Marronnage in Colonial Haiti, 1766-1791

This dataset enumerates 12,857 enslaved individuals who were described as runaway maroons in colonial Haiti’s newspaper advertisements from 1766 to 1791. Throughout the Americas, plantation personnel such as owners, lawyers, accountants and other agents routinely sought to reclaim escaped runaways – who were considered private property as well as a source of unpaid labor – using newspaper advertisements to announce the runaway’s escape and to offer a reward for their return. In colonial Haiti, plantation personnel placed advertisements for runaways primarily in the newspaper Les Affiches américaines, with descriptions of the individual or individuals who escaped. In order to reclaim their missing “property,” enslavers and other personnel included information in the advertisements that they deemed relevant to identifying, tracking down, and returning runaways to plantations. The advertisements often offer financial rewards to incentivize the public to assist with re-enslaving suspected fugitives. But when read subversively and from theoretical perspectives that prioritize enslaved people’s human experiences, the advertisements can provide a unique lens through which to understand the ways enslaved people resisted their conditions by deploying the social networks, knowledge and skills, and other resources that were in their immediate grasp. These resistance practices helped to establish the foundation for Haitians’ rebellious activities during and after the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804, and can help inform understanding of enslaved Black people’s self-liberation efforts across plantation societies in the Americas.