The Resistance of Black Folk
Resistance to oppression, slavery, racism, and white supremacy has always been in the vocabulary and actions of oppressed people. Whether they are Black, Brown, Asian, or what have you, people that are oppressed will fight back. In the case of enslaved Black people, the beatings, hangings, torture, and other forms of cruelty was not enough to destroy the spirit of freedom. Enslaved people found ways to sabotage the master even under the worst conditions. Slaves generally viewed all whites as enemies and with good reason, as the mark of freedom in this country was being white and free. There were exceptions, as some whites refused to accept slavery and became abolitionists of joined churches that opposed slavery like some Methodist and Quaker congregations. However, on the plantation it was a white overlord and a driver (sometimes a poor white or Uncle Tom Black person) that represented the dictatorship of white supremacy. Enslaved people resisted in many different ways.
In the slave community there was a strong sense of unity and cooperation. This sense of community and resistance to oppression is still evident today in the struggle against police abuse and discrimination. Often house slaves betrayed their fellows in the cotton field and so caution was used when talking around them. However, some house slaves pretended to be obedient to the master and would often find ways to provide more food to field slaves or tip them off as to when the master was asleep or away, also letting them know about when an enslaved family might be broken up by being sold. When a Black overseer was forced to whip another enslaved person, when possible, he would lighten up the hits of the lash, or if the master was out of sight just crack the whip while the victim faked screams.
In the slave cabins these men and women were united in their resistance to the slave master and would often break tools on purpose or slow down as much as possible to sabotage the financial gain of the master. Slaves worked against the master as much as possible. They would ride the masters’ horses to the point of death, steal from the master, pretend to be stupid, and pretend sickness. Blacks who were strong in the belief that they were human beings were not broken by the lash. Frederick Douglass reported that one enslaved Black woman was not “subdued by the overseer, and to call him every vile name. He had bruised her flesh, but had left her invincible spirit undaunted.” Some slaves refuse to scream while being whipped and plotted to harm the plantation owner after whippings in one way or another. Sometimes the master would be killed in his sleep or poisoned.
Slaves used all sorts of methods to escape the plantation, including being mailed in boxes to other states, swimming across rivers, hiding in oxcarts filled with hay, inventing code language in songs to announce it was safe to run, stealing the master’s horse, and pretending an escape one night only to fool the master and escape the next night. Enslaved people often pretended to “love the master” only to plot his death or set fields on fire at the first opportunity. They would sometimes use water from the pump to fake tears when the master died. Enslaved Blacks took the leftover scraps of food that the master gave them and turned them into delicious foods. Even now, resistance is seen in articles like this as Governor Greg Abbott tries to sabotage the real history of America.
