Complex sentence: Jean Saint Malo was the leader of a group of runaway slaves in colonial Louisiana which in 1784 escaped to a marshy area of Lake Borgne, with weapons obtained from freed persons of color and plantation slaves.
Split into simpler sentences: Jean Saint Malo was the leader of a group of runaway slaves in colonial Louisiana. In 1784 Saint Malo and his band of escaped slaves encampted to a marshy area of Lake Borgne, with weapons obtained from freed persons of color and plantation slaves.