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Many don’t realize, however, that the slaves did revolt in many ways, in many places, and at many times. The slaves used both covert and overt ways of revolting against their oppressive position, but were never able to create a unified vast movement that could create broad and permanent changes. Many slaves used covert methods to revolt such as intentionally working indolently and commiting suicide. Suicide was a common way of revolt, that caused serious problems to the white traders and owners . It was used on the slave ships crossing the atlantic ocean to the plantations . The effectiveness of this tool against the white owners is evident in a note that the Royal African Company sent to a captain in 1725, telling the captain to be very careful to keep the slaves locked up and keep them from jumping overboard . However, suicide constituted only one member and did not spread beyond individual cases. Many slaves deliberately worked below their ability as a type of concealed protest to their enslavement. This also hurt the slave owners by decreasing profits, but it did not effect the institution of slavery in any major capacity. Several slaves used overt methods to revolt such as running away, forming maroon societies and most obvious, participating and planning physical uprisings. Abandoning the plantations was a popular and a relatively effective means of revolt. Its effectiveness is evident from the attempts to control it, as illustrated in eighteenth century legislation. As is the case in many facets of slavery, punishment and intimidation were the response of slave owners to gain control. In 1717, Barbados legislators “enacted that any Negro who had been a year in the island and absented himself for thirty days should have one of his feet cut off.” In 1767, St. Vincent “required every slaveowner to search the Negro houses for runaways every fortnight.” In 1766, in the French West Indies, it was ruled that “thirty lashes and eight days in goal for slaves in whose dwellings runaways were apprehended.” Many of these runaway slaves formed maroon societies. They developed their own settlements on undeveloped land or they joined with the Caribs. In 1639, St. Kitts had a slave revolt and many slaves fled to form a maroon society in the mountains. But the maroon fort was stormed and taken by French soldiers and many of the rebels died . In Dominica many slaves abandoned the plantations and joined the Caribs on the east of the island. However, most of the maroon societies and escaped slaves were living a dream and could wake up at any moment. When escaping slaves became a substantial problem, the slave owners could simply call on the militia or form groups that easily eradicated the maroon settlements. Except for a few occasions. When the English took over Jamaica, many of the blacks on the island fled to the interior forming a maroon society. After trying to exterminate the maroons for over seventy years, there was no alternative for the English but to sign a peace treaty with the maroons in 1739. The terms of the treaty resulted in a Maroon state within Jamaica. Similarly, in Surinam the Dutch were forced to sign a treaty with a maroon society in 1749. Although, a few maroon societies were successful in gaining special status and rights, they challenged the slave system strictly for their own benefit; not demanding any far-reaching emancipation. In fact, they actually helped prevent further desertions from the plantations in order to maintain their freedoms. Physical revolt against slavery was very common. It started on the slave ships coming from Africa and continued in the West Indies. Eric Williams, from the information he was able to find, shows that about one in every fifteen ships that left Nantes experienced revolt. The ship the Diane, in 1775, was taken over by the 244 blacks on board. Only three whites survived an uprising on the Concorde. The revolts on slave ships were effective because the slave traders and owners lost a lot of money and many sailors were afraid to work on slave ships. However, these revolts were only local to the certain ships and they were not effective enough to stop or even make a considerable slow down of the slave trade. Physical revolt on land was more devastating and very common. In the seventeenth century there were revolts in St. Kitts (1639), Barbados (1649), Guadeloupe (1656), San Domingo (1679), and Jamaica (1690). In the eighteenth century there was over fifteen more. By listing these, I have not given justice to the relative size and magnitude of the different revolts but I am simply pointing out the abundancy of revolts in the West Indies. Out of these revolts there were many more that were planned, but never materialized. This leads to why the revolts were never able to evolve into a full scale revolution or give any long lasting rights for slaves. Many of the revolts either never emerged or did not develop as planned because of the slaves themselves. The largest obstacle to developing revolts was unifying the slaves. There were differences between the African slaves, particularly Coromantees and the creole slaves . Differences between the coloureds and blacks. Differences between African slaves from different tribes. Differences between slaves of different islands. In addition, many slaves acted selfishly and in their own self interest. It seems as though the creole slaves, the slaves that had lived on the plantations for many years or for generations, had become more apathetic and comfortable with their situation (If you can call it comfortable). They were not as apt to rush into a revolution as were the slaves who had recently