Underground Railroad Where?

Then what was another form of escape for slaves?

Maroon communities are communities of runaway slaves that fled far to the colonial margins and geographical features in order to escape the brutality of slavery in hopes of gaining their freedom in an independent and safe space. Between the mid 16th century and the early 17th century, most of the slaves that survived the Transatlantic slave trade were brought to Mexico, Peru, and Colombia (Helg 46). Because most of the land in Spanish America was vast and not yet explored by Europeans it made escape a reality for many enslaved men, women, and children. Hence, this led to the flight toward vast geographical features such as rivers, mountains, plains, and forests (Helg 46). 

Maroon communities can be found in Brazil, Jamaica, Haiti, Suriname, French Guiana, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Panama, Columbia, Mexico, and the Southern part of the United States. Basically, maroon communities can be found anywhere slaves arrived during the Transatlantic Slave Trade, as shown in the map below. The places listed above are just names where maroon communities were known to exist.

The Great Dismal swamp was home to thousands of maroon communities, due to its large geographical size it was an ideal escape for slaves working on plantations in bordering North Carolina and Virginia. The swamp was known as the "No man's land" and was called a place where "Loose and disorderly people daily flock" by the Virginia governor in 1714, which was a direct connotation to runaway slaves (Grant 3).

"People would slip off down the waterways, but usually maintain some contact. The Dismal Swamp maroons found a way to remove themselves completely from the United States, in the recesses of its geography.” - Bercaw,

Up until the creation of the Washington Ditch, the Great Dismal Swamp a safe space for runaway slaves. In 1763, George Washington made a plan to drain the swamp and extract its timber resources as well as building canals for transportation (Grant 7). Hence, this made the safe space a haven for slave-catchers with the creation of canals for transportation and exploitation of lumber (Grant 7).

The Accompong Town is one of four established maroon societies in Jamaica. The other three societies are called Moore, Town, Charles Town, and Scott's Hall (Connell 222). Accompong is seen as the maroon society that is vital to the perpetuation of the cultural identity of the maroons (Connell 221). Accompong Town is located in Cockpit Country in Jamaica, unlike 2,000 square miles of swamp, this maroon community is roughly 317 square miles (Connell 221). The Kindah Tree is a physical symbol of cohesion and Maroon identity. It is representative of a peace treaty that occurred among multiple Maroon tribes in the past and the tree symbolizes unity and strength.

However, in 2006 an American Aluminum company wanted to mine for bauxite under Maroon territory in Cockpit country (Connell 225). There was a large amount of controversy over this as "Maroon sovereignty and territorial integrity" was based on the land that they have been living on for years (Connell 225).

"The land is the protector too! Because the first Maroons … they were like nomads. They did not just live in one place and they used all the bushes and all the herbs… . [These practices are] the same thing that we carried here with us [from Africa] to the bush.”

It was not until November 21, 2017 where mining was banned in Cockpit Country and Cockpit Country was named a Protected Area (Connell 228).

San Basilio de Palenque also known as Palenque is the first free territory that was established in the Americas.

Palenque was established in 1713 where the Spanish government granted autonomy and official pardon for all escaped slaves living in the area of Palenque (Camargo 26). For the next several hundred years after Palenque became an isolated community detached from Colombia having their own political, social, and economic changes (Camargo 26). The Palenquero language is what helped Palenque retain its cultural and social identity while still under marginalization and isolation from Colombia (Camargo 26). Palenque is symbolic as it is the only Creole language that is based off of Spanish and incorporates African dialects (Camargo 26).

Music is important to the Palenque language as it is the only means of keeping the Palenquero language alive. Music in Palenque is a symbol of the maroon communities and the perpetuation of their native language.

In Suriname there are six main groups of maroon communities. These groups are known as Djuka, Aluku, Paramaka in the East and Saramaka, Matawai, and Kwinti in parts of Central Suriname. Djuka and Saramaka are known as the two largest maroon communities with between 15,000 to 20,000 former slaves.

Although there are six groups we are mainly going to focus on Saramaka. The Saramaka mainly inhabited the Surinam River. The Saramaka also speak a form of Creole similar to the people of Palenque, however this creole is based of off a variety of languages including "Portuguese, English, Dutch, Niger-Congo languages of West Africa" (On the Shoulders 1). In addition, the Saramaka have variations in dialect including a Upper and Lower dialect based on the geography of the Surinam River.

Like the Palenque had music, the maroon people of Suriname had objects that were representative of their cultural identity and their existence as a maroon community.

Saramaka art and art by maroons in Suriname was known worldwide. Specifically as the "an African art in the Americas" (Price 7).

The Aluku tribe was one of the six groups of maroon communities that escaped from Dutch plantations in Suriname. However, the Aluku tribe was located in a town called Maripasoula which is on the border between Suriname and French Guinea. Although Aluku were slaves that escaped from Dutch plantations, the French played a larger role and challenge the Aluku tribe to assimilate to its culture (Bilby 39).

Similarly to Palenque music was symbolic to the Aluku tribe on the outskirts of French Guiana. Aleke music and the aleke drums were an expression of their cultural identity and ethnic identity that made the Alukus distinctive (Bilby 39).

Maroon communities were prevalent in the early 1600s to almost the beginning of the 1900s. Thus, for 300 years maroon communities existed in parts of the Americas and some maroon communities still exist today. Maroon communities and marronage was a popular form of slave rebellion that was successful when former slaves were able to gain their autonomy. The map above shows the movement of slave ships, where these slaves ships were from, and where they were headed in 1667. The button can be clicked above to view the full time-lapse video of the movement of slave ships during the Transatlantic slave trade.

