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Sylviane A. Diouf

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Slavery's Exiles: The Story of the American Maroons Kindle Edition

by Sylviane A Diouf (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 131 ratings

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Sylviane A. Diouf’s Slavery’s Exiles reveals the forgotten stories of America maroons―wilderness settlers evading discovery after escaping slavery.

Over more than two centuries men, women, and children escaped from slavery to make the Southern wilderness their home. They hid in the mountains of Virginia and the low swamps of South Carolina; they stayed in the neighborhood or paddled their way to secluded places; they buried themselves underground or built comfortable settlements. Known as maroons, they lived on their own or set up communities in swamps or other areas where they were not likely to be discovered.

Although well-known, feared, celebrated or demonized at the time, the maroons whose stories are the subject of this book have been forgotten, overlooked by academic research that has focused on the Caribbean and Latin America. Who the American maroons were, what led them to choose this way of life over alternatives, what forms of marronage they created, what their individual and collective lives were like, how they organized themselves to survive, and how their particular story fits into the larger narrative of slave resistance are questions that this book seeks to answer. To survive, the American maroons reinvented themselves, defied slave society, enforced their own definition of freedom and dared create their own alternative to what the country had delineated as being black men and women’s proper place. Audacious, self-confident, autonomous, sometimes self-sufficient, always self-governing; their very existence was a repudiation of the basic tenets of slavery.

“Impressive research and vivid prose. . . . An important addition to our understanding of slave society and black resistance.” —Pulitzer Prize-winning author Eric Foner

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In writing that is deeply informative, with vivid anecdotes when available, including horrors of punishment enacted when maroons were captured, this book is recommended to those wishing to pursue the study of American slavery beyond more general texts." ― Library Journal

"In contrast to the study of slavery elsewhere, six decades of research in the United States has systematically bypassed the issue of marronage. Sylviane Dioufs exhaustive research has not only brought the subject to center stage, it offers a framework for recasting the study of runaway slaves throughout the Americas. This is one of those rare books that is at once of scholarly significance and will engage a wide readership." -- David Eltis,Robert W. Woodruff Professor of History, Emory University

"The book is clear and easy to read . . . Diouf's book is important because for the first time it really foregrounds marronage in North America . . . Diouf extends the range by demonstrating the ubiquity of marronage in virtually every southern state. It should be required reading for any scholar of North American slavery." ― Journal of American Studies

"With impressive research and vivid prose, Diouf directs our attention to maroons within the United States. From the Great Dismal Swamp of Virginia to the frontier regions of Louisiana, she shows, fugitive slaves managed to survive without fleeing to the North. An important addition to our understanding of slave society and black resistance." -- Eric Foner,author of The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery

"In a book that is easily accessible yet rigorously researched, analyzed, and argued, Diouf has made a compelling case that scholars of slavery and of early American history must consider the presence of maroons in the U.S. with a sense of renewed urgency. As she so eloquently and brilliantly shows, maroons exhibited a form of self-determined, autonomy-seeking resistance to slavery that complicates our understanding of fugitivity and freedom as they are generally bound up in a North/South, free/unfree binaristic imaginary." ― Journal of the Early Republic

"This extensively and thoroughly researched study brings to light a little-known aspect of slavery in the United States . . . a fascinating read. Diouf has done a brilliant job of illuminating a complicated, multifaceted, important, yet little-known piece of black American history." -- Annette Madden ― The Baobab Tree

"[T]he stories are riveting. Readers will become familiar with colorful characters like Captain Cudjoe of Jamaica or the man nicknamed 'Forest' for his skill at hiding, and they will learn surprising facts about maroons participation in trade and defense, along with horrific details of punishments . . . . [I]ts a notable document for its treatment of the subject." ― Publishers Weekly

"Diouf has scoured archives across the United States, examining accounts of fugitives throughout the Slave South to uncover the hidden history of American maroons, and produced a highly readable, original study that deserves a broad scholarly and popular audience." ― Journal of the Civil War Era

"Diouf persuasively captures the quiet heroism of North American maroons. Less dramatic and long-lived than many of the maroon communities in Suriname, Jamaica, or Brazil, those in the southern United States were nonetheless ever present. Diouf demonstrates how much freedom mattered to the enslaved and how, within the limited possibilities open to them, those that set off into the inhospitable swamps and forests managed to forge a new life beyond the authority of whitefolks." -- Richard Price,author of Maroon Societies

