Crossings: Africa, the Americas and the Atlantic Slave Trade by James Walvin

Author:James Walvin [Walvin, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: history, General, Africa
ISBN: 9781780232041
Google: XdSRAQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Published: 2013-10-15T23:31:38.423182+00:00

SEVEN

Resistance

One of the most puzzling questions about the history of Atlantic slavery remains the issue of control. How did such relatively small numbers of slave owners maintain their control and dominance over huge numbers of servile people, both at sea and in the Americas? In most slave societies in the Americas whites were outnumbered by Africans. The exception, with a few local variations, was colonial North America. But in Brazil and the Caribbean, Africans and their local-born offspring were in a majority. At times, the imbalance was enormous, with hundreds of slaves facing a mere handful of whites, often in remote, isolated rural communities, far from the major centres of colonial military power. Slave owners, especially planters, could call up the local military and militia and harness the savagery of slave laws for support. But that took time. On a daily basis they had to confront and contain their enslaved labourers alone and with neighbours, using methods of their own making.

Slave holders everywhere exercised control via a combination of methods which ranged from inducements for good behaviour (time off work, food, clothing – even cash – and better treatment) through to punishments for transgressions. Brutality in all its forms was always available and often mirrored the pattern of the slave ship. Yet rewards and punishments, and everything in between, are not sufficient to explain why and how such large communities were kept in enslaved subjection for so long. The durability of slavery for centuries in the Americas is, however, deceptive because, wherever we look, slavery was contested and resisted by the slaves. Indeed resistance was a ubiquitous characteristic of slavery, and the fear of slave rebelliousness remained a nagging concern of all slave owners. Slaves were not people to be trusted, and although many owners were often lulled into a false sense of security, the dread of slave defiance cast a long and persistent shadow across the lives of slave owners throughout the Americas.

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