Slave Resistance

AIMS:• To discover the methods used by slaves to resist their

captors and rebel.

Success Criteria• You can outline 3 ways in which Africans rebelled on board

slave ships.• You can explain why most of these rebellions were

unsuccessful.

• To reduce the chances of resistance, African’s sense of humanity and dignity was stripped away prior to boarding the ship.

• Before boarding a slave ship, captives were stripped of any physical connections to their past lives, their heads were shaved, and their clothing and adornments removed. The aim of this was to distance them from their past lives and erase their connections to Africa.

• Rebellion was not uncommon aboard slave ships and greatly feared by crew members.

• As they were greatly outnumbered by slaves the crew had to deter any rebellion from taking place.

• To do this they kept the male captives in chains for the whole journey, and also carried weapons including pistols, cutlasses and whips including the infamous ‘cat o nine tails’.

•

• • .

Methods of Rebellion• Some of the slaves who were transported along the Middle

Passage attempted to rebel against the captain, crew and situation.

• Many historians believe that women played a key role in organising rebellions as they were often permitted to move freely on the ship and would have had the opportunity to speak to other captives and plot the rebellion.

• The slaves would make basic weapons out of their chains and shackles and attempt to kill crew members during the time when they were on deck.

• Due to the weapons available to crew members these rebellions attempts were rarely successful.

• However there were other methods of rebellion used regularly.

Punishing the Rebels• Any slave believed to

have been part of a rebellion, or even thought to have plotted to rebel was punished severely.• Slaves were whipped

severely as punishment for rebellion and those choosing not eating were force fed. • Some even had their jaws

prized open with a device known as a ‘speculum oris’ or flames held near their mouth if they refused to eat.

Amistad• One of the few

successful, and certainly the most celebrated, slave revolts along the Middle Passage occurred on the Amistad. • In this incident, a group of

captive Africans, led by a man named Cinque rose up during their voyage across the Atlantic in 1839.