Have Confidence in the Sea: Maritime Maroons and Fugitive Geographies

Since the birth of the Transatlantic slave trade, enslaved Africans have exploited their geographic circumstances to obtain liberation, effectively transforming them into maroons. However, geographies of marronage have disproportionately investigated terrestrial landscapes to understand how self‐liberated Africans made life in the Atlantic world. Turning our attention to the sea, I use geospatial analyses to map ocean currents and explore routes of passage for maritime maroons from the island of St. Croix (Ay Ay). Mapping this oceanic cartography of Black fugitivity provides renewed insight into the ways in which maroons used oceanic literacy to actualise their quest for freedom and their experiences in their new homes.