Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   L.J. is reading the Daodejing (ljwrites@rage.love)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Aug-2023 08:28:45 JST L.J. is reading the Daodejing

   So. A chapter from #Maroon Societies, from the perspective of an enslaver gun-for-hire who went after a Maroon group in Surinam, totally blew my effing mind. It has so many layers--class and race issues, a suspenseful military narrative, a "plot twist" from our brilliant antagonist-heroes the Maroons, all told by an unreliable villain narrator who is obviously racist and evil but can't help but admire his enemies despite his entrenched racism.

   It's like the best short story I have read ever, and make no mistake about it: The direct teller might be the enslaver merc but the narrative was created from beginning to end by the resourcefulness and resilience of the Maroons, the actual heroes of the narrative. I hope my excerpts do justice to their exploits and that you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

   • Embed this notice
     L.J. is reading the Daodejing (ljwrites@rage.love)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Aug-2023 08:33:40 JST L.J. is reading the Daodejing

     in reply to

     In sum, these formerly enslaved rebel fighters in 18th-century Surinam went back to the scene of battle to hold their enemies in place with gunfire and noise, plus top-notch aggro and rhetoric, to cover the preparations for the community's escape. They then slipped away over a hidden floating bridge that enabled them to cross unnavigable swamp, then ran off laughing through the jungle, the survivors safe and families together with plenty of supplies. The level of brilliance, I just... so, so fucking ingenious, even racists who looked down on them were floored by honest admiration.

     Abolisyonista repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     L.J. is reading the Daodejing (ljwrites@rage.love)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Aug-2023 08:33:42 JST L.J. is reading the Daodejing

     in reply to

     "In the afternoon . . . [an officer was detached with 30 marines and 50 rangers] to discover . . . how the rebels could pass to and fro through an unfathomable marsh, whilst we were unable to pursue them. This officer at length perceived a land of floating bridge amongst the reeds, made of maurecee-trees. . . .

     "On the morning of the 22d, our commander ordered a detachment to cross the bridge and go on discovery . . . And here, to our astonishment, we discovered that the reason of the rebels shouting, singing, and firing, on the night of the 20th, was not only to cover the retreat of their friends, by cutting off the pass, but by their unremitting noise to prevent us from discovering that they were employed, men, women, and children, in preparing warimboes or hampers filled with the finest rice, yams, and cassava, for subsistence during their escape, of which they had only left the chaff and refuse for our contemplation.

     "This was certainly such a masterly trait of generalship in a savage people, whom we affected to despise, as would have done honor to any European commander, and has perhaps been seldom equaled by more civilized nations."

     - Maroon Societies, Chapter 17 (spellings Americanized)

     Abolisyonista repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     L.J. is reading the Daodejing (ljwrites@rage.love)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Aug-2023 08:33:43 JST L.J. is reading the Daodejing

     in reply to

     "[An enslaver mercenary officer] promised [the Maroons] life, liberty, victuals, drink, and all they wanted. They replied, with a loud laugh, that they wanted nothing from him; characterized him as a half-starved Frenchman, who had run away from his own country; and assured him that if he would venture to pay THEM a visit, he should return unhurt, and not with an empty belly. They told us, that we were to be pitied more than they; that we were WHITE slaves, hired to be shot at and starved for four-pence a day; that they scorned to expend much more of their powder upon such scarecrows; but should the planters or overseers dare to enter the woods, not a soul of them should ever return, any more than the perfidious rangers . . .

     "After this they tinkled their bill-hooks, fired a volley, and gave three cheers; which being answered by the rangers, the clamor ended, and the rebels dispersed with the rising sun."

     - Maroon Societies, Chapter 17 (spellings in the original Americanized, italics converted to caps)

   • Embed this notice
     L.J. is reading the Daodejing (ljwrites@rage.love)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Aug-2023 08:33:44 JST L.J. is reading the Daodejing

     in reply to

     "[Very early the next day, the Maroons of the village returned for a surprise attack and] we lay prostrate on our arms until sunrise, during which time a most abusive dialogue was carried on indeed between the [Maroon] rebels and the [Black] rangers [working with the government], each party cursing and menacing the other at a very terrible rate; the former 'reproaching the rangers as poltroons and traitors to their countrymen, and challenging them next day to single combat; swearing they only wished to lave their hand in the blood of such scoundrels, who had been the principal agents in destroying their flourishing settlement. The rangers [damned] the rebels for a parcel of pitiful skulking rascals, whom they would fight one to two in the open field, if they dared but to [show] their ugly faces; swearing they had only deserted their masters because they were too lazy to work.' . . . when the firing commenced once more from the rebel [Maroons], and continued during the night, accompanied by their martial voices, at intermissions resounding through the woods, which echo seemed to answer with redoubled force."

     - Maroon Societies, Chapter 17

   • Embed this notice
     L.J. is reading the Daodejing (ljwrites@rage.love)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Aug-2023 08:33:45 JST L.J. is reading the Daodejing

     in reply to

     "Being now about to enter the town [after a shooting battle with the European soldiers invading the Maroon village], a rebel captain . . . bearing in his hand a torch of flaming straw, seeing their ruin inevitable, had the resolution to stay and set the town on fire in our presence, which, by the dryness of the houses, instantly produced a general conflagration, when the firing from the woods began gradually to cease. This bold and masterly maneuver not only prevented that carnage to which the common soldiers in the heat of victory are but too prone, but also afforded the enemy an opportunity of retreating with their wives and children, and carrying off their most useful effects; whilst our pursuit, and seizing the spoil, were at once frustrated both by the ascending flames, and the unfathomable marsh, which we soon discovered on all sides to surround us."

     - Maroon Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas, edited by Richard Price (1973), Chapter Seventeen: Guerrilla Warfare: A European Soldiers View

   • Embed this notice
     L.J. is reading the Daodejing (ljwrites@rage.love)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Aug-2023 08:34:27 JST L.J. is reading the Daodejing

     in reply to

     The whole thing becomes both so much more poignant and so much more brilliant when you realize that the Maroon rebels, being short on munitions, used "very few leaden bullets, but many pebbles, coat-buttons, and pieces of silver coin" as ammunition, resulting in very negligible harm to the other side. They KNEW they could not hurt the enemy anywhere near the casualties they themselves would suffer, but they not only fought but went BACK to hold and distract the enemy for their community's escape and survival, tricking the mercs into being threatened by the harmless fake bullets. It is hard to overstate the sheer ingenuity of it, the boundless chutzpah, the depth of their courage.

     And despite these heavily uneven odds they still fought and they still. fucking. won, because victory to them was not destruction and domination of the enemy but life and freedom for their people. This is how a resistance wins.