Marronage shaped many forms from brief evasion to permanent escape.

Evidence

The practice of marronage—running away from the plantations—was as old as slavery itself. In Saint-Domingue it took many forms. Africans brought into the colony by slavers, refusing their condition as property, often ran away soon after their arrival. They were prone to recapture because they lacked knowledge of the geography of the island and connections who could help them hide, although some residents did help them, sometimes by telling them the way to Spanish Santo Domingo. Plantation slaves sometimes left the direct supervision of the managers but remained nearby. The organization of plantations, with cultivated land, fields for grazing, provision grounds, and slave quarters scattered in different locations, facilitated this evasion. Some maroons stayed on the margins of their plantations for years, eating cane from the fields or food brought to them by friends and kin. Sometimes they also stole from provision grounds or garden plots, impelling slaves to build or grow fences around them. Other slaves ran away to the towns, where they could often blend into the population of urban slaves and free-coloreds, especially if they were trained in a craft. The towns were a preferred destination for women, who were a minority among maroons. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 188

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

Related

• Everyday marronage networks rather than mountain bands enabled the 1791 revolt (similarity 0.80)
• Maroon precedents proved that escaped slaves could defeat European armies (similarity 0.79)
• Anti-maroon campaigns armed free people of color and sparked demands for inclusion (similarity 0.79)
• Blocked maroon refuges forced slaves to attack the plantation system directly (similarity 0.79)