1500 – 1800 (Persistence): While earlier scholarship often concluded that indigenous Caribbean populations were driven to extinction shortly after contact, r…

1500 – 1800 (Persistence): While earlier scholarship often concluded that indigenous Caribbean populations were driven to extinction shortly after contact, recent evidence highlights their survival in remote “Maroon” communities. Individuals escaping Spanish enslavement and disease fled to isolated areas, where they were later joined by Africans who had escaped slavery to form independent enclaves of resistance. Anthropologist Kofi Agorsah has referred to these Maroons as the original “freedom fighters,” noting that their stories are only now being recovered through archaeology. Additionally, the Kalinago have maintained continuous, independent settlements in Dominica and as the Garifuna in Central America.