Slave rebellion and resistance in the United States

Slave rebellions and resistance were means of opposing the system of chattel slavery in the United States. There were many ways that most slaves would either openly rebel or quietly resist due to the oppressive systems of slavery.^[2] According to Herbert Aptheker, "there were few phases of ante-bellum Southern life and history that were not in some way influenced by the fear of, or the actual outbreak of, militant concerted slave action."^[3] Slave rebellions in the United States were small and diffuse compared with those in other slave economies in part due to "the conditions that tipped the balance of power against southern slaves—their numerical disadvantage, their creole composition, their dispersal in relatively small units among resident whites—were precisely the same conditions that limited their communal potential."^[4]^: 597 As such, "Confrontation in the Old South characteristically took the form of an individual slave's open resistance to plantation authorities,"^[4]^: 599or other individual or small-group actions, such as slaves opportunistically killing slave traders in hopes of avoiding forced migration away from friends and family.^[5]^[6]

List of slave rebellions in the Colonial Americas

Those from 1607, which marked the founding of the first settlement ^[7] to 1776 the beginning of the United States include:

Gloucester County Conspiracy (1663) ^[8]
Bacon's Rebellion (1676) ^[9]
New York Slave Revolt of 1712 ^[10]
Chesapeake rebellion (1730) ^[11]
Stono Rebellion (1739) ^[12]^[13]
New York Conspiracy of 1741 ^[14]
Pointe Coupée Conspiracy (1791)
Pointe Coupée Conspiracy (1795)

List of slave rebellions in the United States

Historians in the 20th century identified 250 to 311 slave uprisings in U.S. and colonial history.^[15] Those after 1776 include:

Gabriel's conspiracy (1800)
Igbo Landing slave escape and mass suicide (1803)
Chatham Manor Rebellion (1805)
1811 German Coast uprising, (1811)^[16]
George Boxley Rebellion (1815)
Denmark Vesey's conspiracy (1822)
Nat Turner's Rebellion (1831)
Black Seminole Slave Rebellion (1835–1838)^[17]
Amistad seizure (1839)^[18]
1842 Slave Revolt in the Cherokee Nation^[19]
Charleston Workhouse Slave Rebellion (1849)
Second Creek Slave Conspiracy (1860)^[20]

List of slave-ship mutinies in the United States

There are four known mutinies on vessels involved in the coastwise slave trade: Decatur (1826), Governor Strong (1826), Lafayette (1829) from Norfolk to New Orleans,^[21] and the Creole (1841).^[22]

List of slave traders killed by their prisoners

Speers, Georgia–Virginia, 1799^[23]^: 15
Ohio River slave revolt – Edward Stone, Howard Stone, David Cobb, James Gray, and Davis, "killed midstream on the Ohio River" (1826)^[24]^[25]^: 12^[26]
Jesse and John Kirby (1834)
Thomas P. Trotter and Richard Bolton^[27]
Greenup, Kentucky coffle revolt (1829)^[28]^[29]^[30]
A. J. Orr (1855)^[31]

Women and resistance

Gender played an imperative role in the treatment of slaves ranging from selling, harassment and expectations. Women showed resistance in different, but significant ways compared to men due to different expectations.^[32] For example, there were less women who would runaway due to the responsibilities as mothers and primary caretakers of their home.^[33]

Escape

The most common forms of resistance was self-emancipation—escaping an enslaver's control either temporarily or permanently.^[4]^: 600 The legal condition of fugitive slaves in the United States was a major hot-button political issue in antebellum America. In the years immediately prior to the American Civil War, collective escape actions called stampedes became increasingly common.^[35]

Non-violent resistance

Resistance took many forms; as one historian, George P. Rawick, wrote, "While from sunup to sundown the American slave worked for another and was harshly exploited, from sundown to sunup he lived for himself and created the behavioral and institutional basis which prevented him from becoming the absolute victim."^[4]^: 579

One of these means of resistance was creating ways for the production of plantations to either slow down or stop. This could mean intentionally working slower, faking sickness or feigning confusion of a task. There may have been many purposeful accidents that would break equipment or stop and set back production.^[32]

Resistance could also be an empowerment of that slave. An enslaved person would secretly learn to how to read and write, communicate important information through songs and pray. Some committed suicide or fought back when beaten.^[36]^[37]

Resistance many times was an act of survival. Some would steal food to feed their families.^[37] Others may run away for a short time to prevent the selling of children.

