Richard Price: Maroons and their Communities in the Americas

Today, Maroons—self-liberated slaves and their descendants—still form semi-independent communities in several parts of the Americas, for example, in Suriname, French Guiana, Jamaica, Belize, Colombia, and Brazil. As the most isolated of Afro-Americans, they have since the 1920s been an important focus of scientific research, contributing to theoretical debates about slave resistance, the heritage of Africa in the Americas, the process of creolization, and the nature of historical knowledge among nonliterate peoples. This lecture surveys their history and discusses their present situation, including struggles to protect their territories and sovereignty.