WEBVTT - Caribbean Slave Revolts, Ft. Saint Andrew 0:00:06.559 --> 0:00:12.080 Welcome to It could happen here. The podcast, the podcast, 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:18.799 every episode. When you open too many podcasts, you you 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:23.360 lose the ability to open podcasts anyway. Uh st Andrew, UM, 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:25.800 this is your episode, so I'm gonna let you. Let 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:32.479 you take it, take it away, take us on a journey. Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, Hi, good, 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:37.400 good afternoon, and good night. UM. Today we just wanted 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:43.360 to cover rather broad topic. I don't even know if 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:47.400 it's gonna be released before the end of February, probably not, 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:50.840 But in honor of Black History Month, UM, I wanted 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:57.480 to cover the history of Caribbean resistance to slavery on 0:00:57.560 --> 0:01:03.800 the different ways that manifested across the Caribbean. For those 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:10.319 who don't know, UM, slavery in the Caribbean took place 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:15.679 for several hundred years, beginning with the enslavement of the 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:22.880 Amerindians the and continuing up until the abolition of slavery 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:29.400 in three four, at least in British territories. UM. Before then, 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:39.399 there were multiple struggles against the institution, both passive and active, 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:44.640 and in every step of the process. UM. And then, 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:49.880 of course post slavery, they were also multiple rebellions and 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:55.920 insurrections and strikes that took place in the region. But 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:02.600 I can't cover the well about seven thousand islands in 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:04.840 the Caribbean, give or take. But I can't cover the 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:07.400 histories of all of those for the past couple of 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:11.079 thousand years. But I will try to cover fairly generally 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:16.080 the different forms of resistance that took place, starting with, 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:19.600 of course, the resistance that took place in Africa. I 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:23.520 mean even before enslaved people were put on these ships, 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:26.680 even before they were captured, there were measures they were 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:31.359 taken to protect themselves from enslavement. There was of course 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:35.720 flight in the sense of running away um, but there 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:42.079 was also evidence of Africans moving their villages to inaccessible 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:47.080 areas like mountains or um or deeper into the forest 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:52.480 were less accessible for enslaved people. UM sorry for enslavers 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:57.320 to try to capture their people. One of the more 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:04.760 famous enslaved people um Luarda Aquino. He founded a society 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:12.639 in Britain after being enslaved and taken to the Caribbean 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:17.600 and eventually moving to Britain after becoming a freedman and 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:21.440 starting the Sons of Africa abolitionist group. He had written 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:24.959 his own autobiography the interesting narrative of the life of 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:30.600 Lada Aquino In and he detailed some of the horrors 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:34.440 of slavery from an enslaved person's perspective, and so a 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:37.800 lot of what we knew about slavery and how it 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:44.320 could ah comes from his personal account, among others. Of course, 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:47.440 so he spoke about some of the measures that were 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:53.080 taken in his own village to defend against capture. But 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:58.640 um he after being captured, of course, from the Kingdom 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:03.680 of Nian around seventeen forty five, he ended up being 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:09.080 taken on the slave ships, separated from his families and 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:14.480 carried with four other people across the Atlantic to Barbados, 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:18.760 and then eventually taken to Virginia, and then from Virginia 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:24.560 being bought by a Royal Navy lieutenant and eventually being freed. 