In “Cimarron and Citizen,” historian Jane Landers examines free blacks and the communities they established in New Spain during the Colonial period. The article advances a number of compelling arguments, chief among them that free blacks, or maroons, managed to repel numerous Spanish assaults to destroy their communities, and retained both their freedom and communities. Furthermore, maroons achieved this by a number of various modes of resistance, including working within the Spanish system to establish the legality of their communities. Landers also notes that while many Spaniards contended the establishment of maroon communities, Spanish authorities also recognized the utility of such institutions. Maroon communities were posited as examples
