The Guyana Maroons, 1796–1834: Persistent and Resilient until the End of Slavery

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 1814, an enslaved woman named Antoinette was abducted in Berbice and lived for eleven years in a Maroon camp in Demerara (both parts of what became British Guiana, now Guyana). The camp was well established by the early 1800s and probably continued until emancipation in 1834. The persistence and strength of Maroon settlements throughout Guyana led the colonists to resort not only to force but also to negotiations and amnesties in order to mitigate the threat they posed. The Maroon’s weakness lay in being constrained by alliances between the Amerindians and the white authorities which restricted them geographically to a generally marshy hinterland behind the coastal plantations. Despite a continuing war of attrition with the white colonists, Maroons in Guyana developed complex systems of forest agriculture, trade, and social systems which may reflect some aspects of Akan (and presumably other) cultures. The experience of Antoinette, in as far as it can be recovered, is a reminder that life as a Maroon was difficult and that, for many, other ways of surviving slavery might have had greater appeal.