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

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Chapter 5<br />

Military Expeditions<br />

<strong>and</strong> Judicial Terror<br />

Composition of European Military Forces<br />

So-called Maroon expeditions were commonly officered by White military<br />

or militiamen <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>cluded White subord<strong>in</strong>ates, Indians <strong>and</strong> enslaved<br />

Blacks. An <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g variant <strong>to</strong> this pattern was <strong>the</strong> creation <strong>in</strong> Peru, Cuba<br />

<strong>and</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r Spanish colonies of a constabulary, or association of enslavers,<br />

called <strong>the</strong> Herm<strong>and</strong>ad (Bro<strong>the</strong>rhood), compris<strong>in</strong>g Whites <strong>and</strong> free<br />

Coloureds, whose dedicated task was <strong>the</strong> destruction of Maroon settlements<br />

<strong>and</strong> apprehension of deserters. 1 Periodically, <strong>the</strong> authoritarian states dispatched<br />

bigger <strong>and</strong> more organized expeditions <strong>to</strong> deal with specific problems<br />

result<strong>in</strong>g from <strong>the</strong> build-up of large Maroon establishments, but <strong>the</strong><br />

most elaborate expeditions were those <strong>in</strong>volv<strong>in</strong>g great cont<strong>in</strong>gents of soldiers,<br />

comm<strong>and</strong>ed by high military officers, <strong>and</strong> engag<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> warfare with various<br />

Maroon settlements over several months or years. For <strong>in</strong>stance, <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> 1730s<br />

<strong>the</strong> Venezuelan government dispatched some fifteen hundred troops aga<strong>in</strong>st<br />

<strong>the</strong> Yaracuy Maroons under Andresote (Bri<strong>to</strong> Figueroa 1985, 210).<br />

The follow<strong>in</strong>g excerpt from a letter written <strong>in</strong> 1824 by <strong>the</strong> police chief of<br />

Rio de Janeiro <strong>to</strong> his superiors <strong>in</strong> Lisbon sets <strong>the</strong> stage for a more detailed<br />

discussion of <strong>the</strong> difficulties that many military forces faced <strong>in</strong> destroy<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong><br />

Maroons.<br />

I have ordered assaults aga<strong>in</strong>st some of <strong>the</strong>se [neighbour<strong>in</strong>g] quilombos with a<br />

police squad <strong>and</strong> ano<strong>the</strong>r force whose assistance I asked for, along with soldiers<br />

144

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