This is the Great Dismal Swamp.

Hundreds of years ago, this sprawling wetland about the size of Delawar stretched down the east coast.

The swamp was brimming with snakes and bears and mosquitoes so thick you couldn' see a few feet in front of you.

Yet hidden inside was a refuge to tens of thousands of Black people called maroons, who escaped the bonds of slaver some living free for generations Maroons didn't just run away or survive in the swamp.

They grew into a state sized stronghold against chattel slavery that lasted more than 250 years, in the middle of the South.

I'm Harini Bhat.

Welcome to the heart of Black American resistance.

The Great Dismal Swamp.

Great Dismal Swamp maroons We're not just one community, but many communities.

We can think of them in three main groups.

Each was shape by where they lived in the swamp and how they resisted slavery.

But how did they get to the swamp in the first place?

In colonial Virginia, both Black and White laborers endured brutal abuses and ran away regularly.

Early Maroons likely had help getting to the swamp from Indigenous peoples.

Many Algonquian-speaking tribes and others had lived along the swamps coast for thousands of years, and were now being driven off their land.

But the first major evidence of Great Dismal maroonage came in 1730.

Known as the Chesapeake Rebellion, It was set off by a rumor that King George the Second granted freedom to baptized enslaved people.

When they were denied their freedom, several hundred enslaved people led a revolt that was ultimately suppressed by local authorities.

Some 200 enslaved peopl managed to escape to the swamp.

However, entering the swamp was not for the faint of heart.

According to an account from th famous fugitive Harriet Jacobs quote, as evening approached, the number of snakes increased so much that we were continually obliged to thrash them with sticks to keep them from crawling over us, unquote.

Harriet fled to the swamp to escape sexual violence from her enslaver and the threat of sale.

She later wrote, but even those large, venomous snakes were less dreadful to my imagination than the White men in that community called civilized.

People who persevered many miles into the swamp became interior maroons.

These maroon forged dozens of new societies, sustained by nature deep inside the swamp, where at least 200 small islands where maroons built cabins and planted crops.

They grew corn, beans and rice.

Foraged cattails and berries and hunted wild hogs and deer.

They even tended livestock and bees for honey and wax for candles, which they bartered with one another.

Interior maroon communities raised their children in freedom which they guarded fiercely.

They lived in secrecy and were known to carefully monitor surrounding areas and vet new members.

For several generations, these communities thrived through cooperation with each other and with nature.

The fact that maroons were self-sufficient contradicted the false narrative that enslaved people couldn't take care of themselves, and, in fact, were content at being a slave for their own good.

So perhaps it's not surprising that the slave owning society found maroons existence terrifying.

One fearful Virginia landowner, William Byrd the second, tried to breach the swamp.

His men barely reached 1.5 miles a day, reportedly getting mired in the bog, unable to penetrate the tall reeds and thorny brush.

After eight days, they ran out of supplies and abandoned their attempt.

Byrd warned colonial authorities that if no action was taken the Great Disma Swamp maroons could become a powerful force threatening the surrounding region.

Interior Maroons had escape beyond American society's reach.

Other Maroons however, carved out a free life for themselves right under society's nose.

The second most common group of Great Dismal Maroons were fringe maroons.

These maroons were people who had fled slavery, but lived on the outer edges or fringes of a swamp, often to stay close to family members who remained enslaved.

In one case, a mother and her two children became Maroons, while her husband stayed behind in a labor camp support them.

There are many cases like this.

But escape attempts also came with extreme risks.

Slave owners would enact severe punishments such as public lashings, branding, cutting off ears, or forcing people to wear iron bits.

Fringe maroons stayed hidden by developing secret codes to communicate with nearby enslaved people.

For example, a shirt hung in just the right way could signal that it was safe to move around.

Some enslaved people joined maroons for just a few weeks or months for a break from the unrelenting labor.

Many were also determined to take back reproductive wellbeing and control over their bodies.

