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

Maroons and Revolutionary Struggle
313
Colombia, refused to accept peace terms that required him to exclude
African-born Maroons from the agreement (Borrego Plá 1973, 105, 106). In
1764 Maroons in the Bahoruco Mountains of the Dominican Republic
rejected a royal decree offering to recognize their freedom if they would leave
the mountains and live a sedentary and peaceful urban life (Larrazábal
Blanco 1998, 164). In 1816 the Seminole Maroon leader Garçon refused to
enter into peaceful dialogue with the United States forces sent against him.
In the sequel, about 270 of his men, women and children were killed when
the enemy blew up the magazine in his stronghold, while another 40 were
caught. 12
The vast majority of the Maroon groups in Jamaica in the late seventeenth
century rejected peace terms similar to those offered to Juan de Bolas, whom
they regarded as a traitor to the cause of liberation (Campbell 1990, 24–25;
Patterson 1979, 254). Long (1774, 2:339) explained that none of the Karmahaly
Maroons under Juan de Serras accepted similar terms, but “[o]n the contrary,
they were better pleased with the more ample range they possessed in the
woods where their hunting ground was not yet limited by settlements”.
Patterson (1979, 273–74) argues that not only enslaved persons but all of
Cudjoe’s followers were bitter because he had sold out to the authoritarian
rulers. He points out that as a result of the leader’s treacherous action, angry
members of his group as well as enslaved persons formulated plans to neutralize
the effects of the treaty. Among these were some of Cudjoe’s highranking
men, who contacted enslaved persons on neighbouring plantations
and incited them to revolt. Cudjoe dealt with his own dissenters severely and
sent four ringleaders to the governor. The colonial judiciary condemned two
of them to death, and sentenced two others to transportation. However, as an
act of clemency they pardoned them and sent them back to Cudjoe, who in
turn executed the first two and sent the other two back to the governor to
have them exiled. The governor complied with his request (Patterson 1979,
273).
Palmares might have saved itself from crushing defeat and destruction had
all its leaders and rank-and-file members accepted the treaty struck in 1678
between Ganga-Zumba and the authoritarian state. But the treaty was
humiliating to a large proportion of the population, since it sought to return
most of them to slavery. Many residents of the confederation, though born
into slavery, had lived most of their lives as free people. More independent
leaders, notably Zumbi, the king’s nephew, who had refused to capitulate to