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Maroons (from the Spanish word cimarrón: "fugitive, runaway", lit. "living on mountaintops"; from Spanish cima: "top, summit") were runaway slaves in the West Indies, Central America, South America, and North America, who formed independent settlements together. The same designation has also become a derivation for the verb to maroon.
Citation preview
[1]
RBG | We the Maroon People
We the Maroon People
[2]
RBG | We the Maroon People
View a Lecture on Maroonage:
Dr. Greg Carr, Associate Professor Howard University, Afro-
American Studies Department
[3]
RBG | We the Maroon People
Maroon (people) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Body of Ndyuka Maroon child brought before a shaman, Suriname 1955
Maroons (from the Spanish word cimarrón: "fugitive, runaway", lit. "living on mountaintops";
from Spanish cima: "top, summit") were runaway slaves in the West Indies, Central America,
South America, and North America, who formed independent settlements together. The same
designation has also become a derivation for the verb to maroon.
History
In the New World, as early as 1512, black slaves had escaped from Spanish and Portuguese
captors and either joined indigenous peoples or eked out a living on their own.[1]
Sir Francis
Drake enlisted several "cimaroons" during his raids on the Spanish.[2]
As early as 1655, runaway
slaves had formed their own communities in inland Jamaica, and by the 18th century, Nanny
Town and other villages began to fight for independent recognition.[3]
[4]
RBG | We the Maroon People
Body of Maroon child brought before medicine man, 1955
[5]
RBG | We the Maroon People
Ndyuka Maroon women with washing. Suriname River. 1955
When runaway slaves banded together and subsisted independently they were called Maroons.
On the Caribbean islands, runaway slaves formed bands and on some islands formed armed
camps. Maroon communities faced great odds to survive against white attackers, obtain food for
subsistence living, and to reproduce and increase their numbers. As the planters took over more
land for crops, the Maroons began to vanish on the small islands. Only on some of the larger
islands were organized Maroon communities able to thrive by growing crops and hunting. Here
they grew in number as more slaves escaped from plantations and joined their bands. Seeking to
separate themselves from whites, the Maroons gained in power and amid increasing hostilities,
they raided and pillaged plantations and harassed planters until the planters began to fear a mass
slave revolt.[4]
[6]
RBG | We the Maroon People
The early Maroon communities were usually displaced. By 1700, Maroons had disappeared from
the smaller islands. Survival was always difficult as the Maroons had to fight off attackers as
well as attempt to grow food.[4]
One of the most influential Maroons was François Mackandal, a
houngan, or voodoo priest, who led a six-year rebellion against the white plantation owners in
Haiti that preceded the Haitian Revolution.[5]
In Cuba, there were maroon communities in the mountains, where escaped slaves had joined
refugee Taínos.[6]
Before roads were built into the mountains of Puerto Rico, heavy brush kept
many escaped maroons hidden in the southwestern hills where many also intermarried with the
natives. Escaped Africans sought refuge away from the coastal plantations of Ponce.[7]
Remnants
of these communities remain to this day (2006) for example in Viñales, Cuba,[8]
and Adjuntas,
Puerto Rico.
Maroon communities emerged in many places in the Caribbean (St Vincent and Dominica, for
example), but none were seen as such a great threat to the British as the Jamaican Maroons.[9]
A
British governor signed a treaty promising the Maroons 2500 acres (10 km²) in two locations,
because they presented a threat to the British. Also, some Maroons kept their freedom by
agreeing to capture runaway slaves. They were paid two dollars for each slave returned.[10]
Beginning in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Jamaican Maroons fought British colonists to
a draw and eventually signed treaties in the 18th century that effectively freed them over 50
years before the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. To this day, the Jamaican Maroons are to a
significant extent autonomous and separate from Jamaican society. The physical isolation used to
their advantage by their ancestors has today led to their communities remaining among the most
inaccessible on the island. In their largest town, Accompong, in the parish of St. Elizabeth, the
Leeward Maroons still possess a vibrant community of about 600. Tours of the village are
offered to foreigners and a large festival is put on every January 6 to commemorate the signing
of the peace treaty with the British after the First Maroon War.[3][11]
In Suriname, which the Dutch took over in 1667, runaway slaves revolted and started to build
their own villages from the end of the 17th century. As most of the plantations existed in the
eastern part of the country, near the Commewijne and Marowijne rivers, the "Marronage"
(literally: running away) took place along the river borders and sometimes across the borders of
French Guyana. By 1740, Maroons had formed clans and felt strong enough to challenge the
Dutch colonists, forcing them to sign peace treaties. On October 10, 1760, the Ndyuka signed
such a treaty forged by Adyáko Benti Basiton of Boston, a former Jamaican slave who had
learned to read and write and knew about the Jamaican treaty. The treaty is still important, as it
defines the territorial rights of the Maroons in the gold-rich inlands of Suriname.[12]
[7]
RBG | We the Maroon People
Culture
Maroon village, Suriname River, 1955
Slaves escaped frequently within the first generation of their arrival from Africa and often
preserved their African languages and much of their culture and religion. African traditions
include such things as the use of medicinal herbs together with special drums and dances when
the herbs are administered to a sick person. Other African healing traditions and rites have
survived through the centuries — see, for example, the accompanying photos of a medicine man
and a protective charm from Suriname.
