The name “Great Dismal Swamp” doesn’t evoke an image of a pleasant or beautiful place, and yet, it was an important place that offered land speculators the chance to profit and enslaved men and women a chance for freedom in colonial British America and the early United States.
In this episode of the Ben Franklin’s World podcast, Marcus Nevius, author of City of Refuge: Slavery and Petit Maroonage in the Great Dismal Swamp, 1763-1856 (University of Georgia Press, 2020), has offered to guide us into and through the Great Dismal Swamp and its history, so that we can better understand maroons and maroon communities in early America and learn more about how enslaved people used an environment around them to resist their enslaved condition.
You can listen to the podcast here: www.benfranklinsworld.com/289
Ben Franklin’s World is an award-winning podcast. It’s for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our world. Each episode features an interview with a historian who shares their unique insights into our early American past. It is a production of the Omohundro Institute.
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