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Essay On Resistance To Slavery

1618 Words7 Pages

Many tried to destroy them, but slaves stayed strong and found ways to escape their injustices. The first Africans to reach America landed in Jamestown, the first English settlement in North America. For 250 years, many Africans and African-Americans found ways to resist slavery, ranging from hindrances to violent outbreaks. Resistance to slavery came in many forms. On Southern plantations, some slaves executed small passive acts of resistance, while others ran away. Slaves also showed resistance in the form of religious practices in order to find comfort in the face of oppression. Violent rebellions were less common and mostly unsuccessful, but open defiance brought terror upon Southern whites. Slaves resisted the oppressive rule of their masters through aggressive acts like fighting overseers, revolts, and suicide, …show more content…

Living conditions for slaves were dreadful, with long work hours and low wages. Slave masters separated families and sold off children from their parents, or vice versa. Slaves were prone to severe punishment for even trivial offenses. Whippings and beatings were prevalent. Running away allowed them to get away from all the hostility, if only for a while. Often slaves gathered together, ran away as a group. “In North America, slaves often banded together and formed utopian-type communities like Wilberforce in Ontario and in the northern United States and other parts of Canada” (Slave Resistance). Running away was risky, but in the context of servitude for the rest of their lives and future generations’, many enslaved believed the consequences of doing nothing and remaining in slavery outweighed the risk. Slaves would group together to run away and established their own communities. In the Slave Narrative Collection of the Federal Writers ' Project of the WPA, Ida Blackshear Hutchinson. She relates the experiences of her father. “When the overseer untied

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