The jungles around the Caribbean Sea offered food, shelter and isolation for the escaped slaves.
Maroons survived by growing vegetables and hunting. They also originally raided plantations.
During these attacks, the maroons would burn crops, steal livestock and tools, kill slavemasters,
and invite other slaves to join their communities. Individual groups of Maroons often allied
themselves with the local indigenous tribes and occasionally assimilated into these populations.
Maroons/Marokons played an important role in the histories of Brazil, Suriname, Puerto Rico,
Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Jamaica.
[8]
RBG | We the Maroon People
There is much variety among Maroon cultural groups because of differences in history,
geography, African nationality, and the culture of indigenous people throughout the Western
hemisphere.
Maroon/Marokon settlements often possessed a clannish, outsider identity. They sometimes
developed Creole languages by mixing European tongues with their original African languages.
One such Maroon Creole language, in Suriname, is Saramaccan. Other times the Maroons would
adopt the local European language as a common tongue, for members of the community
frequently spoke a variety of mother tongues.
The Maroons/Marokons created their own independent communities which in some cases have
survived for centuries and until recently remained separate from mainstream society. In the 19th
and 20th centuries, Maroon/Marokon communities began to disappear as forests were razed,
although some countries, such as Guyana and Suriname, still have large Maroon populations
living in the forests. Recently, many Maroons/Marokons have moved to cities and towns as the
process of urbanization accelerates.
Geographical distribution
North America
Florida
The Black Seminoles who allied with Seminole Indians in Florida, were one of the largest and
most successful Maroon communities in the United States.
Louisiana
Until the Mid-1760s, Maroon colonies lined the shores of Lake Borgne, just downriver of New
Orleans. These fugitive slaves controlled many of the canals and back-country passages from
Lake Pontchartrain to the Gulf, including the Rigolets. These colonies were finally eradicated by
militia of Spanish-controlled New Orleans. Free people of color and slaves aided in the capture
of these fugitives.
North Carolina and Virginia
A large settlement of the Great Dismal Swamp maroons lived in oppressive conditions in the
marshlands of today's North Carolina and Virginia.
Nova Scotia Main article: Sierra Leone Creole people#Maroons and other transatlantic immigrants
[9]
RBG | We the Maroon People
Briefly, from 1796 to 1800, around 550 maroons, who had been deported from Jamaica after the
Second Maroon War, lived in Nova Scotia. In 1800 they were sent to Sierra Leone. (See Black
Nova Scotians)
Mexico
See Gaspar Yanga, Afro-Latin, Afro-Mexican.
Asian
Maroon communities were formed amongst the Afro Asians that resisted slavery.[13]
These
communities of maroons still inhabit the South Asian countries.
Central America
Panama Main article: Cimarron people (Panama)
A recently arrived slave, Bayano, led a rebellion in 1552 against the Spanish in Panama, and he
and his followers escaped to found villages in the lowlands. Later these people, known as
cimarrons, assisted Sir Francis Drake against the Spanish.
Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua
The Gulf of Honduras produced several types of maroon societies. Some of these were found in
the interior of modern day Honduras along the trade routes by which silver mined in the Pacific
side of the isthmus was carried down to coastal towns such as Trujillo or Puerto Caballos to be
shipped to Europe. The English bishop of Guatemala, Thomas Gage, reported active bands of
maroons numbering in the hundreds along these routes in 1648.
A second group that could be classified as maroons were the Miskito Sambu, who formed from
revolted slaves on a Portuguese ship around 1640 who wrecked the vessel on the coast of
Honduras-Nicaragua and blended in with the indigenous people over the next half century. They
eventually rose to leadership of the Mosquito Coast, and led extensive slave raids against
Spanish held territories in the first half of the eighteenth century.
