Kenneth Stampp, Troublesome Property Essay, Research Paper

Kenneth Stammp writes of “A Troublesome Property”, that is bondsman in a peculiar institution. Stammp makes all the right assertions as to why the plantation owners and overseers were not wise to the tricks that slaves would use to get out of work, or to even escape.

Most slaves would use “ yes man” tactics in order to fool their masters into believing they were content in their current situation. “Most masters believed they understood their slaves, and most slaves apparently made no attempt to discourage this belief. Instead, they said things they thought their masters wanted to hear, and they conformed with the rituals that signified their subservience.” (Stammp, 266)

Also when northern visitors would ask a slave how he or she felt about being a slave, they would respond with something along the lines of, “No massa, me no want to be free, have good massa, take care of me when I sick, never ‘buse nigger; no, me no want to be free” (Stammp, 266). These ideals set forth by the slaves were not always looked at as something to be suspicious of; in fact most masters believed their slaves were content in the current situation.

For the plantation owners to think that a slave would have no concept of what it means to be free was a gross misconception, says Stammp. Stammp uses the example that simply the slaves were not blind, they could see the advantages of be a freeman. And with the knowledge that some slaves had been freed, this was all the assurance they needed to know they wanted to be free too. This case on the other hand was something whites were smart to. “ They ‘ continually have before their eyes, persons of the same color, many of whom they have known in slavery…freed from the control of masters, working where they please, going whither they please, and expending their own money how they please.’ So declared a group of Charleston whites who petitioned the legislature to expel all free persons of color from South Carolina.”(Stammp, 267)

Many slaves would cease any chance at loosening the chains on their feet. Many would try to get work in tobacco factories, or in the Tredegar Iron Company, explains Stammp. This was because they were under less restraint than if they were working inn the fields. Also these tasks would allow them to possibly earn money, which in turn would help them to becoming freemen.

Stammp also tells how most of the time slave would have to yield to the authority of their masters, this was mostly be cause it was simply practical. But few went throughout life without expressing some sort of discontent. This is where the term troublesome property comes in.

One way in which I think Stammp tries to show the unwillingness foe saves to conform to the labors assigned to them I by just simply playing dumb. “ Let a hundred men show him how to hie, or drive a wheelbarrow, he’ll still take the one by the bottom, and the other by the wheel.” (Stammp, 270) Also, slaves would only work when they were in sight of a master or an overseer. Stammp writes of how the work at one end of a line would stop as soon as the overseer would pass, then it would commence again when he reached the other end and turned back around.

Other ways in which slaves would fake their maters was, during cotton picking time they would take cotton from the gin, to be weighed at the end of the day with the fresh harvest. Also they would put dirt and rocks in their baskets so to not be accused of loafing, explains Stammp.

Illness was a common tool of the slave to not have to work. Female slaves would fake a pregnancy, and build up the extra rations that would be given to her. When she disappointed, she would receive a flogging, but all seemed worth it to her, says Stammp. Also, females would fake menstrual pains and the master would just have to take her word for and would dare not sent her out into the fields. Common afflictions included blindness, paralysis, and rheumatism.

The most widely practiced from of protest to bondage was t run away, explains Stammp. The numbers of runaway slaves was in the thousands every year, but since the masters would not advertise that runaways until weeks after the slaves had left, most would nit return, explains Stammp. The majority of the runaways were young slaves; most of them were under thirty. Regardless of their skill level, they would all attempt to run, field hands, and skilled craftsmen, who were close to the mater, would run also.

Theft was a common practice among slaves, “petty theft was an almost universal “vice” slaves would take anything that was not under lock and key” (Stammp, 274)

Hands would also kills livestock and steal corn. In their flight to freedom, many slaves would take money, clothes, and a mule or a horse for transportation. Thefts were not limited to the master of the slave, as far as slave were concerned, any white man was fair game, tells Stammp.

Another tactic to get out of work would be self-inflicted injuries; it was not uncommon for a slave to throw out his shoulder. One slave woman was known to be treated for “swilling of the arm”, but then it was discovered that she would periodically stick her arm into a beehive. A man known as Yellow Jacob would deliberately be kicked by a mule, and then keep bruising the wound in order to keep out of work. Finally, some slaves would resort to self mutilation, one slave was know to cut off his fingers, just so as not to be sold to the Deep South, tells Stammp.

Slaves would also kill white men as a form of retaliation. When whites would try to break up a group of runaways, this would cause a panic among the slaves who were totally unwilling to surrender. In this case and others like it, many men were killed, both white and black.

But Stammp confirms that no slave rebellion was ever an ultimate success. The slaves were always out numbered and out gunned. These simple ways of quiet rebellion were the only means slaves had to show their opposition.