Maroons Chapter 9

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In chapter 9 of Mann’s 1493, the synopsis of what was happening, was that African slaves from the New World would escape slavery by running away from their owners and from their plantations looking for freedom. What stemmed from this was the creation of maroon communities, which were independent settlements across the Americas that these escaped slaves created. The maroons strategically worked with indigenous peoples and have maintained a continuous presence in the New World. Faced with hostile conditions, they tactically established armed settlements because they were in constant danger of being recaptured or killed by Europeans. In addition, there was always the constant battle for these maroon communities to physically sustain themselves because they were often left to forage for food, especially on the smaller islands of the Caribbean. The biggest problem that these maroon communities began to face, was when white planters began to expand their plantations, they began deforesting the wilderness lands, exposing settlements where runaway slaves lived, leading to the displacement and ultimate dismantle of many maroon communities on the smaller islands of the Caribbean. On the larger islands, however, the maroons were able to sustain by hunting and grow crops, and even some maroons even being born in these …show more content…

If successful, it would undermine slavery destroying the slave system altogether due to there not being that foundation of racial hierarchy which slavery is based off of. Simply put, equality amongst whites and blacks would be the cause of the abolition of

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