Maroon Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas

This book offers such a breadth of documentable information that was new to me. I have read and heard of Maroons in Jamaica, but not in various other lands. This book details some of the genius of the Maroons, their tremendous capacity for adaptation and survival, the similarities and differences in different lands. Some of their defenses read like they were from Indiana Jones! Another thing, I cannot remember a single time reading of former slaves setting the terms of any consideration of returning to work. I am blown away by these things, and purchased another copy for a bishop I know, who was excited to receive it.

This book is a great source material for reference. Richard Price covers this topic pretty extensively which is awesome since there really isn't a whole lot out there on this topic. It was really useful when writing a paper on Utopian societies.

good read

Very informative

Great

I haven't finished the book yet. It is the kind that you want to take slowly. I knew slavery was bad and funnily I had always wondered why more slaves had not rebelled. This book puts me right. They did rebel, right from the very start and where they could they settled in small hamlets up in hills, mountains and forests. Here they eked out an existence growing a few crops such as bananas, but dependent too on raiding white-owned plantations where they stole weapons as well as food. Each chapter is written by a different person from a different part of the the Americas or the Caribbean and there is a good amount of quotation from contemporary documents. Some of the rebel leaders were very brave, some were cruel despots themselves. Altogether you get a feel for the rawness of life for the slaves themselves but also for their colonial oppressors. A lot of fear, a lot of greed, a lot of desperation. A nightmare really.