experience of my life.
The geographically organized chapters foreground the unique circumstances and contexts of each region, such as Jamaican plantation owners' incoherence and ineffectiveness in the face of the culturally cohesive and highly competent Maroon bands, while also commenting on larger patterns such as factors that made some enslaved people likelier to choose the difficult and risky path of permanent escape, or grand marronage.
An astounding array of narratives emerges from the tragic to the humorous, such as all the able-bodied enslaved workers on a French Caribbean plantation called Deshaies hiding away to successfully thwart the sale of the plantation, or a British posse leader in Jamaica entertaining the wife of Maroon leader Bulley trying and failing to get her to betray her husband.
The various Maroon societies' peerless ingenuity and the rich, diverse complexity of their organization are on display across time and space. The abundance and quality of many of these communities' agricultural cultivation in the wilds were recorded in admiring detail by the colonial soldiers that found (and then destroyed and pillaged) their fields. Many Maroon communities survived and thrived on trade with freed Black communities and white planters, and enjoyed deep relationships of support and exchange with enslaved Black communities. In numerous cases, Maroons achieved military triumphs over planter armed forces through brilliant strategems, careful preparation, and courageous maneuvers. The fortifications and traps that embattled quilombos in Brazil built against approach and invasion by enslavers were marvels of engineering and resourceful uses of terrain.
Through this vast array of accounts Maroon communities, together with the freed and enslaved African diaspora communities they were so often intertwined with, foreground themselves as active agents and creators of history, frequently fighting planter societies into suing for peace and establishing themselves in Jamaica, Suriname and elsewhere as key political players in the process of nation-shaping.
The accounts also do not shy away from the troubling compromises many Maroon groups had to make, foremost among them agreements not to accept any more escapees from enslavement or even agreements to cooperate in the capture of such fugitives. It is a sobering reminder that the triumphs of Maroon bands generally took place against the backdrop of the military and industrial might of enslaving colonial societies.
It is fitting that the final chapters focus on modern Maroon-descended communities, specifically communities of the Djuka people in Suriname, living at peace in societies of their own making. The lively descriptions of their customs and organization as of the late 20th century were windows into African diaspora societies' creativity and complexity in drawing from diverse influences including ones from Africa, such as Akan-originated matrilinearity among the Djuka, while taking received traditions in different directions such as more equal divisions of inheritance among the Djuka compared to the Akan people and general tendencies toward economic parity within communities.
The book closes with an account of Surinamese Maroon Granmans (Paramount Chiefs) traveling to Africa for a tour across the West African regions their ancestors were abducted away from centuries before. The colorful and entertaining narrative was also a poignant testament to the Maroon communities' survival in the face of heartbreaking injustices and incredible adversity to build vibrant societies and cultures, and to their complex yet real ties to distant ancestral homelands.
I won't say Maroon Societies is a quick or easy read. There are unflinching descriptions throughout of antiblack cruelty, murder, and enslavement (but I repeat myself) that readers may find traumatic, and it is no single-sitting page-turner for the vast majority of people given the scope and sheer length across 21 chapters by almost as many contributors. Nor does it offer a pat, unifying grand narrative as bestselling popularizations of history tend to. Rather, the different contributions do the hard historical work of puzzling through minutiae and complicated conclusions while being accessible and readable throughout.
The good news is, the sprawling and decentralized nature of Maroon Societies means it is perfectly valid to read chapters about regions or subjects of particular interest. The book does not have to be read in particular order, either. It does not even have to be read in full, and seeing how reasonably priced it is for such a long work I would say a few chapters of reading still makes it a bargain.
Reading the book in full, however, makes for an incomparable experience, both a high-level view and intimate scrutiny of Maroon and associated African diaspora experiences in the Americas and the Caribbean. I didn't hurry through it, reading chapter-by-chapter over the course of about a year with plenty of breaks, and was rewarded with a rich telling of these remarkable communities' stories in all their dazzle and darkness. It was an inviting entry point to the large and dynamic field of Maroon scholarship, and the single most epic reading experience of my life.
January 25, 2008
The best introduction to Maroon studies available.
December 17, 2014
A lot of the material is dry and in a creepy anthropology style, but the info you can squeeze out of it is super useful!
September 22, 2024
maroonage needs to enter the american history vocabulary PRONTO!!!!!
July 29, 2009
first account non-fiction stories of Africans throughout the south, central and northern Americas and their struggles to never be subdued and reduced to slavery...accounts go back as far as the 15th century...
November 7, 2008
An inside look of the life of slaves that escapes colonial system, from the very beginning of slavery.
A real message of hope : we could escape our fate too...
A real message of hope : we could escape our fate too...
January 19, 2013
Amazing book!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews