Enslaved people began running away from their captors from the earliest instance in which they were brought to the Americas. The very first runaways in a new location were probably completely on their own in making an escape. If they survived, however, they often formed secret colonies in remote and difficult to reach locations, called Maroon Colonies, which sometimes took in other slaves that found their way to the hiding place.

Maroon colonies were a source of great anxiety to white slaveholders, who feared uprisings from "Maroon armies." Whether these colonies could be considered an early form of underground railroad activity is subject to intense debate.