Slave Resistance and Rebellion - Underground Railroad: The

Slave Resistance and Rebellion
Before and during the Civil War, enslaved African-Americans resisted
their bondage in a variety of active and passive ways. Since the odds
against a successful mass rebellion were so overwhelming, most slaves
resisted through small acts of individual protest. The most common
form of resistance, which took place on a daily basis, involved staging
work slowdowns, “accidentally” breaking tools, and committing small
acts of sabotage. Other slaves ran away, usually short distances, in
order to temporarily withhold their labor as an act of protest and a form
of negotiation for better treatment.
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Some fugitive slaves attempted to make a permanent escape. By the
1830s, a network of sympathetic individuals had created the
“Underground Railroad,” in which abolitionist “conductors” like
Harriet Tubman ushered slaves down secret roads and into safe houses,
offering them a perilous escape route to northern free states.
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At least nine armed slave revolts took place in 18th and early 19th
century America, including the Stono Rebellion in 1739, Gabriel
Prossey’s conspiracy in 1800, Denmark Vesey’s plot in 1822 and Nat
Turner’s rebellion in 1831. Many other conspiracies were thwarted
before they could even begin. These insurrections were most common
in the few places where slaves outnumbered whites, but even so, the
rebels’ efforts usually had only limited success. The unfortunate result
of many slave rebellions was the mass execution of the attempted
runaways.
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Harriet Tubman on the Underground Railroad.
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Wood engraving by William Henry Shelton, illustrating Benjamin Phipps’s
capture of Nat Turner on October 30, 1831.
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John Brown, circa 1899.
1 Slave Resistance and Rebellion
Credits:
Ford, Lacy K. Deliver Us From Evil: The Slavery Question in the Old South. New York: Oxford
University Press US, 2009.
Franklin, John Hope and Loren Schweninger. Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation. New
York: Oxford University Press US, 2000.
Grade Level Content Expectations:
Grade 8
• U5.1.5: Describe the resistance of enslaved people (Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman and the
Underground Railroad, John Brown, Michigan’s role in the Underground Railroad) and
effects of their actions before and during the Civil War.
Questions:
1. What were the most common forms of slave resistance?
2. What was the purpose of the Underground Railroad?
3. Why were armed rebellions so infrequent?
Links to Internet Websites:
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1609-1865/essays/slaveresist.htm
Visual Resources
Voices of the Civil War Episode 4: “Resistance to Slavery”
Voices of the Civil War Episode 10: “Slave Rebellion and Conspiracy”
2 Slave Resistance and Rebellion
Courtesy of Paul and Carol Collins.
Born a slave in Maryland, Harriet Tubman risked her life at least twenty times to bring more
than 300 slaves to freedom between 1849 and the Civil War. In the war, she served as a nurse,
spy, soldier, and Union scout.
3 Slave Resistance and Rebellion
Bettman Archive, Pennsylvania State University.
In a bold action that deeply shocked Southern slaveholders, the slave Nat Turner led a rebellion
in Virginia on August 21, 1831 that resulted in 55 white deaths and at least 100 black deaths.
After his capture, he was convicted, sentenced to death, and hanged.
4 Slave Resistance and Rebellion
Hudson Library and Historical Society
John Brown was a white American abolitionist who led an unsuccessful raid on the federal
armory at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, in an attempt at inciting a large-scale slave rebellion. Brown
was captured, convicted of treason, and executed.
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