A Desolate Place for a Defiant People ─ The Archaeology of Maroons, Indigenous Americans, and Enslaved Laborers in the Great Dismal Swamp

“Addresses key historical and theoretical debates of the archaeology of the African diaspora. Theoretically complex and methodologically rigorous, it is the first serious study to locate maroon groups in the Chesapeake.”—Frederick H. Smith, author of The Archaeology of Alcohol and Drinking

“The communities of the Great Dismal Swamp represent a largely unrecognized, alternative declaration of independence. Sayers is able to tell us what the impacts of that alternative declaration of independence were for those who lived their lives by it. The Dismal Swamp, its communities, and its people are a part of American and world history that was truly revolutionary.”—Mark P. Leone, author of The Archaeology of Liberty in an American Capital

“Sayers helps us to better understand the history of defiance in the Antebellum South and raises important theoretical issues for all archaeologists studying diasporic communities.”—Randall H. McGuire, author of Archaeology as Political Action

In the 250 years before the Civil War, the Great Dismal Swamp of Virginia and North Carolina was a brutal landscape—2,000 square miles of undeveloped and unforgiving wetlands, peat bogs, impenetrable foliage, and dangerous creatures. It was also a protective refuge for marginalized communities, including Native Americans, African-American maroons, free African Americans, and outcast Europeans. Here they created their own way of life, free of the exploitation and alienation they had escaped.

In the first thorough examination of this vital site, Daniel Sayers examines the area’s archaeological record, exposing and unraveling the complex social and economic systems developed by these defiant communities that thrived on the periphery. He develops an analytical framework based on the complex interplay between alienation, diasporic exile, uneven geographical development, and modes of production to argue that colonialism and slavery inevitably created sustained critiques of American capitalism.

Daniel Sayers is assistant professor of anthropology at American University.