Forms of resistance to slavery

Subdecks (1)

Cards (18)

  • Enslaved Africans, including those who were born in the Caribbean (creole) were unhappy being slaves and found many ways to fight their enslavement.
  • There were two broad methods of resisting slavery: active/violent/insurrectionary resistance and passive/non-violent/non-insurrectionary resistance.
  • Slaves resisted their enslavement for many reasons, including to regain the freedom they lost when they were captured in West Africa, to experience freedom if they were born on the plantations in the West Indies, to escape the harsh treatments they received, to use the topography of the countries in which they lived to their advantage, and to avoid being sold or punished by death.
  • In Jamaica, Guyana and Suriname, the mountains and forests allowed the slave to permanently run away from their plantations and obtain freedom, and those who permanently escaped were called maroons and in Suriname they were called Bush Negroes.
  • Many slaves became depressed after their experience on the Middle Passage.
  • Slaves became angry when their family members were sold or punished by death.
  • The emergence of leaders who could convince their fellow slaves to resist their enslavement was a significant factor in slave resistance.
  • Examples of these leaders include General Bussa (Barbados), Toussaint L’Ouverture (Haiti/ St Domingue), Sam Sharpe (Jamaica) and Quimina (Demerara).
  • Examples of non-insurrectionary resistance include suicide, buying freedom for themselves and/ or other family members, abortion, infanticide, pretending to be ill, not carrying out instructions and making careless mistakes, pretending not to understand the instructions given to them, damaging the tools and machines needed for the manufacture of sugar.
  • Examples of insurrectionary resistance include marronage, injuring or killing estate animals, poisoning the planters and other whites, setting fire to the plantation buildings and the cane fields, and revolts and rebellions.
  • The only revolution that led to independence was the Haitian Revolution (1791- 1804) which led to Haiti becoming independent from France and slaves gaining their freedom.
  • The important revolts in the British Caribbean were the 1816 Bussa Rebellion, the 1823 Demerara Revolt and the 1831-32 Sam Sharpe/ Baptists War/ Christmas Rebellion.