Frontispiece from David Walker’s 1830 Appeal
Topics on the Page
Resistance to Slavery and Slave Revolts
- David Walker's Appeal
- Gabriel Posser Slave Revolt
- Nat Turner Rebellion
- Denmark Vesey
CROSS-LINK: The Stono Rebellion
The Underground Railroad
Influential Literature page: Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Crash Course of the Underground Railroad
- A comprehensive overview of The Underground Railroad.
- The video talks in depth about how the underground railroad actually worked and negates the idea that this was a physical railroad that carried people to safety and instead describes the risk people used both Black and White in opening their homes to the enslaved to help them escape the oppressive institution of slavery within the south
Women Enslaved:
- Review/Summary of Ar'n't I a Woman? by Darlene Clark Hine.
- Describes the legacy of the book that served as a catalyst to not only the study of slavery but more specifically the study of women in slavery
- A key document in Black women's history and all of women's history
- The story of Sally Hemings
- interactive online exhibit from the Monticello Museum describing the life of Sally Hemings, who was enslaved by Thomas Jefferson and gave birth to four of his children
- This exhibit depicts the difficult decisions made by many enslaved women who were mothers and what they gave up for the safety and freedom of their children
An article about female slave resistance in Saint Domingue and the events that led to the Haitian revolution. It describes the different forms of oppression women faced in slavery due to their autonomy. This source also helps to review and realize the extent to which slavery was utilized not just in the United States but globally.
CROSS-LINK: Harriet Tubman, Freedom Seeker and Social Activist
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PAGE SUMMARY:
In the United States, slavery was defined by abject poverty, exploitation, and dehumanization. Slaves were treated more like property than like human beings, and their labor was taken advantage of to further the financial gain of the slave owners. They endured arduous working conditions and were frequently required to perform backbreaking labor for pay or fundamental human rights in the mining, construction, agriculture, and domestic service industries.
There were many different ways to oppose slavery, from private acts of disobedience to coordinated uprisings. Slaves rebelled against their masters by setting up resistance groups, sabotaging things, and fleeing.
Some slaves revolted against their owners, set fire to property, caused damage, or even made an attempt to break free. Abolitionists and supporters built the Underground Railroad, a system of covert routes and safe havens, to assist enslaved persons in escaping to free states and Canada. It was a covert operation in which conductors led runaway slaves along the routes while seeing to their needs for food, shelter, and support. Though there were significant hazards for both the escaped and those who assisted them, the Underground Railroad was instrumental in helping thousands of enslaved people escape and reach freedom.
Summary by Olivia Rakocy (April 2024)
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Resistance to Slavery and Slave Revolts
For more background, see Slave Resistance from the National Humanities Center.
Slave Resistance was a way for enslaved African Americans to attack the system of slavery in various ways.
- Some ways slaves resisted slavery was known as "day-to-day resistance" which included less serious methods of attacking the system. Slaves would often fake illness, break tools, and work slowly to undermine the profits of their owners.
- However this resistance often met punishment by the owner if they determined that these actions were intentional. Punishments could included whipping or separating family members if someone was resisting.
- Direct resistance was more substantial resistance to the system of slavery which included slave rebellions, arson, poisoning of masters and running away. Direct resistance often met with harsher punishment including more severe beatings/whippings and execution.
David Walker's Appeal
Everything students should know about David Walker's appeal. Explains the reasons why the appeal was so important along with its impacts.
David Walker (National Park Service)
Summary of David Walker's Appeal, September 28, 1829
Click here for a link to "The Abolition Project" which contains information on both slavery and its resistance.
Celia, A Slave Trial (1855)
- Celia was a slave who resisted her masters sexual advances and through self-defense killed her white master and was executed for doing so. See more at from the Famous Trials website.
Slave Revolts
Gabriel Posser Slave Revolt (1800) from Herbert Aptheker, American Negro Slave Revolts (1974). See also Gabriel's Conspiracy from Africans in America.
See the Liberation Strategies section of Slavery--The Peculiar Institution from the Library of Congress' African American history website.
The Five Greatest Slave Rebellions according to PBS.
- Stono Rebellion, 1739
- New York City Conspiracy 1741
- Gabriel's Conspiracy, 1800
- German Coast Uprising, 1811
- Nat Turner's Rebellion, 1837
Rebellion: John Horse and the Black Seminoles, the First Black Rebels to Beat American Slavery.
Read about John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. Brown, a white abolitionist from New England, believed that the only way to end slavery was through violence. His actions illustrate growing tensions over the institution of slavery, and in some ways foreshadow the impeding Civil War.