"Sylviane A. Diouf has made an enormous contribution to our understanding of enslaved people's lives with her study of the maroons in the American South. Slavery's Exilesdispels the myth that maroon communities only existed in places such as the Caribbean and Brazil, firmly placing the maroons of mainland North America within larger discussions of slave resistance." ― The North Carolina Historical Review

"This is a very important book that opens a window into an understudied aspect of American slavery. It deserves a wide readership." ― American Nineteenth Century History

"She tells the story of a few large communities, most notably that of the Great Dismal Swamp, and briefly examines the marronage subgroups of bandits and insurrectionists, but the triumph here is the author's portrait of the day-to-day precariousness of maroon lives, the courage and resourcefulness required for survival, and the terrible price they paid for trying to recover their freedom. A neglected chapter of the American slave experience brought sensitively and vividly to life." ― Kirkus

"Like other books that Sylviane A. Diouf has written, this one examines a fascinating, though neglected topic in African Diaspora history . . . Diouf advances the discourse by using a landscape perspective to offer an alternative to the grand/petit marronage dichotomy . . . Her attention to borderland (adjacent to plantations) and hinterland (remote from plantations or cities) conditions and logistics reflects an appreciation of the wider context framing relations between enslaved and free people, which stands in contrast to the dated view of plantations as islands with impermeable boundaries . . . Diouf has produces a well-written and balanced account... She backs her arguments with evidence, illuminates trends, and accounts for contradictions." ― American Historical Review

About the Author

Sylviane A. Diouf is an award-winning historian of the African Diaspora. She is the author of Slavery’s Exiles: The Story of the American Maroons and Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas―named Choice Outstanding Academic Book in 1999―both with NYU Press. Her book Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America received the 2007 Wesley-Logan Prize of the American Historical Association, the 2009 Sulzby Award of the Alabama Historical Association and was a finalist for the 2008 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. She is the editor of Fighting the Slave Trade: West African Strategies and the co-editor of In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience. A recipient of the Rosa Parks Award, the Dr. Betty Shabazz Achievement Award, and the Pen and Brush Achievement Award, Diouf is a Curator at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00GXA1QWW
Publisher ‏ : ‎ NYU Press; Reprint edition (January 17, 2014)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 17, 2014
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 6709 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 418 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #307,295 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #206 in African American Studies
- #1,158 in Discrimination & Racism
- #1,319 in African American Demographic Studies (Books)

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4.5 131 ratings

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Sylviane A. Diouf

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I am a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Slavery and Justice, Brown University. As an award-winning historian and curator I specialize in the social history of the African Diaspora.

The discovery in 2019 of the wreck of the Clotilda, the last recorded slave ship to the United States, has brought the story of the 110 young people who were on board to the forefront. Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America (Oxford University Press) won the 2007 Wesley-Logan Prize of the American Historical Association; the 2009 James F. Sulzby Award for best book on Alabama history from the Alabama Historical Association; and was a finalist for the 2008 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for non fiction.

My latest book, Slavery's Exiles: The Story of the American Maroons(New York University Press) was born when, a few years ago, I was looking for a book on North American maroons and finding none, I decided to write one.

Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas (NYU Press) was first published in 1998; its 15th anniversary edition (2013), has been updated to include new materials and analysis, a review of developments in the field, prospects for new research, and illustrations.

These three latest books are a reflection of my interest in little-know stories.

www.sylvianediouf.com

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Slavery's exiles

Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2024

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A very comprehensive research summary on runaway slaves and how they existed. The need to be free and be the master of your life is universal. Before reading this book, I was unaware of the magnitude of this problem for both the slaves and the plantation owners.

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George P. Dreckmann

Great study of oft ignored topic

Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2024

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Diouf has written a wonderful book about people who ran away from slavery but stayed close to home the US maroon experience was different from other nation experiences in the Caribbean or South America. Diouf has added the stories of these Americans to our understanding of the slave expr

Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2014

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Professor Diouf, in telling (and brilliantly) the story of runaways from slavery, has significantly supplemented the voluminous historical literature on the subject. In unearthing the often-inspirational (though occasionally sad, even tragic) tales of these men and women (and in some cases, of children, including those born in marronage) she has accomplished a prodigious task of research. Even those familiar with the scope of scholarly work on North American slavery will find something new, and often inspirational, here. Although I would have liked to learn if any men who were maroons at the time of the Civil War enlisted in the Union army, which would have added a dimension to our understanding of their motivations (as if the simple desire for one's and one's family's personal freedom is not enough), I am not at all sure that such information exists, and its absence in no way detracts from this volume's excellence.
(With the me-too tendencies of Hollywood, and given the success of 12 Years A Slave, one might also foresee these heroic stories being brought to even more vivid life, but Diouf has already done her part). Bravo.

