Armed in the Great Swamp
Fear, Maroon Insurrection, and the Insurgent Ecology of the Great Dismal Swamp
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3638209 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kathryn Benjamin Golden (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 106 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-26 |
| Publication date | 2021-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of African American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1548-1867 • E-ISSN: 2153-5086 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/712038 |
| OpenAlex | W3135633994 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 4 |
Out of the Great Dismal Swamp, a huge morass straddling the Eastern Seaboard between Virginia and North Carolina, emerged a distinct culture of enslaved insurgency and intense subversion throughout the surrounding Tidewater region. Maroons, those who fled and autonomously resettled in wilderness spaces, utilized the swamp to establish permanent, multigenerational communities. But other more ephemeral maroons rejected isolated, disconnected lives in its refuge, working instead to help organize burgeoning rebellion. This understudied aspect of Dismal Swamp marronage is evidenced by a historical record rife with white fear of maroon involvement in several attempted rebellions at the turn of the nineteenth century. It is also evidenced by the ways the swamp functioned as an insurgent ecology—a geographical environment aiding overt resistance. In the excess of white fear, often prone to embellish, many edge-dwelling swamp maroons, maintained a steady pressure of ambushes, theft, arson, and collaborated with the enslaved toward insurrection
Archaeology · Biology · Environmental ethics · Ethnology · Geography · Maroon · Swamp · Wilderness · American Environmental and Regional History · American History and Culture · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History · Ecology
| Citations per year | 1.25 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2022 - 2025 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |