60199616-flight-to-freedom-african-runaways-and-maroons-in-the-americas

Establishment of Maroon Communities
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approach of the expedition, but eleven of them were captured. The others
reoccupied the settlement after the expeditionary force had departed, and the
palenque survived other assaults (La Rosa Corzo 2003, 42–66, 73, 227).
The vast majority of palenques (and almost all of the large ones) emerged
in the eastern region of the island during the early part of the nineteenth
century and became a lethal force in that area; they ceased to be a major problem
in the 1850s. Their preferred habitat was the Frijol Mountains, which
showed a much higher concentration of groups than elsewhere. The most
important factor there was the steepness of the mountains, which made
ascent extremely hazardous and enabled the inhabitants of the palenques to
observe the terrain for miles around without being detected (La Rosa Corzo
2003, 117–67). La Rosa Corzo (ibid., 85, 95–97, 145, 169–222 passim) provides
the most rational (if not completely persuasive) explanation to date for the
great reduction in the number of palenques in the eastern region from the
1850s.
First, from the late eighteenth century military expeditions sent against
the Maroons were extremely well organized and coordinated state-authorized
and state-financed expeditions. They usually involved four or more
groups of at least twenty-five armed men, commanded by a high-ranking
officer, moving simultaneously into a given area and scouring the entire land,
so as to reduce the Maroons’ room to manoeuvre. These expeditions often
lasted as long as two months and were usually led by professionals who had
acquired a good knowledge of the terrain. Second, the strategy included
returning to Maroon settlements that previous expeditions had sacked, in
order to ensure that they were not rebuilt. Third, the spread of plantation settlements
closer to the mountain ranges over time made the areas far less isolated
than they had been previously, a critical factor in the location of Maroon
settlements.
Very few of the expeditions in Cuba killed or captured significant numbers
of Maroons, but they harassed them considerably, driving them from
pillar to post and destroying their houses and sanctuaries. These factors combined
to shatter Maroon confidence in the utility of large groups occupying
permanent strongholds. The most favoured large settlements had become
well known to Maroon-hunting expeditions by the mid-nineteenth century,
and the colonial authorities had considerable information about them
gleaned from the expedition leaders’ detailed statements and diaries. Many
Maroon groups responded to the frequent attacks by creating smaller roving