“the large number of runaways who are described as having what are likely African or African-inspired markings: holes in their ears and noses, scars on their faces and foreheads”

I have always read many of these descriptions as not having been self-inflicted. Well, maybe the ears & nose piercings were, but generally the scars, I always took as having been do to either accident or punishment — and I believe that Franklin & Schweninger discuss some of this in their book RUNAWAY SLAVES.

But now that you mentioned it, there are some tribes that to this day practice ritual scarification, so I guess anything is possible! I just had not ever seen the association made.