29 people found this helpful

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James Denny

Answers the question, "who were America's maroons?"

Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2014

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In "Slavery's Exiles: The Story of American Maroons," author Sylviane A. Diouf probes the largely untold story of escaped slaves in the American South who were not runaways to southern cities, nor were they exiles to states in the North or Canada.

In her choice of and careful use of the term "maroon," Diouf specifically refers to escaped slaves who most often, lived nearby and secretly from plantations they formerly belonged to. Equally important to her definition, maroons were no longer under the control of slave masters or overseers. Most maroons had family members, (parents, siblings, children) and friends back on those same plantations whom they secretly visited. Many maroons survived only because family members back on the plantation secretly helped to provide for them. Continued survival of a maroon colony usually depended in large part upon raiding and stealing food, tools, clothing and other supplies from that same plantation or from nearby plantations. Few maroon colonies became self-sustaining.

One noteworthy exception were several maroon colonies in the Great Dismal Swamp, where maroons could work as paid loggers of cypress.

Maroons disappeared into marronage as individuals or in small groups. Early in "Slavery's Exiles," Diouf points out that Africans (those slaves actually born in Africa) typically had higher rates of marronage than African-Americans (slaves born in America). Some imported Africans escaped into marronage within days of arriving on a southern plantation.

Diouf also distinguishes between "borderland" maroons and "hinterland" maroons. Borderland maroons lived close to the plantations from which they escaped. Hinterland maroons lived further away, not only from the plantations they escaped from but from any white settlements or plantations.

Swamps and caves tended to be preferred as secret and remote places where maroon colonies could exist. In some maroon colonies, small-scale farming was possible. However, the existence of planted crops in any serious size would be a dead give-away. Most maroon colonies survived primarily on subsistence fishing and hunting -- and stealing. Vegetables, fruits, chickens and hogs were the most frequently stolen food items. Hogs were the easiest animals to steal since many plantations allowed hogs to free-forage, meaning that the hogs would remain in the woods or swamps for long periods of time without being actively managed. The sudden disappearance of a milk cow which needs to be milked twice a day would get noticed immediately.

Diouf goes into many maroon stories. My one criticism is that in relating snippets of so many stories, the thread of her larger narrative sometimes gets buried.

One of the strongest chapters in "Slavery's Exiles" is on the life of maroons in the Great Dismal Swamp. Perhaps no other area of the antebellum South had so strong an association with maroon colonies as the Great Dismal. This 2,500 square mile cypress swamp on the Virginia-North Carolina border was largely impenetrable. Maroon colonies that existed there reached a certain level of maturity with logging operations that allowed maroons to achieve a level of independence and self-sustenance not found elsewhere. After the Civil War ended, maroons in the Great Dismal had to be informed that they were now free.

40 people found this helpful

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sharron in rockbridge

Learned a lot.

Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2021

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I started getting interested in this topic when I went down to the Dismal Swamp area and learned that there had been a community of runaway slaves in the swamp. As with everything, it is not that simple. There was a huge amount of information on how slaves survived outside of the plantation and the different forms of "leaving" that went on. Highly recommended, well organized and no academic background needed.

17 people found this helpful

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J. Holloway

This book should be mandatory reading in highschool

Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2021

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It gives a great history of how small band's and individual Africa's escaped slavery early on when reaching American shores. Amazing stories of survival in the swamps and mountains of the colonies. With the help of the enslaved, poor whites, and the abolitionists. It shows what people are willing to give up and endurer for freedom.

9 people found this helpful

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Empowering, Rare History and Entertaining Writing

Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2019

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An amazing, well written, entertaining, easy to read history. Everyday i think about this book. I love this writers writing. This book is thorough enough to be used as a course textbook yet easy and quick to read for any book lover. I now want to read her book about the Clotel...the ship that took Cudjoe Lewis from the Barracoon (Zora Neale Hurston). I really enjoyed reading this book and it may be the only book on Black American maroons.

7 people found this helpful

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Keilah Spann

This is one of the best books on resistance to slavery that I've ever read

Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2016

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This is one of the best books on resistance to slavery that I've ever read. The research is excellent. I am a historic preservationist and director of programming for a National Heritage Area. We have contracted with Dr. Diouf to lecture at our upcoming conference in North Louisiana in February 2016. The event is free for more information click on the link https://sites.google.com/site/canerivernharec/ or go to www.canerivernha.org.

11 people found this helpful

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