Genovese's analysis of slave rebellions in the western hemisphere

¶ … Rebellion to Revolution

Slaves in Southern Plantations

In his 1979 book From Rebellion to Revolution, Genovese examines the change in the thrust of slave rebellions away from localized efforts focused on winning freedom to a movements couched in Marxist world view that were intended to overthrow slavery as a social system. Chapters 1 and 2 are reviewed below.

Chapter 2 -- Black Maroons in War and Peace

This chapter examines the relationship between the maroons or slaves "who fled the plantations, grouped themselves in runaway communities, and waged guerilla warfare" (p. 51). Maroons sometimes were loyal to the European country dominating the region in which they lived. Though these relations were tenuous, the maroons would work often work to impede slave revolts and hunt down and kill runaway slaves, or return them to their masters. However, maroons were more likely to assist runaway slaves than to catch them for the Europeans. Because the maroons were so effective at guerilla warfare, white slaveholders were afraid of a maroon-slave coalition and a maroon-Native American alliance.

Wherever and whenever they lived, according to Genovese, maroons provoked desertions and slave revolts. They fought and defeated the military expeditions sent against them, sending a strong message to the slaves. Typically, the efforts of the maroons resulted in the establishment of African-type village communities and local autonomy that permitted them to establish trade relations with whites. In the early years, the maroons were sympathetic to the problems of the slaves, and the engaged in trade and relied on the slaves for support. Over time, alignment shifted toward the slaveholders such that peace treaties were established that left maroons capturing runaway slaves and crushing slave rebellions. The gap between the "salt water" slaves and the creole slaves widened, resulting in increasing hostility and hatred. British authorities recognized the effectiveness of using maroons to crush slave revolts. Similarly, whites used Native Americans to capture runaway slaves, with varying degrees of success. Regardless, the tactic was one of divide-and-conquer, a strategy that worked especially well wherever cultural divisions and historical mistrust dominated interactions. The maroon groups in the Old South grew strong toward the end of the 17th century, a factor that generated considerable fear of a black uprising in the Old South. Punitive expeditions into the maroon settlements prevented the consolidation of disparate maroon groups, and by the antebellum period in the Old South, the status of the maroons was primarily that of a nuisance. Attracted to more favorable land areas -- such as the lowlands of the Carolinas, the Maroon groups would wage sporadic warfare, be driven back, and then regroup -- without ever being able to establish the consolidated war camps that dotted the Brazilian Palmares, Jamaica, Surinam, or Saint-Domingue.

1. Who were the maroons?

2. What were the goals of the maroons?

3. Why did the maroons not bring about major revolution in America?

Reference

Genovese, E.D. (1992). From Rebellion to Revolution: Afro-American Slave Revolts in the Making of the Modern World [Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History]. Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press.

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