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:30.000 During the voyages that it could and they were multiple 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:33.760 during the whole Triangle trade. It has been said that 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:37.479 one in ten of all Atlantic crossings through the Middle 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:41.919 prop passage had some kind of rebellion, whether it be 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:46.480 through taking control of the ships and attempting to seal 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:49.320 them back to Africa with the assistance of the crew 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:55.159 without all of Africans battling against other ships um or 0:04:55.360 --> 0:05:01.640 in one case in Amistat, in some Africans were taken 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:06.440 captive above aboard a cargo ship and they free themselves, 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:10.479 killed the captain and the cook, and forced them to 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:15.280 take them back to Sierra Leone, but instead the owners 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:18.480 of the ship ended up taking them to the United States, 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:24.159 where they were captured by the coast Guard. Jesus, yeah, 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:31.120 it's a lot um one slaveship surgeon guy named Alexander 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:36.320 Falconbridge became an abolitionist because he saw well. The first 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:41.200 of all, he saw the horrible conditions that were present 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:43.560 on those ships in the Middle Passage, where you know, 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:48.120 hundreds of people were shackled together and crammed into these 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:56.520 tight enclosed, dark, wet, infected spaces for weeks on end, 0:05:56.560 --> 0:06:00.480 were being taken across. And of course a lot of 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:05.120 the so called cargo, the people who were on route 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:09.919 to be enslaved, were killed by the conditions presidents on 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:12.880 those slave ships. However, despite the fact that you know, 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:19.360 so many people were dying from the terrible conditions of 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:23.719 the ships, the slave trade was so profitable for the 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:29.520 enslavers and for the economies of the colonial nations that 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:34.240 it was still they were still not They were still 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:38.479 not only able to break even but profit massively from 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:42.760 the excursions. And even though the Middle Passage got more 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:46.120 and more dangerous for cruise as rebellions became more and 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:53.560 more expected, production for more shackles, more weaponry to keep 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:59.800 captives secured a rose in England and helped to secure 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:04.359 some of their travels. Of course, they were also times 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:09.200 where Africans would burn the ships they were on, or 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:11.600 where they would jump off of the ships. As I'm 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:17.200 sure many people remember kill Monker's famous final words in 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:22.560 Black Panther, And from what I remember, the first enslaved 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:27.320 people who arrived in Hispaniola immediately ran away and we're 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:32.800 able to escape before being recaptured. Once UM and slave 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:38.080 people arrived in the horrible conditions at the various colonies 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:45.280 in the Caribbean, one of the major projects of their 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:52.000 colonial overlords was to convert them. While in the process 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:56.080 of you know, enslaving them. Of course, a lot of 0:07:56.640 --> 0:08:02.160 enslaved people were dying very rapidly due to the diseases 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:07.720 and the terrible working conditions they had to endure. Right 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:12.000 for those who did survive, UM separated from their families, 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:17.040 from their ties to kinship, from really their home and 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:20.280 everything that came along with it. As displaced indigenous people, 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:26.480 they had to fear out ways to maintain and protect 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:35.120 their cultures um from you know, naming conventions, to craftsmanship, 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:39.120 to language, to philosophy too believes, to music, to dance. 