Nathaniel Millett examines how the Prospect Bluff maroons constructed their freedom, shedding light on the extent to which they could fight physically and intellectually to claim their rights. Millett considers the legacy of the Haitian Revolution, the growing influence of abolitionism, and the period’s changing interpretations of race, freedom, and citizenship among whites, blacks, and Native Americans.

'The Maroon' by Mayne Reid is a novel that opens by whisking readers to the sugar estate of "Mount Welcome" in Jamaica. Nestled in a lush valley between two wooded ridges lies the estate's "great house," an architectural gem that boasts a spacious, crucifix-shaped hall with open jalousies that keep the tropical air flowing. With dining and drawing-room in one, the grand chandelier at the center of the room provides the perfect illumination, while the side rooms offer comfortable bed-chambers with jalousied windows. This is the set of where events shall unfold that would change the life of this estate's residents forever.

The forgotten stories of America maroons—wilderness settlers evading discovery after escaping slavery Over more than two centuries men, women, and children escaped from slavery to make the Southern wilderness their home. They hid in the mountains of Virginia and the low swamps of South Carolina; they stayed in the neighborhood or paddled their way to secluded places; they buried themselves underground or built comfortable settlements. Known as maroons, they lived on their own or set up communities in swamps or other areas where they were not likely to be discovered. Although well-known, feared, celebrated or demonized at the time, the maroons whose stories are the subject of this book have been forgotten, overlooked by academic research that has focused on the Caribbean and Latin America. Who the American maroons were, what led them to choose this way of life over alternatives, what forms of marronage they created, what their individual and collective lives were like, how they organized themselves to survive, and how their particular story fits into the larger narrative of slave resistance are questions that this book seeks to answer. To survive, the American maroons reinvented themselves, defied slave society, enforced their own definition of freedom and dared create their own alternative to what the country had delineated as being black men and women’s proper place. Audacious, self-confident, autonomous, sometimes self-sufficient, always self-governing; their very existence was a repudiation of the basic tenets of slavery.

A new history of post†‘Revolutionary Haiti, and the society that emerged in the aftermath of the world’s most successful slave revolution Haiti is widely recognized as the only state born out of a successful slave revolt, but the country’s early history remains scarcely understood. In this deeply researched and original volume, Johnhenry Gonzalez weaves a history of early independent Haiti focused on crop production, land reform, and the unauthorized rural settlements devised by former slaves of the colonial plantation system. Analyzing the country’s turbulent transition from the most profitable and exploitative slave colony of the eighteenth century to a relatively free society of small farmers, Gonzalez narrates the origins of institutions such as informal open-air marketplaces and rural agrarian compounds known as lakou. Drawing on seldom studied primary sources to contribute to a growing body of early Haitian scholarship, he argues that Haiti’s legacy of runaway communities and land conflict was as formative as the Haitian Revolution in developing the country’s characteristic agrarian, mercantile, and religious institutions.

A careful and thorough study of the Jamaican Maroons from the British conquest to the late 18th century. Choice This richly textured study of the struggles of the Maroons of Jamaica against the British colonial authorities, their subsequent collaboration with and betrayal by them, will be of great interest to historians of Africa. . . . Elegantly written . . . the author . . . makes her own contribution to current debates on resistance and collaboration. Michael Crowder, Institute of Commonwealth Studies

"Price breaks new ground in the study of slave resistance in his 'hemispheric' view of Maroon societies." -- Journal of Ethnic Studies

"Maroons, self-organized communities of runaway slaves, existed wherever slavery was present. One of the most vital and persistent maroon communities was tucked away in the mountainous rainforests on the Caribbean island of Dominica, at the time a British colony. This "state within a state," as the colonial authorities tellingly described it, posed a direct challenge to the slavery system, and before long, the Dominican Maroons rose up to challenge the British Empire. Ultimately, they were captured and put on trial. Here, for the first time, are primary documents, carefully edited and contextualized, that richly present the voices and experiences of the Maroons--in resistance and defeat. Your Time Is Done Now tells the story of the Maroons of Dominica through the transcripts of trials held in 1813 and 1814 at the end of the Second Maroon War. Using the trial evidence to explain how the Maroons waged war against slave society, the book reveals fascinating details about how they survived in the forests, defended themselves against attack, and maintained support from enslaved allies on the plantations. It also examines the key role of the British governor, George Ainslie, a notoriously cruel ruler, who succeeded in suppressing the Maroons, and how the Colonial Office in London reacted to his punitive conduct. This book provides a moving and valuable addition to the growing literature on slavery and slave resistance in the Americas" -- Publisher's description

Reproduction of the original: The Maroon by Captain Mayne Reid

Escaping slavery in the Americas, maroons made miracles in the mountains, summoned new societies in the swamps, and forged new freedoms in the forests. Maroon Comix is a fire on the mountain where maroon words and images meet to tell stories together. Stories of escape and homecoming, exile and belonging. Stories that converge on the summits of the human spirit, where the most dreadful degradation is overcome by the most daring dignity. Stories of the damned who consecrate their own salvation.