resistance to slavery essay

resistance to slavery essay

Resistance to Slavery: The Fight for Freedom

1. Introduction

This essay is a product of the same shift, which has increasingly prioritized an understanding of the actions of slaves and their effects. At the same time, it recognizes that the nature of the “resistance” category is not fixed, and is willing to make connections with the wider literature on social history and discourse. Finally, the essay attempts to move beyond the description of resistance to more general and synthetic statements about the nature of the slave sociocultural system and the human response to it. Almost always, resistance questions reveal fundamental issues of power and consciousness (Scott 1985:29). In the case of slaves, compelled to inhabit a world not of their own making, they reveal much about how both were manifest in the warp and woof of the institution.

The experience of slavery remains a topic of extensive interest and analysis among historians and the general public. What was it like for those who suffered its oppression, and how did they respond? What were the consequences of their actions and reactions? To comprehend any of this, it is necessary to first understand the nature of the system that engendered the response. This essay offers a meditation on the idea of “slave resistance,” providing an overview of the various forms taken by slave actions and the impacts of the same. Over the past several decades, Mariza de Carvalho has noted, “an alteration of focus can be seen in the study of slave resistance, a shift from a concern with the effect of rebellion to a concern with the meaning of everyday forms of resistance in the slaves’ communities. Ever-greater attention is given to the historical agency of slaves, increasing the understanding of them as active historical subjects rather than as an oppressed and passive class” (de Carvalho 2002:1436).

2. Historical Background

During the early 16th century, as the wealth of Europe increased, the need for cheap labor and colonizing grew. This led to great advancements in human greed, such as the Atlantic slave trade. As the New World was exploited for every bit of wealth, life in England began to deteriorate, leading many English settlers to seek better lives in the North American colonies. Shortly afterwards, indentured servitude began to lose its popularity among Englishmen and the need for cheap labor increased once again. Plantation owners quickly made the switch from European indentured servants to African slaves, which would provide a more profitable and powerful labor source. By the close of the 17th century, the status of Africans in America had become associated with lifelong servitude. Slavery was embraced in the South because of economic demands, changing the focus of the colonies away from city life to a more rural society. Basically, it all started when the Dutch were trading and decided to exchange their African slaves for spirituous liquor and durable consumer goods in Jamaica. By this time, England had already controlled Jamaica, so they had to commiserate with Spain to find somewhere else where Britain and Guinea could make a trade. A board was put in place to regulate the trade and 31 years later, African slaves had established and made a name for themselves in Barbados.

3. Forms of Resistance

Some of the first African slaves brought to North America were able to escape their servitude and create a separate society. Those slaves integrated themselves with Native Americans and made indentured servant contracts to improve their lot. The first recorded instance of this was in 1640 in Northampton County, Virginia, where two servants, one black and one white, were granted freedom dues after serving their time and making a piece of land. In Maryland and Virginia in the 17th century, blacks and whites served side by side in the legislatures, the whites as servants or small planters and the blacks free or slave. One family that arrived in the Colonies as indentured servants bound themselves for a seven-year period and later bought a 300-acre Tidewater plantation. In 1641, Anthony Johnson, a black man in Virginia, was declared a “man and a Christian” and was given 50 acres of land after serving out his indenture. This was another example of how the slaves improved the lot of their condition but still fell short of freedom.

Harsh treatment and inhumane conditions often led African slaves who found themselves working on sugar plantations in the 18th century to rebel. They were treated inadequately through the lack of provisions and brutal treatment. This oppression led to about 20 revolts between 1700 and 1749. The slaves were accustomed to the condition of their servitude and did not revolt unless conditions were insufferable. On those plantations, slave mortality began to exceed the natural reproduction of the workers, ending the importation of African slaves on that particular plot of land. This was the case on the French Caribbean islands and British sugar islands between 1640 and 1680. This was unprofitable to the planter, and so the slaves were able to manipulate the situation by slowing their work and increasing their leisure time to make up for their stressful work in the fields. A similar event took place in the 1740s where Jamaican slaves succeeded in forcing the sugar planters to hire them out as wage laborers. Measures such as these were more successful in improving the lot of the working slave than in achieving freedom. Usually, they met opposition from masters and the rare cases of negotiation were reversed when it was feared that the higher standard of living would create a less controllable slave.

4. Leaders and Movements

Differing from plans of revolt, the movement inspired by Sojourner Truth was one of more peaceful strategy. Often referred to as the “Moses” of her people, she was one of the few women who participated in a political process dominated by men. Declaring that she had been called upon by God to deliver her people from a terrible bond, she urged President Lincoln to allow blacks to join the fight to end their enslavement. Around the same time, and inspired by her talk with the President, Truth led her “people” to desegregate a Broadway streetcar, in which a surprised conductor gave in to their demands. January 1, 1863, brought the Emancipation Proclamation and soldiers for the Union and freed slaves were now allowed to fight for their freedom. Impressed by the work of black soldiers at the assault on Fort Wagner, Truth decided to put it upon herself to recruit more soldiers by organizing a “regiment” of former slaves in Michigan.

One such leader who contributed to the fight for freedom was Denmark Vesey. A former slave like many others, Vesey bought his freedom with a winning lottery ticket. Though he found himself in a position of freedom, Vesey’s concern for others who still remained enslaved led to his interest in liberating all others still bound. With this idea in mind, he sought to obtain his goal by planning what could have been one of the most successful slave revolts in the history of America. In the year 1822, Vesey and his followers planned to rebel on July 14. Unfortunately for Vesey, two house slaves opted to warn their masters of the plan and on opening day, the plan had been foiled. Though Vesey was captured and killed shortly after the revolt’s failure, the plan itself was frightfully close to reaching its goal. Although it failed, it created an enormous panic among Southerners and strengthened the will of future slaves to push towards change. Measures to maintain slavery grew more severe and the conditions for slaves worsened. As a result, the incident led to an increase in the fight for freedom among slaves.

5. Legacy and Impact

Conferences like the one held in Ghana in 1994 on ‘Africa and the slave trade: an African manifesto’ emphasized that African underdevelopment was not due to any intellectual inferiority or lack of natural resources on the part of its peoples. Rather, it was due to the historical and contemporary relationships of inequality and subordination between Africa and the predominantly more powerful and wealthier trading nations.

The legacy of economic underdevelopment and social dislocation resulting from three centuries of the slave trade is reflected in the continent’s continuing marginalization. This has made most African countries dependent on outsiders for development, perpetuating a new form of servitude. It is only in recent years that the economic dimension of Africa’s loss has come to be understood.

The transatlantic slave trade shaped world history in a variety of ways. For Africa, it deprived the continent of many of its able-bodied men and women who were ripped from their families to labor as slaves in the Americas. This had a profound impact on Africa’s access to health and social services, education, political empowerment, and opportunities for wealth.