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:44.600 These were all elements of African cultures that would provide 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:48.960 psychological support for captives who need to resist the process 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:53.040 of enslavement, because enslavement is an act of breaking the 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:58.920 will and erasing the humanity of the enslave. Practices like 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:06.680 voodoo um in Haiti or obia in Trinidad and Jamaica, 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:18.760 we're able to strengthen the revolutionary efforts of rebellious Africans, 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:23.920 and so in the Haitian Revolution, you know, they were 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:28.200 fueled by voodoo and the ceremonies that occurred then, and 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:34.560 we're able to eventually, you know, free the people of 0:09:34.880 --> 0:09:40.240 Haiti and established the first independent black republic in the 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:53.959 New World. You need to go four. So other forms 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:56.080 of cultural resistance, and one of the main forms of 0:09:56.080 --> 0:10:00.120 culture resistance was the preservation of African culture through too 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:05.400 pre realization, through the melding and the hiding in some 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:10.480 cases of elements of African culture with um European cultural 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:16.200 forms to create these new cultures and new languages. Um 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:20.199 Ciol is one example, particularly Antillian Creole, which is related 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:30.120 to Haitian Creole. These languages helped to maintain UM some 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:33.520 measure of identity for people who will be actively being 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:39.960 stripped of it. Women in particular played a major role 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:46.040 in this process of cultural resistance and cultural preservation because 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:51.199 in African societies they were African societies often made trilineal 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:55.600 and mature lucal, and women played a key role in 0:10:55.800 --> 0:11:00.080 passing traditions onto their daughters and other young women and 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:06.280 to the community at large through storytelling and through um 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:11.280 the sharing of skills and beliefs and ideas, and so 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:15.160 African women played a major rule in keeping the tradition 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:18.400 going on at lineage going maintaining the memory of people 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:25.640 like a Nancy and Rare Rabbits and Mamadalu and Skant 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:31.559 and all these other folkloric figures who bavy marks of 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:40.680 African traditions. Women under slavery also had to do what 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:48.000 they could to resist the consistent, consistent UM violence, sexual 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:53.560 violence that was UM being done to them by their 0:11:53.760 --> 0:12:02.880 clear masters. UM abortion and UM birth control, UM and 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:07.720 other forms of resistance against sexual assault, resisting their masters, 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:16.600 feeling illness. All these things worked too, not necessarily protect them, 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:24.680 but two keep them going and try to steve off 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:31.080 the worst elements of violence it was being done to them. 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:35.000 As I mentioned the Haitian Revolution and being fueled by 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:39.600 voodoo and whatnot. It really scared planters across the Cribban 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:42.120 and across the world, really like this is the first 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:47.760 time something I just said have happened before. And I'm sure, 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:50.720 uh the U s audience knew. Was a bit about 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:56.400 the consequences in the US. How you know southern slave 0:12:56.440 --> 0:13:01.440 masters were so terrified by creation of aolution, how France 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:07.400 um imposed restrictions on Haiti, and how the US and 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:12.600 other European powers were complicit in that attempts to strangle 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:17.840 the first Black Republic. But there were cases and other 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:22.880 parts of the Caribbean where planters um, in their terror, 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:27.800 used the Haitian Revolution has an excuse to crackdown on 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:32.880 the enslaved um, for example in Trendad in the Christmas 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:36.080 of eighteen o five. The Hassian Revolution ended in eighteen 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:42.120 o four. So in Christmas of eighteena five, UM the 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:47.240 planters were so afraid and had really seen some acts 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:49.920 of poisoning that we're occurring on some of the estates 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:54.319 because part of the cultural resistance involved the passing down 0:13:54.480 --> 0:14:03.040 of certain recipes