Through archival fragments, historic ephemera, and his own photographs, artist Raymond Thompson Jr. uncovers concealed histories of enslaved people, maroons, and runaways. It’s hard to stop rebels that time travel expands narratives of the Black experience and its enduring ties to the American landscape.
The project centers on New Bern, North Carolina—a city established in 1710 as a hub for the trade of enslaved people, and a region layered with pivotal moments in Black history. Many maroons—enslaved people who escaped but did not flee north—inhabited the swamps and wild spaces between plantations. In these liminal zones, they developed survival strategies that can be understood as “freedom practices.”
The book gathers these fragments of the 18th century and threads them into the present, linking maroon histories to contemporary landscapes and to the viewer’s own sense of place. Its slim, rectangular design recalls the format of a travel guide—echoing the tradition of the Green Book that once guided Black travelers through hostile terrain—inviting the reader to carry it as a field notebook, a companion for their own journey.
