Resistance to slavery arose right from the moment of arrival in the Americas, with individual and collective attempts to escape to the coasts.
On the plantations, slavery conditions were opposed with individual acts of resistance such as committing suicide, renouncing food, disobeying masters and overseers, sabotaging goods or work tools, pretending to be sick, stealing food or other consumer goods.

ESCAPES AND MAROONS

Individual or collective escape was for centuries the main strategy to get away from slavery. The term maroon refers to people who escaped from American plantations and established independent communities on the fringes of slave societies.

For more than four centuries, these communities dotted the entire American continent, from Brazil (where they were called quilombos) to the Spanish colonies in South America, from the Caribbean to the south of the present-day United States. Their existence could last a few weeks or many decades, forming independent communities with their own institutions and armies, usually led by a king.

 

Palmares

Palmares fu una famosa comunità maroon nel nordest del Brasile. Sopravvisse per un intero secolo finché fu riconquistata dai portoghesi nel 1694/95. Consisteva in una federazione di villaggi, alcuni dei quali di molte migliaia di residenti, abitati soprattutto da africani originari dell’Angola, ai quali si unirono nativi, bianchi poveri e disertori portoghesi. Palmares riuscì a resistere a lungo agli assalti di portoghesi e olandesi grazie alla sua complessa organizzazione sociale, politica e militare, sotto la guida prima di Ganga Zumba e poi del leggendario Zumbi che venne infine catturato, decapitato e la sua testa esposta a Rio de Janeiro.
Il 20 novembre 2010 Zumbi è stato dichiarato eroe nazionale dal governo brasiliano e in quella data istituita la Giornata della Coscienza Nera.

 

 

THE BLUE MOUNTAINS IN JAMAICA

In Jamaica, Maroon riots and communities were a constant feature of life on the island. In the 1730s, Maroons of different origins settled in the east of the island, in the Blue Mountains.

The failure of the British military actions forced the governor to enter into an agreement with the Maroons which provided for the recognition of the community in exchange for promises to hand over new fugitives.
In 1795/96, a new war ended with the victory of the British and the loss of autonomy of the Maroon community.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For women, resistance could mean the refusal, through abortion, to procreate new slaves. The African American writer Toni Morrison, the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993, in her novel Beloved represented the radical nature of this opposition by narratively reinterpreting the true story of the runaway slave Margaret Garner, who, before being recaptured, killed her daughter to prevent her from falling into slavery.

 

 

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

The runaway slave became a central figure in the 19th century United States, before and during the Civil War (1861-65).
The escape usually involved a long and hard journey to the Northern states which had abolished slavery, or to Canada, with the constant danger of being recaptured, also by using specially trained dogs. Despite this, it is estimated that between 1800 and 1865, 70,000 individuals managed to escape from slavery, thanks to the  Underground Railroad, a network of people, ‘conductors’ and safe houses that helped fugitive slaves escape to the North.

 

 

 

UPRISINGS AND REVOLTS

Uprisings gained momentum after the first successful revolt against the French colonial slave regime in Santo Domingo (now the state of Haiti) in 1791. Led by the charismatic leader and former slave Toussaint Louverture, the rebellion ended in 1804 with the achievement of independence, the abolition of slavery and the creation of the first modern black state.
Its effects were felt throughout the American continent. The political and military skills of the rebels challenged the colonial assumption that slaves of African descent would not be able to assert and defend their freedom and govern themselves.
The spectre of ‘another Haiti’ began to haunt the American plantations.

La rivoluzione di Haiti

Le insurrezioni conobbero un grande impulso dopo la prima rivolta riuscita contro il regime coloniale schiavista francese a Santo Domingo (oggi lo stato di Haiti) nel 1791. Condotta dal leader carismatico ed ex schiavo Toussaint Louverture, la ribellione si concluse nel 1804 con la conquista dell’indipendenza, l’abolizione della schiavitù e la creazione del primo stato moderno nero.
I suoi effetti si fecero sentire in tutto il continente americano. Le capacità politiche e militari dei rivoltosi sfidarono l’assunto coloniale secondo il quale gli schiavi di origine africana non sarebbero stati in grado di affermare e difendere la loro libertà e di autogovernarsi.
Lo spettro di “un’altra Haiti” cominciò ad aggirarsi per le piantagioni americane.

 

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