From the plantation to the thicket: Juneteenth, Black freedom and ‘marronage’ in Texas

This text was initially printed by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative information outlet and journal. Join their weekly e-newsletter, or comply with them on Fb, X, and Bluesky.

In Texas, Juneteenth is usually described because the day that Union Main Normal Gordon Granger marched upon the shores of Galveston to announce the Emancipation Proclamation — on June nineteenth, 1865.

However freedom in Texas was achieved each after and earlier than formal emancipation. 

Following June 1865, these newly freed Afro-Texans who’d heard the information nonetheless needed to battle the psychological toll of slavery, briefly remaining certain to the familiarity of plantations for concern of white violence, racist insurance policies, and uncertainty. Ultimately, Freedmen established greater than 500 Freedom Colonies and even migrated to city facilities like Houston for higher employment alternatives in addition to, they hoped, security. In response to the Nationwide Park Service, “Emancipated individuals settled within the Massive Thicket [a forested region in Deep East Texas known as the ‘biological crossroads of North America’] and survived off the land, utilizing the woods of southeast Texas for homesteading, searching, and foraging.” 

And, previous to 1865, many Afro-Texans reclaimed their sovereignty and autonomy properly earlier than the federal authorities acknowledged their primary humanity, although there’s a dearth of centralized details about Black placemaking in Texas from this time. This reclamation was known as “marronage” — a time period borrowed from French for this act of antebellum self-emancipation. The phrase most frequently refers particularly to runaway slaves, or “maroons,” who broke free to arrange remoted communities in locations like East Texas, Louisiana, and all through the World South. 

There are solely piecemeal accounts of how Black maroons truly created their very own communities within the dense, jungle-like swamps and forests of Deep East Texas. Newspaper clippings and oral histories depart simply crumbs of tales associated to those outlaws who sought refuge within the Thicket. 

Regardless, marronage showcases that some Black Texans had already gained sovereignty lengthy earlier than it was granted to them. Maroon communities within the woods embodied the intricate connection between the pure world and Black individuals. Ecospirituality, reciprocity, and Indigenous applied sciences from Africa and America have at all times been the drumbeat of Black survival on this state. 

Diana Jones Allen, director of panorama structure on the College of Texas at Arlington, has devoted a lot of her analysis to the historical past of maroons in Coastal Louisiana and the connection between environmental justice, id, and cultural landscapes. 

From the Carolinas to Haiti, Brazil, Jamaica, and even Florida, Allen has described how Black maroons operated as panorama architects who had the forethought and technical expertise to work with the pure world. Allen’s work factors to why finding out Black marronage is important to each ecological preservation and understanding the true that means of freedom in Texas, on Juneteenth 161 years later. 

The Texas Observer spoke with Allen in early June. The dialog has been edited for size and readability.

What’s a maroon group, and why are they vital? 


Maroons had been self-liberated enslaved individuals.
I name them self-liberated as a result of they weren’t freed. They selected to liberate themselves.

Within the U.S., escaped enslaved individuals [in general] had been attempting to go and be free within the North. Marronage was totally different as a result of not solely did they not need to be enslaved, however they didn’t need to be part of the system in any respect, proper?
They noticed the failings. … It’s not simply that [maroons] had been people who had been attempting to flee enslavement. Maroons had been totally different. They needed to make their very own communities, their very own way of life, and their very own values. And they also needed to be remoted to do this. 

Oftentimes, we speak about slavery, as if there was slavery after which there was 1863 or 1865 after which everyone was free. However there’s a lot messiness in between that. Are you able to increase on that?

Enslavement within the Americas … was actually based mostly on capitalism. It was based mostly on manufacturing. And this manufacturing, after all, took labor. However it additionally took data, proper?


So in Louisiana, the French wanted to clear and drain the swamps. The panorama was fairly totally different from the Europeans’. They found that in Africa there have been sure landscapes, for instance Senegambia, the place it was quite a bit like Louisiana. And so individuals in Africa knew tips on how to construct levees and tips on how to do drainage they usually additionally knew tips on how to develop rice. The French had been nearly about to die, however then they began significantly bringing in slaves that had this information and introduced them into Louisiana, which had the same panorama.

