Objective: To examine the various methods of slave resistance.

Passive Resistance

• Passive resistance was the most common form of opposition to slavery.

Examples of passive resistance included:

- breaking of tools- faking illness- working slowly

Active Resistance

• Examples of active resistance include escape attempts and armed rebellion.

Escaping from Slavery

• Perhaps the most famous method of escape was through the Underground Railroad.

Underground Railroad – secret network of people who helped runaway slaves to reach freedom in the North or Canada

Escaping from Slavery

· Harriet Tubman, the most famous conductor of the Railroad, lead over 300 slaves to freedom.

Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad (3:07)

Live the life of a slave attempting to become free in these fantastic simulations.

Underground Railroad – Interactive

Mission-US.org

Harriet Tubman, far left, with slaves she helped rescue, during the American Civil War. Standing next to Tubman is her adopted daughter, Gertie Davis Watson.

Private Gordon was an escaped slave who volunteered to fight for the Union army during the Civil War.

Images taken from Harper’s Weekly,

July 4, 1863

Images taken from Harper’s Weekly,

July 4, 1863

Smithsonian Photography Initiative (Click the link

above to view the photo on which this image is

based.)

During his physical exam, army doctors discovered severe scars on his back from brutal and repeated whippings.

Images taken from Harper’s Weekly,

July 4, 1863

Private Gordon, proudly wearing the uniform of the Union army.

Armed Resistance

· In 1831, an African-American preacher named Nat Turner led a revolt in Virginia, killing 57 whites.

· Turner was caught and hanged. His revolt, however, increased Southerner’s fears of slave revolts.

Nat Turner's Rebellion (3:35)

Harriet Ann Jacobs, born into slavery in North Carolina in 1813, eventually escaped to the North. The excerpt below is taken from her narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, in which she describes the harassment of blacks in Edenton, North Carolina, following Nat Turner’s rebellion.

NOT far from this time Nat Turner's insurrection broke out; and the news threw our town into great commotion. By sunrise, people were pouring in from every quarter within twenty miles of the town...

…I knew the houses were to be searched; and I expected it would be done by country bullies and the poor whites…It was a grand opportunity for the low whites, who had no negroes of their own...They exulted in such a chance to exercise a little brief authority…Those who never witnessed such scenes can hardly believe what I know was inflicted at this time on innocent men, women, and children, against whom there was not the slightest ground for suspicion. Colored people and slaves who lived in remote parts of the town suffered in an especial manner. In some cases the searchers scattered powder and shot among their clothes, and then sent other parties to find them, and bring them forward as proof that they were plotting insurrection. Every where men, women, and children were whipped till the blood stood in puddles at their feet. Some received five hundred lashes; others were tied hands and feet, and tortured with a bucking paddle, which blisters the skin terribly. The dwellings of the colored people…were robbed of clothing and every thing else the marauders thought worth…

…carrying away. All day long these unfeeling wretches went round, like a troop of demons, terrifying and tormenting the helpless. At night, they formed themselves into patrol bands, and went wherever they chose among the colored people, acting out their brutal will. Many women hid themselves in woods and swamps, to keep out of their way. If any of the husbands or fathers told of these outrages, they were tied up to the public whipping post, and cruelly scourged for telling lies about white men…The next day, the town patrols were commissioned to search colored people that lived out of the city; and the most shocking outrages were committed with perfect impunity. Every day for a fortnight, if I looked out, I saw horsemen with some poor panting negro tied to their saddles, and compelled by the lash to keep up with their speed, till they arrived at the jail yard…The wrath of the slaveholders was somewhat appeased by the capture of Nat Turner. The imprisoned were released. The slaves were sent to their masters, and the free were permitted to return to their ravaged homes.

Harriet Ann Jacobs, 1894

Discussion QuestionsQ: What impact did Nat Turner’s Rebellion have on African-Americans in the South?A: Paranoia and fear of further slave uprisings led increasingly cruel persecution of African-Americans.

Q: What did Jacobs mean when she said that “low whites…exulted in such a chance to exercise a little brief authority…”?A: Poor white people, angry at their status in life, took pleasure in violently unleashing their anger and frustration on slaves, the only group with less power and prestige than themselves.

A: Jacobs describes how, “In some cases the searchers scattered powder and shot among their clothes, and then sent other parties to find them, and bring them forward as proof that they were plotting insurrection.”

Q: In what way were innocent slaves set up and accused of being a part of a slave revolt?

Harriet Ann Jacobs, 1894

Discussion Questions

Q: When did the violent persecution come to an end, allowing slaves to return to “life as normal”?

A: Things gradually went back to “normal” upon the capture of Nat Turner.

American Colonization Society (1817) – wanted to end slavery by setting up a colony in West Africa for freed slaves.

· In 1822, the nation of Liberia was formed and several thousand African-Americans settled there.

· Most African-Americans wanted to stay in the U.S., which was their homeland.

Chancy Brown, Sargent at Arms of the Liberian Senate, c. 1858

http://www.liberiapastandpresent.org/images/Coins/ACS1833d.jpg

Liberian flag

Liberian Coat of Arms

http://www.liberiapastandpresent.org/images/Banknotes/1862OneDollar.jpg