Slavery's Exiles

The Story of the American Maroons

By: Sylviane A. Diouf

Narrated by: Chanté McCormick

The forgotten stories of America maroons—wilderness settlers evading discovery after escaping slavery

Over more than two centuries men, women, and children escaped from slavery to make the Southern wilderness their home. They hid in the mountains of Virginia and the low swamps of South Carolina; they stayed in the neighborhood or paddled their way to secluded places; they buried themselves underground or built comfortable settlements. Known as maroons, they lived on their own or set up communities in swamps or other areas where they were not likely to be discovered.

Although well-known, feared, celebrated or demonized at the time, the maroons whose stories are the subject of this book have been forgotten, overlooked by academic research that has focused on the Caribbean and Latin America. Who the American maroons were, what led them to choose this way of life over alternatives, what forms of marronage they created, what their individual and collective lives were like, how they organized themselves to survive, and how their particular story fits into the larger narrative of slave resistance are questions that this book seeks to answer. Audacious, self-confident, autonomous, sometimes self-sufficient, always self-governing; their very existence was a repudiation of the basic tenets of slavery.

©2014 Sylviane A. Diouf (P)2022 Tantor

An overlooked story of freedom: the maroons who lived hidden in America’s swamps and forests.

Slavery’s Exiles shines a light on a forgotten part of U.S. history—the maroons who escaped plantations and built hidden lives in swamps, forests, and borderlands. Sylviane A. Diouf draws on runaway ads, laws, letters, and court records to show just how real and persistent these communities were.

What struck me most is the tension she uncovers: slaveholders lived in constant dread of runaways, even though maroons were never a serious military threat. The fear was enough to fuel brutal punishments, hunting parties, and slave patrols.

The book also reveals the variety of maroon life—some hid deep in swamps, others lived just beyond the plantation fence; some raided, others fished or cut shingles, nearly all stayed tied to kin still enslaved. These figures were whispered about, admired, and feared, like Robin Hood without the romance.

Well-researched, clear, and eye-opening, this book adds a vital “third dimension” of resistance to the usual stories of rebellion or the Underground Railroad. Highly recommended.

Forgotten History

I never learned about the Maroons in school, but my family members educated me about the Maroons growing up as a child. Thank you.

awkward editing

awkward audio editing often disrupts sentence flow. St Malo was cool though for real lol

So good

Great scholarship. Well researched. The writing/reading was engaging. Academic, obviously, but not jargony. The writing/reading was accessible and very informative. I would recommend a read.

A sobering experience

Powerfully written, it’s been an incredible journey learning about the Maroons. Painful as it was to endure, I enjoyed every aspect of it and hope to find more gems of this’s sort in the future. I hope the narrator continues to practice and becomes even better suited to an audible format.