Slave Resistance
Slave Resistance during the Civil War
ACTIVITIES:
1. Review each category. The class will participate in a class discussion after each category of resistance is individually or teacher read, utilizing new and past knowledge. Students will take notes on descriptions, attitudes, and consequences of each on the provided worksheet. Interpret and discuss the quotation found at the end of description of the categories.
2. Either in small groups of five or as a large group activity, five students will silently read the short description of an enslaved person and take notes on their personality, lie situation, and ultimate goals regarding the family and freedom. These family members will then participate in a family meeting. “Mother” will begin the family meeting. She will control the minutes of individual speaking and ensure that all members summarize their feelings and thoughts. The meeting will conclude with a consensus of action. Students complete a worksheet during the discussion and then participate in a final class discussion.
3. Read and analyze a letter concerning slavery
RESISTANCE TO SLAVERY
CULTURE: Slaves strove to hold on to their original cultures and integrate their own customs into the new communities they formed. The majority of the slaves were of African origin. This was evident in their language, religion, work patters and names they chose for their children. By maintain these cultural traits, slaves were holding on to a piece of their identity. They refused to let their masters strip them of their identities.
BEHAVIOR: Salves also used their behavior as a means of resistance. Malingering, insolence, carelessness, and dilatory behavior all artfully disguised patterns of slave discontent. Through such methods slaves could define the limits of their work, the hours they labored, and when and how they conducted their assigned duties. Perhaps the most prevalent form of resistance of slavery was theft. Slaves stole to keep alive and supplement the inadequate provisions supplied by masters.
COMMUNITY: Though slave owners constantly attempted to dehumanize slaves, they made every effort to build a community among themselves when possible. This was particularly true on plantations where multiple slaves worked. Blacks had few ways to defend the integrity of familial institutions, improve living conditions, or resist the cruelties of an arbitrary master. Yet, blacks were not passive beings who stoically accepted punishment and benevolence with equanimity. Instead, they sought to carve out larger areas of freedom in their lives, undermine slaveholders’ discipline, and develop a community life within the slave quarters.
REVOLT: While acts of aggression and revolts were rare due to the consequences slaves faced if caught, they still did occasionally occur.
RELIGION: Religion has always been a complicated area when discussing slavery. Throughout the history of slavery, it was first debated in the white community whether slaves should be baptized and allowed to practice Christianity at all. Later, Christianity was used by slave owners as an attempt to control salves as well as justify the institution of slavery itself. Regardless, many slaves used religion as a form of resistance by either holding on to remnant of their own religious traditions or taking it upon themselves to accept and practice Christianity as they pleased.
EDUCATION: Slaves took great measures to educate themselves, learning to read and write even when it became illegal. Missionaries (particularly Quakers and Presbyterians) made great efforts to provide religious instructions for blacks as well as teach them to read and write.
PURCHASE FREEDOM: Free labor provided possibilities for emancipation for some enslaved people. The most industrious and the most skilled of the enslaved could take greater advantage of these opportunities earning the money to buy themselves from their owners.
RUNNING AWAY: While escaping slavery was incredibly risky, many blacks determined their best chance for freedom was to run away.
Quotation by Jeffrey Crow, writer and historian
“Slaves brought to America were active, not passive, people who in the face of terrible circumstances struggled to maintain their dignity, their African heritage, and even their lives from the violent and brutalizing aspects of slavery. They were rationale men and women who from necessity had to weigh the impact of each and every action they made. The slightest misstep in racial etiquette and expected behavior could bring whipping or mutilation.”
ROLE PLAY: FAMILY MEETING
Mother- “To stay safest, we must stay put”
You were born into slavery in South Carolina. When your owner decided to start cultivating rice, he sent you to work on his new plantation in the Cape Fear region. You were only 10 and you tragically had to leave your family behind. While life as a slave has been hard, you are happy to have started your own family amidst all the hard work required by your master. You married 16 years ago and had three wonderful children with your husband. However, one year ago your husband was brutally beaten by the plantation owner – it happened in front of two of your children. He received so many lashes to his back that he developed an infection and died three days later. Since then, all three of your children have been getting more and more restless with life on the plantation. But, as bad as life as a slave may be, you feel blessed that you are all together. And if the master is capable of whipping your late husband that hard, you can only imagine what he would do if you tried to escape. Besides, there are other ways you can maintain a little bit of power – he might control what each of you does, but as you are always telling your children, he doesn’t control your mind or your spirit. One of your children has terrified you with talk of planning a slave revolt. Just last year, a Granville County slave who was charged with murder was burned at the stake. Other slaves who have attempted to revolt of harm their masts have suffered similar consequences. Your priority is to keep everyone as safe as possible and most importantly, alive. You feel the best way to do this is to stay put.
