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The Great Dismal Swamp
Historian and author Marcus Nevius shares insights on swamp survival, slavery, and petit marronage
University News | October 31, 2025
What if resistance didn’t look like running away, but rather, hiding in plain sight?
That provocative question was one posed by the work of Marcus P. Nevius, Ph.D., during his visit to Virginia Wesleyan University on October 30. Speaking before a packed audience at a Robert Nusbaum Center event, Nevius explored the remarkable stories of enslaved people who sought refuge in the nearby Great Dismal Swamp—a mysterious and treacherous wilderness just 23 miles from the VWU campus.
Nevius, who holds a joint appointment as associate professor of slavery and Atlantic world history at the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy and professor of history at the University of Missouri, is the author of “City of Refuge: Slavery and Petit Marronage in the Great Dismal Swamp, 1763–1856” (University of Georgia Press, 2020). His research delves into slavery and the revolutionary, confederation, and early republican periods of U.S. history—periods when resistance took many forms, both overt and hidden.
In his presentation, Nevius shed light on the concept of petit marronage, a lesser-known form of resistance in which enslaved individuals temporarily or permanently escaped bondage by retreating into difficult-to-access landscapes such as the Great Dismal Swamp. There, they created covert communities, built trade networks, and forged a fragile but meaningful freedom through barter and survival.
“Marronage was the most pervasive form of fugitive slave community formation, resistance, negotiation, and enslaver accommodation in the history of the Atlantic world,” Nevius explained.
He noted that “thousands of Indigenous Americans, Africans, and African Americans settled the swamp permanently—or at least for long durations—between 1607 and 1860.” For those who lived within its dense cypress stands and murky waters, the swamp became more than a refuge; it was a contested landscape that held both peril and promise.
Nevius acknowledged the foundational work of archaeologist Daniel Sayers of American University, whose research into the Great Dismal Swamp has transformed scholarly understanding of the region’s history. As a participant in Sayers’ field project in 2013, Nevius experienced firsthand the harsh realities of the swamp environment.
“You learn experientially about what it might have taken to actually live in this swamp,” Nevius said. “To me, Sayers’ work was fascinating because it revealed that the swamp wasn’t just a site of resource extraction or land disputes—it was a living, breathing landscape that sustained community and resistance.”
This experience and subsequent research inspired Nevius’s 2020 publication, which continues to illuminate an often-overlooked chapter of American history—one where freedom was fought for not only on battlefields and plantations, but in the shadowed depths of the Great Dismal Swamp.
The event reflected the mission of the Robert Nusbaum Center at Virginia Wesleyan University, which fosters open dialogue and education on issues of justice, equity, and human dignity. By engaging with stories like those of the Great Dismal Swamp, the Center invites the campus and broader community to reflect on the legacy of the land, the enduring struggles for freedom, and the resilience of the human spirit.
Learn more about the Robert Nusbaum Center at VWU.