Slaver In The Antebellum Area Essay, Research Paper

During the times of slavery, every day slaves did things to resist the bondage laid upon them by their masters, owners and drivers. All slaves had different relationships with their masters, owners and drivers basically ranging from bad to worst, with a rare exception. The slave s resistances ranged from things as miniscule as trying to outwit their masters to huge historical events such as Nat Turner s rebellion.

The slave experienced a strange relationship with his master. Many masters and slavery defenders believed that slaves accepted their subservient position in society. They truly believed that slave did not know better, and therefore, were content with their lives. They thought they had the slaves tricked. Although, with some rare, rare exceptions, this couldn t be further from the truth. The idea that a human just accepted the idea of bondage is absurd and hard to believe. The white man did not know the slave as well as he thought he did; and nearly all slaves felt some feelings of rebellion at one point in their life.

Throughout the age of slavery slaves consistently took rebellious actions to resist their bondage. They sometimes debated whether to out-wit their master by doing unsatisfactory work, or to fee satisfaction by working hard. Slaves often time acted stupider to their masters than they truly were, almost as an excuse to lessen the expectations that they were held to. The average slave did not want to work harder than they felt comfortable with. Slaves would often time destroy property carelessly, yet sometimes deliberately. Many also practiced feigning illnesses to get out of work. These are all smaller practices that lead to bigger, more message sending defiant actions such as running away and violent rebellion. There were several rebellions and planned rebellions, such as the Gabriel Conspiracy, Denmark Vesey and the Seminole War. But the most historical one is Nat Turner. Nat Turner was a slave who had basically seen enough of what was going on around him, and decided to do something about it. The rebellion was violent, with 55 slaves helping at its strongest point. Many whites were killed, even though the rebellion was ultimately suppressed. It is arguable that Turner s rebellion was the climax of slave resistance to bondage.

Although slaves were practically believed to be content with their position on the societal ladder, this could not be further from the truth. Nearly all slaves at one time felt the urge to rebel against their superiors. The small defiant actions taken by slaves, and eventually the large, organized, violent rebellions show clearly that there was a fairly universal resistance amongst the slaves in America.