It is important to note that British, French, Dutch, and Spanish colonizers had large maroon communities in the Americas. Of the slaves that made it through the Transatlantic slave trade and landed in parts of the Americas with prevalent maroon communities, British and Portugal colonizers had the most slaves. Accompong is an example of a maroon community that was formed in Jamaica after slaves escaped British plantations. In addition, there were an extensive amount of maroon communities that existed in Brazil as well. It is also important to note that the United States had the least amount of slaves compared to their European counterparts, however the United States also had an extensive maroon community at the Great Dismal Swamp.

Even though a portion of slaves that were enslaved and transported along the Atlantic Ocean did not survive, a large amount of slaves arrived in the Americas with over 3 million in the Caribbean and 1 million in Brazil. As these two places had a larger number of slaves in comparison to North America and Spanish Mainland America, they also had a larger population of Maroon communities that could have escaped to vast geographical features to make up either Maroon communities in the Caribbean and other countries in South America. Overall, it is important to note that the more slaves that arrived in the Americas, the more extensive the maroon community in that area was. And depending on the marginalization and isolation of that community, maroon communities in the Americas still exist today.

Maroon communities existed all around the world in parts of Latin America, South America, and even the United States. It was a prevalent form of escape for runaway slaves and a way for slaves to potentially earn their freedom. Aspects of slavery and evidence of maroon communities exist all around the world through art, music, clothing, and language. Slavery should not be remembered as something of the past, as without slavery these extensive and isolated cultural hearths of maroon communities would not exist today. This is a reminder that even the ugliest parts of history still has hidden beauty. It was not just an underground railroad by which slaves escaped... it was also maroon communities.

“Accompong MAROON VILLAGE St Elizabeth, Jamaica.” YouTube, YouTube, 2 Nov. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9tv8Bl9Z5E.

Allison Shelley, Richard Grant. “Deep in the Swamps, Archaeologists Are Finding How Fugitive Slaves Kept Their Freedom.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 Sept. 2016, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/deep-swamps-archaeologists-fugitive-slaves-kept-freedom-180960122/.

Bilby, Kenneth. “‘Aleke’: New Music and New Identities in the Guianas.” Latin American Music Review / Revista De Música Latinoamericana, vol. 22, no. 1, 2001, pp. 31–47. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/780439. Accessed 13 Mar. 2021.

Author Bilby Kenneth M. “The Aluku and the Communes in French Guiana.” Cultural Survival, 1 Sept. 1989, www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/aluku-and-communes-french-guiana.

Camargo, Blanca, and Alain Lawo-Sukam. “San Basilio De Palenque (Re)Visited: African Heritage, Tourism, and Development in Colombia.” Afro-Hispanic Review, vol. 34, no. 1, 2015, pp. 25–45. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26334887. Accessed 13 Mar. 2021.

CCTVAmerica1, director. A "Free Town" Formed by Africans Who Escaped Slavery in Colombia. YouTube, YouTube, 2 June 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=amMN0y4m7Fc.

CCTVAmerica1, director. Palenque: A Language Lives on with the Help of Music in Colombia. YouTube, YouTube, 29 Apr. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUaINJAyzu4.

Connell, Robert. (2019). Maroon Ecology: Land, Sovereignty, and Environmental Justice. The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology. TBD. 10.1111/jlca.12496. 

Helg, Aline, and Lara Vergnaud. Slave No More: Self-Liberation before Abolitionism in the Americas. University of North Carolina Press, 2019. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469649658_helg. Accessed 13 Mar. 2021.

Ine Apapoe / December 9, 2020Click to read this article in Spanish Click to read this article in English. “Maroons and Indigenous People in Suriname: the Struggle for Land Rights.” Global Americans, 9 Dec. 2020, theglobalamericans.org/2020/12/maroons-and-indigenous-people-in-suriname-the-struggle-for-land-rights/.

“Inside the Historic Swamp Refuge for African-American Slaves.” YouTube, YouTube, 19 Sept. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G1teBwZ9e0.

“The Kindah Tree - Under the Stars.” YouTube, YouTube, 11 Aug. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyRhmymo4mY.

“Maroons and Their Communities in the Americas.” Politika, www.politika.io/en/notice/maroons-and-their-communities-in-the-americas.

“Maroons.” Minority Rights Group, 29 Jan. 2021, minorityrights.org/minorities/maroons/.

Plater, Diana. “Captains of the Rainforest: Maroon Culture in Suriname.” World Nomads, World Nomads, 24 Sept. 2019, www.worldnomads.com/explore/south-america/suriname/maroon-culture-in-suriname.

Price, Richard. “MAROONS IN SURINAME AND GUYANE: HOW MANY AND WHERE.” NWIG: New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids, vol. 76, no. 1/2, 2002, pp. 81–88. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41850161. Accessed 13 Mar. 2021.

“The Saramaka People OTSOG.” On The Shoulders of Giants, www.ontheshoulders1.com/the-giants/the-saramaka-people#/.

SmithsonianFolklife, director. Music of the Maroons. YouTube, YouTube, 20 June 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=moAqm61JDo0.

SmithsonianFolklife, director. Music of the Maroons. YouTube, YouTube, 20 June 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=moAqm61JDo0. 

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