Journal of Caribbean Archaeology Copyright 2007 ISSN 1524-4776 THE CHALLENGE IN LOCATING MAROON REFUGE SITES AT MAROON RIDGE, ST. CROIX Holly K. Norton Department of Anthropology Syracuse University 209 Maxwell Hall Syracuse, New York 13244-1090 [email protected] Christopher T. Espenshade New South Associates, Inc. 415-A South Edgeworth Street Greensboro, North Carolina 27401 [email protected] The hideouts, lookout points, temporary camps, and concealed communities of runaway slaves may be difficult to locate using traditional methods of archaeological survey. These lo- cations were intentionally made inconspicuous, were likely kept clean of surface refuse, and may have been placed in atypical landscape settings. As well, these sites may be small in size and likely contain only a few durable goods. A typical archaeological survey that combines screened shovel tests on a 20 m interval with surface survey for structural features is not well suited to the discovery of Maroon refuge sites. If these important resources are to be discov- ered, typical methods should be augmented with a GIS-based consideration of locational fac- tors and controlled metal-detector survey. ____________________________________________ The Maroon, or runaway slave, plays a The first holds that the area – known broadly large role in defining the cultural identity of as Maroon Ridge or Maroon Mountain – many African Caribbean inhabitants of the served simply as a path or conduit for run- former Danish West Indies. The modern in- aways hoping to catch a boat to Puerto Rico. habitants of St. Croix, St. John, and St. Tho- The alternative position is that there was a mas proudly point to their unique history of significant Maroon population living perma- resistance to slavery, including marronage. nently in the area from circa 1650, when the They know the landscape of resistance, and island was occupied by the French, until the many island locations are remembered as im- 1760s, by which time the extensive develop- portant in the Maroon experience. ment of the Danish sugar economy on St. Paradoxically, there is little good evidence Croix probably rendered hiding in the bush for the exact nature of Maroon activities in nearly impossible. A similar trajectory was many areas of the islands. For northwestern followed on Barbados, where Handler and St. Croix, the geographical focus of this pa- Lange (1978:144) note “Although Barbadian per, there are two general schools of thought. slaves escaped and sought refuge in caves Journal of Caribbean Archaeology 7, 2007 1 Locating Maroon Refuge Sites Norton and Espenshade and forested areas, by the second half of the recapture and punishment (i.e., Maroon seventeenth century the island was fully oc- refuge sites), in contrast with Maroon cupied, the forests were mostly removed, and communities that were tolerated or condoned there were no opportunities for the establish- by the Euro-Caribbeans. Furthermore, in ment of maroon communities.” considering the nature of Maroon refuges, it is evident that typical archaeological survey How were the Maroons using the landscape methods may fail to properly find, recognize, of northwestern St. Croix? This seems like a and interpret such sites. pretty basic question to remain unanswered at this late date, yet it is an important question We offer a preliminary paper at this in understanding slave resistance. As juncture, rather than awaiting field results, discussed more completely below, the because Maroon Ridge is under imminent archival record has little to say to resolve this threat. Resort development has begun to question, and it is time for historical squeeze the area from the south and the east. archaeology to step to the forefront. Is Hoping to counter unchecked development, a archaeology prepared for this task? local consortium has been pushing for the purchase and development of the area as a The present paper is the result of an territorial park to commemorate the Maroon evolving proposal to archaeologically study experience on St. Croix (Maroon landscapes sites of Maroon refuge activity in the Maroon are under threat in many countries. For Ridge area of northwestern St. Croix (Figures example, see Price and Price 2002). Under 1-2). In reviewing the archaeological either scenario, it will become necessary to literature, it became clear that little work has assure that the Maroon sites are discovered, been done on Maroon camp sites, where the recognized, and properly treated. Maroons were under persistent threat of Figure 1. Portion of the 1754 Map of St. Croix (Beck 1754). Note that Maroon Ridge area is labeled as “Uoptagne Grunde” or Unrecorded (unclaimed) Ground. Journal of Caribbean Archaeology 7, 2007 2 Locating Maroon Refuge Sites Norton and Espenshade Figure 2. Portion of a 1942 Navigation Chart (U.S. Department of Commerce 1942) Show- ing Topography and Place Names, “Maroon Ridge” and “Maroon Hole.” Historic Context individuals