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

150 Flight to Freedom
expedition in the 1730s failed to experience desertion among the Black contingent.
For this reason the Whites generally gave firearms, as distinct from
less lethal weapons, only to the most trusted Blacks, but there was no telling
who would turn out to be faithful when an opportunity to abscond presented
itself. Still, because of the critical shortage of Europeans who could or would
undertake the task of flushing out Maroons, the authoritarian state had to
rely increasingly on Blacks to fight for them.
Black and Coloured scouts were much cheaper to maintain and often
more effective than White ones (though White scouts were cheaper than
regular soldiers). In some jurisdictions, especially as the number and size of
Maroon groups grew with the spread of plantation culture, the state bought
enslaved persons, promised them freedom, and organized them into special
units to fight the Maroons. The Black Rangers of Suriname noted above
(also see chapter 9) are an outstanding example. Stedman (1988, 81) declared
that they were “brave men acting wonders above expectation in conjunction
with the Colony or Society’s troops whose strength alone was no longer
thought sufficient to defend this settlement at present”. He also stated that
once they came within striking range of the Maroons “no subordination can
possibly keep them back and . . . are as eager as a pack of blood hounds, fearless
of danger only panting to rush upon their foe” (ibid., 204). 8 He asserted
that in the Guiana forests one of them was preferable to six White soldiers,
both for expertise in jungle warfare and for commitment to destroying the
Maroons (ibid., 204, 396). Likewise, Moreau de Saint-Méry wrote about the
Coloured people who commonly pursued Maroons and who displayed their
tactical superiority over the regular soldiers by casting off their shoes, thus
allowing them to climb jagged rocks and descend steep cliffs just as the
Maroons did (Fouchard 1972, 367). The Black Shots of Jamaica, while notorious
for desertion, included several individuals who were intensely faithful to
their overlords and the anti-Maroon cause. The most notable of these was
Sambo, who served so well that he was promoted to the rank of captain. As
an exception to the general rule regarding the Black Shots, the government
eventually freed him and his family (Campbell 1990, 83–84).
Apart from men, the colonial states used other devices to destroy the
Maroons. Among these were dogs – usually bloodhounds or “Negro dogs”,
the term commonly used in the United States – trained specially to hunt
them down. 9 These animals constituted an important part of the Spanish,
and to varying extents the Dutch, British and French, arsenal of attack. The