A third group were the Garifuna, who were actually maroons on the island of Saint Vincent
deported to the coast of Honduras in 1797. From their original landing place in Roatan Island,
the Garifuna moved to Trujillo, and then groups of them spread south into the Mosquito
Kingdom and north into Belize. See main article Garifuna.
[10]
RBG | We the Maroon People
Caribbean islands
Jamaica Main article: Jamaican Maroons
Escaped slaves during the Spanish occupation of the island of Jamaica fled to the rugged interior
and joined with the Taínos living there. Additional numbers fled during the confusion
surrounding the 1655 British invasion. Runaway slaves continued to join them until the abolition
of slavery. The main British complaint was that they occasionally raided plantations, and made
expansion into the interior more difficult. These conflicts led to the First Maroon War in 1731
and the Second Maroon War in 1795. After which, approximately 600 maroons were deported to
Nova Scotia, and later in 1800 removed to Sierra Leone. The only maroon settlement that
remained after the Second Maroon War was Accompong, which had abided by its 1739 treaty
with the British.
Haïti
See Mawon.
Dominican Republic
See History of the Dominican Republic.
St. Vincent and Dominica
Similar Maroon communities emerged elsewhere in the Caribbean (St Vincent and Dominica for
example).
Cuba
In Cuba, there were maroon communities in the mountains, where escaped slaves had joined
refugee Taínos.[6]
Remnants of these communities remain to this day (2006) for example in
Viñales.[8]
Puerto Rico
In Puerto Rico, Taíno families from neighboring Utuado were found living in the Southwestern
mountain ranges, along with the escaped Africans who intermarried with the Taíno. DNA
genetic evidence shows that many Africans fled up the Camino Real into the mountains to
escape the sugar plantations of Ponce. The Mandinka, Wolof and Fulani mtDNA African
haplotype, L1b, is present here.[14]
Taíno haplogroups A & C can also be found in this area.
[11]
RBG | We the Maroon People
South America
French Guiana and Suriname
Maroon men in Suriname, picture taken between 1910–1935
Main article: History of Suriname#Slavery and emancipation
Escaped slaves in French Guiana and Suriname fled to the interior and joined with indigenous
peoples and created several independent tribes, among them the Saramaka, the Paramaka, the
Ndyuka (Aukan), the Kwinti, the Aluku (Boni), and the Matawai. By the 1990s the maroons in
Suriname had begun to fight for their land rights.[15]
Brazil Main article: Quilombo
One of the best-known quilombos (maroon settlements) in Brazil was Palmares (the Palm
Nation) which was founded in the early 17th century. At its height, it had a population of over
30,000 free people and was ruled by king Zumbi. Palmares maintained its independent existence
for almost a hundred years until it was conquered by the Portuguese in 1694.
[12]
RBG | We the Maroon People
Colombia
Escaped slaves established independent communities along the remote Pacific coast, outside of
the reach of the colonial administration. In Colombia the Caribbean coast still sees maroon
communities like San Basilio de Palenque, where the creole Palenquero language is spoken.
Ecuador
In addition to escaped slaves, survivors of a ship wreck formed independent communities along
rivers of the northern coast and probably mingled with indigenous communities in areas beyond
the reach of the colonial administration. Separate communities can be distingeshed form the
cantones Limones, Esmeraldas, Cojimies y Tababuela.
See also
Afro-Latin American
Black Indians
Black Seminoles
Capoeira
Cimarron people (Panama)
Gaspar Yanga
Jamaican Maroons
Marie-Elena John
Maroon music
Quilombo
Saramaka
Sranan Tongo
Zambo
Notes
1. "Sir Francis Drake Revived" in Voyages and Travels: Ancient and Modern. The Harvard
Classics. 1909–14 paragraph 21.
2. "Sir Francis Drake Revived" in Voyages and Travels: Ancient and Modern. The Harvard
Classics. 1909–14 paragraph 101.
3. Campbell, Mavis Christine (1988), The Maroons of Jamaica, 1655–1796: A History of
Resistance, Collaboration & Betrayal, Granby, MA: Bergin & Garvey. ISBN 0-89789-
148-1.
4. Rogozinski, Jan (1999). A Brief History of the Caribbean (Revised ed.). New York: Facts
on File, Inc.. pp. 155–68. ISBN 0-8160-3811-2.
[13]
RBG | We the Maroon People
5. "The History of Haiti and the Haitian Revolution". The City of Miami. Retrieved 2007-
08-16.
