Escaping Slavery in a Caribbean Plantation Society: Marronage in Barbados, 1650s-1830s

1997 (Jerome Handler) “Escaping Slavery in a Caribbean Plantation Society: Marronage in Barbados, 1650s-1830s.” Nieuwe West-Indische Gids–New West Indian Guide 71: 183-225.

Slave flight or marronage, although not always with the intent or hope of permanently escaping the slave system, was a characteristic feature of Barbadian slave society as it was of slave societies throughout the Americas. However, for much of the slave period, Barbados, a small, relatively flat, and densely populated island, presented obstacles of concealment and escapee community formation that were absent or not encountered in the larger mainland or island territories. Nonetheless, marronage in one form or another occurred throughout the period of slavery in Barbados, and the island provides an excellent case study for exploring this form of resistance in the Caribbean’s smaller sugar islands, ones not conventionally associated with marronage.

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