CHAPTER 4

RESISTANCE TO ENSLAVEMENT IN THE

AMAERICAS

Africans led résistance to enslavement in the Americas

in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. They used both
violent and non-violent ways to resist.
I. VIOLENT RESISTANCE

Violent actions : revolts against plantation owners ;

uprisings and revolts in Mexico, Peru and Equator.

In Latin and Cribbean : run away and bands

organization by enslaved Africans

The African fugitives were called « cimarrons » or «

maroons » which means wild or untamed ( from the
spanish word cimarron).
• The fugitves Africans formed communities or safe
heavens which had different names depending on
the countries :
• Quilombos and Palmares ( a famous community) in
Brazil ; Palenques in Peru.
• Most of the communities proteced their people and
execute raids on their former slave owners.

• In Jamaica, the Spanish fled the country upon the

arrival of the English colonists and left their slave
who established in the mountains to escape the new
conqueror. The fighting was very fierce.
• The attacked by the Africans was so challenging
that the English colonists signed peace agreement
with the Africans to stop the raids.

• From these revolts, emerged the following heros :

Zumbi ( in Brazil), Cudjoe (in Jamaica) and
Toussaint L’Ouverture who had great effect on the
United States.
 TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE

• He led a revolt on the Ispaniola Island in 1791. He

organized an uprising against the spanish rules part
of the Island known as Sante Dominique.
• He defeated the French and expelled them from the
Island.
• He set the foundation for the independence of
Haiti, which was finally won by Jean Jacques
Dessalines, one of his lieutenants.
• His martyrdom inspired other fighters for their
freedom.
• Toussaint L’Ouverture greatly impacted American
History :
• The Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte had been unable
to recapture Haiti because of expensive war in
Europe.
• The failed campaign to recapture Haiti together with
the ongoing war in Europe, probably led Napoleon’s
decision to sell the remainder of the French-owned
territory in North America to the United States.
• President Jefferson sent James Monroe and Robert
Livingston to negotiate with the French the
purchase the French area on the Mississipi river.

• This transaction was called the Louisiana Purchase,

and it doubled the size of the United States.

• L’Ouverture was finally defeated after a trick into

attending a meeting with one general to stop the
rebellion. It was just to get him out of his fortress ?
L’Ouverture was captured and sent to France,
where he died in prison.
 REBELLION AGAINST ENSLAVEMENT IN
THE ENGLISH COLONIES

• Early in 1663 both enslaved Africans and White

endentured servants planned rebellions : attacks
against slave owners, destruction of plantation
homes and warehouses, sizing of guns and
ammunition.
• Africans were accused of poisoning water supplies
and were executed in the early
 VIOLENT PROTESTS AGAINST
ENSLAVEMENT
• Violent protest took the form of revolts, uprisings.

• Plantation owners kept the news of attacks in

secrecy.

• These acts of rebellions influenced acts of resistance

in the US. As the slave trade continued and the fear
grew, Africans were not allowed to gather in groups.
The slaveholders and colonists outnumbered them.
• Some passive forms of resistance:
• -Gabriel Prosser planned a revolt in August 1800.

• He enrolled thousand other Africans in the

conspiracy, but a rainstorm disrupted the plans. The
storm destroyed the bridges that should provide
access to Richmond, Virginia. Before the gathering
to execute the plan, two enslaved house workers
betrayed the plan to their master. Prosser and 34
people were arrested and hanged.
• -Denmark Vesey planned a revolt in Charleston,
South Carolina.
• He bought his freedom in 1882 with the money he
won in a lotto. As a polyglot, he was an active
member of the African Methodist Episcopal church.
After reading and talking about freedom to his
compatriots, he planned an attacked against the
colonists.
• He, Gullah Jack and Peter Poyas started recruiting
enslaved African on plantations in Charleston. But
an enslaved house worker exposed the plan. Vesey
and five of his aids were captured and hanged.
• -Nat Turner began an insurrection with 6 men on
August 21, 1831, in Virginia.
• He killed his master and his family, and other 55
Whites on his way to Southampton County,
Virginia.
• While attempting to capture the county seat of
Jerusalem to get gun and ammunition he fought
against a group of angry European Americans for
six months, and was finally and hanged.
Captured.
• 100 people were killed in this rebellion led by
Nat Turner. Punishment for rebellion changed
from death to public whippings, jails, and chains.
• John Brown was one of the first European
American to die in the fight for helping enslaved
Africans to escape.
• On October 16, 1859, he led a group of 13 European
Americans and 5 Africans in a raid on a Federal
arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia.
• They attempted to capture weapons and give them
to enslaved Africans for rebellion. He was judged
and hanged.
• John Brown’s life is a testimony that demonstrated
that not all White agreed on the issue of slavery.
 THE AMISTAD REVOLT

• A rebellion occurred in 1839 on a ship called the

Amistad. A group of 48 Africans led by Pieh also
called Joseph Cinque killed all the crewmen of the
ship except two, Hosea Ruiz and Pedro Montes.
Pieh and 52 other were to be taken to Puerto
Principe, a part of Cuba.
• Pieh ordered the crewmen to sail back to Africa.
Unfortunately, the crewmen tricked them by sailing
to New York. The 39 Africans who had not died
from the revolt on board were arrested and taken to
New London, Connecticut.
• Finally, the Supreme Court allowed the African to
be freed after judgement.

