The Courageous People Living in a Despicable Place - an Editorial Review of "Escape to the Maroons"

Book Blurb:

In 1792, an escaped slave, raised and living as white, is discovered and forced to flee into the Great Dismal Swamp.

Barely escaping a bounty hunter, a Maroons community of fugitive slaves rescues him. Over time, Nathanial comes to accept his true identity while fighting to overcome the suspicions of his new community. Because of his pale skin, he becomes a conductor on the underground railroad, slipping runners onto ships going north. On one of his missions, fate intervenes and places Nathanials's community at risk.

This little-known chapter in American history tells how escaped enslaved people gave their all to live free while creating a community and economy in one of the world's most unforgiving environments.

Book Buy Link: https://geni.us/eRthZgH

Author Bio:

My newest book tells the little-known story of the courageous people who chose a life in one of the most inhospitable North American environments in their determination to escape slavery. Based on three years of research and written as historical fiction, the true story of over 2,000 freedom seekers who established homes and communities deep in The Great Dismal Swamp comes alive. While each day was a struggle to survive in the swamp, the formerly enslaved established vibrant communities and developed an economy that supported multi-generational families. As one swamp resident said, "The worst day in this terrible swamp is much better than the best day I ever experienced as a slave."

The term Maroons refers to areas where enslaved people could escape and not be recaptured. The largest Maroon in North America was The Great Dismal Swamp. Over 2,000 square miles and bordering the States of Virginia and North Carolina, this extreme environment became home to individuals who demonstrated the strength and commitment of their race. Historium Press will release the book this summer.

My two previous historical fiction books continue to get good reviews. The recent anniversary of President Gerald Ford issuing a Presidential Pardon for treason charges reminds us of one of the great injustices ever handed down in the United States. Trapped in Japan during World War II and forced to work for Radio Tokyo, this loyal American never participated in propaganda broadcasts. Caught up in the post-war political frenzy against Japanese Americans, the parallels to our current political environment is striking. "Iva: The True Story of Tokyo Rose" is a story I'm proud to have written.

"War Angel: Korea 1950" also continues to get strong reviews. When I mention this title to people, a typical reaction is, "Oh, like the television show MASH, right?" Not at all. While the hit movie and television series sought to portray the difficult circumstances doctors and nurses experienced in Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals, in reality there was little to laugh about. When there was joking, it was typically a gallows humor given the horrifying realities. What attracted me to this story was how in 1950 Army nurses were required to be women. The conception many have that it was not until recently that females could serve near combat front lines is not true. (In 1956, US Army regulations were changed to allow men to serve as nurses.) Thousands of women experienced the most extreme medical emergencies in the worst of conditions and did so with nothing but strength.

And I'm well into the research for my next release, and if you would like to learn about that fascinating story, please reach out to me.

Editorial Review:

Mike Weedall is the author of two already published books, ''War Angel'' - an account of front line nursing in the Korean War and ''Iva - the true story of Tokyo Rose''. With the publication of 'Escape to The Maroons', he further reinforces his fascination with perhaps little explored facets of near contemporary history with an exciting fictional account of life within a community of escaped slaves in 'The  Dismal Swamp' area on the border of Virginia and North Carolina in the last decade of the eighteenth century at the very infancy of the United States of America. The Swamp was then a vast area of truly inhospitable swampland; an approximately 2.000 mile 'blight'. In his introduction to the book, Weedall is graphic in his description of this land:

''How does one navigate through this hell hole of nature assailed by clouds of biting insects, where to step? When one's foot does not sink into boot-sucking mud, the so called land is a sponge. Bushes and trees sporting oversized thorns tear at flesh. Dense stands of bamboo show no way forward.......Liquid and land blend. The water is tannin and acidic......The same water yields escaping gases from decaying matter. Fumes flare and spontaneously combust, smelling like rotten eggs......''

