Written by:
Ashley Jones
About:
Juan Malo
In 18th Century Louisiana, Juan Malo led a large network of maroon colonies in the swamps surrounding colonial New Orleans. He and his fellow Africans carved out free communities in the swamps and assisted in freedom struggles such as the 1811 slave revolt. Malo’s maroon network is an important forerunner to later slave revolts. In 1811, long after Malo’s death, maroon colonies along Lake Pontchartrain served as an important link to the revolutionaries, who planned coordinated attacks in early January above, below, and in New Orleans. Their ultimate goal was to create a free nation headquartered in New Orleans for people of African descent.
Malo the Visionary:
In 1774, Juan Malo buried his ax in the first cypress tree of Gaillardiland, saying,
“Malheur au blanc qui passera ces bornes.”
(“Woe to the white who would bass this boundary.”)
This boundary was the Louisiana swamps, where the ghostly white fog clung stubbornly to the roots of the old cypress trees,
their long trunks like guardians
looking over the swamp’s creatures.
He looked around this dead swamp, standing motionless like a picture.
Amongst the moss-covered trees, he envisioned his maroon colonies,
using the grayish mist of fog
and the ancient faces of the cypress to keep enemies away.
He could see his band, men and women,
painting a rainbow of yellows, reds, and mahoganies on the swamp’s living canvass.
No longer slaves, men with masters and laws to break their backs and spirits,
instead he saw fine craftsmen shaping cypress into sturdy chairs to sit the elderly and tables to sit their wives and little children.
Malo looked upon the house decks of his mind and saw the women no longer the “mules of the world,” talking without bending and breaking or cutting or pulling, but laughing and living a free life.
Freedom buzzed in his ear like swamp mosquitoes,
Dripped from his mind like cypress blood.
The ax like a dagger in the cypress heart set the boundary of freedom, and so he said,
“Woe to the white who would pass this boundary.”