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Day-To-Day Resistance To Slave Rebellions In The United States

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Outnumbered by whites and facing federal, state, and local authorities dedicated to preserving slavery, slaves only rarely rebelled. Compared to Caribbean or Latin American slavery, where slaves were more numerous and more often imported directly from Africa, slave rebellions in the United States were smaller and less frequent. This does not mean that slaves simply submitted to their condition. Resistance to slavery took many forms, from individual acts of disobedience to the occasional uprising. The most common form of slave opposition was “day-to-day resistance” or “silent sabotage”: doing poor work, breaking tools, abusing animals, and simply disrupting plantation routine. Slaves faked illness or found other ways to avoid reporting to work. Many slaves stole food, but less frequent and more dangerous were assaults against whites, from arson and poisoning to armed attacks. Escape was a serious threat to slavery’s stability. Most slaves who ran away would leave the plantation for a day or two, simply to frustrate owners, but would return. The smaller number of fugitive slaves who attempted to permanently escape faced considerable obstacles to freedom. They …show more content…

The most famous case involved the slaves aboard the Amistad, a slave ship off the Cuban coast, in 1839. After they seized the ship, the slaves sailed the ship up the American coast until it was seized. While President Martin Van Buren wanted to return the slaves to Cuba, abolitionists helped the slaves sue for freedom, and in the Supreme Court, former president John Quincy Adams defended them. Adams argued that since the slaves had been brought from Africa in violation of international treaties banning the slave trade, they should be freed. The Court agreed, and most of the freed slaves emigrated back to Africa. While the Amistad case had no legal bearing on slaves in the United States, it may have inspired later revolts on slave

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