Why read Flight to Freedom?

Book cover of Flight to Freedom: African Runaways and Maroons in the Americas

Book description

African slavery in the Americas has left indelible marks on the geographical, political, economic, social and cultural landscapes of the Americas. An important part of that indelibility is marronage that involved both flight from slavery and the establishment of free communities. This book is about the struggles of enslaved Africans…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Flight to Freedom as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Sylviane A. Diouf

Author

This book is predominantly about Caribbean runaways and Maroons, with some brief forays into South America and the United States.

I found Thompson’s approach quite enlightening. Rather than studying marronage by country, as is usually the case, he chose an encompassing thematic approach across territories. He studies the topic in four major parts: the ideological bases of marronage, its origin and development, maroon organization, and the question of accommodation and revolution.

This panoramic view, which also offers a lot of details, helps point out commonalities but also differences between communities.

From Sylviane's list on runaways and Maroons in the Americas.