Forms of Resistance in SlaveryForms of Resistance in Slavery

1. Defining Resistance

2. Overt Forms of Resistance- Haitian Revolution- maroon communities- the underground railroad

3. Covert Forms of Resistance

4. Alternative Lifestyle

Defining ResistanceDefining Resistance

In the Americas, slave resistance was the sum of all the tools and strategies used

toopenly challenge and defy the system of slavery, as well as the more subtle responses of survival that characterized the daily lives of slaves and helped keep their spirits alive.

Factors in the Success of the Factors in the Success of the Haitian RevolutionHaitian Revolution

1. Size and make-up of slave population;2. Class tensions among whites (petits and grands blancs);3. Large and relatively wealthy free non-white group;4. French Revolution and questions of citizenship.

Some Major Slave RevoltsSome Major Slave Revolts

Saint-Domingue (Haiti) 1791-1804

Denmark Vessey, Charleston, South Carolina, 1822

Nat Turner, Virginia, August 1831

Sam Sharpe, Jamaica, Christmas 1831

Maroon CommunitiesMaroon Communities

Maroon communities were made up primarily of escaped slaves and wereorganized attempts to establish free, autonomous black communities socially and politically independent of plantation slave society.

Underground RailroadUnderground Railroad

The underground railroad was a loosely organized network of aid and assistance to fugitive slaves.

Between 1815-1860, approximately 80,000 slaves escaped via the UGR, and about 50,000 came to Canada.

Map of Underground RailroadMap of Underground Railroad

Harriet TubmanHarriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman, a slave who escaped slavery in 1849 and found refuge in Canada, made 19 trips back into the South to escort over 300 slaves to freedom.

Gradual Abolition of SlaveryGradual Abolition of Slavery

1793 Canada passes bill to prevent further importation of slaves; first British territory to enact anti-slavery legislation;1807 British abolish slave trade;1834 British colonies abolish slavery but introduce

period of Apprenticeship which lasts until 1838;1865 US government abolishes slavery in the US South;1886 Cubans abolish slavery after a six-year period of patronato; This ends slavery in the Caribbean;1888 Brazil is the final colony in the Americas to

abolish slavery.