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Summary Of Slave Resistance In Natchez, Mississippi By James Boler

898 Words4 Pages

James Boler author of “Slave Resistance in Natchez, Mississippi (1719-1861)” the website: “Mississippi History Now” from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, “Slaves often rebelled against the cruelty of their white masters, cruelties such as branding, cutting off ears, whipping, and torture. The urges for freedom, and the desire to escape inhumane treatment, were the motives for slaves to rebel against their slaveholders. Signs of this resistance caused slave owners to fear insurrection, especially when slaves outnumbered whites.” …show more content…

Those identified to be involved with the Second Creek rebellion lived within 30 miles of the boarders of Jefferson and Adams County. Several slaves had been whipped severely and hanged they were identified as being from the Scott Plantations. Delaney and the slaves of Poplar Hill Plantation witnessed these atrocities, the whipping and hanging of men without legal representation, and then watched the results of what was the illegal trial and determination of guilt and punishment. Slaves had no rights in the local …show more content…

So, in the absence of speedy official governmental justice, there was the spontaneous generation of what was called a “Vigilance Committee” or “Examination Committee.” Committees formed to be the judge and jury to mete out the punishment to both black and white citizens that worked to incite, plan, or support any form of insurrection within the counties. Responding to the fears, a planter-dominated vigilance committee rounded up slaves in the Second Creek neighborhood, where talk of a conspiracy first surfaced. Committee members believed that the slaves schemed not just to “kill their masters,” but to “ravish,” “ride” and “take the ladies for wives.” Ten slaves were hanged on Jacob Surget’s Cherry Grove plantation on September 24, 1861. But this swift retribution did little to assuage the

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