Alabi's World (Johns Hopkins Studies in Atlantic History and Culture)
While Maroon communities of escaped slaves were not uncommon in the New World, nowhere were they more successful in creating their own unique societies than in Suriname. The Saramakas, one of six Maroon groups in Suriname, fought a lengthy war of liberation, winning their freedom in 1762, more than a century before general emancipation. In Alabi's World, ethnographic historian Price brilliantly re-creates life in 18th-century Saramaka where Alabi, great-grandson of enslaved Africans brought to Suriname in the 1680s, served as principal chief from 1780 to 1820. Based on more than 25 years of research, Price uses contrasting accounts of oral testimonies of modern Saramakas, handwritten inscriptions of 18th-century German-Moravian missionaries, and official documents of the Dutch colonial administrators to good effect. Skillfully written, copiously documented, this should stand as the definitive account of early Saramaka culture.- Brian E. Coutts, Western Kentucky Univ. Libs., Bowling GreenCopyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.