You have called a family meeting tonight to discuss what to do to resist your current status as enslaved persons. As the head of the family, you will lead the family meeting. When you begin the meeting, you’ll remind everyone that each family member (including yourself) will have up to 2 uninterrupted minutes to share thoughts regarding their life as a slave and ideas for resistance. After everyone has shared, your family will have 10 minutes to discuss and debate what to do (if anything) to resist slavery. As the head of the household it is your responsibility to ensure everyone contributes to the conversation (including myself) and that the conversations remains respectful.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Answer the following questions to help prepare for the family meeting:
1. What has your life been like as an enslaved person?
2. How do you feel regarding your current situation? What do you feel your family needs to do regarding your situation as slaves? Why do you feel this way?
3.Write out three arguments that will help convince the rest of the family to stay put.
ROLE PLAY: CHILD ONE
Child 1 – “Our best chance at a free life is to run away and never look back.”
You are 18 years old and have been a slave all your life. You have been growing more and more tired of the abuse you and fellow slaves receive from your owner. Whether it’s insults, beatings, or lack of food and clothing provided – you are sick of being treated less than human. Two years ago, you had to stand by and watch the plantation owner beat your father to death. When you yelled for it to stop, the plantation owner smashed the base of his rifle into your face, causing you to lose consciousness.
You feel it is time for you and your family to run away and escape this cruel situation. You’ve heard of a community of runaway slaves living in the Great Dismal Swamp. It sounds like the ideal hideout, with communities of Blacks who are cultivating small plots of land and farming for themselves rather than a master. A friend of the family told you about people who may be help, call the Underground Railroad. You know that your mother is afraid to leave, but you’ve seen firsthand – and felt firsthand- the cruelty your master is capable of. You believe that if you all don’t leave, eventually the master will do the same to each of you as he did to your father. You try and convince your mother, siblings, and Uncle that anything other than running away is a death sentence. Besides, living in chains is no way to live. One of your siblings keeps trying convince all of you that he’ll be able to buy your freedom soon enough, thus you should sit tight and wait for while longer. You feel this is ridiculous – it’s taken him years to earn enough money to even purchase himself. By the time he earns enough to purchase the whole family, some of you may be dead or sold off to another plantation. The plantation owner might not even agree to let any of you purchase freedom!
Your mother has called a family meeting tonight to discuss what to do to resist your current status as slaves. She will begin the meeting and allow each of you to have up to 2 uninterrupted minutes to share your thoughts regarding life as a slave and your ideas for resistance. After each of you has ordered your opinions, you will have 10 minutes to discuss and debate what to do (if anything) to resist slavery. You must make sure you contribute to the conversation and remain respectful even when you disagree.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Answer the following questions to help prepare for the family meeting:
1. What has your life been like as an enslaved person?
2. How do you feel regarding your current situation? What do you feel your family needs to do regarding your situation as slaves? Why do you feel this way?
3.Write out three arguments that will help convince the rest of the family to stay put.
ROLE PLAY: CHILD TWO
Child Two – “More important than freedom is justice through REVOLT”
You are 16 and have been a slave for your entire life. Each day of your life it feels like you grow angrier and angrier, and it’s almost to the point that you feel you might g. You are a human being and day after day and the people that you love are forced to do back-breaking work, cultivating rice while the white people watch. You were pegged as being disobedient when you were only a child, and even had your ears cropped when you were 13. When they took that piece of your ear, you vowed that one day you would get revenge. You try to get back at the master in small ways – stealing from him here and there, working a little bit slower to keep him from earning the profit. Then, two years ago, you watch silently as your father was beaten to death, simply because the amount of rice he’d cultivated that day was a pound short. When your brother tried to yell for the master to stop, he struck him in the face with his gun. You had to roll him over to stop from chocking on his own blood. You’ve never forgiven yourself for not doing something to help them both. Recently, you decided to do everything in your power to convince your family members and other 30 slaves on the plantation to revolt and fight your master. Even if you die in the process, slamming him to the ground one time would be worth your entire life. While your Uncle keeps talking of waiting on a war to start between the colonies and England, you aren’t interested in any more waiting. If your family won’t stand up for themselves, you are going to stand up for them.
Your mother has called a family meeting tonight to discuss what to do to resist your current status as slaves. She will begin the meeting and allow each of you to have up to 2 uninterrupted minutes to share your thoughts regarding life as a slave and your ideas for resistance. After each of you has shared your opinions, you will have 10 minutes to discuss and debate what to do (if anything) to resist slavery. You must make sure you contribute to the conversation and remain respectful even when you disagree.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Answer the following questions to help prepare for the family meeting:
1. What has your life been like as an enslaved person?
2. How do you feel regarding your current situation? What do you feel your family needs to do regarding your situation as slaves? Why do you feel this way?
