Harriet Beecher Stowe told the maroon people's story in her 1856 novel Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp.

Nearby whites often left maroons alone so long as they paid a quota in logs or shingles,[16] and businesses may have ignored the fugitive status of people who provided work in exchange for trade goods.

A militia force with dogs went into the swamp in 1823 in an attempt to remove the maroons and destroy their community, but most people escaped.

[14]The Chesapeake, the Nansemonds, the Recharians, and the Merrians are all Native American tribes that had connections to the swamp in the 17th century.

[14] Because leaving the area could lead to recapture, the inhabitants often used what was readily available in the swamp, even recycling tool remnants left by Native Americans.

According to Sayers, historical archaeologist at American University who has led research on the maroons of the swamp, it is possible that the acidity of the water disintegrated any bones which may have been left behind.

[11][15][23] Maroons are known to have often interacted with enslaved Africans and poor whites to obtain work, food, clothes, and money.

[10] In 1768, George Washington's brother, John, posted an advertisement that his man Tom had run away, likely to the swamp.

Some took jobs on the canal, and with increased contact with the outside world, some people living in the swamp eventually moved away.

[12][15] During the American Civil War, the United States Colored Troops entered the swamp to liberate the people there, many of whom then joined the Union Army.

The conditions in the swamp, whether that be the hot, humid weather, the deadly animals, or the bugs, made it a difficult place to live.

[25] Maroon communities succeeded in adapting to the ever changing environment and ecology of the Great Dismal Swamp.

When the American Civil War began, many people living in these communities left to fight for the Union.

[32] In 1856, Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, published her second anti-slavery novel, Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp.

The title character is a maroon of the Great Dismal Swamp who preaches against slavery and incites slaves to escape.

[11][16][33] In 2022, Amina Luqman-Dawson published a young adult novel called Freewater, set in the Great Dismal Swamp.

[35] The Great Dismal Swamp Landscape Study began in 2002 and was led by Dan Sayers, a historical archaeologist at American University's Department of Anthropology.

Fish and Wildlife Service (which manages the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge) and American University, initiated the annual research program titled the Great Dismal Swamp Archaeology Field School.

[11][15] In fall 2011, a permanent exhibit was opened by the National Park Service to commemorate those who lived in the swamp during pre-Civil War times.

As details unfold, we are increasingly able to show how people have the ability, as individuals and communities, to take control of their lives, even under oppressive conditions.