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

Chapter 8
Maroon Economy
Interdependence of Maroon Economy
The main occupational divisions that scholars have identified in Maroon
communities, based on their dominant economic activities, are agriculturalists,
miners, fisherfolk, traders, manufacturers, livestock keepers, bandits, and
service providers (in the urban centres). It must, however, be recognized that
such divisions are not rigid, since many communities became heavily involved
in more than one of these activities. Banditry, of course, is not usually classified
as an economic activity, but some scholars seem to think that since many
small communities earned a living in this way, such a classification is suitable
in this context. Also, urban Maroons cannot properly be termed a “community”
in the same sense as their rural counterparts, for no evidence exists that
they actually formed a cohesive group or even directly associated with one
another.
Maroons added to the natural bounty of the lands that they occupied
through hard and unrelenting work, though they also plundered the White
settlements for certain goods. Many large Maroon communities possessed a
wide variety of material goods. The rancheador Francisco Estévez once
located a palenque that he described as containing all the necessities of life
(Villaverde 1982, 126). Atwood (1971, 227) states that Maroons in Dominica in
the late eighteenth century planted gardens, raised poultry, hogs and other
small stock, fished in the rivers and sea, foraged in the forest, and traded with
Blacks on the plantations, thus providing a comfortable living for themselves.
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