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Maroons were Africans who had escaped from slavery in the Americas and mixed with the indigenous peoples of the Americas, and formed independent settlements. The term can also be applied to their descendants.

Overview

Maroons are considered a notable subject to historians of the colonial Atlantic world as one of the many facets of slave resistance, and for their establishment of communities of freed slaves. The first maroon was recorded as appearing in 1502 as an escapee from a Portuguese expedition to the island of Hispaniola. The unnamed maroon is believed to have taken up with local Indians.

Maroons represented an embarrassment to colonial authorities as well as an economic and military threat. This is evident in the extreme harshness of punishment for runaways, which could include castration, amputation, and additional penance from family members. Maroons were sources of insubordination in slaves, which they sometimes actively encouraged, abducted or caused the desertions of other slaves, and in some cases lead uprisings. Despite these activities, their intentions were primarily to isolate and remove themselves from colonial society and not always explicitly revolutionary.

Social formations of maroons could vary from small and transient bands to large settlements, although the conditions of marronage favored migratory lifestyles and maroon settlements were relatively rare. Some historians recognize a distinction between what is known as petit marronage and grand marronage. While grand marronage had the intent of permanent escape, petit marronage included short-term absences which were often trips to visit family members in other plantations. Petit marronage was a common practice that was in many cases considered acceptable.

Some former maroon enclaves still persist worldwide which retain some of the descendants of former maroons. Many of these locations show evidence of the retention of traditional African practices that were preserved and reconfigured by the maroons.

Etymology

The word “maroon” is believed to have derived from the Spanish word Cimarron, which originally referred to escaped cattle. The first use is recorded as “simeron” in 1536. The modern form, “maroon,” appeared in the 1700s. In the Spanish Americas their societies were known as palenques, or palisades, most likely because of the palisades that they constructed as defenses. In Cuba, they were also known as mambises. Other words recorded include quilombos, mocambos, cubes, madeiras, rancherias, and more.

Setting

The locations of maroon shelter and settlements were chosen out of the need for protection from discovery, and often, for military defense. They were frequently located in remote, inhospitable environments that made it difficult for colonial troops to maneuver, especially mountains and swamps. These settings were ideal for guerilla-style warfare that the maroons, with their generally smaller numbers, favored. Additional precautions were sometimes taken, such as false trails, booby traps, and extreme secrecy, in order to avoid detection. More rarely, larger settlements that were more capable of military defense would raise palisades and dig trenches.

Geographical characteristics were key to the persistence of maroon societies in certain areas rather than others. Historian Richard Dunn used Barbados to argue that small islands were unfavorable to maroons because the lack of a large interior in which slaves could disappear, as well as the close physical proximity between masters and slaves, which did not allow for secrecy as well as in other settings.

Economic and Social Relations

Records of maroon social relations show the influences of practices derived from Africa, Europe, Amerindian populations, and slave culture. These relations are considered historically as new, uniquely Afro-American cultural formations. Still influenced by settler culture, they contributed to the spread of Western civilization to Indians who lived in the geographical interior, removed from most of colonial society. Early maroon societies were primarily established by African-born slaves (sometimes known as bozales), although creoles were proportionately more likely to become leaders. Their knowledge of the local area and experience with colonial authorities were likely contributing factors. However, creoles in colonial society usually found it easier to escape by blending in as freedmen, unlike African-born slaves. African-born and less-acculturated slaves were more likely to attempt marronage. The early preponderance of African-born slaves contributed to the preservation of African kinship patterns in these societies and other African traditions.

When agreements or treaties with settler authorities allowed for maroon settlements to become permanent or long-term, they would often expand to horticulture. Maroons would grow crops such as yams, sweet potatoes, bananas, plantains, squash, and beans. They also grew staple crops (cotton, sugarcane, tobacco) for their own use and for trade. More often, maroons lived directly off of resources from the plantation either by raiding or direct help from slaves. The necessity for certain items, such as cloth and weapons, made proximity to plantations vital and total independence nearly impossible. Methods to recover resources from the plantation included raids, extortion, and black-market trade. Maroons sometimes traded with white settlers and incorporated them in their networks of intelligence. Pirates and European traders were sometimes included in these networks. Economic middlemen and/or black-market traders served an additional purpose as informants who reported news and settler movements.

