Sorry for the broad question, my ignorance is limiting my ability to formulate a concise, pointed question. I know a little about the Black Seminole, but I know there were multiple incidences of independent settlements of escaped slaves forming throughout the Americas.
I'm interested in how maroon communities were organized. Were all escaped slaves welcome? How did their culture evolve over time? Did they ally with neighboring Native American populations or did they need to fight to carve out territory? Did European colonists know maroon communities existed? Were there efforts to raid and re-enslave members of maroon communities? After the abolition of the slave trade did maroon communities come out of hiding?
Any recommended reading would also be appreciated. Thanks.
Maroon communities differed from place to place. I will speak about the maroons of colonial Cartagena because that is what I know most about. Maroon settlements, called palenques, were usually organized around some form of military structure since their very existence was tentative. For example, a maroon settlement's units were sometimes divided by African ethnic groups with each having their own commander. These commanders would elect one leader or chief to run the palenque.
Escaped slaves were usually welcomed. These places needed as many people as they could get to defend and perpetuate the settlement. In the case of Cartagena's maroons, the slaves did not incorporate or compete with the native Amerindian population because the Amerindians had died off by the time the palenques were established.
As I mentioned earlier, the palenques were under constant threat. Multiple times the Spanish government attempted to destroy the palenques and re-enslave the maroons. The maroons were both a symbolic threat as slaves resisting authority and a physical threat due to their propensity to steal livestock, other provisions, and kidnap female slaves. The Spanish launched multiple expeditions against the palenques. Even when they were able to destroy a settlement, the slaves would regroup and found a new settlement elsewhere.
The Spanish began to question if defeating the maroons was worth the effort. Instead of fighting the Spanish decided to negotiate with the maroons. By the end of the 17th Century the Spanish decided to reduce or formally incorporate these slave communities. In exchange for their freedom, slaves in the palenques agreed to return African born slaves and recently escaped slaves to their masters, swear allegiance to the King of Spain, agree to defend the colony from foreign invasion, and have a priest live with them and monitor their spiritual well being.
Today, the decedents of these maroons still have their own distinct culture. For example the settlement of San Basilio de Palenque has a strong tradition of African storytelling, music, and dance. The people of the area still speak Palenquero, a creole language that fuses African tongues with Spanish and Portuguese.
I would recommend the following if you would like to learn more about maroonage:
Block, Kristen. Ordinary Lives in the Early Caribbean: Religion, Colonial Competition, and the Politics of Profit. Athens : University of Georgia Press, 2012.
Landers, Jane. “The African Landscape of 17th Century Cartagena and its Hinterlands.” In The Black Urban Atlantic in the Age of the Slave Trade, edited by Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, Matt D. Childs and James Sidbury, 147-162. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013.
-- “Transforming Bondsmen into Vassals: Arming Slaves in Colonial Spanish America.” In Arming Slaves, From Classical Times to the Modern Age, edited by Christopher Leslie Brown and Philip D. Morgan, 120-145. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Olsen, Margaret M. “‘Negros Horros’ and ‘Cimarrones’ on the Legal Frontiers of the Caribbean: Accessing the African Voice in Colonial Spanish American Texts.” Research in African Literatures 29, No. 4 (Winter 1998): 52-72.
-- Slavery and Salvation in Colonial Cartagena de Indias. Gainsville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2004.
P.S. I know a little bit about Jamaican maroonage if you are interested.