Dismal Freedom - by J Brent Morris

About the Book

"The massive and foreboding Great Dismal Swamp sprawls over 2,000 square miles and spills over parts of Virginia and North Carolina. From the early seventeenth century, the nearly impassable Dismal frustrated settlement. However, what may have been an impediment to the expansion of slave society became an essential sanctuary for many of those who sought to escape it. In the depths of the Dismal, thousands of maroons--people who had emancipated themselves from enslavement and settled beyond the reach of enslavers--established new lives of freedom in a landscape deemed worthless and inaccessible by whites. This is the first book to fully examine the lives of these maroons and their struggles for liberation"--

Book Synopsis

The foreboding Great Dismal Swamp sprawls over 2,000 square miles and spills over parts of Virginia and North Carolina. From the early seventeenth century, the nearly impassable Dismal frustrated settlement; however, what may have impeded the expansion of slave society became an essential sanctuary for many of those who sought to escape it. In the depths of the Dismal, thousands of maroons--people who had emancipated themselves from enslavement and settled beyond the reach of enslavers--established new lives of freedom in a landscape deemed worthless and inaccessible by whites.

Dismal Freedom unearths the stories of these maroons, their lives, and their struggles for liberation. Drawing from newly discovered primary sources and archeological evidence that suggests far more extensive maroon settlement than historians have previously imagined, award-winning author J. Brent Morris uncovers one of the most exciting yet neglected stories of American history. This is the story of resilient, proud, and determined people who made the Great Dismal Swamp their free home and sanctuary and who played an outsized role in undermining slavery through the Civil War.

Review Quotes

"Morris has produced an excellent study and contributes to a deeper understanding of marronage. Dismal Freedom is well suited for students and the general public alike, and it should be read by anyone who wants to broaden their awareness of marronage in the United States."-Journal of Southern History

"A welcome addition to the history of enslavement, self-emancipation, and maroons in the United States. Dismal Freedom deserves high praise. Morris has written a readable and engaging account of the Dismal Swamp maroons and their contributions to ending slavery."--Civil War Book Review

"An incredible leap forward in our knowledge about the world that Maroons and Indigenous Americans created for themselves at the edges and in the remote interior of the Great Dismal Swamp . . . [which expands] the awareness of and instigat[es] new research on not only the Great Dismal Swamp but also in the largely erased Maroon settlements and Indigenous-and-Maroon communities of the rest of the Old South and in the Northern U.S. and Canada."--Reviews in American History

"Brent Morris resurrects the marginalized, enslaved, but nevertheless extraordinary people who marooned in and around the Great Dismal Swamp from roughly 1600 to 1900. . . . [A] remarkable excavation of concealed lives and buried history, a celebration of such people as Abraham Lester, Little Isaac, Venus Dismal, and others, whose stories are rarely--if ever--told."--The Journal of the Civil War Era

"J. Brent Morris provides a comprehensive look at those who sought refuge in the swamp's embrace. . . . For anyone interested in slavery, resistance, or marronage, Dismal Freedom is a worthwhile read."--Virginia Magazine of History & Biography

"Morris provides glimpses of what life might have been like in the dozens of separate maroon communities, some very small and near the edges of the swamp and others larger and sometimes on islands within the swamp."--Trend & Tradition: The Magazine of Colonial Williamsburg

"Morris's solid monograph skillfully presents how Great Dismal Swamp marronage changed over time, moving from sixteenth-century slaves and servants to nineteenth-century maroons who assisted Union troops."--Journal of American History

"Thoroughly researched and highly readable . . . Morris's clear and compelling work sheds a light on the maroons of the Great Dismal Swamp whose experiences has been overlooked or minimized for far too long."--North Carolina Historical Review