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Establishment of Maroon Communities
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effect that the insecurity of the country had become so great, and the robberies
and murders on the roads so frequent, that the settlers were unsure
what the next day would produce. That island’s government actually proclaimed
martial law in October 1734 (Campbell 1990, 91–92; Patterson 1979,
269). Franco (1979, 44) declares that in the first half of the nineteenth century
the White inhabitants of Santiago de Cuba, and perhaps other places in the
island, lived in constant fear, and the plantation owners panicked at almost
any news about Maroons. They would seek help at the drop of a hat because
they dreaded the retribution from the oppressed people against whom they
had committed barbaric acts. Davidson (1979, 98) tells us that the violence
associated with servile insurrections, especially marronage, in the eastern
slopes and northern mining areas kept Mexico City in a constant state of
anxiety. Aguirre (1993, 257) asserts that brigandage not only represented a
permanent source of conflicts and fears, but was also a central issue of political
and social debates. He goes on to say that famous leaders such as
the Negro León, Salomé Lacunse, “Perjuicio”, Juan de Mata, and León
Escobar were synonymous with terror for travellers, landowners, merchants
and colonial officials; that the newspapers augmented their fame and they
acquired mythical status (ibid., 261). Porter (1932, 346) cites the following
statement from a contemporary writer on the Seminole Maroons: “Ben, 22,
Jacob, 24, Muredy, 20, most intrepid and hostile warriors.” Carneiro (1946, 13)
declares that the heroic deeds of the guerrillas of Palmares made them legendary,
causing them to appear to surpass the limits of human strength and
ingenuity.
The enslavers in the United States had their own share of difficulties.
Davidson (1979, 99) speaks about the fear-ridden slaveholders, while
Aptheker (1979, 153) cites an earlier writer concerning the fear and terror that
the Maroons under Sebastian aroused among White settlers in South
Carolina in 1711, before an Indian tracked down and killed their leader. He
(ibid., 159) also cites another person writing in 1823 about Bob Ferebee and
his men, who kept the inhabitants of Norfolk County, Virginia, in constant
fear and anxiety. Stedman (1988, 80–81) wrote about the “abiss [abyss] of difficulties”
that the Aluku Maroons created in the Cottica River area in the late
eighteenth century, causing fear and consternation among the White inhabitants,
most of whom expected a general massacre to take place any moment.
Many of them therefore fled their plantations and crowded into the capital,
Paramaribo. Debien (1979, 108, 109) opines that the pillage of a few provision