John Brown became something of a martyr during the Civil War, and was the subject of a popular marching song, "John Brown's Body." See this lesson plan that has students compare two different versions of the song, one made during the war and another made afterward.
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| Capture of Nat Turner |
Nat Turner Rebellion
The Nat Turner Rebellion from History Matters.
Nat Turner Resources from Black History Web This website provides an informative video about Nat Turner along with links to primary sources, timelines, articles, books and lesson plans.
Video about the Nat Turner Revolt from PBS
Primary Source Newspapers About Nat Turner's Revolt Students can analyze the different perspectives of the articles depending on who wrote the article and when. How was Nat Turner viewed by Southern White folks at the time of the rebellion? How was Nat Turner viewed by African Americans in the latter part of the nineteenth century?
See also A Rebellion to Remember: The Legacy of Nat Turner.
Nat Turner Slave Revolt (1831)
Click here for a 2004 NPR story on The Many Faces of Nat Turner, an independent film that re-examines William Stryon's 1967 novel, The Confessions of Nat Turner.
Denmark Vesey Slave Revolt, Trial and Execution (1822). This lesson plan from Teaching History.org uses primary sources and historian accounts to ask students how to define and understand resistance to slavery in light of the Denmark Vesey case.
This article describes the largest successful Slave Revolt in the Western Hemisphere, occurring in Haiti: https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/haitian-revolution-1791-1804/
The Underground Railroad
A Ride for Liberty--The Fugitive Slaves, Eastman Johnson, 1862
The Underground Railroad was neither a railroad nor was it underground.
- It was mostly an escape network that was utilized by southern slaves looking to escape first to the northern states(most of which did not have slavery) and then eventually to Canada (which as an English Colony, had abolished slavery in 1834)
- It was mostly the work of abolitionist sympathizers who were forming an "underground" resistance to slavery, hence the name of the route.
- There was no one specific route, there were many different meeting places, safe houses, and modes of transportation that were implemented in order to help free southern slaves.
Prior to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, getting to the northern states of the US would have likely been far enough north for a slave to feel safe enough to not be returned to the south.
However with its passing the Fugitive Slave Act allowed for "slave catchers" to go into the northern states, capture former "slaves" and return them to the south. This process however was marred with unethical abuse.
- The first problem was that a lot of the slave catchers would actually bring back black men who had been free their whole lives, or who had been freed by a different plantation owner.
- The second was that in order to bring a escaped slave back to the south, they had to be brought before a magistrate. The magistrate got paid based on the outcome of the case, and they were generally paid double the amount to send a slave back to the south as opposed to keeping the slave a free person in the north.
See also Aboard the Underground Railroad from the National Park Service and The Underground Railroad in Rochester, New York from the University of Rochester.
Who Really Ran the Underground Railroad? by Henry Louis Gates from PBS The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross.
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| Routes of the Underground Railroad |
Harriett Tubman
Harriet Tubman is one of the most recognized leaders of the Underground Railroad. Her efforts helped liberate around 300 slaves.
Click here to play "Flight to Freedom" in which you play Lucy, a slave who must make decisions on whether to run away, stay, and make other life choices on a southern plantation.
Click here to play "The Underground Railroad" from Scholastic.
Click here to visit "Last Seen", an interactive website for students and teachers that is recovering stories of families separated in the domestic slave trade. For decades after their freedom, those who had been enslaved posted these posters in an attempt to get in touch with relatives and loved ones. The advertisements are evidence of their unwavering hope and will to recover what was taken from them.
Harriet, the Moses of Her People
A primary source published by Sarah Hopkins that describes the life and experience of Harriet Tubman in both slavery and the Underground railroad. This source was published in two editions, one in 1869 and the second in 1886. While the book is a biography rather than an autobiography, both Harriet Tubman and Sarah Hopkins worked together, and the book is based on the oral firsthand recounting of Harriet Tubman.
LEARNING PLANS
Click here for detailed lesson plans on teaching the Underground Railroad differentiated for various grade levels.
For the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center's collection of online learning resources, click here.
Click here for a detailed lesson plan on teaching the Underground Railroad for students.
Historic Underground Railroad Stops in Northampton:
https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/states.htm
Literary Texts
Slaves and abolitionists also resisted slavery through texts and literature. Frederick Douglass ran an abolitionist newspaper The North Star, as did William Lloyd Garrison with The Liberator. Read more about literary sources of resistance here.
The Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass gives a first-person description of slavery from the viewpoint of a person who experienced it. Read the pdf version of the book here.
Read Harriet Beecher Stowe's bestselling novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, which helped spread opposition to slavery.
what life was like for a slave in the 19th century United States, and how slaves resisted oppression.
Historical fiction reads about the Underground Railroad.
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