and poisons and concoctions, and so many enslavers, 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:07.760 you know, felt victim couldn't quote to poisoners, and so 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:13.040 they had to try to find a way to prevent 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:17.480 what they saw was a planned uprising. They basically invented 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:21.120 this idea of a conspiracy in their paranoia that was 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:24.400 meant to wipe out this entire slave owning population during 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:29.440 that in one go. So of course, as historians have uncovered, 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:34.360 the conspiracy most likely didn't actually exist or maybe perhaps 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:40.560 not today the scale that um the slave owners thought, 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:45.520 But it was more so an attempt by the planters 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:51.120 to impose greater authoritarian rule. As Christmas they needs, you know, 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:56.560 five approached, the details of this conspiracy, of this plot 0:14:57.040 --> 0:15:01.480 started to be uncovered by the planter is Um they 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:04.240 thought that, you know, at this place called Chance Estate, 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:12.040 enslaved people we're organizing to launch their revolution. And of 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:16.040 course this terrified them because at that point in time, 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:21.000 the enslaved population was somewhere around whereas the white slave 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:26.080 owning class it was like half that number, and so 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:32.000 the authorities declared martial law and apprehended those involved if 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:36.840 they were even involved. Oftentimes they were not. But it 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:41.040 does bring attention to an important part of enslave resistance, 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:48.320 and that being the conspiracy and actual existence of slave 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:55.320 secret societies. Secret societies are something that, ah, It's something 0:15:55.360 --> 0:16:02.520 that's common in the African Madan land, where tribal rights 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:08.800 and initiations and advancements through those rights um in secret 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:13.120 groupings where it could um to sort of denote levels 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:19.520 of Ranco maturity, and so in slave society, as different 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:26.760 tribes mixed and mingled and plantations for security reasons. These 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:33.760 secret societies continued but had assimilated some European systems of 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:36.800 order and designation. So they gave themselves names like major 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:43.280 or Captain and describe their societies as regiments and the echoes. 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:48.440 The descendants of those societies still exists to this day. 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:53.160 In turn Dad, they are highly obscured. I honestly don't 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:56.400 know much details about them. I just know that I 0:16:56.480 --> 0:17:02.440 have some friends whose relatives um involved in those secret societies, 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:08.960 and in some places like for example Grandcouver where and 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:12.920 stay people seize the land and sort of held that 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:17.600 land and kept it and passed it down across the generations. Um, 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:22.520 such secret societies and membership in such secret societies is 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:27.400 not unhood of so is what the the modern ish 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:31.359 versions of them do? Like what what what? What what 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:35.440 are they doing? I guess like these days if if 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:40.200 there's something that is I don't know much about about 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:43.840 them or how they operate. Yeah, and so I don't 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:47.359 think all secret societies and turned that are descended from 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:52.640 enslave secret societies like obviously not. There are other um 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:57.439 secret societies, their societies of doctors and of lawyers and 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:03.600 different trades. Um. There of course Mason groups as well, 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:11.119 and I well you knew was um superficial details of 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:15.000 most of these groups. Essentially thing that comes up a 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:18.160 look that there there's a whole bunch of like these 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:20.680 sort of secret society groups that like wind up being 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:22.480 part of an engine leve and revolution in China. But 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:24.679 they sort of, like most of them, kind of go 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:28.280 bandit like after the revolution happens, and so it's it's 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:32.600 interesting to see, I guess like different contexts where they 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:34.640 don't seem to have, like just over Italy turned into 0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:39.800 organized crime groups. Right, what's the like organized crime groups 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:44.240 descended from secret societies in China, try ads for example. Yeah, 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:46.600 I actually don't think the triers send it from them. 