came in a more passive form. Slaves would pretend not to understand thedirection of their masters or they would sabotage equipment and crops. Suicide was another wayto freedom. When this method was employed the slave often killed their master and then turnedthemselves in to suffer their fate. This gave value to their own death as they knew their masterwas now unable to replace him with another slave.Flight was the most plausible form of resistance. Often plantation slaves would take offand go to another plantation to visit for a number of days. The slave knew what the punishmentwould be upon his return and was willing to endure it for the needed break. Sometimes theywould even get a white person to negotiate their return or outright trade to the plantation theyhad been visiting. More permanent forms of flight were undertaken by groups of slaves whowould organize and flee to the edges of the plantation and beyond to form renegade settlements.The larger the group and the further from the plantation they fled, the more chance they had tosucceed. Criollo’s often fled alone to cities where they attempted to pass themselves off as freemen living by their wits in order to outsmart any who would suspect them as runaway’s. In short, slaves who were the most recent arrivals to the new land endured the worstconditions and were the least likely candidates for manumission and therefore most likely toresist. The field workers and the gold miners were high risks for resistance. Ladino’s were lesslikely to resist though conditions in the mines only slightly tempered there likelihood of flight.Mulatto’s had it relatively easy in comparison to the Bozal’s and were less likely to resist asthere was a great probability that they would achieve manumission and life was not all that badin the mean time. Especially in the cities where they had family and social community. Therewere jobs for free slaves in the cities and...