The constant military threat to maroons and fear of defection and discovery lead to the incorporation of extreme vigilance and strict rules of loyalty, discipline, and authority in maroon relations. Newcomers often served a probationary period before they could be considered trustworthy. In the settlement Palmares, they served as slaves until they caught another slave in a raid to take their place. In a settlement in French Guiana, newcomers were brought by deliberately winding paths in order to disorient them and keep them ignorant of their location. Consistently, desertion was a capital offense.

Strong figures of authority were common in these societies. In the early era (before 1700), leaders would frequently assume the title “king” and claim royal lineage in Africa, as well as religious sanctioning of their monarchy. Later the organizational structure of authority shifted to military or settler categories and titles, such as captains and governors. This shift coincided with the increasing proportion of creole maroon leaders. Strict governance also served to regulate access to women for male maroons, which was necessary due to the extreme overrepresentation of males in the early stages of maroon societies. (Most of these societies would not get past these stages.) Punishment for violations such as adultery were harsh and could include death.

Between maroon groups, relations could range from alliances to cultural or political rivalries.

The relations between maroons and slaves were varied. Maroons would sometimes enslave their captives. Most treaties between maroons and colonial governments stipulated that new arrivals be returned to their masters. Other maroon groups allied with slaves and participated in rebellions. After the early stages of colonial slavery, as slaves became more acculturated and the proportion of creole slaves increased, the cultures and slaves and maroons would further diverge. Maroons could also lose favor with slaves by abducting their women and stealing their resources in raids.

After the massive influx of slaves to the colonial Americas during the Spanish sugar boom, new maroon settlements lacked the stability of the original settlements from the 16th century.

Military Tactics

Maroon military resistance was distinct from most slave resistance because of their duration. Unlike in slave rebellions, maroon groups could survive multiple battles rather than depending on a single attack. The colonial governments were not as fearful of individual maroon groups as much as they were of large-scale rebellion. Additionally, suppressing maroons was not a military priority – the colonies were primarily focused on their rivalries with other colonial powers in the region. While they would send troops against maroons, they would most often offer incentive rewards for their capture and rely on small bands of settlers to recover them. Shock forces sent against maroons could include mixes of settlers, slaves, and freedmen, and sometimes Indians. After the early 1700s, colonial governments began making more coordinated efforts to suppress maroons.

Maroon used tactics of guerilla warfare that were often successful against colonial troops, who were trained for maneuvering against large groups of soldiers. These tactics used the often harsh and difficult to navigate environments to their advantage against hostile forces who were not as familiar with the terrain. Some of their techniques were gleaned from Indians (either directly or by observation). Maroons are recorded as having used horn communication to coordinate their forces, as well as tricks and deceptions, such as creating fake guns out of sticks to create the appearance of being better-armed. (Guns were a very scarce resource, which was a source of disadvantage.) Individual stories on record show that maroons also appealed to traditional religions and ideas of magic in battle, such as by using charms to repel bullets.

Treaties, Alliances, and Interactions with(in) Colonial Governments

Colonial governments reacted to marronage by decreeing harsh punishments for escapees. In the Spanish Americas, the punishment was castration. The existence of maroons may have also been a contributing factor to the creation of the “deficiency laws” to increase the white population (in order to better suppress non-white resistance).

Treaties between maroon groups and colonial governments are recorded as having taken place in Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Mexico, and Surinam. A typical treaty granted freedom, a degree of autonomy, and recognition of territory for maroons in exchange for a promise to return future runaways, a form of economic redress for raids and damages, recognition of the colonial government, and in colonies controlled by Spain, adherence to the Church. Cultural norms of African origin that encouraged respect for one’s word may have contributed to the respect for treaties displayed by maroons in Jamaica after the 1739 Maroon Treaty. Jamaican maroons allied with the British to hunt down runaway slaves. Other maroon groups were more lax with the obligations of their treaties.

Maroons would frequently take advantage of divisions between whites. In Spanish colonies they would ally with enemies of the Spanish government, such as pirates. Alliances with them were used to the advantage of rival colonial powers. Records show that British officials in Jamaica suspected that maroons were forming an alliance with Spain against them. These suspicions were not unfounded as the Spaniards are recorded as having sought contact with maroons and some rebel slaves may have approached them. Spain would offer havens for escaped slaves from rival colonial governments, such as for British slaves in Puerto Rico and American / South Carolinian slaves in Florida. Slaves were offered freedom in Cuba after serving a penance process.

Maroons would sometimes react to the brutal treatment of slaves by the settler population and attempt to get slaveholders to treat slaves better. Maroons did not always represent a unified military force against the colonial government with other groups. Free blacks, slaves, and Native Americans are on record as having been employed to crush rebellions.