ENDNOTES Sabotage, Suicide, and Flight: Slave Resistance and Resiliency in the Atlantic World
The reality of slavery in the Atlantic world is dominated by a depiction of slaves as submissive, compliant, and replaceable beings. Contrarily, slave resistance narratives provide a more accurate portrayal of how slaves responded to slavery. Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Moses Roper, to name a few remind contemporary individuals that slaves did not passively accept their horrifying circumstances. Rather than becoming a victim to the institution of slavery, many slaves resisted their enslavement and restored their dignity. Thus, slave resistance frequently stemmed from the desire to re-establish one’s personhood rather than to seek revenge. Viewing slavery through this lens recognizes slavery itself as the sole cause for resistance. Acknowledging slave rebellion, suicide, and flight as a direct response to slavery replaces the portrayal of slaves as a commodity with an image of strength and resiliency. Slave narratives reveal that slaves resisted for no other reason than to escape captivity. The conditions for slaves were horrific. James Adams captures the appalling reality of slavery: “I look upon slavery as the most disgusting system a man can live under… Men who have never seen or felt slavery cannot realize it for the thing it is.”1 Similarly, Frederick Douglass writes, “We were worked in all weathers… I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died.”2 William Johnson, who lost two toes during his escape from bondage, reports, “My feet were frostbitten on my way North, but I would rather have died on the way than to go back.”3 Moreover, James Seward claims, “Where I came from, it would make your flesh creep, and your hair stand on end, to know what they do to the slaves.”4
“Punishment of the four stakes” by Marcel Verdier (1843), Wikimedia Commons.
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