6. Aimes, Hubert H. S. (1967), A History of Slavery in Cuba, 1511 to 1868, New York:
Octagon Books.
7. The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 66, No. 2 (May 1986), pp. 381–82.
8. "El Templo de los Cimarrones" Guerrillero:Pinar del Río in Spanish
9. Edwards, Bryan (1801), Historical Survey of the Island of Saint Domingo, London: J.
Stockdale.
10. Taylor, Alan (2001), American Colonies: The Settling of North America, New York:
Penguin Books.
11. Edwards, Bryan (1796), "Observations on the disposition, character, manners, and habits
of life, of the Maroon negroes of the island of Jamaica; and a detail of the origin,
progress, and termination of the late war between those people and the white inhabitants."
in Edwards, Bryan (1801), Historical Survey of the Island of Saint Domingo, London: J.
Stockdale, pp. 303–360.
12. Alex van Stipriaan, Surinaams contrast (1995); Hans Buddingh', Geschiedenis van
Suriname (1995/1999); Alex van Stipriaan/Thomas Polimé, Kunst van overleven (KIT,
2009).
13. Oka, R., & Kusimba, C. (2007). "Siddi as Mercenary or as African Success Story on the
West Coast of India". In J. C. Hawley, India in Africa Africa in India: Indian Ocean
Cosmopolitans (pp. 203–224). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
14. African DNA Project mtDNA Haplogroup L1b African DNA Project, archived May 8,
2008 from the original
15. Case of the Saramaka People v. Suriname, Judgment of November 28, 2007, Inter-
American Court of Human Rights (La Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos),
accessed 21 May 2009.
References
Daughters of the Dust (1991), film by Julie Dash taking place in 1902 off the coast of
South Carolina and Georgia. It shows how, on an isolated island, a group of people
manages to hold on to their Ibo customs and traditions. ISBN 0-525-94109-6
Ganga Zumba (1963), film by Carlos Diegues
Quilombo (1985), film by Carlos Diegues about Palmares, ASIN B0009WIE8E
Hoogbergen, Wim S. M. Brill (1997), The Boni Maroon Wars in Suriname, Academic
Publishers. ISBN 90-04-09303-6
Corzo, Gabino La Rosa (2003), Runaway Slave Settlements in Cuba: Resistance and
Repression (translated by Mary Todd), Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
ISBN 0-8078-2803-3
[14]
RBG | We the Maroon People
De Granada, Germán (1970), Cimarronismo, palenques y Hablas “Criollas” en
Hispanoamérica Instituto Caro y Cuero, Santa Fe de Bogotá, Colombia, OCLC
37821053 (in Spanish)
van Velzen, H.U.E. Thoden and van Wetering, Wilhelmina (2004), In the Shadow of the
Oracle: Religion as Politics in a Suriname Maroon Society, Long Grove, Illinois:
Waveland Press. ISBN 1-57766-323-3
Price, Richard (ed.) (1973), Maroon Societies: rebel slave communities in the Americas,
Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books. ISBN 0-385-06508-6
Honychurch, Lennox (1995), The Dominica Story, London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-
62776-8 (Includes extensive chapters on the Maroons of Dominica)
Thompson, Alvin O. (2006), Flight to Freedom: African runaways and maroons in the
Americas University of West Indies Press, Kingston, Jamaica, ISBN 976-640-180-2
Learning, Hugo Prosper (1995), Hidden Americans: Maroons of Virginia and the
Carolinas Garland Publishing, New York, ISBN 0-8153-1543-0
Campbell, Mavis Christine (1988), The Maroons of Jamaica, 1655–1796: a history of
resistance, collaboration & betrayal, Granby, Mass.: Bergin & Garvey. ISBN 0-89789-
148-1
Dallas, R. C. The History of the Maroons, from Their Origin to the Establishment of
Their Chief Tribe at Sierra Leone. 2 vols. London: Longman. 1803.
Sergey Slepchenko (2009), Nations of Latin America, Phoenix, Rostov-on-Don, ISBm
92-86-36414-2
Further reading
Johnson, Brian D. "The Land of Look Behind", Equinox Magazine, September–October
1983, pp. 49–65. A detailed article with many superb photos.
External links
Maroon music and teaching methods
Creativity and Resistance: Maroon Cultures in the Americas
A good short history of the "Bush Negroes" of Suriname
The Maroons, Hindustanis and others of Surinam
"The Maroon Culture of Endurance by Helen Reidell". A history of Jamaican Maroons.
Also available in Américas Magazine, Vol. 42, January–February 1990, pp. 46–49.