Caribbean History: From Colonialism to Independence
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Lecture 8: Resisting slavery
According to David Howard, ‘[p]erhaps one of the most enduring legacies of
colonialism is that of resistance’ (Howard, 2004 p. 148). This lecture considers
resistance to slavery and colonialism as an endemic feature of the Caribbean region,
ranging from everyday acts of cultural reproduction to episodic rebellions.
Lecture structure
1. Types, typologies and sources
2. The ‘spectrum’ of resistance:
i.
Slave revolts
ii.
Other forms of resistance
3. African cultural forms
4. Resistance and its others
Forms of resistance to slavery
Stanley Engerman, the American historian of slavery, has suggested that one way to
analyse the ‘spectrum’ of forms of enslaved resistance is to divide them up into one
of three types:
1. attempts to destroy and replace the slave plantation system;
2. attempts to reject the plantation-slavery system without necessarily destroying
it, and…
3. recognizing the impossibility or counterproductivity of either of the foregoing,
to attempt to disrupt, change and perhaps eventually destroy the systems
from within.
Below are listed 10 practices and forms of behaviour that might be considered types
of resistance to slavery. I want you to read the descriptions and decide into
which of Engerman’s three categories each fits.
a) Abortion and infanticide – throughout most of the history of slavery in the
Caribbean, death rates on the plantations were higher than birth rates, thus
requiring a constant importation of new slave labour. Nevertheless, the
slaveholders did try to encourage their enslaved women to have children (who
would then become their property). Unsurprisingly, some enslaved woman
did not want to bring children into such a world and they engaged in
‘gynaecological resistance’.
b) Burning crops – arson was one of the acts most greatly feared by planters,
perhaps only marginally less than outright rebellion. Sugarcane is highly
flammable and the whites had a great amount money invested in it, especially
just before a crop was harvested.
c) Feigned laziness and stupidity – in their diaries and letters, white slaveholders
often describe the craven obedience, childlike behaviour and stupidity of the
slaves around them. Some scholars have argued, however, that the slaves
were pretending to be stupid and lazy – acting just as the slaveholders
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Caribbean History: From Colonialism to Independence
d)
e)
f)
g)
h)
i)
j)
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expected they would – in order to try and reduce their work, by requiring the
whites to constantly explain tasks to them and so on.
Individual flight – known as petit marronage in the French Caribbean. Some
ran away in an attempt to escape slavery – perhaps by trying to pass
themselves off as part of the free coloured population – whilst others were
temporarily trying to re-join family members, visit lovers etc. Punishments for
absence were severe (such as flogging and, for persistent runaways,
mutilation) and many slaves were expected to carry passes if they were not
on a plantation.
Industrial sabotage – this included breaking mill machinery or plantation
equipment. The poisoning or harming of working animals would also fit into
this category.
Mass running away – known as grand marronage in the French Caribbean.
Some of the enslaved runaways were able to found ‘maroon’ communities
away from the plantations and the existence of these communities
encouraged others to join them. Maroons could be found across the
Caribbean, but especially in the larger islands where not all the land was
divided up into the plantations. The colonial regimes often tried to destroy
these maroon communities through military force, though some signed
treaties with them if they would promise to return further runaways.
Mockery – dissing, cussing and cursing the ‘buckras’ (the whites) behind their
backs could be a way in which slaves sought to undermine their authority.
Mockery is truly one of the ‘weapons of the weak’, as James Scott (1985) puts
it.
Poisoning – given the monopoly over the means of violence that the colonialplantation regimes had, it was almost suicidal for a slave to attack a white
person physically. For this reason, those slaves who wanted to avenge
themselves might try to poison them.
Rebellion – a general slave uprising was the white slaveholders’ ultimate
nightmare. Examples include those that occurred in Jamaica in 1760, 1773
and 1831-32, and of course, St. Domingue (later Haiti) in 1791. The fear of
rebellion hung over the Caribbean societies all the time, generating fear,
paranoia and distrust. To discourage revolts, the slaveholders relied on force.
Military and naval forces were posted throughout the region and bolstered by
militia forces drawn from the local free community. The purpose of these
forces was to guard against external attack (by another imperial power), but
also to guard against and dissuade slave rebellion. Apart from the rebellion in
the French colony of St. Domingue, which occurred in the disruptive wake of
the French Revolution, no slave revolt succeeded in the immediate term.
Nevertheless, those that occurred in the British Caribbean when the campaign
to abolish slavery was underway (Barbados, 1816; Demerara, 1823 and
Jamaica, 1831-32) served to hasten the end of the system.
Suicide – just as Olaudah Equiano described how several of the enslaved
Africans had tried to drown themselves during the Middle Passage from
Africa, so life on a Caribbean plantation – with the routine of violence, sexual
abuse and family break-up – became too much for some others.
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Caribbean History: From Colonialism to Independence
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A chronology of some major slave revolts and conspiracies
1519
1522
1639
1655
1663-1739
1674
1687
1691
1715-1763
1760
1763
1765
1768
1773
1791-1803
1796
1801
1816
1823
1831
1831
1844
1848
Africans revolt in Spanish Hispaniola
Revolt in Puerto Rico
First African revolt in British West Indies (Providence Island)
Revolt of 1,500 Africans in Jamaica
Nearly 76 years of insurrections by enslaved Jamaicans
Revolt in Barbados
Revolt in Antigua
First revolt in Haiti
Enslaved Africans revolt in Surinam
Major revolt in Jamaica led by ‘Tackey’
Major revolt of enslaved Africans in Surinam
Revolt by enslaved Africans in Honduras
Discovery of revolt plot on St. Kitts
Enslaved Jamaicans in major revolt
Some 500,000 enslaved Africans successfully revolt in Haiti
Enslaved Africans revolt in St. Lucia
Revolt of enslaved Africans in Guadeloupe
Major slave revolt in Barbados
Major slave revolt in Demerara (later part of British Guiana)
Revolt of enslaved Africans in Antigua
Major revolt in Jamaica led by Samuel Sharpe
Revolt of enslaved Africans in Cuba
Revolt of enslaved Africans in the Danish Virgin Islands
Abolitionism and slave rebellions
Freedom’s imminence in the early nineteenth century in the Caribbean inspired
enslaved blacks to resist slavery with an even greater intensity than they had before,
and their resistance, in turn, helped in no small way to pressure European
powerholders to bring the institution to an end.
Bonham C. Richardson, The Caribbean in the wider world (1992), p. 165.
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