Maroon (Other Keyword)
1-7 (7 Records)
We define Maroons by their overt resistance; theirs was one of the most extreme forms of anti-slavery resistance in the Americas and for many scholars is representative of the human desire to be free. Maroons removed themselves from the places in which they were enslaved and created new places apart from this brutal existence. However, reducing our understanding of Maroon life to a history of domination and resistance limits the scope of Maroon agency and values certain forms of action, such as...
Great Dismal Swamp Land Study (2013)
The Great Dismal Swamp Landscape Study (GDSLS), which was formed in 2002, has been investigating the swamp by means of archaeological excavation. The project has been successful in exploring the enigmatic history of disenfranchised Native Americans, African Maroons, and others who sought refuge from the colonial world ca. 1660-1865.The project revolves around a predictive model of community structure that can be tested on various sites in the swamp. Current research focuses on the interior, or...
Hiding on Maroon Ridge: The Search for Maroon Settlements on St. Croix, US Virgin Islands (2023)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. During the 18th century, formerly enslaved Crucians self-liberated and developed a community in the northwest hills of St. Croix. The rugged hills of St. Croix provided an ideal location for self-liberated Crucians to avoid detection and establish settlements. Archaeologists and historians have discussed the maritime marronage of...
Maroon Archaeology beyond the Americas: A View from Kenya (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeologies of Enslavement" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Archaeological research on Maroons—that is, runaway slaves—has been largely confined to the Americas. This paper advocates a more global approach. It specifically uses two runaway slave communities in 19th-century coastal Kenya to rethink prominent interpretive themes in the field, including "Africanisms," Maroons’ connections to indigenous groups, and...
Paths of Connection in the Great Dismal Swamp: Wetland Watercourses as Indigenous and Maroon Landscape Features (2018)
Speckled with mesic islands and peat hummocks, the soggy lowlands and standing water of the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia and North Carolina (USA) were home to thousands of African and African American Maroons ca. 1608-1863 and were a significant feature of the landscape of Indigenous Americans for many centuries prior. The Great Dismal Swamp Landscape Study and the Swampscapes project archaeologically investigate the landscape of resistance created by Maroons. The Dismal is far from a...
Uneven Landscapes, Uneven Histories: Maroons in the American Historical Narrative (2017)
Throughout most of the Atlantic world, Maroons play a critical role in local, regional, and even national histories. In contrast, marronage in colonial America and the early United States is largely absent from the American historical narrative. Thousands of Maroons lived in The Great Dismal Swamp, located in Virginia and North Carolina, from the late 17th century until Emancipation. And, Maroons played a critical role in slowing US expansionism in Florida, once known as a refuge for escaped...
Waders and Snake Chaps: Targeted Exploration and Ground Truthing in the Great Dismal Swamp (2016)
The Great Dismal Swamp of Virginia and North Carolina was home to disenfranchised Native Americans, enslaved canal company laborers and maroons who lived in the wetlands temporarily and long term ca. 1660-1860. This paper discusses recent and ongoing research to identify mesic islands, likely sites of maroon occupation, in the interior of the Swamp. In the past decade, the Great Dismal Swamp Landscape Study (GDSLS) has intensively investigated a few maroon and enslaved labor sites, leaving...