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. 40 Tubman asserted that such prayers were  sincere and right,and would  certainly be fully answered. 41 By fighting back, enslavedwomen were articulating to their master(s) that violence against theirpersonhood and womanhood was unacceptable.Fighting helped themregain a sense of voice, courage and self-worth.Collective RevolutionsIn addition to individual acts of constructive combative resistance,enslaved women engaged in collective revolts against institutionalizedviolence and oppression.Aptheker notes that they were protestingagainst the institution of slavery: the  social system itself, the deg-radation, exploitation, oppression, and brutality which it created. 42Slave revolts became a means of rebelling against system(s) that nei-ther protected African peoples rights nor valued their humanity.Antebellum state laws defined slave insurrections as the assemblageof three or more armed slaves with the intent to obtain their libertyby force.43 Aptheker argues that insurrections of this nature were sur-mountable.His investigation therefore encompasses the assemblageof ten or more slaves who plotted or participated in revolts for theFive Strategies of Subversion and Freedom 163sole purpose of procuring their freedom.These groups also soughtto  overthrow the master class by force, envisioning  a redistribu-tion of property in which the oppressed or exploited received justcompensation.44 Euro-American slave sympathizers and liberals alsocommitted themselves personally and financially to the struggle.Aptheker estimates that an approximately 250 recorded uprisings ofthis nature occurred during the antebellum period.Enslaved and freewomen were actively involved in these uprisings.They worked along-side men like Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, and Nat Turner tostrategize revolts.They went underground with these men becausethey experienced firsthand acts of human degradation.They under-stood that their lives and their children s welfare were at stake.On August 21, 1831, enslaved women, two of them named Lucyand Charlotte, gathered with Nat Turner and revolted.They para-lyzed white Virginia and the world for forty-eight hours as they wentfrom plantation to plantation killing primarily white slave ownersand their families with the same tools they were forced to use for slavelabor.At the end of their forty-eight hour reign of resistance, approxi-mately sixty white men and some women were dead.In response,thousands of armed forces converged on Virginia, killing approxi-mately 200 enslaved women and men.Those insurgents capturedwere tried, sentenced, and put to death.Recorded accounts of slave revolts in antebellum America did notemerge until the late seventeenth century.45 The first major recordedslave conspiracy occurred in 1663 in Gloucester County, Virginia.Enslaved women and men and indentured white servants conspiredto rebel, overthrow their masters, and secure their freedom.46 Theparticipants, however, were betrayed by Africans and white servants.Several slaves, including women, were beheaded and their heads werepublicly displayed  from local chimney tops. 47 In response to the1663 revolt, fugitive enslaved women and men in 1672 raided nearbytowns, soliciting others to join them.An Act was passed urging theircapture, dead or alive.48At the early part of the eighteenth century, conspiracies and upris-ings increased throughout the American colonies as African slaveimportation rates increased.49 This increase continued well into thelate nineteenth century.Aptheker describes the nineteenth centuryas  the most fateful [time] in the history of American Negro slaverevolts. 50 We know from court documents that black women wereconvicted, burned, or slain for participating in many of these slaveinsurrections.164 Enslaved Women and the Art of ResistanceInsurrections were not the crazed actions of madwomen and mad-men.Some enslaved Africans saw revolts as a means of maintain-ing their dignity, protecting their welfare, and subverting systems ofoppression.The rise and frequency of slave conspiracies and revoltsreveal that slaves were resistant to their oppression.They were pre-pared to surrender their lives in defense of life and freedom for them-selves and succeeding generations.Table 7.1 lists key slave revolts in antebellum American history inwhich women were active participants.These women gathered with mensending shock waves throughout the North and South, threatening thesecurity of whiteness and questioning the ideas of American democracy.By revolting, they were cleansing by fire the stench of American tyrannyand collectively saying,  NO MORE!, to its grip upon their lives.Table 7.1 Slave Conspiracies and Revolts in Which Enslaved Women ParticipatedDate/Location Revolts/Insurrections OutcomeMajor Early 18th CenturyOct.1708 Enslaved Africans revolted and Four enslaved Africans, including anLong Island, killed seven whites.Indian and a woman, were publiclyNew York executed; the men hanged and thewoman burned.1711 Group of armed fugitive slaves Terror and fear spread throughout theSouth Carolina led by a slave named Sebastian colony.Sebastian and others were cap-plotted and raided a predomi- tured and executed.Others escaped.Thenately white community, ran- Governor suggested that quantity andsacking houses and plantations.quality of food and clothing contributedto the raid.Improvement of basic humanneeds would deter future raiding amongthe enslaved.April 7, 1712 Slave Insurrection.Slaves from 27 slaves were condemned; 6 includ-New York the Caramantee and Pappa ing a pregnant woman pardonednations set fire to a building and 21 executed.Others escaped.and attacked approaching A Catechism School was closed afterwhites; killed nine and authorities learned that participantswounded others.were students.1720 Slave conspiracy revealed.Revolt Those involved, including women,Charleston planned when colony was in grave were taken as prisoners; some were[Charles Town] economic depression and whites in hanged and others were burned orSouth Carolina conflict with local Indians.banished or sold from the colony.Conspiracy alarmed whites who Others escaped.A year later, a Southconcluded that blacks were almost Carolina statue limited voting right tosuccessful in creating a  new free white Christian men.revolution.ContinuedTable 7.1 ContinuedDate/Location Revolts/Insurrections Outcome1722 Slave conspiracy was uncovered.Leaders were sentenced and someVirginia Slaves planned to revolt in two members imprisoned.Others escaped.or three Virginia counties.Stricter laws were enacted limitingmovement of slaves and clergy,requiring slaves to carry passes.Secret meetings among slaves wereprohibited.April 1723 Slaves accused of setting a Curfew laws were enacted.AlsoBoston, dozen fires in one week.various laws prohibited slaves meetingMassachusetts on Sundays independent of master.1729 Native American group inspires Plot betrayed [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]