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:48.679 A couple of them joined the Communists, a lot of 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:50.560 them kind of got wiped out in the sort of 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:53.600 just general warlord fighting, and then some of them kind 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:57.320 of got stumped up by the Communists because they were 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:00.400 basically turned into organized like their own or a crime 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:03.000 of things we're sort of distinct from the other ones existed. 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:18.119 But right, there were seven major rebellions in the Colony 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:22.080 of Jamaica between sixteen seventy three and six six, and 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:27.439 several others in Antigua, in Nevus, in Fujian Islands, in 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:32.800 you know, Barbados, in just across the Caribbean. There was 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:36.600 continual African resistance and rebellion and that really is what 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:41.520 struck fair in these slaveholders at the time. In one case, 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:46.280 um in seventeen thirty three during the Amino Rebellion on St. 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:49.239 John which is part of the Danish Fusion Islands, or 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:52.800 was part of the Danish Fusian Islands. The African instlugience 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:55.920 took control of the island for six months before being defeated, 0:19:56.960 --> 0:20:02.440 and the most slavery reelliance really ac could in Jamaica, 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:06.560 in fact, more than all the other colonies, more than 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:10.639 all the other British colonies in the Caribbean combined. One 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:13.520 of the most famous of the Jamaican rebellions was one 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:15.600 of the Sudden seventeen six day by a man known 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:18.800 as Tachi, and it lasted for over a year before 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:25.280 being suppressed by British colonial forces. Because Jamaica's population was 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:31.240 massively overwhelmingly black in comparison to the very small minority 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:37.160 of large slavehooling white, they were more likely to launch 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:41.600 and more likely to succeed in slave refools um. Slave 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:43.560 refolds are more likely to happen, of course, where slaves 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:48.520 of number white, where masters are absent, where there's economic distress, 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:52.240 where they are split within the ruling elite um and 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:56.000 when you know large numbers of Native one Africans from 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:58.600 one area of brought in one time, which is why 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:02.119 they often have to split up there the people that 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:04.200 they captured, so they wouldn't be able to collaborate with 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:09.240 their can We often remember the flashy of forms of revolts, 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:12.800 such as the revolt in St. Joseph in seven led 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:16.360 by Dagger, who was a former African chief in Guinea 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:23.639 and the leader of the first British West India regiment Um. 0:21:23.760 --> 0:21:30.120 He mutinied along with two men, and although they were 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:37.320 taken into custody and sentenced to death, they marked just 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:41.920 one example of this sort of bold actions that were 0:21:41.920 --> 0:21:45.840 taken by in state of people in Tobago Um in 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:51.159 the year seventeen seventy. There were numerous armed revolts over 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:54.080 the next eleven years, from seventeen seventy eighteen o one, 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:58.399 six armed revolts, one by led by an enslaveman named 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:02.480 Sandy in seventeen seventy two in seventeen seventy one, one 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:05.440 in June, yet in August, one in seventeen seventy three, 0:22:05.640 --> 0:22:08.720 