For others, especially in the 1800s, the swamp was a pit stop on the Undergroun Railroad, useful for thousands intent on continuing toward freedom in the North.

As more and more people became fringe maroons, slave owners were losing control of people they considered property and their plantations, or being regularly raided by the very people they had enslaved.

In Norfolk, Virginia, officials declared a state of emergency after maroons killed several White men reporting that, quote, one slave owner received a note from these amazing fellows suggesting it would be healthier for him to remain indoors at night.

And he did unquote.

But for the most part, fringe maroons survived through mutual aid with each other and those still enslaved.

This was a key tactic also used by a third group, the canal maroons.

In 1763, the Dismal Swamp Canal Company set out to turn the swamp into a source of profit.

The company was founded by 1 wealthy slave owners, including the future president of the United States, George Washington They proposed draining the swamp in order to grow crops like hemp for the U.S.

Navy and turn trees into roofing shingles.

To move these products the shareholders envision a canal that cut through the swamp and connected the Chesapeake Bay to the Albemarle Sound.

The canal was completed in 1805.

Built by the hard work of enslaved people, many of whom encountered maroons or escaped themselves.

Enslaved laborers, or so-called shingle getters, often subcontracted their work to canal maroons in exchange for goods from the outside world This meant that an enslaved shingle getter would show up with 2 to 3 times their expecte quota in shingles and wood stave This arrangement proved so lucrative that overseers who were well aware of the arrangement would look the other way.

Despite strict laws and increased policing to capture maroons.

Crew bosses would even hire canal maroons directly, either accepting fake fre documentsor choosing to ignore their legal status.

Ultimately, both fringe and canal maroons found freedom on their own terms while staying connected to society.

One married couple, Venus and Jack, who worked on the canal, would later become maroons.

After three attempts to flee.

They were determined to stay together and use their knowledge of the swamp to finally escape.

Even with these daring acts of self emancipation, there are still others who aim to break slavery altogether and overthrow the whole system Since the beginning of American slavery, enslaved people has staged more than 250 rebellions.

The Great Dismal Swamp empowered several widescale rebellions, most famously the Easter Conspiracy of 1802. set for June 10th.

The plan was to kill as many White slave owners as needed to secure their freedom and quote, rest assured that our tyrants shall soon be taught lessons by our resentment that humility has never taught them, unquote.

By May, the plans had spread to widely, and many conspirators were discovered Dozens of people were captured and dozens more were killed or deported from the country.

Tom Copper, an infamous general of the conspiracy and a maroon, was arrested in Elizabeth City In an incredible act of loyalty, six Black men arrived on horseback and broke Copper out of jail.

Four of the men were captured, but two men escaped, including Copper.

Who never appeared in the record again.

Maroons who dare to rebel acted not just for themselves, but for all enslave people still trapped in bondage.

Those who survived likely retreated back to the swamp, where they may have remained until the Civil War.

Archeological records show, remains a maroon communities in the swamp up to roughly 1865, suggesting that most maroons left the swamp when the war ended.

Maroons rejoin society, including an elder maroon at least 80 years old According to one report quote, whos locks were as white as the driven snow, unquote.

He said, now that I have lived to see the freedom of my race and to know that I am a free man, I am ready to quit this world and go up yonder.

Maroons have existed everywhere racial chatte slavery has existed in the world and are especially known in places like Jamaica, Suriname, Brazil and Haiti.

For the Great Dismal Swamp maroons, experts have only recently uncovered more of their history, partly because of the maroons own secrecy and partly due to the challenges of examining historical record often written by the ruling class.

Above all, maroons wanted to be free.

Most maroons were ordinary peop who were creative, hard working, and tenacious in creating a bett life for themselves and their children.

Their legacy can be felt throughout the history of Black resistance, from the Undergroun Railroad to the Civil rights era and Black Power era, to the Black Lives Matter movement.

In any time and place, wherever you find the shackles of injustice, there are people creating their own keys.