Keywords
Marronage
Marronage refers to the process of freeing oneself from slavery, either alone or in a group, and regardless whether the act was temporary or permanent. It was also one of the ways that enslaved peoples would escape slavery separate from being truant or runaway; when fleeing, they would be labeled as one of the three. To be a truant was an act of resistance that allowed an enslaved person to intentionally slow down productivity on the plantation or recover after a beating. Runaways were generally thought of as enslaved people who fled with a specific destination in mind, like northern or southern cities where they were less likely to be found. Maroons, on the other hand, did not flee to populated towns or cities, but rather to wilderness, swamps, marsh, and sometimes to communities they created from these environments. In the process, maroons also carved spaces of freedom from otherwise hostile geographies.