another in seventeen seventy four, another in eighteen o one. 0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:12.119 And so these revolts are a constrat didn't one specific 0:22:12.200 --> 0:22:15.200 ear of the island. They would happen in some cases 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:19.159 over the entire island. Tobago is of course separate from 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:22.760 Trained Dad until nine where it became a ward of 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:28.080 Trina Tobago. But and so their history is the history 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:32.440 of Trian Island history of Tobago. We're separate, running separately 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:38.480 for the first couple hundred years of the age of qualization, 0:22:39.760 --> 0:22:46.520 but Tobago's history of resistance is still connected in some 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:50.080 ways to trend Dad's history of resistance in the sense 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:53.560 of the bold actions that were taken by and slave people. 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:58.240 Of course, not all resistance to slavery was so bold. 0:22:59.080 --> 0:23:01.720 Day to day resistant was by far the most common 0:23:01.760 --> 0:23:06.080 form of opposition to slavery, whether it be through feigning illness, 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:13.520 staging slowdowns, pretending ignorance, deliver a carelessness awesome and sabotage 0:23:13.680 --> 0:23:23.440 breaking tools. These sorts of expressions, while they reinforced previously 0:23:23.480 --> 0:23:30.600 held perceptions of enslaved Africans at the time, they also 0:23:33.600 --> 0:23:37.520 ways of enslaved people to express their alienation and to 0:23:37.600 --> 0:23:41.720 sort of carve some level of space or breathing room, 0:23:41.800 --> 0:23:45.879 or to give themselves some sense of catharsis in that 0:23:46.080 --> 0:23:50.200 brutal period. And so what we see is a sort 0:23:50.240 --> 0:23:54.480 of continuum of resistance from that sort of individual level 0:23:54.760 --> 0:24:01.119 of slowing down or feeling ignorance or what or whatever, 0:24:01.440 --> 0:24:06.359 to the sort of broader cultural methods of passive resistance, 0:24:06.440 --> 0:24:12.320 such as you know, cultivating and passing down culture and 0:24:12.960 --> 0:24:16.680 cultural memories, to the more bold aspects of resistance, which 0:24:16.680 --> 0:24:25.320 as revolts and rebellions and revolutions. And of course there 0:24:25.480 --> 0:24:31.879 was the practice of maroonage, both petite and grand maroonage. 0:24:31.880 --> 0:24:39.879 Petite maroonage was an effort by individuals or groups of 0:24:39.960 --> 0:24:46.439 enslaved people to escape from their plantations permanentally sometimes but 0:24:46.600 --> 0:24:51.800 usually for a limited amount of time, to escape mistreatment, 0:24:52.000 --> 0:24:59.160 to negotiate better treatment, or to even just catch a break. Honestly. 0:25:00.000 --> 0:25:05.480 Grand moonage is more commonly understood and recognized where communities 0:25:05.560 --> 0:25:12.119 of fugitive slaves would establish communities on the fringes in 0:25:12.200 --> 0:25:18.080 the swamps of Louisiana, for example, or in the mountains 0:25:18.119 --> 0:25:23.520 of Jamaica. And these moon communities have been established since 0:25:23.560 --> 0:25:27.399 the very beginning, since the early sixteenth century, when the 0:25:27.400 --> 0:25:30.520 fullest and slave African support to the Caribbean by the Spanish. 0:25:31.280 --> 0:25:34.879 They would often unite with Amerindians, whether it be you 0:25:34.920 --> 0:25:41.560 know Tinos or Kalinago's, or go to base and unite 0:25:41.560 --> 0:25:48.679 with them in their resistance in carving out settlements or 0:25:49.119 --> 0:25:54.360 strongholds of safety. For example, in fifty six in Hispaniola, 0:25:54.600 --> 0:25:58.040 they were over seven thousand Maroons among a slave population 0:25:58.080 --> 0:26:02.479 of tight thousands. After the island was split between the 0:26:02.480 --> 0:26:05.080 French santoming which is later which is now known as 0:26:05.119 --> 0:26:09.160 Haiti and the Spanish Santo Domingo which is Dominican Republic 0:26:09.560 --> 0:26:14.200 in six Maroons took advantage of the hostility between France 0:26:14.240 --> 0:26:17.679 and Spain to maintain settlements along the border between the 0:26:17.720 --> 0:26:21.560 two throughout the period of slavery. Addition, there were ruins 0:26:21.640 --> 0:26:25.639 in Cuba, in Puerto Rico, and in some cases with 0:26:25.680 --> 0:26:32.200 Puerto Rico. Fugitive slaves from the Virgin Islands would literally 0:26:32.240 --> 0:26:36.800 set sail to Puerto Rico to settle and escape the 0:26:36.920 --> 0:26:42.520 enslavemand Yeah. In Jamaica, of course, there are many ruined communities, 0:26:42.600 --> 0:26:45.920 and in fact, there is still an active Maroon community 0:26:45.920 --> 0:26:49.080 in Jamaica to this day that has persisted and maintained 0:26:49.080 --> 0:26:54.040 their traditions UM in sant Kitts in Antigua, in Barbados, 0:26:54.359 --> 0:26:58.320 in Martinique and Quada Loup. All of these islands have 0:26:58.440 --> 0:27:05.399 had Maroon community established UM. However, as European cultivation of 0:27:05.440 --> 0:27:08.679 the islands increased. As Europeans ventured further and further into 0:27:08.720 --> 0:27:11.520 the islands, into the taps of the islands, it became 0:27:11.560 --> 0:27:14.479 more and more difficult to establish Moon settlements because if 0:27:14.520 --> 0:27:19.520 you look at some of the smaller islands, it's kind 0:27:19.560 --> 0:27:23.240 of difficult to hide or to establish any sort of 0:27:23.240 --> 0:27:29.320 sustainable community on the fringes of an island that you 0:27:29.359 --> 0:27:33.840 could easily jog from one side to the other, or 0:27:34.160 --> 0:27:37.639 you know, walk from one side to the other. Of course, 0:27:38.240 --> 0:27:40.919 even on those smaller islands, there were still attempts to 0:27:41.080 --> 0:27:44.800 maintain Moon settlements, such as in St. Vincent or Dominico. 