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

Physical Organization of Maroon Communities
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Figure 21. Plan of Quilombo Buraco do Tatú
The approach to the Buraco do Tatú mocambo in Bahia in the 1760s was
treacherous, not only because of its location but also because there were
numerous concealed pits filled with sharpened stakes (Conrad 1983, 380; see
also 390–91). It had one of the cleverest and most complicated defence systems,
based on palisades, caltrops and ditches. A swamp more than five feet
deep protected its flank. Three sides of the settlement were protected by a
labyrinth of sharpened stakes, driven into the ground and camouflaged so
that they were not readily detectable. In addition, it contained twenty-one
pits in which sharp stakes were embedded and covered with vegetation. The
ostensible entrance to the settlement was a false path, camouflaged with
spikes and traps. In fact, the settlement could be entered or exited only when
the lookout placed planks over certain areas to make it accessible. When the
Portuguese finally decided to assault it in 1763, they had to employ Indians
not only as guides but also as a surveillance corps, and it is possible that these
denizens of the forest pointed out the settlement’s weaknesses (Schwartz
1979, 220–22).
Stedman, who spent the better part of five years as a member of a group of
mercenaries hired to fight the Maroons in Suriname, left us several graphic