Mike Weedall continues in this vein, painting a far from edifying picture of the place; venomous insects, dangerous beasts, deadly snakes. It is a far from bucolic vision; all in all, it is not the ideal holiday location. It is this very place that the poet  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow locates his fugitive slave ''crouching like a wild beast in his lair'' in his poem ''The Slave in the Dismal Swamp'', published in 1842:

''Where will o' the wisps and glow-worms shine,

In bullrush and in brake;

Where weaving mosses shroud the pine

And the cedar groves, and the poisonous vine

Is spotted like the snake.''

It seems almost inconceivable, therefore, that a community, free or otherwise, could hope to maintain and sustain itself, given such unpromising geographical and climatic conditions, but, nonetheless, it has been variously calculated that this area supported the largest 'marron' community in the United States of America and that between the years 1630 to 1865 supported a population that could be numbered in its thousands, before a combination of road and canal construction, swamp drainage, continued white encroachment in search of timber and other resources and policing by black troops of the United States government ultimately brought it to an end.

To gain a clearer understanding and greater appreciation of Mike Weedall's stirring tale, the reader is recommended to acquire a greater understanding of the term 'maroon' and a broad view of the history. One definition of the term 'maroon' is ''a black person of the Americas who escaped slavery and found or joined a free and often secluded settlement, or a descendent of such a person'' There were many such communities spread throughout the West Indies, south, central and north America from the seventeenth century onwards. The word is derived from the French 'maron', meaning 'feral' or 'fugitive' and is first recorded in use in 1666. The Spanish variant is word is 'cimarrón', meaning 'the beast who cannot be tamed' or 'one who lives in the mountains'. In north America the largest of these communities, living hand to mouth, was located in 'The Dismal Swamp', originating there as early as 1619, living in a state of 'maroonage'. Nominally Christian, they spoke a mixture of English, pidgen and Creole. They form the subject of Harriet Beecher Stowe's book ''Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp' published in 1856. Weedall, rather anachronistically and by his own admission, refers to 'the underground railway'. Certainly, the community was very active in the smuggling of slaves to freedom, and this forms an essential part in his book 'Escape to the Maroons'. A large community was also located in Florida, where it intermingled with the local Seminole tribe. Similar communities existed in Georgia, Illinois and Louisiana.

Periodically, the white community attempted to suppress the maroons of the Great Dismal Swamp, in 1823 and 1847, for example; but for the most part the maroons evaded capture and actively allied and traded with local north American tribes such as the Chesapeake, the Nansemonds and others. Eventual eclipse, however, was inevitable. The Dismal Swamp Canal was completed in 1805 and a railroad in 1836. With increasing white expansion many simply drifted away and many joined the Northern Union Army in the American Civil War.

This gripping story begins on the edge of the swamp and the pursuit of the central character, Nathanial Johnston. Johnston, a very pale skinned son of slaves, has been raised in the family of a white Minister. There is a bounty on his head and he is being chased for a supposed attempt to abduct a white girl for which he could hang. He is rescued by two of the other principal characters of the novel, Lincoln,  known as 'Robin Hood' and an ex soldier in the King's army by name of Moses. Having rescued him, they take him back to their isolated  camp. This is his introduction to the extraordinary and extremely difficult lifestyle of the maroons. This is an extremely dangerous thing to do as it could bring a posse out after them. In order to stay, the 'council' will have to be persuaded of his worth and value. If he fails to do this he could end up dead in the swamp. His welcome is far from certain, for the people, understandably, are both fearful and suspicious of this light skinned stranger.

He is surrounded by curious and hostile stares and glances: ''almost every one wore attire long past its prime and walked barefoot. Men had unshorn matted hair and beards. Some looked to be gray-haired, burnt with age. Like Ceilia [Lincoln's initially hostile, one eyed wife] ,the women all wore long dresses. No one looked as if they ate much....'' Indeed, they did not. This is a society permanently on the edge of starvation, where nails are like gold dust and which possesses just one axe and one hammer, subsisting on fish, snakes, corn and occasional supplies from local Indians! Nathanial, or Nat, as he comes to be known, is given a rough mattress and some sawdust [a valuable by-product of all the planking and shingles the community make to trade with the whites]  and some mud to use as mosquito repellent.

