The Hidden Black Society They Don’t Teach You About - The Maroons of the Great Dismal Swamp
- Andy McIlvain
- 15 hours ago
- 3 min read
Video from PBS Origins
The Hidden Black Society They Don’t Teach You About - The Maroons of the Great Dismal Swamp
"Deep in the Great Dismal Swamp, thousands of Black people created a hidden free society, one that defied slavery for centuries. This is the story of the rebels who turned a swamp into a sanctuary.
This episode of In The Margins is part of PBS’ America@250 collection, celebrating the country’s 250th anniversary. Democracy is built on participation. Get involved at https://vote.org/pbs
In The Margins is a series that covers the history they didn’t teach in school, exploring obscure, yet captivating tales that offer unique insights into their time and place." from the video introduction
Tom Copper’s Rebellion and Great Dismal Marronage
By Dr. Joshua Strayhorn, Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow
The Great Dismal Swamp, a vast mire teeming with predators that spans 113,000 acres across northern North Carolina and southern Virginia, was not a pleasant place to call home. But for those enslaved in the region prior to the Civil War, the swamp promised both a better life and—thanks to its harsh conditions and fearsome reputation—safety from those seeking to return them to slavery. From the seventeenth through nineteenth century, the Great Dismal Swamp was home to an estimated 50,000 people, a unique community made up of indigenous peoples, free people of color, and those fleeing enslavement and indentured servitude. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the Dismal Swamp became a haven for freedom seekers across the mid-Atlantic and became a planning site for rebellious activity during the Revolutionary period.
Long before European arrival, Indigenous peoples of the region lived near and around the swamp. Historically, the Croatan, Hatteras, Chowan, Weapomeiok, Coranine, Machapunga, Bay River, Pamplico, Roanoke, Woccon, Nansemond, and Cape Fear peoples settled in and around the swamp using it for hunting and farming.[1] However, European conquest of Southern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina in the late 17th century pushed Indigenous populations out of their land. While Europeans transformed the land into productive plots for tobacco, the swamp remained a place of safety that could not be tamed.[2]
Throughout the Revolutionary era, many European colonists tried to clear and control the swamp, draining parts of it to create routes for trade and commerce. George Washington, for example, formed part of an early venture. In the Dismal Swamp Company, Washington and other investors sought to drain the swamp to access its rich soil. Enslaved people formed the labor force for the Company; Washington sent slaves from his plantation at Mt. Vernon to the Great Dismal Swamp to cut down trees and clear ditches.3 One of Washington’s enslaved people, Harry Washington, became well known for his freedom seeking efforts. The venture ultimately became unsuccessful, but speculators and surveyors would try to tame the swamp throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.4
In the early 1700s, a motley crew of freedom seekers gathered in the swamp. Fugitives, indentured servants, Indigenous peoples, and maroon communities all found refuge within the swamp. Maroons found the Great Dismal Swamp to be an ideal place to prevent re-enslavement. According to Great Dismal historian J. Brent Morris, a maroon was, "someone who has self-extricated from enslavement, or is born to maroon parents, and lives in defiance of the laws of the enslavers that would limit their freedom."5 Some self-emancipators chose temporary marronage, or truancy, for relief from slavery. Others formed semi-permanent settlements within the swamp where the threat of being discovered was slim to none. As previously mentioned, life in the swamp was not easy. Freedom seekers dealt with wild animals, heat, mosquitos, and swampy conditions. They foraged, traded, made tools and hunted to survive the harsh conditions.6..." from the article: