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

302 Flight to Freedom
new farmers in the neighbourhood of the palenques in Cartagena strongly
opposed a royal decision of 1691 to negotiate with the Maroon leaders with a
view to recognizing the settlements as free villages. These farmers surreptitiously
used Maroon labour on their farms, labour that they felt would not be
as abundant, and certainly not as cheap, if the labourers should be declared
free persons (Borrego Plá 1973, 90). In contrast, in 1748, Don Andrés
Fernández de Otañes, senior magistrate of Teutila in Mexico, vigorously promoted
the recognition of the Mandinga-Amapa inhabitants as free people,
obviously to regularize his use of their labour (Pereira 1994, 102; Naveda
Chávez-Hita 1987, 143–45).
Sometimes Maroons sought some form of accommodation with the
authoritarian state, but more frequently it was the other way around. In spite
of the circumstances that led to treaties, official correspondence often gave
the impression either that the initiative for peace treaties came from the
Maroons or that the authorities badly mauled them and forced them to sign
such treaties. This comes out clearly in the dispatches of Governor Trelawny
concerning the Leeward and Windward Maroons. Although the governor
implied to the imperial government that the Maroon leader had first
broached the issue of a treaty and was on his knees when the document was
actually signed, Cudjoe’s grovelling seems to have been more myth than reality.
Mullin (1992, 50–51), quoting an excerpt from the journal of a member of
the expeditionary force, shows clearly that Cudjoe executed a dance before
Guthrie, the officer signing on behalf of the colonial government, which
required him to kneel several times in front of the White officer, but not in a
grovelling way: “Capt. Cudjoe danced and showed a great many antic tricks,
fell at col. Guthrie’s feet several times; hugged him, and had a long conference
with him, and so parted.” What seems more probable is that Cudjoe
and Guthrie took an Akan-style oath, which involved the mixing of blood
from both parties with other elements. By drinking this potion, the two
sealed their friendship forever and agreed to abide by the terms of the treaty
(Campbell 1990, 88–118; Patterson 1979, 271–75).
Unlike most offers of amnesty, treaties generally explicitly recognized the
right of the members of the particular Maroon polity to their freedom and
usually to the lands that they occupied. Some treaties also provided for the
periodic granting of gifts to the Maroon leaders, considered by the Maroons
and by some writers as forms of tribute. These aspects of the treaties are perhaps
the strongest affirmation to those who argue that the Maroons had won