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The Great Dismal Swamp and the Underground Railroad

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The Great Dismal Swamp and the Underground Railroad U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Current Research Stories about escaped slaves in the swamp TThehe have been a part of local lore for centuries. For more information about the Great Recent studies in the Great Dismal Swamp, Dismal Swamp and the Underground GreatGreat DismalDismal SwampSwamp however, have uncovered archaeological Railroad, you can visit the Underground evidence to confi rm the presence of maroon Railroad Education Pavilion in the Great aandnd tthehe colonies. The Great Dismal Swamp Landscape Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. Study is a partnership between American Please check our web site or call the refuge UUndergroundnderground RailroadRailroad University and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife headquarters for current information on auto Service that aims to expand this knowledge. access into the Railroad Ditch Trail. The Every summer, professors and students conduct refuge offi ce is open Monday-Friday from 8:00 digs on sites deep within the swamp. am to 4:00 pm. The pavilion is also accessible by a short hike or bike on Railroad Ditch News of this research has found a wide Road. audience. In 2004, the Refuge was designated A list of resources for further reading is as an important landmark on the National available from the refuge headquarters. Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The study’s fi ndings were included in an award-winning documentary by WCTV of Chesapeake, VA. At the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, visitors can visit the newly constructed Underground Railroad Education Pavilion, which was built to tell Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge the story of maroons in the swamp. The story 3100 Desert Road of maroon settlements will also be a featured Suffolk, VA 23434 exhibit in the new National Museum of African (757) 986-3705 American History and Culture currently being (757) 986-2353 fax built on the National Mall. www.fws.gov/northeast/greatdismalswamp Great Dismal Swamp National Wildife Refuge Dr. Dan Sayers of American University has conducted greatdismalswamp extensive archaeological research in the swamp. One of his findings is the outline of a maroon cabin, @DismalSwampNWR pictured above. gathered shingles in the swamp. Maroons Life in the Swamp would help the shingle-gatherers meet their TThehe GGreatreat DDismalismal SwampSwamp hhasas llongong daily quotas in exchange for food, clothing bbeeneen kknownnown forfor itsits impenetrability,impenetrability, asas a Maroon colonies settled on areas known and other necessities. Archaeologists have pplacelace wwherehere ttravelersravelers ccouldould eeasilyasily loselose theirtheir as “mesic islands,” areas of slightly higher found pipes, glass bottles and even European wway.ay. YetYet inin thethe earlyearly centuriescenturies ofof AmericanAmerican elevation than the rest of the swamp. On pottery on the mesic islands- things the hhistory,istory, manymany ofof thethe peoplepeople whowho vanishedvanished these islands, escaped slaves established maroons would not have been able to obtain iintonto thethe swampswamp werewere lostlost byby theirtheir ownown choice.choice. communities, built cabins, and may have on their own. TThehe sswampwamp wwasas a ssanctuaryanctuary forfor hundreds,hundreds, even farmed small plots of land. They could mmaybeaybe thousandsthousands ofof fugitivefugitive African-African- have hunted deer, wild turkey and other After the Civil War, residents of the swamp AAmericanmerican slaves.slaves. game in the swamp, and foraged for a variety no longer had to hide. Many settled in the of edible plants. surrounding area, and found work on the canal, as shingle gatherers, or as farmers. A Place Apart Although preferable to slavery, life in the Dismal Swamp was very diffi cult. Dense From the early days of European undergrowth, including thorny greenbrier exploration, the Great Dismal Swamp vines, made it diffi cult to move through the was considered a wild and inhospitable swamp. In the summer, mosquitoes, biting place. William Byrd II, who led a surveying fl ies and snakes abounded. The maroons party through the swamp in 1732 called it also lived in constant fear of discovery, for a “vast body of mire and nastiness… very slave hunters with bloodhounds sometimes unwholesome for inhabitants.” Nearby ventured into the swamp. The maroons went residents believed that the fog in the swamp to great lengths to keep their communities carried diseases, and rumor held that lions hidden, even taking different routes back to lived in the swamp’s depths. As a result, the their islands every day so that no one could swamp was largely avoided by settlers. trace their path. The swamp’s isolation, however, made it As logging operations in the swamp an ideal place for those that didn’t want to expanded and trade along the Dismal Swamp be found. For centuries, slaves came to the Canal increased, maroon colonies began Dismal Swamp seeking freedom. For many, to trade with the outside world, especially the sprawl of densely forested wetlands on with the hundreds of enslaved workers who the Virginia-North Carolina border was a stopping point on their journey northward. For others, the swamp became a permanent The Great Dismal Swamp in Literature home where they established hidden, largely self-suffi cient settlements. Many authors and historians have written about the swamp’s role as a hiding place. Abolitionist They were called maroons, a word that Harriett Beecher Stowe’s 1856 novel Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp captured the comes from the French word marronage, imagination of thousands of readers, as did Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “The Slave in the meaning “to fl ee.” Maroon communities Dismal Swamp.” Still, the secretive nature of its inhabitants meant that little was truly known developed throughout the American South, about life in the swamp. especially in inaccessible swampy areas. Because the maroons lived in secrecy, it is More was known about the lives of the enslaved workers who worked in and around impossible to know exactly how many people the swamp. The Dismal Swamp Canal, which borders the Swamp, was hand dug by called the Great Dismal Swamp home. slave labor. Moses Grandy, an enslaved waterman who worked in the swamp and on Recent research suggests, however, that as the canal, told of his experiences in Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy. Grandy many as 50,000 maroons may have lived in and others managed to earn enough money working on the canal to buy their freedom. the swamp..
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