3.Write out three arguments that will help convince the rest of the family to stay put.
ROLE PLAY: CHILD THREE
Child 3 – “Freedom comes at a cost I will be able to afford soon enough”
You are 21 and have been a slave all your entire life. As the oldest child in your family, your father taught you math from the time you were 10, wanting you to be as educated as possible. Because you are pretty good with numbers, your master sends you to go to the market to sell goods for him. When you are in the city, you are always dazzled by the free Blacks that you meet. You vowed that you and your loved ones would one day enjoy this type of freedom – you decided the best chance for this would be for you to purchase your own freedom and then purchase each of your family members’ freedom. For the past 5 years, you have been skimming money off the top of what you sell for your master. Your family also cultivates a small garden behind the slave quarters and you sell some of that produce for additional income. Two years ago, your 2 siblings watched as your father was beaten to death. Since then, you started trying to squirrel away money more aggressively. You’ve almost got enough money to purchase your own freedom; once you are free, you can more aggressively work to earn the money for purchasing each of your family members. While you feel sure you can convince your mother of this plan, you worry about your siblings. They have grown more and more angry and rebellious in the past two years and you are afraid they may do something irrational that will risk all your lives.
Your mother has called a family meeting tonight to discuss what to do to resist your current status as slaves. She will begin the meeting and allow each of you to have up to 2 uninterrupted minutes to share your thoughts regarding life as a slave and your ideas for resistance. After each of you has shared your opinions, you will have 10 minutes to discuss and debate what to do (if anything) to resist slavery. You must make sure you contribute to the conversation and remain respectful even when you disagree.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Answer the following questions to help prepare for the family meeting:
1. What has your life been like as an enslaved person?
2. How do you feel regarding your current situation? What do you feel your family needs to do regarding your situation as slaves? Why do you feel this way?
3.Write out three arguments that will help convince the rest of the family to stay put.
ROLE PLAY: UNCLE
Uncle – “War is upon us and we must take a side”
You are 32 years old and have been a slave all your life. You were taken away from your family 5 years ago to work on the rice plantation where you currently live. The good thing about the situation is that you discovered your older sister was also enslaved on the same plantation, so you have formed a tight bond with her and her children over the past years. You have watched your nephew grown into a fine young man and you understand the frustrations and restlessness that the children are feeling over their status as slaves. Being older than them, you have felt that some frustration for more years and you too want your freedom. You feel the best way to attain this freedom is to keep monitoring the situation between the states in the north and south. This year the states have grown angry over the right to own slaves and have your master and his friends discussing the possibility of a pending war. The master may be leaving soon to join the southern states. Wonder if this is the ideal time for you, your sister, and her children to escape? Perhaps the north would allow blacks to join them to fight for freedom of others. You could all fight against the very masters who enslaved you and get away from the plantation. Your sister called a family meeting tonight to discuss what to do to resist your current status as slaves. She will begin the meeting and allow each of you to have up to 2 uninterrupted minutes to share your thoughts regarding life as a slave and your ideas for resistance. After each of you has shared your opinions, you will have 10 minutes to discuss and debate what to do (if anything) to resist slavery. You must make sure you contribute to the conversation and remain respectful even when you disagree.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Answer the following questions to help prepare for the family meeting:
1. What has your life been like as an enslaved person?
2. How do you feel regarding your current situation? What do you feel your family needs to do regarding your situation as slaves? Why do you feel this way?
3.Write out three arguments that will help convince the rest of the family to stay put.
George Norwood Letter
This transcription was copied from the original document and is representative of all spelling, punctuation, and grammar as written by the creator. The original document is housed in the Pearce Civil War Collection, Pearce Collections Museum, Navarro College, Corsicana, Texas. https://www.PearceMuseum.com
State of Texas
Gonzales County, Know all men by these presents that I. George Norwood of the county and State aforesaid in consideration of the Natural love and affection I have for my daughter Olivia A.S. Acock and for and in consideration of the sum of one Dollar to me paid by the said Olivia at and before the signing and delivery hereof the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged. I have given granted sold and conveyed to the said Olivia and to the heirs of her Body forever the following property to wit. One Negroe girl married Adeline about Fourteen years of age, also a Negroe Boy named Jim about four years of age, to have and to hold the two Slaves Adeline and Jim as aforesaid together with their increase to the said Olivia A S Acock and the heirs of her body forever as hers and their own property.
In witness where of I have hereto set my hand and affixed my Scrawl by way of Seal, this 12th day of March AD 1850.
Witnesses George Norwood (seal)
Elizabeth T. Dilworth
Claiborn T. Leigh
George Norwood Letter