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

326 Flight to Freedom
had to be paid for the capture of the runaways, and sometimes compensation
to owners for others who were judicially executed; loss through death, injury,
desertion and manumission of enslaved persons who joined the Europeanled
forces as combatants, scouts and baggage carriers; loss of White personnel
through military expeditions against Maroons and counter-attacks by the
latter; reduced work output by enslaved persons who, the enslavers feared,
would desert if they pushed them too hard; and extra taxes that often overburdened
those plantations that were already tottering on the brink of financial
collapse. Added to these costs were losses due to Maroons’ seizure of
enslaved persons on the plantations, or encouragement of them to desert; the
destruction of plantation and other buildings, machinery, animals and crops
(and also the carrying away of moveable items, especially tools, household
utensils and firearms); Maroon occupation – even if temporary – of some of
the outlying plantations; high levels of planter absenteeism; depreciating
value of plantations, and difficulty in attracting purchasers; and reluctance of
merchants to give credit to plantation owners whose property was deemed to
be particularly vulnerable to Maroon attacks. Some governments declared
that their treasuries were virtually or actually bankrupt, although they had
taxed the colonists to the hilt to meet the exigencies of the Maroon wars.
Individual planters declared bankruptcy and in the last resort put their properties
into the hands of their creditors or simply abandoned them altogether
(Davidson 1979, 98–99; Conrad 1983, 362).
Maroon communities clearly offered a much higher quality of life than
that on the plantations, and, some scholars might argue, even than that
enjoyed by the vast majority of free Blacks in the slaveholding societies. One
thing is clear: the Maroons possessed a strong sense of pride in the freedom
that they had recaptured through their own initiative. They were fully aware
that this freedom was circumscribed by a number of factors, including the
need to be always vigilant against military expeditions sent against them, and
the fact that they could not move freely within the compass of the wider colonial
state. On the other hand, they could order their lives without the daily
round of abuse characteristic of slave society, practise their religion and other
aspects of their culture with less hindrance and raise their children in a free
environment.
However, the virtues of life in the palenques and mocambos must not be
exaggerated. Maroon life was hard, and a few people quitted it and returned
to their erstwhile overlords because they could not endure it. Moreover, most