Reactions to Slavery Overview

From its inception, enslavement in the United States was characterized by diverse strategies and conceived of in many different ways. But one of the most agreed-upon aspects of slavery was that it provided an economic goldmine—free labor. Yet, in spite of the economic benefits for the slaveholder and for others who profited indirectly from the enslaved's work, from the beginning of slavery in North America not everyone approved of Africans being used as human chattel. As the institution of slavery developed in the United States, so too did conflicting responses and opinions.

By the early 1800s, reactions to enslavement in the United States and abroad were passionate, both for those who were opposed to it and for those in favor of it—though many were merely indifferent. The main opponents of slavery included the enslaved themselves, free Africans, the Quakers, and some whites. Those strongly in favor of enslavement included the slaveholders, and some other whites—both Southerners and Northerners, and non-Americans as well. A small faction of free Africans owned slaves themselves and did not fight to eradicate enslavement. There was also another group, consisting of those who were mainly indifferent—neither directly opposed to enslavement or doing anything to eradicate it, nor engaging in the institution directly.

Slave uprisings, revolts, and rebellions were one of the main reactions to enslavement. However, there were also many quiet, consistent instances of resistance that occurred daily on plantations and throughout the South. Arson, poisonings, abortions, working at a deliberately slow pace, and other more subtle tactics were ways that many of the enslaved reacted to their oppression. Daily and weekly religious meetings and services grounded in biblical rhetoric that supported the afflicted and oppressed provided the enslaved with hope, strength, and the mental stamina to deal with the atrocities of their daily lives. Folktales, proverbs, music, and dance also served as cultural survival tools that helped the enslaved respond to their situation.

Free Africans, particularly those in the North, agitated strongly against enslavement through letters, pamphlets, newspapers, journals, speeches, narratives, novels, and essays. The poems of Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784), the narratives of Frederick Douglass (1817–1895), the Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World of David Walker (1785–1830), the autobiography of Harriet Jacobs (1813–1897), and the Liberator, a newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879), were among the expressions of those free and formerly enslaved Africans and African Americans who utilized their literary talents to inform, highlight, and speak against the atrocities of enslavement. Moreover, empathetic whites also wrote against enslavement. Abolitionists—American and European, white and African American—worked to end slavery in different ways and for numerous reasons. There was an underlying consensus that to hold another human being in bondage was morally wrong; yet, there was an economic and social tug of war that hinged on the economic advantage and social prestige of being white. The societal views that supported slavery also gave whites a superior status that many were not willing to give up.

Those in favor of enslavement struggled as vehemently for its survival as did those who fought for its abolition. In addition to economic arguments for the continuation of enslavement, there were moral and religious arguments as well—the claim that slavery helped civilize Africans, and the assertion that the Bible encouraged the bondage of blacks. Proslavery literature—newspapers, tabloids, novels, and essays—was popular and persuasive in its efforts to continue the institution. Anti-Tom literature (that is, literature reacting against the widely popular abolitionist novel Uncle Tom‗s Cabin) portrayed enslavement as a necessary component of society and as an institution that was moral and just. Other popular arguments supporting enslavement invoked the familial relationship said to exist between slaveholders and the enslaved, and the guarantee of employment, housing, and food for slaves. Southerners and even some northern whites saw enslavement as a means to help those less civilized—it was their duty to civilize and Christianize those of African descent. Exaggerated pictures of Africans as animalistic, buffoon-like, and ignorant of basic human behavior were common in literature. These depictions helped to encourage support for enslavement as well as to maintain its control.

Slaveholders were acutely aware of the threat posed by abolitionists, sympathetic whites, and rebellious bondmen and women and developed effective means of discouraging any change to the status quo. To discourage resistance to their plight, the enslaved were prohibited from fighting in wars (although they eventually did, beginning with the Revolutionary War), holding or carrying firearms, gathering in groups among themselves, and learning to read and write. Severe physical punishment and lynchings were common techniques used to maintain control, reduce escape attempts, and instill fear in both enslaved and free Africans. Masters also exploited slaves' familial bonds and the fear of family separation to discourage running away and obstinate behavior. Newspapers in the North and South ran advertisements offering rewards for the capture of escaped slaves—dead or alive.

Among abolitionists, one proposed solution to the problem of slavery was emigration—moving Africans and African Americans back to Africa or to Canada. The African country of Liberia was established as a land to which those in bondage could return. Abolitionist Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823–1893) pushed for Africans to go to Canada.

In spite of these movements, particularly to emigrate, enslavement in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean continued until the latter half of the nineteenth century. In time, the consensus opinion about slavery became that it could not continue in its present form, if the Union was to stay together and be a viable world force. The Civil War (1861–1865), the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments were all responses to enslavement, but slavery soon gave way to new forms of oppression—colonization, segregation, separation, and systematic racism—that would shape the daily lives of African Americans for years.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Blassingame, John W. The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Franklin, John Hope, and Alfred A. Moss, Jr. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans. 7th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 1994.

                                   Khadijah O. Miller