Even in case you take a look at the East Coast, just like the Gullah individuals — they didn’t maroon themselves, they had been type of left there — however they had been in a position to survive. They developed the entire tradition as a result of that they had this information.
Maroon communities all through Texas, Louisiana, and different locations had been introduced right here for this information; they had been in a position to take it into these landscapes and proceed to determine it out. They usually additionally exchanged data with Indigenous individuals.

Greater than the rest, greater than like revolt or escaping, marronage was to the enslaver one of many biggest threats. As a result of marronage proved that the important thing to slavery was making different human beings imagine that they couldn’t stay with out you or with out this technique, however maroons in a panorama someplace show to different enslaved people who it’s potential that, truly, we don’t really want them and we might stay on their very own. It was a considerable risk to the slavocracy.

Is marronage truly freedom? If you’re compelled to go to a spot to isolate your self so as to be free, is that actually freedom? 

I feel the observe of marronage is freedom. I’m ending up my e book, and I’m about to ship it off to the press, and one factor I do ask is, ‘What’s freedom?’ 

Freedom is having the ability to determine for your self what am I going to do instead of slavery? What am I going to do at the moment? What am I gonna eat? How am I going to decorate? And so forth the plantation, nearly all of these selections had been made by another person. 


Are you able to inform me extra about why maroons had the higher hand within the wetlands, swamps, and forests? 

Now we have this angle in the direction of nature that something that may’t be constructed upon is nugatory. So you need to drain it, fill it, clear it. … That land in its “naturalness” has no worth, which is completely unfaithful.

So marronage can then occur in these locations that different societies felt had been forsaken. … That was one of many constructive issues for maroon communities; there have been locations for a time that had been felt to haven’t any financial worth. 

The opposite factor is the fauna. Alligators, bobcats, coyotes, all these pure animals that had been there that had been very threatening, however Indigenous and African communities had a special relationship. A religious reference to the vegetation and animals. Maroons discovered a symbiotic relationship with the alligators and water moccasins and all, wherever they had been, be they within the the wetlands of Louisiana or Texas or the hills in Jamaica and Haiti. Which Indigenous individuals had discovered earlier than Europeans got here in. 

Why is it that we do hear about maroon communities in locations like Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi, however we don’t hear quite a bit about Black marronage and sovereignty right here in Texas? 

If you happen to’re simply taking a look at maroons within the U.S., you’re proper; Florida comes up and Louisiana, and there’s a variety of stuff on the Nice Dismal Swamp, the ocean islands, however you possibly can’t discover Texas. 

So difficult, proper? As a result of Texas was actually Mexico. After which there was this warfare in 1836 the place a bunch stated we’re not going to have slavery anymore, after which another individuals stated we need to have slavery, they usually had a warfare they usually created Texas. After which, you recognize, Texas tried to be its personal state … then Texas grew to become a part of the US. So I feel the true historical past of Texas, particularly when it comes to Black individuals, could be very difficult and has been submerged. I imply, that’s why I feel [Director of The Texas Freedom Colonies Project] Andrea Roberts is so nice… discovering all these Freedom Colonies and enlightening individuals.

As Juneteenth approaches, what does the historical past of marronage inform us in regards to the that means of freedom? 

It tells us that it’s potential, and it’s one thing that takes motion. You may’t actually have marronage with out slavery, proper? That freedom is feasible, however you gotta go from the plantation to the thicket. 

So I feel that’s the message for us, particularly at the moment: that we acquired to go from the plantation to the thicket. It’s gonna be powerful, however we gotta take motion. 

What’s misplaced once we separate environmental historical past from Black historical past?

Oh my goodness, you actually can’t. There’s this nice e book. It’s known as African American Environmental Thought, and I’ve learn that e book and I’ve used it so many instances.

It’s difficult as a result of on one hand, you recognize, Black individuals have a love-hate relationship with sure landscapes as a result of they had been landscapes of slavery, proper? That’s why lots of people don’t need to be close to a plantation. 

And likewise there’s this false impression too that Black individuals aren’t environmentalists, however truly we’re among the first environmentalists. Such as you return to the maroons … that’s one cause, like I stated, they introduced us right here—as a result of we had been environmentalists.

And likewise it’s simply symbolic: Like, if the land dies, we die. Not simply because it feeds us and offers us air to breathe and water to drink, however spiritually. We’re so linked. 

It’s a part of our freedom.

Signal Up for SA Present newsletters.

Comply with us: Apple Information | Google Information | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Fb | Twitter | Or join our RSS Feed