0:27:45.760 --> 0:27:50.600 In St. Vincent, the Garifuna, which an indigenous group mixed 0:27:50.640 --> 0:27:55.480 who mixed with Africans, preserved they depend their independence against 0:27:55.520 --> 0:27:59.120 both French and the British, and they ended up spreading 0:27:59.200 --> 0:28:02.919 to if I recorded correctly, Central America as well, and 0:28:02.920 --> 0:28:06.080 so the Garifona community is still very much alive and 0:28:06.119 --> 0:28:11.480 well to this day. In Jamaica and Cuba and Guadeloup 0:28:11.560 --> 0:28:16.520 and Hispaniola, Marion communities were able to last longer because 0:28:16.600 --> 0:28:20.120 they had um more mountainous terrain to hide in, particularly 0:28:20.119 --> 0:28:25.879 in Jamaica. Um but they were also Maroon communities on 0:28:25.920 --> 0:28:29.119 the South American mainland. You know, in Brazil there was 0:28:29.160 --> 0:28:33.520 the famous Maroon community or quilombo known as peal Mares, 0:28:33.560 --> 0:28:38.080 which has existed for nearly years. From sixteen o five 0:28:38.240 --> 0:28:41.720 to six, there is a certain invasion by both the 0:28:41.800 --> 0:28:46.360 Dutch and Portuguese and had at least ten thousand organized 0:28:48.200 --> 0:28:54.680 um members ready to defend their population. They were governed 0:28:54.720 --> 0:28:57.520 by a king who used the political traditions drawn from 0:28:57.520 --> 0:29:05.880 Central Africa, but they unfortunately were eventually destroyed in the 0:29:05.920 --> 0:29:10.920 Guyana's French Guyana Um, British Guyana which is now called 0:29:10.960 --> 0:29:15.600 Guyana Um, Dutch Guyana which is now called Suriname. Marion 0:29:15.640 --> 0:29:18.760 communities were also able to establish themselves and they still 0:29:18.800 --> 0:29:25.040 persist to this day due to the um Amazon rainforest 0:29:25.160 --> 0:29:30.680 and the river wheels that allowed them to conceal themselves 0:29:30.760 --> 0:29:34.760 from colonial encroachment. Of course, in the US there were 0:29:34.760 --> 0:29:38.880 all Summaron communities like the Black Seminoles of Florida or 0:29:38.960 --> 0:29:42.080 the Marion communities in Um I believe it was the 0:29:42.080 --> 0:29:47.880 Louisiana It's most places. Of course, Maroon communities were not 0:29:48.040 --> 0:29:53.240 very large um or often did not last very long. 0:29:54.120 --> 0:29:57.880 They're usually small thriller bands led by an elected chief. 0:29:59.040 --> 0:30:02.719 But of course these war bands in there, although they 0:30:02.720 --> 0:30:06.479 were small, that sort of protected them to some extent 0:30:06.720 --> 0:30:12.920 from detection and from recapture. In Cuba, for example, they 0:30:12.920 --> 0:30:17.160 were hundreds of small Maroon communities and they were guarded, 0:30:18.240 --> 0:30:21.600 and they were and they had their settlements guarded by 0:30:21.880 --> 0:30:26.240 ditches and steaks and secret paths, and these settlements communicated 0:30:26.280 --> 0:30:29.600 with each other while remaining isolated so they could grow 0:30:29.640 --> 0:30:33.680 their own crops and hunt and fish and trade in peace, 0:30:34.120 --> 0:30:39.560 sometimes with other islands in order to prevent again capture 0:30:39.760 --> 0:30:43.640 and destruction. I think there's a lot that we can 0:30:43.760 --> 0:30:48.400 learn from the different forms of resistance, small and large 0:30:48.800 --> 0:30:51.800 that instead of people, and it took throughout the period 0:30:52.000 --> 0:30:58.280 of colonial settlements and expansion and enslavement, elements of their 0:30:58.440 --> 0:31:03.480 practices that I think could be applied to these struggles. 0:31:04.800 --> 0:31:08.479 Do you have any thoughts before wrap? Yeah? One thing 0:31:08.480 --> 0:31:12.320 I kind of want to plug is Russell Maroon Shows 0:31:12.480 --> 0:31:19.920 wrote a really interesting I don't know exactly what the 0:31:20.600 --> 0:31:23.920 name for essay, I guess called The Dragon and the Hydra, 0:31:24.840 --> 0:31:28.200 which is a study. Yeah, yeah, it's called Dragon the 0:31:28.280 --> 0:31:31.360 Hydra study of historical study of organizational methods, and it's 0:31:31.360 --> 0:31:35.280 about basically a comparison of like different different kinds of 0:31:35.320 --> 0:31:39.600 resistance to colony landsman enslavement that talks a lot about 0:31:39.640 --> 0:31:44.479 the Roan movement, talks about sort of the problems that 0:31:44.520 --> 0:31:46.760 these sort of like highly centralized, top down movements ran 0:31:46.800 --> 0:31:50.000 into versus the kind of stuff that the that these 0:31:50.040 --> 0:31:55.080 sort of more decentralized, less hierarchical Moroon movements face. And 0:31:55.120 --> 0:31:58.880 it's it's really interesting and it's pretty short. Everyone should 0:31:58.920 --> 0:32:01.920 just read it because it's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He 0:32:02.000 --> 0:32:07.600 covers the us p T, Suriname and Jamaica, and you 0:32:07.640 --> 0:32:11.520 know how those different Moon communities dealt with their conditions. 0:32:12.400 --> 0:32:14.600 I'm pretty sure you brought this from prison too, if 0:32:14.640 --> 0:32:19.560 I'm remembering my timeline history correctly. Yes, I highly recommend 0:32:19.640 --> 0:32:22.240 folks give that a read. I mean, I don't want 0:32:22.240 --> 0:32:25.120 to give the impression that Buring communities where these like 0:32:26.040 --> 0:32:30.280 valiant utopias. I mean, in some cases moreon communities were 0:32:31.080 --> 0:32:37.760 manipulated UM against the other and often in exchange for 0:32:38.000 --> 0:32:42.600 maintaining their autonomy, they were made to sign treaties where 0:32:42.600 --> 0:32:46.720 they would have to turn in UM fugitives. So it 0:32:46.840 --> 0:32:51.200 was not by any means are perfect situation to be in. 0:32:51.360 --> 0:32:56.000 But they were trying to cough out their survival. Yeah, 0:32:56.000 --> 0:32:59.840 I guess do you want to plug your stuff? So 0:33:00.080 --> 0:33:02.640