Slave Resistance

1. Slave Resistance Resistance to slavery was the only means to which African Americans could hold onto hope. The Hope that they could once again be reunited with their liberty, be equal to their masters and live a life free of injustice!

2. Introduction: • Slave resistance was an attempt to claim some measure of freedom against an institution that defined people fundamentally as property; this was achieved through violent and non-violent acts of rebellion • Resistance was the only means by which slaves could achieve their hopes of one day being free, being equal, and being reunited with their families • Giving an insight into the varying forms of slave resistance, we analysethe effectiveness of these forms of resistance, shedding light on how the white masters responded to these forms of resistance and the consequences which followed

3. Different Forms of Resistance There are many different forms of slave resistance, from large scale rebellions to every day methods of resistance. These include: • Runaways and the people who aided them • Slowing down production • Setting fire to buildings • Refusing to work • Pretending to be pregnant or terminating pregnancy • Attacking their owners or poisoning them • Committing suicide • Maintaining African culture and traditions

4. Just a few key rebellions • 1800: Gabriel Prosser’s rebellion • 1811: Louisiana revolt • 1816: Fort Blount revolt • 1831: Nat Turner’s revolt • 1831–1862: The Underground Railroad • 1839: The Amistad mutiny • 1841: Creole revolt Nat Turner

5. Nat Turner and the Southampton Rebellion • Born October 2, 1800,Nat Turner was born at the Turner plantation in Southampton Virginia • Possessed an above average intelligence with a keen interest in reading and religion • Turner based his rebellion on religious values, believing he was a prophet of the ‘Kingdom of God’, leading the battle against slave holders • August 22, 1831 saw Turner and a small group of his followers lead a revolt against slave owners • Riding from plantation to plantation, they killed slave masters and freed the slaves which they possessed • The rebellion resulted in the death of up to 60 white men women and children and the retaliation of the whites which subsequently resulted in the massacre of up to 200 African Americans • 56 people were tried and executed for their crimes including Turner who evaded capture for 2 months

6. Margaret Garner • Margaret Garner was a slave on a Kentucky plantation • In 1856 she escaped the plantation with her family, but was caught • Killed her 2 year old daughter, stabbed her other children and herself, but they survived • She was tried and convicted of destruction of property • While on the steamboat ‘Henry Lewis’ heading for a Gaines plantation, they collided with another steamboat; they were thrown overboard, her daughter drowned • In an interview with her husband, he said that she stopped trying to harm their children but said it would be ‘better for them to be put out of the world than live in a life of slavery’ • Toni Morrison wrote the book Belovedbased on Margaret Garner’s story

7. Harriet Ann Jacobs • Born February, 1813 on a Edenton plantation in North Carolina • Born into slavery, Jacobs escaped her captors in 1835 after years of sexual harassment from her masters • Following her escape, Jacobs took refuge in a compartment in her grandmothers attic • From a small gap between the wooden planks of the gable end of the house, Jacobs watched her children grow up without her • Jacobs only achieved freedom by escaping to the North in 1842 • In the North, Jacobs worked tirelessly to achieve the abolishment of slavery • She published her book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, first serialized in a newspaper and published as a book in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent to achieve support for slave liberty

8. Consequences of slave resistance • Those who ran away risked being caught and returned to their masters, where they were often whipped, raped, branded or mutilated • Even if they weren’t caught, they lived in constant fear of persecution • Masters got stricter as they feared an uprising • More bills were passed to further restrict slaves’ freedom • This included the revision of the South Carolina Slave Code to include punishment for people who provided refuge for runaways • White people often retaliated by the massacre of African Americans • Many slaves escaped to the north where they united with other free slaves • Many of them worked together to free other slaves and attempt to bring an end to slavery

9. Conclusion • Slaves went to extreme lengths to resist the oppressions of slavery • They went to great effort to achieve freedom; someeven resorted to murder to achieve this • Forms of slave resistance varied greatly from the refusal to work, the destruction of tools, barns and other buildings to mass rebellion • Slave resistance resulted in retaliation from the whites, often resulting in the massacre of innocent African American men, women and children • Slave resistance allowed for many African Americans to escape to the North, this chance of freedom allowed the free slaves to voice their views and show the true horrors of slavery through the slave narrative to a wider audience

10. Sources • Harriett Jacobs http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2923.html • Margaret Garner Incident (1856) http://www.blackpast.org/aah/margaret-garner-incident-1856 • Nat Turner and The Forgotten Women Who Resisted Slavery http://time.com/4521379/nat/turner/birth/nation/women/?xid=tcoshare • Slavery and the Making of America https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1eo66p_slavery-and-the-making-of-america-2005-part-1-of-4-the-downward-spiral_tech