Cimarrons

The Cimarrons, known as Maroons (wikipedia here) by the British, were runaway slaves who dwelt in the backwoods of the European colonies of northern South America, the West Indies and Florida. Similar communities of Black fugitives also existed in the southern British colonies of Virginia and the Carolinas.

The free way of life of the Cimarrons encouraged other slaves to run for their freedom. Bands of runaways occasionally attacked and plundered the plantations from which they had fled. In order to counter the threat that the Cimarrons posed to the security and social order of their settlements, the Spanish, Dutch, French, and British colonial authorities mounted frequent raids against the Cimarron villages in the attempt to destroy them and bring the Black fugitives back into captivity. In this context, militia units of Free Blacks and Mulattoes were raised, and proved very effective in supporting the scarce European colonial troops. 

I based my figures mainly on the paintings of the Italian artist, Agostino Brunias (1730-1796) (wikipedia here), who settled in the British West Indies in 1770 and left an extremely vivid, if a bit idealized, pictorial image of the every-day life of the Black and mixed-race communities of the Caribbean, mainly of the Free People of Color, as the Free Blacks and Mulattoes were styled in the 18th Century, but also of the wild Cimarrons.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Cimarrons went nearly naked, wearing only a loincloth, or sometimes a length of patterned cotton fabric wrapped around the waist (much like a South-East Asian sarong), or worn over one shoulder and tied across the chest under the opposite armpit.  

Some wore a simple head band, or bandanna, and a few of them more elaborated, colorful head wraps, or tignons, apparently a sign of wealth and status among the Free Blacks and Mulattoes, both male and female. 

Most Cimarrons were armed with machetes, the ubiquitous plantation slave tool duly turned into a deadly weapon. Knives, bow-and-arrows, javelins and short thrusting spears were also popular weapons. Wooden clubs of native African design may have been used, too, as well as European hatchets and daggers. Powder and shot must have been very much in short supply with the outlaw Cimarron communities, and although shortened muskets and musketoons are occasionally shown in the sources, they were hardly employed in battle to any relevant effect.

Free Black militiamen were of course better armed and dressed. They would undoubtedly have muskets, and might have worn breeches or pantaloons, sometimes a coarse linen shirt, and maybe a wide-brim straw hat or a knitted or woven cap of the kind popular with the European working class of the time.  

Interestingly, early 20th-Century photographs of Caribbean Black dwellers show exactly the same attire and armament as their ancestors depicted in Brunias’s paintings, suggesting that the latter, although dated to the last quarter of the 18th-Century, may be safely used as a reference also for earlier and later periods.

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As I usually do when I set off sculpting a new range of figures, I started with crafting the masters of  special weapons and items that I then would cast and use on at least three or four new figures. In this case, I fashioned two different machetes, a cutlass, and a musketoon, the latter obtained by removing the side rail from a casting of my hussar carbine. 

In order to reproduce the Black African racial features accurately enough, I started from a casting of the head of one of my Woodland Indians, who already come with broader nose and higher cheekbones than my Europeans. I reinforced the lips, brought the forehead  forward a bit, and  gave  the man new ears and short, kinky hair. All in all, I am quite pleased with the result.

The first figure is armed with a  machete and a javelin. A large knife is stuck in the suspension string of his loincloth. His kit is otherwise  minimal, including just a small bag for his scarce food provisions, and a gourd canteen.

Then comes a rather flamboyant fellow armed with a saber and a brace of pistols. The leader of a band of marauding runaways, he  sports a tignon headdress, a waist sash, and colorful ribbon garters tied below his knees.

The running figure below is armed with a shortened hunting gun and a dagger or cutlass suspended from his right shoulder by a narrow strap. He has a flattened-horn powder flask, and a gourd canteen completes his kit.

Next come three men armed with only machetes and knives. One of them, perhaps a sub-leader, wears a bandanna and a piece of fabric tied at the waist.

I really enjoyed painting my Cimarrons, and despite the simple color scheme I find the result quite attractive. Reflecting their still unmixed West African origin,  I painted my Cimarrons' skin really dark.

As of now I have sculpted, made the rubber molds, and cast a few more Cimarrons. They come in a variety of action poses, as can be seen in the picture below, and I look forward to painting them...