banded together, sometimes with Native American groups, to form permanent Marronage existed, in various forms, in settlements. Arguably, the most famous of every slave-holding society in the Western these is Palmares, in northwestern Brazil, Hemisphere. Although Marronage is which existed for nearly 100 years before classically associated with runaway African finally being crushed by British mercenaries slaves, Indians were often the earliest and Native Americans, after persistent Maroons in the Caribbean (e.g., Yaremko Portuguese attacks (Allen 2001; Orser and 2006). Generally the acts of these self- Funari 2001). Accompong and Nannytown, liberating individuals, commonly referred to both located in Jamaica, were also highly as “Maroons,” is categorized in one of two successful Maroon communities. The ways: petite marronage, also referred to as Maroons of these communities were so truancy or absenteeism, where an individual successful that they were able to negotiate left their plantation or other place of treaties with the British government to ensure enslavement for a short period of time, their continued existence (Agorsah 1993, tending to return on their own; or grand 1994, 2003; Bilby 1997; Kopytoff 1978, marronage, an act of permanent escape (Price 1979; Schuler 1970). Despite these 1979). In the case of grand marronage, examples, most Maroon communities were ethnohistoric evidence suggests that ephemeral and short lived, under constant Journal of Caribbean Archaeology 7, 2007 3 Locating Maroon Refuge Sites Norton and Espenshade pressure from the militarily dominant of the fruit is sweet and acidic in taste.) A European societies in which they existed. resident of St. Croix, writing a decade before Oldendorp’s visit, noted that “…planter Marronage within the Danish West Indies families were being ruined by the running was similarly varied. Although the historic away of slaves in groups of as many as documentary evidence hints at these semi- twenty to twenty-five in a single night” (Hall permanent internal settlements on St. Croix 1985: 485). and St. Thomas, most of the activity centered around escape from the islands, along what Oldendorp provides details on the Maroon Hall has identified as the “marine Hill people: underground” to Puerto Rico, Vieques and Tortola (Hall 1985: 482. See also Chinea For a long time now, a large number of [1997] for an evaluation of the archival these Negroes have established them- record on marronage to Puerto Rico.), islands selves on lofty Maroon Hill in the moun- held by European powers that were often tains toward the west end of the island. hostile to Danish policy. The Maroons that In addition to the lay of the land, they were able to eke out an existence on the small are there protected by impenetrable bush Danish holdings (the islands of St. Croix, St. and by their own wariness. They keep Thomas and St. John fall short of 200 square every approach safe by attempting care- miles combined, the bulk of that retained by fully to conceal small, pointed stakes of St. Croix) did so at a place identified as poisoned wood so that the unwary pur- “Maroon Mountain” or “Maroon Ridge” on suer might wound his foot on them and St. Croix (Pope 1972). therefore be prevented from continuing the chase as a result of the unbearable Maroons of northwest St. Croix were pain. For those foods that they can- discussed by Oldendorp, a Moravian not obtain in the wild, they must search Missionary and visitor to the Danish West at sea at night, exposing themselves to Indies in 1767-68. Oldendorp left a detailed life-threatening dangers in the process; account of island culture, including a brief or they can steal them from plantations. description of “Maroon Hill”, which he On St. Croix, they are so bold that they describes as “almost impassable” (Highfield often venture down from their hills dur- and Barac 1987:51). He further notes that the ing the day and go into the Negro mar- Maroons on St. Croix rely on rainwater kets in order to procure the necessities. caught in rock crevices or basins for their It is not at all easy to identify them drinking water (Highfield and Barac among the great numbers of Negroes in 1987:53). Oldendorp (Highfield and Barac the market [Highfield and Barac 1987:106) reports that the fruit of the susack 1987:233]. tree was a major subsistence item of the Maroons, who “often live exclusively on This passage is interesting in suggesting an them” (Susack trees, Annona murciata, grow economic relationship between plantation/ to 25 to 30 feet in height, and produce fruits market Afro-Cruzans and the Maroons. The up to 15 pounds in weight. The fruit has an Maroons must have been offering something inedible skin with stubby spines, but the flesh – possibly wild foodstuffs – in exchange at Journal of Caribbean Archaeology 7, 2007 4 Locating Maroon Refuge Sites Norton and Espenshade the market. The market contacts also suggest runaways themselves, and in St.