Beyond Armed Revolts: Everyday Resistance and Enslaved Agency

The study of enslaved resistance has often focused on acts of armed rebellion as evidence of enslaved agency and violent opposition to slavery. However, resistance against colonial authority was not always collective or dramatic. For the majority of enslaved people in America and the Caribbean, it took the form of acts of everyday resistance, which undermined slavery from within. 

Labour Resistance 

As enslaved populations were relied upon for their labour to produce cash crops, labour became a key site of resistance. Truancy, working slowly, faking illness or the destruction of tools and property were the most common tactics. Expressing their frustration at their enslavers, while reducing their economic contributions, enabled enslaved populations to express their agency in their everyday encounters with the system of slavery on plantations. Women were particularly successful at this form of resistance, as they could use childbirth or their menstrual cycle to their advantage. 

Rumours and Insults 

Language was also used by enslaved people to express frustration with their enslavers. They sang songs designed to mock their enslavers, spread rumours of financial impropriety to damage their reputations and attacked their masculinity through claims they were poor husbands and fathers. In one instance, a man attacked his enslaver’s social standing by claiming he was not a ‘Buckra Gentleman’.Emotions of enslaved populations were tightly controlled in Atlantic slave societies and showing any form of anger towards the master class could lead to punishment. Expressing anger, mockery or frustration was therefore a meaningful act of resistance, as it prevented domination over all aspects of enslaved life. 

Cultural Survival 

One of the most important forms of everyday resistance was cultural preservation, as a challenge to the system of slavery which dominated and restricted the culture and identity of enslaved populations. Drumming became both a cultural symbol and a method of communication and was banned by early English slave codes. Clothing, accessories and hairstyles were used to resist the physical control imposed on the enslaved body, in an attempt to assert individuality and cultural practice. Festivals such as Congo Square in New Orleans and El Día de Reyes in Havana allowed enslaved populations to collectively share in their culture. The ring shout, a circular dance and chant, was perceived as a way to experience spiritual liberation, enabling temporary freedom from the domination of slavery. 

The Domestic Sphere 

The domestic sphere offered a unique opportunity for resistance, particularly for women, who were often working in close proximity to their enslavers in household contexts. Enslaved domestic workers attempted to poison or drug their masters to placate them and prevent violence, to induce illness or to murder them. In 1815, a fifteen-year-old enslaved girl named Minetta was accused of poisoning her master and was later sentenced and executed for the act. 

The everyday resistance undertaken by enslaved communities reveals a far more widespread struggle against slavery than conventional scholarship has acknowledged. By focusing on violent struggles against slavery, we risk obscuring the everyday experiences of enslaved populations during which they expressed their agency within a system of extreme violence and domination. Acts of economic, social or cultural resistance, through which enslaved populations inconvenienced their enslavers or resisted their domination, indicate the agency of enslaved populations and their refusal to surrender their humanity. 

Bibliography 

Craton, Michael, Testing the Chains: resistance to slavery in the British West Indies (University of Cornell Press, 2009) 

Gill, Gordon, ‘Enslavement, Emotions and Oppositional Insolence in the Slave Society of British Guiana’, Slavery and Abolition, 45 (2024), pp. 135-149. 

Buckridge, Steeve O., The Language of Dress: Resistance and Accommodation in Jamaica, 1760-1890 (Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 2004) 

Walker, Daniel E., No More, No More: Slavery and Cultural Resistance in Havana and New Orleans (University of Minnesota Press, 2004)