d 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 th...
