Slaverys Exiles the Story of the America (1)

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Southeastern Geographer, Volume 55, Number 3, Fall 2015, pp. 378-380

(Review)

DOI: 10.1353/sgo.2015.0023

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378 book reviews

Slavery’s Exiles: The Story of the American MaroonsSylviane Diouf. New York University Press, New York, NY, 2014. 403 pp. Maps,

illustrations, notes, bibliography, index, and about the author. $30.00 cloth.

(ISBN 9780814724378)

adam bledsoe

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

by hurricanes can be horrifying. The last

chapter compares the most influential

hurricanes, Fran, Floyd, Isabel, Irene, and

Sandy, regarding wind speed or orienta-

tion, size, strength, category, and degreeof destruction. The conclusion, however,

is that no two hurricanes are exactly the

same. Taking all the criteria into account,

the challenges for forecasters, local of-

ficers, and local residents all differ from

one hurricane to another. For instance,

Floyd was weakened when it edged north-

ward to only a category of 2 but turned

out to be the greatest disaster in NorthCarolina’s history; and Sandy passed

North Carolina as a category 1 but brought

epic disaster to populated New York City

and the surrounding areas. From the les-

sons of past hurricanes, we are told that

there is so much uncertainty and variabil-

ity associated with hurricane occurrence.

North Carolina’s Hurricane History isa great reference book that offers a vari-

ety of valuable resources related to hurri-

canes, which makes it a worthwhile book

for researchers and college students. The

abundant stories and photographs en-

rich the content of the book and make it

an interesting book for North Carolina

residents. As a documentation of hurri-

canes, there is no distinct shortcomingbecause it is well organized and written,

the facts are accurate, and records are

comprehensive.

Slavery’s Exiles explores the phenomenon

of maroonage—autonomous settlements

established by runaway slaves—in the

American South. The book examines the

myriad ways that slaves sought freedomon their own terms during the antebel-

lum period in the United States, and ar-

gues for an inclusive understanding of

how maroons in the United States fit into

broader discussions of maroonage in the

Americas. Through intensive archival

analysis, including slave narratives, WPA

interviews, court proceedings, newspaper

articles, runaway notices, personal corre-spondence, and petitions, Sylviane Diouf

presents a vivid picture of the ingenuity

present among maroons, as well as the

difficulties they faced in evading a society

predicated on their oppression.

Diouf argues for a more comprehen-sive understanding of what it means to

be a maroon, critiquing past scholars for

their over-emphasis on Latin America and

the Caribbean and their assumptions that

maroons in the U.S. are undeserved of

the title due to the lack of large colonies

and maroon wars. Countering this, Diouf

argues that three criteria signal the exist-

ence of maroons: settling in the wilder-ness; living in secret; and not being under



book reviews 379

any form of direct control by outsiders. By

operating with this definition, Diouf in-

novates the study of maroon societies by

dividing them into two categories; border-

land maroons and hinterland maroons.Borderland maroons were those ma-

roons that lived on the periphery of

farms, plantations, and cities in settle-

ments hidden from outsiders. Beyond the

Big House, sla ve cabins, and plantation

fields there were woods, bayous, marshes,

swamps, wetlands, and creeks, which pro-

vided refuge for escaped slaves. Of the

many examples of resourcefulness foundamong borderland maroons, their living

quarters were perhaps the greatest. While

some lived in tree trunks, tree stumps,

in treetops, and in caverns, Diouf posits

that caves, or dugouts, may have been a

uniquely American maroon innovation.

These caves were underground houses,

completely inconspicuous from the out-

side. The life of the borderland maroons was one which was very much dependent

on assistance from the enslaved, freed

Blacks, and even, occasionally, sympa-

thetic Whites. This was necessitated by the

fact that their proximity to white society

prevented them from engaging in large-

scale farming, leading to trade with, and

assistance from, outside actors.