• Indeed, abolitionists argued that it was illegal to

bring Africans into Cuba after 1820 and therefore
they were not guilty in the case.

• Abolitionists such as Lewis Tappan and Rev. Josua

Leavitt raised money to prepare the defense of the
Africans.
 II. NON-VIOLENT RESISTANCE
• NON-VIOLENT PROTESTS AN ABOLITIONISTS
MOVEMENT
• African Americans men and women undertook non-
violent actions to emancipate their brothers and sisters.
• The non-violent opposition took the form of anti-
slavery speeches, the use of newspapers to publicize the
cruelty and inhumanity of slavery and running away of
enslaved people.
• Free African men and women, and Europeans formed
abolitionists movements and initiated campaigns against
enslavement.
• They raised money to support the fight. They sponsored
speeches and lobbied in Congress against enslavement
practice.
Some important people of the abolitionist movement:
• Frederick Douglass (a remarkable speaker): born a
slave in Maryland, he was an autodidact who learnt
to read and write since the age of 12.
• After escaping enslavement, he became a great
orator against enslavement. E published the North
Star, an abolitionist newspaper, in Rochester, NY.
• He spread anti-slavery message throughout
England, Scotland and Ireland. Douglass remained
an essential force in the abolitionist movement up to
the end of enslavement.
• Sojourney Truth ( an outstanding female African
American orator):
• born a slave in Hurley, New York, became free in
1827 with the abolition of slavery in the State of
New York.
• Isabella Baumfree took the name of Sojourney
Truth for she felt to be sent on a journey to tell the
truth.

• Her speeches dealt with the rights of women and

African Americans.
 West Coast Abolitionists

• Mary Ellen Pleasant and Biddy Mason (two wealthy

women) organized female anti-slavery groups and initiated
protest for the abolition of slavery
• Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton advocated extending
rights for women.
• Newspapers for Liberation (other form of protest against
slavery)
• Samuel Cornich and John Russwurm started a newspaper
in New York called the Freedom Journal in 1827. This
publication recounted the experiences of Africans from their
own viewpoints and to advocate for the abolition of slavery.

• William Lloyd Garrison, an European American founded the

Liberator in Boston in 1831 devoted to the abolition of
slavery.
• Prince Hall: in 1777, Prince Hall, an African
American and others wrote petitions to
Massachussetts legislature to free enslaved African.

• He also petitioned the State to provide education

for African Americans in 1787.
• He established a school in his home for African
American children.
• THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM
• Enslaved Africans fought enslavement system by running
away from their owners.
• Native Americans assisted them and formed alliances with
them against their common oppressors, the European
Americans.
• Many African escaped and went to live with the Seminole
Indians in Florida.
• Harriet Tubman, also known as, the “Moses of her people” for
escaping enslavement, risk her life returning to the south to
bring others to freedom.

• She travelled by Underground Railway (not actually railway)

but a system of secret routes and safe houses. Both free
Africans and Whites helped runaway Africans to freedom.
• A Matter of Conscience
• For some European Americans the enslavement of
African was a problem of conscience for it was in
contradiction to Christianity and the Declaration of
independence.

• Thomas Jefferson’s declaration states that: “ all men

are created equal with certain unalienable rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit
of Happiness.”
• THE GREAT COMPROMISE
• An agreement known as the Three-Fiths
Compromise allowed southern plantation owners to
count Africans as the three-fifths of its population in
order to determine the number of votes in congress
as the South has many people than the north due to
the number of enslaved Africans.

• Indeed, the number of representatives from each

state depended on the number of people in the state.
• THE FREE AFRICAN SOCIETY
• Two preachers, Absalom Jones and Richard Allen (and
six others) founded the free African society.
• This organization served the African community. It was
a mutual aid society that provided assistance to jobless,
sick people and widowed.
• This organization empowered Africans and addressed
the economic, political, social and educational needs of
its members.
• Many other organizations including churches were
established to provide safe heaven for free Africans.
They became the centers for social and political
activities.
• Prince Hall established a school for African children in
Boston and Richard Allen started school in
Philadelphia.
• BLACK PIONEERS
• The Black Pioneers refers to African people who
were able to make great accomplishments despite
enslavement adversities and cruelties.
• Among the black pioneers were:
• -Paul Cuffee (1800S): a ship builder, owned one
ship and several small vessels in Massachussetts. He
was contacted in the operation of emigration of
African American to Africa (Sierra Leone).
• -James Forten, a sail maker who was the major sail
maker of tat period. (very wealthy).
• The Question of Emigration (back to Africa movement)

• Many free African felt that the only solution to their situation
was to emigrate or go back to Africa. Free African in
Massachussetts petitioned for help to emigrate to Africa.
1773.

• In 1787, Prince Hall and other 75 others filed a petition in

Boston. Paul Cuffee and 38 other free Africans emigrated to
Sierra Leone, West Africa.

• Some African emigrated to other places such as Haiti, Canada,

England.
•
The struggle for freedom took two forms: passive resistance or
violence.