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

198 Flight to Freedom
monkies [sic].” These Leeward Maroons, when they lived in the Cockpit
Country before signing a treaty with the British in 1739, chose entrances that
required people to pass through them single-file for a considerable distance,
built footpaths on steep eminences that people unaccustomed to the
Maroons’ traverses could not negotiate safely, camouflaged themselves by
using the surrounding flora as part of their dress, imitated the sounds of birds
and animals when communicating with each other, and threw rocks on their
enemies (Carey 1997, 195–96; Campbell 1990, 71; Zips 1999, 77–83).
Apparent flight was often the prelude to a more aggressive strategy. On
one occasion the Maroons of Guy’s Town (part of the Windward group),
whose headquarters were located on Carrion Crow Hill, faced with an apparently
sudden attack by an armed expedition, “ran away”, leaving about fifty
women to burn the town before evacuating it. The expedition, oblivious of
the fact that doom lurked down the road, entered the partially burnt-out
town and found evidence of sudden flight. But they were in for a huge surprise.
The Maroons had previously piled up on the hilltop large stones
against which they had placed props. As the expeditionary force moved closer
to the spot, the Maroons removed the props and sent their own form of brimstone
raining down on their enemies. The official report on the expedition
recorded that many soldiers were killed, others fled in panic leaving their
arms and ammunition behind, and the Maroons captured three of them
(Campbell 1990, 71). Carrion Crow Hill had, at least on this occasion, lived
up to its name, as the birds no doubt took care of the rotting carcasses.
The Maroons of Nanny Town executed an even cleverer manoeuvre.
According to the contemporary chronicler, who was a senior officer of the
expedition sent against them, the Maroons feigned a retreat that suggested
that they had scattered pell-mell when they heard that a military expedition
was close to their quarters. About every half mile, the expedition found produce
from the Maroons’ gardens strewn all over the place, and shortly afterwards
they came to a settlement where they found food being cooked,
including several wild hogs on grills, left by their cooks in apparent haste.
The invaders concluded that if they hurried they would rout the party and
clear the way for an assault on their headquarters. However, to their dismay,
they found that the Maroons had allowed them to pass through the entrance
to the ambush and then cut off their retreat. A number of them were killed,
and most of the rest were forced to flee in all directions (Campbell 1990,
120–21).