Yesterday, I visited the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, which is part of the New York Public Library. My interpreter and friend from Senegal came to visit me in New York, and he is doing his Ph.D. thesis on the relationship between the civil rights movement in America and the civil rights movements in Africa. While I am at work, he visits the center, which is one of the best, if not the best, resource for information on issues relating to black people. I let him borrow my camera so he could take pictures of the pages, and study them in his own time when he left New York. Another friend of mine who studies black culture in relation to theatre is a fellow there, and invited us to attend an event featuring the author Sylviane Diouf (who, from what I heard, is also Senegalese but I could be mistaken).
Diouf's book, "Slavery's Exiles: The Story of the American Maroons," presents in depth research on a part of the history of the slave trade in the US that I, and many people, never knew about. Apparently, for many slaves in the deep South, they had very little opportunity to go North to freedom. Most of the slave that managed to escape to the North were from states that bordered the North. Thus, some slaves ended up escaping to the woods, the "Maroons." They would live in caves, or build shelters in trees or underground--mostly underground. Some communities formed, entirely of people who lived in underground caves that they had built. Though small, some of the caves were complex, complete with an area for cooking and a way to ventilate the smoke. They usually only left the caves at night, and some children never left the caves and were raised entirely in darkness for their safety. As a result, some children had become completely blind, or had vision impairments when they left. There was some cooperation between maroons and slave--slave would sometimes "hire" maroons to do their work, and pay them in rations. For food, maroons would either forage, or plant some crops, but starvation was a major threat. With time, some were able to try to blend in with the population of free slaves in some of the Southern cities. It was impressive, but also very sad, the extent to which people sacrificed, and the conditions that they lived in, for their freedom.
Diouf's book, "Slavery's Exiles: The Story of the American Maroons," presents in depth research on a part of the history of the slave trade in the US that I, and many people, never knew about. Apparently, for many slaves in the deep South, they had very little opportunity to go North to freedom. Most of the slave that managed to escape to the North were from states that bordered the North. Thus, some slaves ended up escaping to the woods, the "Maroons." They would live in caves, or build shelters in trees or underground--mostly underground. Some communities formed, entirely of people who lived in underground caves that they had built. Though small, some of the caves were complex, complete with an area for cooking and a way to ventilate the smoke. They usually only left the caves at night, and some children never left the caves and were raised entirely in darkness for their safety. As a result, some children had become completely blind, or had vision impairments when they left. There was some cooperation between maroons and slave--slave would sometimes "hire" maroons to do their work, and pay them in rations. For food, maroons would either forage, or plant some crops, but starvation was a major threat. With time, some were able to try to blend in with the population of free slaves in some of the Southern cities. It was impressive, but also very sad, the extent to which people sacrificed, and the conditions that they lived in, for their freedom.
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