Also known as: Marronnage, Maroon resistance, Grand marronnage, Petit marronnage
Last updated: April 23, 2026
The practice of self-liberation by enslaved people in Saint-Domingue and throughout the Americas, ranging from temporary flight (petit marronnage) to permanent escape and community formation (grand marronnage). In Saint-Domingue, marrons formed communities in the mountains, particularly in the south and west. They raided plantations, sheltered runaways, and maintained African cultural practices. The marronnage notices published in the colonial press (the Affiches Américaines) are among the most important documentary sources for reconstructing the lives, identities, origins, and resistance of enslaved people. Marronage is seen as a precursor to and foundation of the Haitian Revolution.
Part of the maroon resistance network François organized in the mountains of Saint-Domingue
Broader resistance context; use carefully, since Vesey was a revolt/conspiracy figure, not a maroon leader
Escaped enslavement and spent eighteen years as a maroon, using his freedom of movement to organize resistance across the Northern Plain.
Operated underground as a fugitive from colonial justice after his condemnation in absentia, connecting the fugitive world to revolutionary conspiracy.
Escaped from the Papillon plantation in November 1787 and spent three years as a fugitive, building the networks across estates that would fuel the 1791 uprising.
A fugitive from colonial justice who escaped capture and was condemned in effigy; his movement between plantations as a seller of sacred objects exemplifies the political mobility of marronage.
broader practice and social formation of flight from slavery
His historiographical and anthropological work contextualizes marronage within the broader pattern of fugitive and counter-plantation resistance.
Her community and leadership are among the most documented examples of organized marronage in the Atlantic world.
Broader resistance comparison
Led one of the pre-revolutionary maroon bands that Fouchard and Eddins document as part of the long prehistory of organized fugitivity in Saint-Domingue.
Led one of the named, sustained maroon bands that Fouchard documents as part of the eighteenth-century prehistory of organized resistance in Saint-Domingue.
Represented the culmination of the Windward Maroon resistance tradition — the organized fugitivity that the 1739 treaty formally recognized and then transformed.
Maroons from Bahoruco under chief Mamzelle played a decisive role in the selective violence
Jerome and Telemaque were fugitives, and the conspiracy's reach across plantations was sustained by marronnage networks
Marronage - bridging marronage and revolution
Resistance tradition inherited from Taíno-African cooperation
Brazil had the largest and most famous maroon community in the Americas — Palmares.
Suriname's maroon communities — Saramaka, Ndyuka — won formal treaties with the Dutch colonial government.
African origins as a dimension of the marronnage phenomenon
Individual stories as the primary evidence base for understanding marronnage
Skilled trades shaped the patterns and possibilities of marronnage
Women's resistance as a dimension of the broader marronnage phenomenon
Petit marronage refers to temporary flight from plantations, as distinct from permanent grand marronage.
The database is the primary source for understanding marronnage in Saint-Domingue
Women bridged maroon camps to plantations
Escape as resistance
The broader framework of resistance
Tradition of resistance the revolution drew upon
The population most systematically targeted by patrols and pursuit
What maroons carried when they fled
The escape to freedom that created spaces for Vodou development
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"Marronage." Rasin.ai, 2026. https://rasin.ai/connections/concepts/marronage. Accessed 2026-05-05.