The secret society of the Great Dismal Swamp Dan Sayers
Straddling Virginia and North Carolina
is an area that was once described as the
“most repulsive of American possessions.”
By 1728, it was known
as the Great Dismal Swamp.
But while many deemed it uninhabitable,
recent findings suggest that
a hidden society persisted in the Swamp
until the mid-1800′s.
So, who lived there?
And what happened to them?
People long suspected that communities
had settled in the Swamp,
but the historical record was spotty.
It wasn’t until 2003 that the first
systematic archaeological foray
finally launched.
But, despite having been
extensively drained over the years,
the wetland still presented
many practical challenges.
Researchers had to penetrate
thorny thickets,
wade through waters studded
with sinkholes,
and braved the threats
of dangerous animals.
After several months, they finally found
islands in the Swamp’s interior.
These formations quickly revealed
traces of centuries-old secrets.
Archeologists found buried markings
that appear to have been left
by raised log cabins, fire pits,
and basins
that may have collected drinking water.
They identified what seems
to have been a palisade wall
and excavated more than 3,000 artifacts,
including weaponry, stone tools, and
fragments of ceramic pipes and vessels.
These discoveries, combined
with previous findings,
helped tell a story that reaches
far back in time.
Indigenous American people began regularly
inhabiting or visiting the area
around 11,000 BCE,
before it was even a swampland.
A second era of occupation began
much later.
In the early 1600′s, more
Indigenous people came seeking refuge
from colonization.
And later that century,
it seems that Maroons—
or people escaping from slavery—
began entering the area.
In fact, the team’s findings
support the theory
that the Great Dismal Swamp was home
to the largest Maroon settlement
in all of North America.
Because their success and survival
depended on staying hidden
from the outside world,
these Swamp communities were largely
self-sufficient.
Based on primary sources,
historians believe that people cultivated
grains and created homes, furniture,
musical instruments, and more
from the Swamp’s available resources.
These organic materials had probably
already decomposed
by the time archaeologists
came to investigate.
But researchers were able to find
more durable objects,
like ceramic and stone items that were
likely left by ancient Indigenous people
then reused and modified
by others later on.
Around the turn of the 19th century,
It seems the relationship
between the Swamp’s community
and the outside world changed.
Lumber and manufacturing companies began
encroaching on the Swamp’s interior.
They brought thousands of free and
enslaved workers to live in the Swamp
and made them harvest wood,
excavate canals, and drain fields.
Certain findings suggest that the Swamp’s
hidden communities
might have switched to a more
defensive mode during this period.
But researchers also observed more
mass-produced objects from this time,
indicating that trading was taking place.
Researchers think that the secret
Swamp communities dispersed
during or soon after
the American Civil War,
by the end of which slavery was abolished
in the United States.
Some people may have stayed in the
Swamp until they passed away
or left to settle elsewhere.
Most of what we know about these hidden
communities has come to light
after archeologists excavated sections
of a single island.
However, there may have been hundreds
of habitable islands
dotting the Swamp’s interior at the time.
Between 1600 and 1860, many people lived
in these hidden settlements.
Some probably lived their entire lives
within the Swamp
and never saw a white person
or experienced racial persecution
in broader American society.
Generations of Black Maroons
and Indigenous Americans
resisted slavery and colonization
by creating an independent society
in the heart of the Great Dismal Swamp.
They fostered a refuge in what might seem
like the unlikeliest of places—
but one that was more hospitable
than what lay outside.
Today, this area offers a partial record
of that secret, self-reliant world,
imagined and built for survival
and the preservation of freedom.