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140 Flight to Freedom
in the country, killing more than fifty people and destroying much property
(Reis 1993, 47–48). According to Reis (ibid., 45–46):
For several days at the beginning of 1814 a large number of slaves abandoned
Salvador and converged at a nearby quilombo. On 28 February a force estimated
at 250 attacked fishing marinas where they had allies. At a marina belonging to
Manuel Ignácio da Cunha, a prominent figure among the Bahian economic
elite, slaves killed the overseer and members of his family. They burned fishing
nets, their instrument of work, then joined others coming from the quilombo
and attacked other marinas and the village of Itapuã. . . . The insurgents cried
out for freedom and cheered blacks and their ‘king’ while urging death for whites
and mulattos. With this in mind, they marched off toward the Recôncavo, setting
fire to many houses (more than 150 in one account) as well as to plantations
along the way.
In 1802 in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, Maroons led by Tom Cooper
were believed to be inciting enslaved persons to conduct acts of insubordination
and foment plots against the enslavers (Aptheker 1979, 154). In 1830 a
major plot was detected involving enslaved persons and Maroons in that
state. It is said that they had firearms and ammunition hidden, that they
communicated through messengers between Wilmington, Newbern and
Elizabeth City, and that they had several camps at Gastons Island, Price’s
Creek, Newport River and Dover Swamp, and near Wilmington (ibid., 160).
It is clear from these examples that many who remained within the slavery
system played crucial roles in Maroon activities and in undermining the system.
For obvious reasons Blacks in Cartagena, and no doubt elsewhere, were
usually tight-lipped when interrogated about the Maroon settlements
(Borrego Plá 1973, 85).
Jean Pierre (2000, 111) argues that part of the Maroon repertoire was psychological
warfare that helped to instil fear in the minds of their enemies. A
constant refrain in both contemporary and modern writings is the fear, anxiety
and tension that Maroon activities engendered among Whites. Borrego
Plá (1973, 30) refers to the permanent state of alarm in which the Colombian
enslavers lived, while Navarrete (2003, 34) writes that in all parts of the New
World where slavery was a fundamental institution the fear of revolt and the
Maroon problem tormented both officials and colonists. This fear, bordering
on paranoia, was perhaps best expressed by the contemporary Haitian writer
Milscent, who stated in 1791 that where there were only three hundred