The enslavement system present during Slavery was very demoralizing and mentally taxing on the slaves, however, the Africans used a number of tools to resist as much as they could. The film Sankofa offers some insight into some of the tools used by the slaves to resist. The slaves ran away, plotted, and rebelled, and they honored their culture. The first and most simple way the slaves tried to resist was running away and trying to escape the plantation and the masters. However this was an extremely difficult task that came with many repercussions if unsuccessful. The slave escaping would have to get enough food and water to survive on their own outside of the plantation. Many times they would only have a general idea of where to go and they …show more content…
Throughout slavery there were many rebellion attempts, however when pit against the weapons of the slave owners it was an uphill battle. Many slaves were only able to use tools used for work and paired with the element of surprise in many rebellions, the slaves were able to kill their masters and some slaves were even able to escape, however the majority of the slave rebellions ended in the death or capture of the slaves. In Sankofa there was a slave rebellion. Before the rebellion took place, the slaves congregated and planned their attack. They had 10 machetes, 8 pitchforks, and 7 pickaxes. When taking a look at the weapons the slaves had to work with it’s not surprising the majority of the rebellions were unsuccessful, if a rebellion reached the point where they happened to kill all the masters the authorities would eventually arrive putting an end to the rebellion. Like escaping, rebellions also come with a grave cost. Slaves that participate in the rebellion could be maimed, tortured or even killed. During the aftermath of the rebellion present in Sankofa, we see that some of the fieldhands and some of the drummers were put in wooden cages and raised to the trees for the vultures to feed on them. Some of the slaves were up there for