User:Luziyca/Sandbox
Total population | |
---|---|
7,180 | |
Regions with significant populations | |
File:ImaguaFlag.png Imagua and the Assimas | 6,532 |
Rizealand | 648 |
Languages | |
Estmerish, Etrurian, Western Imaguan Creole, and Eastern Imaguan Creole | |
Religion | |
Sotirianity |
The Evadees (Etrurian: Evade) are descendants of Bahian slaves who freed themselves from slavery in Imagua and established themselves in the Central Highlands of Imagua and the interiors of the smaller Assimas Islands.
Etymology
The term evadees is believed to come from the Gaullican term évadé, meaning "the escaped," which stems from the Gaullican term evader, or "to escape."
It was first used to refer to escaped slaves in 1682, when Parry Lambourne, ancestor of Harmon Lambourne records in a document to an insurance broker in TBD "we sent men to the mountains to try and recover some slaves who fled our plantation, but they evaded every single attempt in recapturing: after several weeks, we have only managed to recover two children from the evadés [sic]." However, escapee was a far more common term than evadee until the mid-eighteenth century, when Gaullica took control of Imagua from Estmere after the end of the Gilded Wars in 1721.
During Gaullican rule, with the introduction of Gaullican, the term évadé became a common way to refer to escaped slaves who lived in the Central Highlands, with the term sticking after the end of Gaullican rule in 1771. The modern spelling would become common around 1850, with most sources arguing that this is because of its similarity to escapees, deportees, and refugees.
Early history
Origins
From the start of Caldish colonisation, escaped slaves on the island of Imagua (at this time Native Imaguans) would flee to areas with low white settlement, with this trend continuing during Geatish rule of Imagua, with escaped slaves captured in present-day Eldmark fleeing into the Central Highlands. These escaped slaves would form the basis of the evadee community, with archaeological evidence suggesting that there were around 28 sites in the Nearon Valley associated with "indigenous evadees" between 1550 and 1650.
With the seizure of Imagua by Estmere in 1658, Estmerish settlers not only encroached on the evadee communities in the Glen Valley, but brought Bahian slaves as part of the triangle trade to work on sugar or nutmeg plantations. Due to their short life expectancy and brutal working conditions, many slaves on the island of Imagua would escape to the Central Highlands, where they would intermingle with the indigenous Asterians who fled decades earlier, and create a distinct evadee society.
Evadees were able to survive by subsistence farming and through raiding nearby plantations. Initially, early evadee governance bore stark similarities to the village system practiced in Bahia, with direct democracy being practiced by evadee communities, with a chieftain being in charge of an evadee community.
Formation of the Westward and Eastward Evadees
Beginning in the 1670s, slave uprisings became more prevalent on the island of Imagua, due to the arrival of members of the warrior caste to Imagua, under the belief that their fitness would make them more likely to survive the harsh conditions of sugar production.
The most notable uprising during this period was in 1681, when the Parlow estate faced an uprising of around 800 slaves, with most of the slaves fleeing to the Central Highlands, where they would establish a town in present-day Lethbridge. There, they coalesced around Chepiri Parlow, who established a Houregic polity around the town. Although Chepiri was killed in battle in 1683, and many of the slaves were recaptured when their settlement was captured, 300 were able to "evade their owners," and formed their own community in the Central Highlands. The Chepiri evadees would become dominant among many evadee communities, with Chepiri's successor, Queen Ruwa coalescing most of the evadee communities on the western slopes of the Glen Valley into what would become the Westward Evadees.
On the eastern slopes of the Glen Valley,
(TBC)