Saturday, February 23, 2013

Maroon Communities

Louisiana Swamp
A "Maroon" is defined as any person who is a mixture of African descent and also a descendant of a regions indigenous people (usually racially labelled "Reds" due to their skin color). This does not limit Maroons to exist only in the United States for they existed elsewhere including parts of Asia (in the loosest definition of the word). Although prominent populations existed mainly in the southern United States where the Trans-Atlantic slave trade truly blossomed, populations emerged from South Asia to the Caribbean, from as north as Nova Scotia, Canada to as far south as Argentina. Their presence in the United States was most significant in the states of Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina and Virginia where several Maroons successfully banded together to form functional communities along rivers, such as the Rigolets, lakes, like Pontchartrain and Borgne, and throughout the swampland's in each state. A common trait among these Maroon communities was that they were nearly (if not entirely) comprised of fugitive slaves and aboriginals who were enemies of the past policies of the United States of that era. Another common trait between these communities was there dedication to resisting white oppression and the slave trade. Although some aboriginal tribes allied with local governments in countries which had Maroon communities (and even returned escaped slaves to their masters), some also aided these formerly enslaved people. In some cases, Maroon communities owe much of their success to these aboriginal tribes including the Maroon community in Florida, called the Black Seminoles, who were famously allied with the aboriginal tribe, the Seminole Indians.

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