There is evidence that some enslaved people in the United States "added back doors to their dwellings that provided access to an open space shielded by the dwellings on all sides."^[38]

Arson was known—gin houses filled with cotton were "highly flammable...Protests such as arson, machine-breaking, and negligence expressed a working-class conservatism in the face of radical economic changes that devalued the slaves' work and fostered their dependency upon the very means of production that they resisted."^[39]

Petit Marronage

Some slaves would escape only to come back a short time later to take a break from their labor and disrupt the means of production of the plantations, this practice is known as petit marronage.^[40] During petit marronage, people could escape their oppressive overseers for a time. This allowed them opportunity to do many things which could include connecting with others, escaping incoming sale or mistreatment and organizing for a rebellion.^[41]

Great Dismal Swamp

The Great Dismal Swamp located in Virginia and North Carolina, was one prominent place where these slaves would go for this marronage, along with other long-term refugees.^[42] The location was strategic as the swamp was dense and could hide its refugees from the plantation owners, militia, and dogs. In the swamp, fugitives could take refuge and would make self-sustained communities. They would fish, farm, art and even trade in the rough swamp environment.^[43]

There would be trade for things like shingles, pork and corn. Some would directly sell timber to outside companies. By controlling the quality of the shingles and with competition from other multiple companies who wanted to buy their shingles, these traders had negotiating power. This created more financial freedom for the refugees.^[4]

The swamp became a particularly more enticing in times of great upheaval like the American Revolution, reflected by the increase in refugees.^[4]

Today the swamp is seen as a place of resistance,^[44] where enslaved people could share in their cultural, agricultural and artisan knowledge, make their own economy and have their own freedom.^[4]