come from Africa, commonly known as the Coromantees. The earliest slave revolts were essentially African in character and led by Africans . It is easy to see how the cultural, lingual, and other differences between the Africans and the creoles made it hard for them to unify and revolt because after a revolt the slave owners would consciously import creoles to mix with the Africans. Also many times creole slaves would inform their masters of plots by the Africans to revolt because they were just as fearful of an African takeover as the slave owner. Even the Africans could not unify together because they came from different ethnic backgrounds in Africa and spoke different languages. Richard Ligon writing in 1657 about his experience in Barbados between 1647 and 1650 comments that the African slaves were “fetched from several parts of Africa, who speak several languages and by that means, one of them understands not another.” In addition, in Africa there was many tensions between African ethnicities, such as that between the Asante and Akan states. Therefore when they were grouped onto plantations they could not depart with their ethnic rivalries from Africa. In the previous paragraph, from the words of Ligon, one can see that the language differences between the slaves was a large barrier preventing effective revolution. In 1683, a conspiracy was uncovered in Barbados when handwritten notices were found encouraging the slaves to rebel. They were written in English . However, most of the slaves at that time had recently come from Africa so many of the slave owners suspected the message was from a white person . It was ruled, however, that the notices where written by slaves, giving evidence that the slaves needed a common language to communicate. Island solidarity was common amongst the slaves, especially the creoles. As is one of the major problems today with Caribbean unity, island solidarity was a factor preventing slaves from unifying to obtain more rights. The slaves themselves were not the only obstacle preventing wide spread revolution. The slave owners enacted many tactics to prevent revolution. One example, although it is under debate if this method was really used or effective, was slave owners tried to get slaves from different regions in Africa, so that they could not communicate or congregate because of ethnic clashes. Another example is the inhumane punishments handed out to revolution supporters. By severely punishing the rebels and parading their carcasses or limbs, the slave owners intimidated and instilled fear in the slaves. Historian Michael Craton gives examples of the types of torture and parading that went on. He writes that many revolting slaves were “tortured into making confessions”, and “ringleaders were publicly executed in barbaric fashion.” He continues, that some of the bodies of the rebels “were dismembered and left to rot in public places.” Thirdly, rewards were given to informers who warned the slave owners of planned uprisings. Many times the informers were captured rebels who informed to save their life or to stop torture. Unfortunately, many times there were slaves that simply informed their owner because of the increased food rations or other rewards they would get. In a few cases, they actually felt an obligation to their master. There were also tensions between the free coloured and the blacks preventing a unified effort against slavery and black oppression. This was especially prevalent in Haiti. One of the largerst obstacles to freedom in Haiti, were the free coloureds and some free blacks (known as the anciens libre). They were free and had land and turned their back on the slaves. Many of the coloured, under the leadership of Rigaud, negotiated with the English, allowing them to detract on slave rights in exchange for maintaning their privelages. Toussaint Louverture and his followers later revolted killing some 10,000 coloureds and Rigaud, because they had allied with the slave owners and English. As in the case of the successful maroon societies, the informants, and the coloured, one can see that selfishness was a major obstacle in creating a broad emancipation movement. Once a group got some rights or reward, they were contempt with that; even willing to hurt other emancipation efforts. Haiti, was the only example of a revolt that had lasting and permanent changes. By 1804, Haiti was under full control of the ex-slaves and other blacks. Some point out St. John as an example of a successful revolt, but it did not have long lasting results. It is true that in 1733 the slaves captured the island, but only for six months. Unlike St. John, Haiti was autonomous for decades. Like the successful maroon societies in Surinam and Jamaica, and the anciens libre in San Domingo, through fighting Haiti had earned freedoms and rights. However, also like the others, Haiti became contempt preventing the rights and freedoms it earned to spread. They were contempt to let their fight end at Haiti. The leader of Haiti after Louvertures capture, Jean Jacques Dessalines, insisted that the Haitian people and government not interfere with territiories outside of Haiti, for that could jeopardise their own freedom. It actually became government policy not to attempt to invoke revolution elsewhere. Although the slaves did revolt in numerous ways, there were many obstacles that prevented the slaves from developing an inclusive revolution. Externally, the slave owners implemented laws and tactics thwarting revolt. Internally, slaves had trouble communicating, putting away their differences. Bibliography: Eric Williams, From Columbus to Castro. Word Count: 1907
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