Great Dismal Swamp maroons

Great Dismal Swamp maroons
Fugitive Slaves in the Dismal Swamp, Virginia, by David Edward Cronin, 1888.
Total population
around 2,000
Regions with significant populations
Great Dismal Swamp
Languages
English and or English-based creole
Religion
Christianity and or African diaspora religions
Related ethnic groups
African-Americans, Gullah, Black Seminoles, maroons

The Great Dismal Swamp maroons were people who inhabited the swamplands of the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia and North Carolina after escaping enslavement. Although conditions were harsh, research suggests that thousands lived there between about 1700 and the 1860s. Harriet Beecher Stowe told the maroon people's story in her 1856 novel Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp. The most significant research on the settlements began in 2002 with a project by Dan Sayers of American University.