Category: Uncategorized
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Any society that embraced slavery necessarily spawned Maroons. As history documents, people want to live free, no matter the hardships that entailed. Throughout the Caribbean and South America, Maroon communities developed beyond the reach of authorities. In Jamaica, where the government’s armed forces were few, a large and vibrant Maroon community thrived openly. In North…
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The 1791 community in the Great Dismal Swamp that I wrote about (“Escape To The Maroons”) fought for survival from any number of dangers. Whether the threat of bounty hunters seeking to return individuals to slavery or the swamp’s natural conditions were more dangerous is debatable. Whatever the swamp’s risks, living free made the challenges…
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As my book and posts have highlighted, simply surviving in one of the worst environments in North America was a constant struggle for Maroon residents. While some self-liberated individuals chose to live close to the edge of the Great Dismal Swamp, they traded the risk of capture for opportunities to, at times, to access established…
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“Rumors abound of people entering this quagmire, never to be seen again. Stories pass down about phantom graveyards that appear and just as quickly vanish. The image of a lost lover’s canoe may drift in the distance. Ghosts wander and inspire writers like Edgar Allen Poe. Storms build quickly, turning a capricious environment more fearsome.…
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Without giving too much away, there is a spot in my recent book where I reference New Bedford, Massachusetts, as a site where fugitive slaves often fled. That’s the town where I grew up. The city has a fascinating history. Because of whaling, it was once among the wealthiest cities in the world. Over the…
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Categories More than one reader has contacted me asking how I managed to explicitly portray the Great Dismal Swamp in “Escape To The Maroons.” Since that was my intent, I’ll take the compliment. But after visiting the place, I don’t know that any writer can truly describe how extreme surviving there must have been. When…
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Since I started writing after retiring from the energy field, one message from all the publishing guides and experts who offered advice was consistent—write a blog. As someone who is generally overwhelmed by the myriad of material that comes at me via the world-wide web, I don’t read many blogs. So, my reaction was, do…
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