References

^ Jones, Kelly Houston (2012). ""A Rough, Saucy Set of Hands to Manage": Slave Resistance in Arkansas". The Arkansas Historical Quarterly. 71 (1): 1–21. ISSN 0004-1823. JSTOR 23187813.
^ Palmer, Colin A. (1998). Passageways: an interpretive history of Black America. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers. ISBN 978-0-15-502482-3.
^ Aptheker, Herbert (1993), American Negro Slave Revolts (50th Anniversary ed.), New York: International Publishers, p. 368, ISBN 978-0717806058
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Kolchin, Peter (December 1983). "Reevaluating the Antebellum Slave Community: A Comparative Perspective". The Journal of American History. 70 (3): 579–601. doi:10.2307/1903484. JSTOR 1903484.
^ "Awful Tragedy". The Louisville Daily Courier. 1848-02-21. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-01-22.
^ Bouton, Christopher H. (2016). Against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth: physical confrontations between slaves and whites in antebellum Virginia, 1801–1860 (Thesis). University of Delaware. ProQuest 10156550. pages viii, 62–64
^ "History of Jamestown". apva.org. Archived from the original on March 23, 2009.
^ Wolfe, B. “Gloucester County Conspiracy (1663)”. (2013, January 29). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/ Gloucester_County_Conspiracy_1663.
^ "Africans in America/Part 1/Bacon's Rebellion". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
^ "MAAP – Place Detail: Slave Revolt of 1712". maap.columbia.edu/. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
^ Parent, Anthony S. (2003). Foul means: the formation of a slave society in Virginia, 1660-1740. Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture. Chapel Hill: Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, by the University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-2813-7.
^ Sutherland, Claudia (19 September 2018). "STONO REBELLION (1739)". blackpast.org. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
^ Elliot, Mary; Hughes, Jazmine (August 19, 2019). "A Brief History of Slavery That You Didn't Learn in School". New York Times. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
^ Szasz, Ferenc M. (July 1967). "The New York Slave Revolt Of 1741: A Re-Examination". New York History. 48 (3): 215–230 – via JSTOR.
^ Gates, Henry Louis (January 12, 2013). "The Five Greatest Slave Rebellions in the United States | African American History Blog | The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross". The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross. WTTW. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
^ Rasmussen, Daniel (2011). American Uprising: The Untold Story of America's Largest Slave Revolt. HarperCollins. p. 288. ISBN 978-0061995217.
^ J.B. Bird. "The slave rebellion the country tried to forget". John Horse. Retrieved October 4, 2013.
^ "Unidentified Young Man". World Digital Library. 1839–1840. Retrieved July 28, 2013.
^ "Slave Revolt of 1842 | The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture". www.okhistory.org.
^ "Tumult And Silence At Second Creek". LSU Press. Retrieved 2024-07-14.
^ Genius of Universal Emancipation 1830-01-01: Vol 4 Iss 17. Internet Archive. Open Court Publishing Co. 1830-01-01.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^ Williams, Jennie K. (2020-04-02). "Trouble the water: The Baltimore to New Orleans coastwise slave trade, 1820–1860". Slavery & Abolition. 41 (2): 275–303. doi:10.1080/0144039X.2019.1660509. ISSN 0144-039X. S2CID 203494471.
^ Tadman, Michael (1996). Speculators and slaves: masters, traders, and slaves in the Old South. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-11854-9.
^ "1826 Enslaved Revolt on Ohio River · Notable Kentucky African Americans Database". nkaa.uky.edu. Retrieved 2024-06-30.
^ Westmoreland, Carl B. (2015). "The John W. Anderson Slave Pen". Freedom Center Journal (1). University of Cincinnati College of Law. ISSN 1942-5856. Volume 2015, Issue 1, Article 3.
^ "Edward Stone, killed 1826". freepages.rootsweb.com. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
^ Granade, Ray (1976) "Slave Unrest in Florida," Florida Historical Quarterly: Vol. 55: No. 1, Article 4. page 16 https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol55/iss1/4
^ Headsman (2015-11-20). "1829: The slaves of the Greenup revolt | Executed Today". Retrieved 2024-07-06.
^ "Affray and murder". Cherokee Phoenix, and Indians' Advocate. 1829-09-23. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-07-06.
^ Genius of Universal Emancipation 1829-10-09: Vol 4 Iss 5. Internet Archive. Open Court Publishing Co. 1829-10-09.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^ "Brutal Murder". The Liberator. 1855-10-19. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-07-22.
^ ^a ^b "Day-to-Day Resistance · Hidden Voices: Enslaved Women in the Lowcountry and U.S. South · Lowcountry Digital History Initiative". ldhi.library.cofc.edu. Retrieved 2024-05-11.
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^ Larson, Kate Clifford (2004). Bound for the promised land: Harriet Tubman, portrait of an American hero. New York, NY: Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0-345-45627-4.
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^ Douglass, Frederick; Wright, John S. (2003). My bondage and my freedom. Archie Givens, Sr. Collection (1st Washington Square Press trade pbk. ed.). New York: Washington Square Press. ISBN 978-0-7434-6059-0.
^ ^a ^b "Slave Resistance, Enslavement, African American Identity: Vol. I, 1500-1865, Primary Resources in U.S. History and Literature, Toolbox Library, National Humanities Center". nationalhumanitiescenter.org. Retrieved 2024-05-11.
^ Singleton, Theresa A. (1995). "The Archaeology of Slavery in North America". Annual Review of Anthropology. 24: 119–140. doi:10.1146/annurev.an.24.100195.001003. ISSN 0084-6570. JSTOR 2155932.
^ Slavery and Frontier Mississippi, 1720-1835 by David J. Libby (2004), University Press of Mississippi, loc 1269
^ "Maroons and Marronage". obo. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
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^ "The Great Dismal Swamp". 99% Invisible. 2017-08-15. Retrieved 2024-05-11.
^ Magazine, Smithsonian; Shelley, Richard Grant,Allison. "Deep in the Swamps, Archaeologists Are Finding How Fugitive Slaves Kept Their Freedom". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2024-05-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ "People escaping enslavement found refuge in the Great Dismal Swamp. A congressman wants to revive its forgotten history. | The Wilderness Society". www.wilderness.org. Retrieved 2024-05-11.