Hinterland maroons comprised thosecommunities that settled in areas more

isolated from mainstream society. By liv -

ing in areas generally inaccessible to their

enemies, hinterland maroons were able

to produce for themselves, and therefore

had a greater level of autonomy than bor-

derland maroons. These maroons often

sited their settlements in swamps or cane

brakes, which provided protection fromslave hunters or other unfriendly actors

searching for runaway slaves. The loca-

tions of these settlements were strategic in

that they not only needed to provide con-

cealment and inapproachability, but had

to have vantage points for sentries, prox-imity to an escape route, access to a clean

water source, soil suitable for cultivation,

access to edible fauna and flora that could

be used for food and medicine, and could

not be too far from a city of plantation, in

order that things could be traded and ap-

propriated. While there exist clear distinc-

tions between the practices of borderland

maroons and hinterland maroons, Dioufdemonstrates that many maroon settle-

ments had elements of both in them.

Diouf profiles three maroon commu-

nities that existed at different times in the

American South: Bas du Fleuve, which

existed in Louisiana in the 1780s; Belle

Isle and Bear Creek, located in Georgia

and South Carolina in the 1780s; and the

Great Dismal Swamp, which lasted formore than a hundred years—from the

early 1700s until after abolition—in North

Carolina and Virginia.

Bas du Fleuve was formed and de-

stroyed in the 1780s in Bernard Parish,

Louisiana. The settlement consisted of

two camps and was home to around 21

people from fifteen different plantations.

Bas du Fleuve’s populace shifted betweenthe hinterlands and borderlands, depend-

ing on their needs and the maneuverings

of local militia. On the borderlands, the

maroons cut timber for local slaves and

shared their garden produce with them,

while the slaves reciprocated by stealing

domestic animals and providing the ma-

roons with gunpowder and ammunition.

When pressure from the militias becametoo great, the maroons would retreat back



380 book reviews

to their hinterland settlements. This case

evidences Diouf’s claim that “maroon life

was fluid, adaptive, and pragmatic; it had

to adjust constantly” (p. 184).

The community that occupied BelleIsle and Bear Creek came to the attention

of Georgia officials due to an increase of

raids of plantations occasioned by an in-

flux of maroons from Florida. Many of

the male occupants of this settlement had

fought for the English during the Ameri-

can Revolution and were thus competent

soldiers. Diouf notes that Bear Creek is

one of the only recorded instances of ma-roons fortifying their settlement in the

United States, no doubt a testament to

their military experience. As such, these

maroons earned comparisons, in their

day, to the militant maroons of Jamaica

and Suriname, who were renowned for

their intransigence in the face of White

oppression.

The Great Dismal Swamp, whichcame into existence the early 1700s, was

peopled by borderland maroons and hin-

terland maroons. The borderlands were

comprised of a largely male contingent

that partook of the industrial activity of -

fered by the Land Company, such as cut-

ting wood and shingles for lumbermen.

The hinterland component was so remote,

thanks to the density of the swamps andbogs, that many of the children born and

raised in the hinterlands did not set eyes

on a White person until after Emanci-

pation. Diouf draws on further archaeo-

logical evidence of severely worn down

manufactured goods to suggest that the

hinterland maroons of the Great Dismal

Swamp had little contact with the outside

world. This isolation allowed the maroons

to practice agriculture and animal hus-

bandry on a scale impossible for other ma-roon settlements that existed too close to

mainstream society.

Diouf closes the book by looking at

the sensationalization of maroons by

the Southern public. She profiles no-

torious maroon bandits, renowned for

stealing horses, acting as highwaymen,

and engineering assassinations against

slave catchers. She also muses over thepossible roles that maroons may have

played in a number of slave insurrection

conspiracies.

By highlighting these varied attributes

of different maroon communities and their

strategies of struggle, Diouf introduces

and defines the concept of a “maroon

landscape” which was “a space of move-

ment, independence, and reinvention where new types of lives were created and

evolved” (p. 11). Diouf’s book is a crucial

contribution to the study of geographies

of blackness as well as geographies of the

American South. By crafting a narrative

around the woefully understudied phe-

nomenon of maroonage in the Southern

United States and introducing concepts

like borderland and hinterland maroonsand maroon landscape, Diouf is laying the

groundwork for new discussions to take

place in American geography; discussions

which will hopefully lead to new analyses

on the past, present, and future of our dis-

cipline and region.

Slaverys Exiles the Story of the America (1)

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