"The Hidden Black Society They Don’t Teach You About"
#AutonomousZone
#History
#chattelSlavery
#BlackMastodon
#USPol
#freedom
#DegreesOfUnfreedom
#Rebellion
#FringeMaroon
#enslaved
#rebel
#UndergroundRailroad
#assets
#StateOfEmergency
#Masters
#MutualAid
#profit
#SlaveOwners
#Shareholders
#EnslavedLabor
#WageTheft
#bondage
#CivilWar
#Contractors
#police
#overseers
#slavecatchers
#police
#violence
#maroon
#indigenous
#BIPOC
#resistance
#injustice
#GreatDismalSwamp

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L2XCbqRi6s0

"They don’t confront us like mountains, comfort us like oceans, or envelop us like forests; they don’t seem to want to have anything to do with us at all. Swamps hide. Swamps demur." —Ashley Stimpson on why swamps deserve our love.

https://longreads.com/2025/10/02/to-love-a-swamp/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#GreatDismalSwamp #CongareeNationalPark #GreatBlackSwamp #OkefenokeeSwamp #BigCypressSwamp

Fun Adventures in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge

Once seen as wasteland fit, the swamp's treasures are now recognized and safeguarded, offering a sanctuary to experience nature’s untouched splendor....

#campgrounds #camping #wildliferefuge #adventure #greatdismalswamp

https://thisoldcampsite.com/great-dismal-swamp-national-wildlife-refuge

A common tactic of anti-anarchist debate trolls is to demand examples of successful anarchist or non-state societies, their point being apparently that in the putative real world these would invariably become Mad Max or Somalia. Facts won't convince the aggressively ignorant, of course, but examples aren't hard to find. Just for instance maroons -- escaped slaves who established communities outside of state control -- in the Americas from the 16th century on are really interesting in this context and there's a ton of literature -- search "maroon" on libgen. I'm currently reading Daniel Sayers on marronage in the Great Dismal Swamp -- straddling the Virginia/North Carolina border -- from 1607-1860, which is fascinating. Here's a quote about one such community, maybe anarchist, maybe not, but definitely non-state and definitely persistent.

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Life among scissioners and their communities was as minimally alienating as one can imagine—but, more important, perhaps as minimally alienating as any people have ever managed to achieve in the modern world. These were not communes that lasted a decade or so but rather communities and metacommunities that persisted across several generations, even if they did change during that long period.

The archaeological residues of this long-vanished mode of communitization at one site in particular, referred to as the nameless site, have yielded unassailable direct evidence, and much more additional indirect evidence, for a Diasporic community of individuals who followed rules of their own making and acceptance; who maintained community organization and coherence by generating custom and tradition; who labored for themselves and their fellow scissioners; and who existed as beings possessed of true consciousness, in the Marxian sense of truthful or accurate comprehension of the world around them derived from critical awareness of its real social conditions.

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http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=2CC9C4BD690D8CF9568796BD8E240CE9

#Anarchy #Anarchism #Slavery #Virginia #NorthCarolina #GreatDismalSwamp #Maroons #Marronage

@julesh @cobordism
Giving @julesh a follow. We’re Dismal Manor Gang living in the #DismalDominion not far from #GreatDismalSwamp. Former racing #greyhounds Rocky and Missy abuse their Dismal Staff, including Dismal Wizard, butler, gardener, etc.

Dismal Wizard is a retired modeling and simulation developer and recovering FORTRAN programmer. He currently drives a M1 iMac.

DW natters on about photography, jazz, and the Dismal HiFi, #SchiitAudio and #MagneplanarLRS. And #Roon.