Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 4 March 1999 — Page 22

The Muncie Times, March 4,1999, Page 22

African-American History Stories of docile slaves are an enduring myth

Compiled by Andre’ Scott There were no docile slaves. Fear, toil and the lash, hard words and a little ash cake and bacon, and fields stretching around the world—this was life for most slaves, day in and day out, season after season, with a half-day off on Saturday and a whole day off on Sunday,” writes Lerone Bennett, Jr., in Before the Mayflower: A History of the Negro in America 1619-1964. Why did they do it? And why didn’t they revolt? Why didn’t they run away? Commit suicide? Or stand like a man and be cut down? “Slaves did all of these, “ Bennett says, “ and more.” They did them so often that it was nothing short of amazing, he says, that the myth of the docile Negro persists. There were repeated insurrections and there is solid evident that the South lived in fear of the ‘docile’ slaves. Bondsmen ran away in droves. They fled to Canada and Mexico and to Florida and Louisiana before these territories became a part of the United States of America. They fled to the Indians and joined them in their war against the white man. Young and old ran, mulattoes and pure blacks, Uncle Tom (in the modem sense) and radicals ran. Following the North Star, some made their way to the north and on to Canada. Some succumbed to slavery’s endless assault but some refused to be broken. Many were sent to ‘professional Negro breakers’ and were broken. Many persisted, hardened in resistance. “They poisoned master and mistresses with arsenic,” Bennett reports, “ground glass and ‘spiders beaten up in buttermilk.’ They chopped them (slave holders) to pieces with axes and burned their, houses, gins and bams to the ground.” “The court records of the slavery period, Bennett says, yield ample evidence that large numbers of slaves refused to play the game of slavery: they would neither smile nor bow. Some bowed but would not smile. Many perhaps, the

“Fear, toil and the lash, hard words and a little ash cake and bacon, and fields stretching around the world—this was life for most slaves, day in and day out, season after season, with a halfday off on Saturday and a whole day off on Sunday, ” Lerone Bennett, Jr.

majority, went through the ritual of obeisance. And these, according to some historians, carried on a passive resistance: “They worked no harder * than they had to, put on deliberate slowdowns, staged sit down strikes and fled to the swamp en masse at cotton picking time. They broke implements, trampled the crops and ‘took’ silver, wine, money, com, cotton and machines.” First serious conspiracy in Colonial America, Sept. 13 Servant betrayed plot of white servants and Negro slaves in Gloucester County, Va. 1712—Slave revolt, New York, April 7. Nine whites killed. Twenty-one slaves executed. 1730—Slave conspiracy discovered in Norfolk and Princess Anne counties, Va. 1739-Slave revolt, Stano, S. C, Sept. 9. Twenty-five whites killed before insurrection was put down. 1741—Series of suspicious fires and reports of slave conspiracy led to general hysteria in New York City, March and April. Thirty-one slaves, five whites executed. 1773—Massachusetts slave petitioned legislature for freedom, Jan. 6 There is a record of eight petitions during Revolutionary War period. 1791—Haitian Revolution began with revolt of slaves in northern province, Aug. 22.

1800—Gabriel Prosser plotted and was betrayed. Storm forced suspension of attack on Richmond, Va., by Prosser and some 1,000 slaves, Aug. 30. Conspiracy was betrayed by two slave. Prosser and fifteen of his followers were hanged on Oct. 7. 1811—Louisiana slaves revolted in two parishes about 35 miles from New Orleans, Jan. 8-10. Revolt suppressed by U. S. troops. It was the largest slave revolt in the United States. 1816-Three hundred fugitive slaves and about 20 Indian allies held Fort Blount on Apalachicola Bay, Fla., for several days before it attacked by U. S. troops. 1822—Denmark Vesey plotted and was betrayed. ‘House slave’ betrayed Vesey conspiracy. May 30. Vesey conspiracy, one of the most elaborate slave plots on record, involved thousand of Negroes in Charleston, S. C., and vicinity. Authorities arrested 131 Negroes and four whites. Thirty-seven were hanged. Vesey and five of his aides were hanged at Blake’s Landing, Charleston, S. C., July 2. 1829—Race riot, Cincinnati, Ohio, Aug. 10. More than 1,000 Negroes left the city for Canada. 1831—Nat Turner revolt, Southampton County, Va., Aug. 21 to 22. Some 60 whites were killed. Nat Turner was not captured until Oct. 30. Nat Turner was hanged, Jerusalem, Va., Nov. 11. 1838- Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery in Baltimore, Sept. 3. 1839- Amistad mutiny led by Joseph Cinquez, captured. After trial in Conn., returned to Africa. 1841—Slave revolt on slave trader ‘Creole’ which was en route from Hampton, Va., to New Orleans, La., Nov. 7. Slaves overpowered crew and sailed vessel to Bahamas where they were granted asylum and freedom. 1848—Ellen Craft impersonated a slave holder, William Craft, acted as her servant in one of the most dramatic slave escapes—this one from slavery in Georgia, Dec. 26. See HISTORY, page 23