The Maroons and the Gullah: The History of the Unique Cultures Formed by Free Africans in the Americas

Although the slave systems required the continual use of force and coercion, as well as the harsh punishment of any rebellion, slaves were not a helpless labor force terrorized into obedience and docility. Slaves resisted and sometimes rebelled, and over the centuries there were thousands of slave rebellions of varying sizes. Slaves commonly resisted in many ways, such as sabotaging their tools and the crops they were tending, but much more rarely slaves violently rebelled, which were for the most part put down with extreme violence.

Of course, a fairly common form of resistance was running away and seeking hiding places in environments where slave catchers experienced difficulty. Slaves who ran and hid out, or who made their own settlements, were called maroons, from the Spanish word cimarron, which means “wild” or “untamed.” The term that historians commonly use to describe this is marronage, adapted from the French word maron, meaning the same as maroon. Marronage took two forms, grand and petty. Grand marronage was permanent, with escapees joining together to establish lasting settlements in inaccessible areas in mountains and swamps, sometimes preferring death rather than being caught and enslaved again.

The Gullah Geechee, or the “Gullah” for short, are the descendants and rightful heirs of the once-shackled slaves who resided in these parts. As the guardians and torch holders of the incredible legacy left behind by their persevering ancestors, the modern Gullah spare no effort in preserving the inherently unique customs and traditions, complete with their own creole tongue, that have been passed down from one generation to the next.