Almost immediately, Nat makes serious enemies! These are Scipio, the elderly and hunchbacked shaman of the community which, although nominally Christian, maintains a deep and reverential belief in the old ways. Apart from one other member of the community, Scipio is actually African born. Equally threatening is his principal henchman, Cesare. This man, with a deep hatred of Christianity, is constantly urging Scipio to overthrow Lincoln as leader of their particular group. Scipio actually threatens Nat with a knife, throws powder into his face and curses him. Nat realises that in order to survive in this desperate place he will need to toughen up and resist the man.

Phibe, the heavily pregnant wife of Moses, is also highly suspicious of the newcomer and wants him gone. Nat is overcome by the strong feeling that here, in this strange and threatening place, he is an alien, that he does not belong. He finds it strange, for example, that the clouds of vicious biting insects do not seem to bother these people. An understandably contemptuous Moses puts him right on this point: ''White people don't think we're human,'' he tells him, ''Them bugs bite us, just like you. We had to get used to it. Why don't you think we're same as whites? Besides, you're one of us. Is your skin thicker?''  It has been decided that before the council meets to decide his fate, Nat will be set to work in the community garden to earn his keep. This will prove to be unrelenting and back breaking labour. Before he does, however, the reader is introduced to two further very important figures in the book. The first of these is a very forward, vivacious and attractive young girl called Venus who makes no attempt to hide her interest in Nat who, for his part, cannot help but stare at her. Phibe issues the first of many warnings that Nat will receive about the intentions and motives of this girl. The second person is Phibe's very elderly and bed ridden mother, Miss Matilde. Like Scipio, Miss Matilde is African born and, like Venus, but for very different reasons, this old lady will exert a profound influence on Nat! Miss Matilde is a loved, revered and integral member of the community; their mascot and totem. As Phibe explains to Nat:

''When we fled the plantation, my mother and Lincoln were the ones who found this place. We've scraped out a living here because of her and how hard she worked. She and Scipio are the only ones left who were born in Africa. As an elder, she's mother to us all. Because she knows herbs, she was our doctor. No matter how hard her life, she's kind and understanding to everyone.''

Lincoln has told him that there is a limited contact with the outside world through occasional traders and the 'cart boys' who carry the highly prized planks and shingles of great quality and which undercut the market in price. Lincoln presents Nat's case to the council and Nat also pleads to be allowed to stay. Scipio is violently opposed but the arrival of a very frail Miss Matilde persuades the council to allow Nat to stay, though with certain caveats. So Nat's period of probation begins. He collects firewood daily and is assigned to go fishing with two men called Coffery and Kitch, two men essential to the community's ramshackle and uncertain economy. Work in the garden is also brutally harsh! The collection of the last of the cultivated gourds, onions, potatoes and sunflowers before the winter. Bees are kept, and a supply of goats and sheep. An increasingly attentive Venus fetches him water, gives him a hat and cuts his hair. He is required to use human waste as fertiliser and bathes with the others. He is given clean clothes and a long coat, for winter is near; more evidence that the community is coming to accept him. There are also the regular sessions of Bible reading to Miss Matilde:

'' For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live in the Lord, and if we die, we die in the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's: For this end, Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living.''

