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

Chapter 10
Maroons and Revolutionary
Struggle
Reasons for Maroon Treaties
Contemporary White writers viewed treaties with Maroons variously as
anathema, capitulation to barbaric hordes, the result of imperious necessity,
and evidence that the once sharp edge of Maroon steel had become blunted.
It is difficult to know exactly how Maroons viewed the treaties, but some
must have felt that they signalled their triumph over the slaveholding regimes
that badly wanted to enslave them once again. A number of present-day
nationalist writers view the treaties as a sell-out, whereas others prefer to
focus on the nobility of the Maroons’ struggle rather than on the capitulation
to the forces of oppression that some treaties suggest.
The shift from armed to peaceful dialogue and finally to treaties was born
out of the perceived need for some accommodation on the part of both the
Maroons and the slaveholders. Maroons had to fight continually to keep
their polities from being destroyed by military forces; they often had to move
their settlements to new locations; and they spent a lot of their time,
resources and energy on defensive strategies. Even those communities that
withstood military assaults for years could not be assured of a completely settled
life as long as planter expeditions continued to be sent against them.
At least theoretically, treaties meant they no longer had to count their
dead, dying and injured at the hands of military expeditions. It is debatable
whether they were really materially better off, since most of the treaties pro-
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