This particular reading, taken from the Book of Romans, has a particular resonance with Miss Matilde, who feels her own end is near. Phibe is delighted that the newcomer brings such happiness to the revered old woman, further cementing Nat's standing. But, despite the pious Bible readings, the old heart of darkness, in the malevolent form of Scipio, is never far away! Immediately after the pastoral calm induced by the reading from the good book, Nat and Phibe are aware of an incessant drumming. It is a pagan ceremony to honour the spirits of the ancestral dead conducted by Scipio. It is a far cry from the reflective calm of the Epistle of Paul to the Romans. Scipio, his face painted and bedecked with feathers is leading an energetic group of dancers, one of whom is Venus! Nat is surprised by Cesare, who seizes him and flings him at the feet of Scipio, who strikes him violently with his staff. They are rescued once more by Lincoln and Moses, both justifiably angered that Nat has broken the terms by which he has been permitted to stay, and once again Nat is obliged to argue his case before the council. He redoubles his efforts to justify his existence to the community.

Lincoln, the 'Robin Hood' of the community, is a very troubled man. He is leader of the largest community of maroons in the Great Dismal Swamp, but the times are difficult. There are an increasing number of runners requiring their help and winter is coming on. It has been a very poor harvest and food is in very short supply. Perhaps it is time for another plantation raid, always an extremely risky thing, bringing with it an inevitable backlash from the white community. In the bad weather, meanwhile, Venus finally makes her move. She wants this newcomer to teach her to read, she wants him to take her to Canada and a life of freedom. Finally, one wet and stormy night, she finally seduces him and makes him her own. Everyone is suspicious and fearful of this connection between the two. Once more Nat makes the journey to the miserable cabin of Miss Matilde to read to her once more:

''Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe in me. In my father's house, there are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that? I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.''

It is an apt choice, this last reading to the old woman. Things will never be the same again, and the entire community are about to be caught up in events. With his very light skin and his awareness of the ways and customs of the outside community, Nat, if he possesses the necessary nerve and determination, has it within his means to be of great service and earn exoneration in the planned forthcoming raid on the plantation and a series of subsequent heart stopping and hair raising exploits in assisting the escape of runaway slaves to the port of Norfolk, Virginia and to freedom beyond.

It is not the purpose of this review to detail the further exploits of Nathanial Johnston, now worth two hundred dollars dead or alive, in his varying guises as a rescuer of desperate people in great need nor of his complicated love life, nor, either, of the fate of his new found friends. It is sufficient only to say that Mike Weedall has shone a much needed light upon this dark and perhaps rarely discussed aspect of America's recent past, There is far more to come in this story of suffering and endurance and unbelievably stoical determination. The simple wishes of people are movingly described and the reader is offered a window into their lives, their hopes and fears and aspirations, in a whole series of illuminating vignettes. Here, for example, are the thoughts of Miss Matilde:

''Why does our Lord give some people such a strange road? Why did foreigners have to bring guns and hate to enslave us? The first time we saw this island [the settlement] everyone was worn out and thinking we could never live in a place like this......'' There are occasional moments of joy and celebration: ''In lives surviving the pain of slavery and now scraping an existence from the swamp, here was a moment of pure release - the pleasure of being alive and together......'' There are the thoughts of the heroic Lincoln as he carries the heavy burden of leadership: ''Moses says that when someone becomes part of this camp, there's a responsibility to assist others. All of us had help to get here. We've got to pay back....the reward of getting more people to freedom justifies taking that chance.....'' And here is the lonely voice of the girl Venus as she contemplates her future: ''I'm getting what every enslaved person dreams of - freedom. I had to mislead Nat. How else can a woman take care of herself in this world?....Someday, when I have children, I'll tell them about Nat.'' And finally there is the voice of another heroine, Phibe; jubilant and defiant: ''When I first saw this spot and Mama said we're staying, I wanted to cry. Over time, we've learned to put up with every kind of thing that crawls and other unknowns to get by....We're together as free people. No one can tell us what to do.''

In ''Escape to the Maroons'' the writer Mike Weedall tells a fine story of courage and endurance.

Endorsement:

In ''Escape to the Maroon'' Mike Weedall casts a much needed light on a perhaps neglected subject. He relates this stirring tale of an oppressed community with great compassion and sensitivity and the reader cannot fail to be moved by this account of the Maroon community of The Great Dismal Swamp.

Award:

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