Slave Revolts & Rebellions Quotes
Darwin was then a very young man, who had personal witnessed the slavery in South America and the Caribbean when he was on his famous expedition on HMS Beagle. See {630961} & {630962}. He was so disgusted with slavery that he hoped there would be armed slave revolutions and takeovers as had occurred in Haiti. Many of the English upper classes were radical when it came to slavery.
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. The “colonies” to which we was referring were the French Colonies in the Caribbean—particularly Haiti. The Black slaves had revolted against the slave-owners and had taken over all positions of authority and wore the uniforms and symbols of power including the epaulettes—the gold braid shoulder pieces that were symbols of high rank in military and diplomatic uniforms which were worn on all official occasions. Napoleon never did make good on his vow. He had many more problems with his own wars and governance in Europe. This quote does demonstrate the racism that existed in supposedly tolerant France.
Douglass was also of the opinion that slavery could not continue without alcohol. See {632445}.
See {630997} for the description of the terror policy.
This fear was great among many who were abolitionists as potentially there might be mass slaughter of all Southern whites.
In 1856 Kansas was at war over slavery. Kansas was to enter the Union with the resident men voting to determine whether it would be a slavery state or a free state. At first pro-slavery forces sent men into Kansas to increase the pre-slavery vote. The abolitionist anti-slavery forces outside of Kansas did the same, and had more money to finance anti-slavery settlers. Soon the pro-slavery forces, realizing that they would be outnumbered turned to violence and began to intimidate abolitionist settlers to return from whence they came. Soon abolitionists were killed and the anti-slavery men retaliated. Soon real war broke out but terrorism was the modality on most attacks as the purpose of the pro-slavery men was to frighten the abolitionists—many of whom were religious pacifists—into leaving the state. Brown and some other abolitionists retaliated with terror of their own, but Brown was rabid. He and his sons, attacked 5 pro-slavery fighters at Pottawatomie Creek, but Brown personally hacked off their limbs with a broadsword and left the bodies to intimidate and terrorize many of the pro slavery people. Brown was such a fanatic that he, in this infamous quote, claimed that his killing and butchery was “justified under the circumstances.” The phrase “Bleeding Kansas” came from the violence and terrorism in this period.
He stated that he had a vision and made these two prophesies that indeed came true. The first was the South Carolina secession starting the Civil War. The second, when the North used former slaves as soldiers who fought their old masters.
The point about the negroes who were born into American slavery being less aggressive than those captured and transported to America is often overlooked. Slavery not only was cruel, moral, and inhuman in its own right, but also took its toll over generations as a result of the psychological effects of the terror of slavery. Despite these, it is amazing how resiliant the American Blacks were under those circumstances. in some cases one or two saves escaped after committing a violent act as they had little to lose for trying as they wold be killed if caught. A few of these escaped to the North and others reached Southern Cities like Charleston where there was a small free black community in which they could be absorbed.
This prophecy written in the later years of Jefferson’s life turned out to be all too true. St. Domingo was an Island in the Caribbean where slavery produced a bloody war. The American Civil War would be far worse.
During the 1830’s the debate over whether the British Empire should abolish slavery was revived and caused much unrest, It illustrates the total incompatibility between slavery and literacy & education.
It was not successful militarily and Brown and his followers were hanged, but they rapidly became martyrs to the cause of freedom and abolition. As such they inspired not only abolitionists but many of the Northern soldiers in the Civil War. There were verses to the Battle Hymn of the Republic which were often sung by the Union Troops.”
His fear was well founded. That is exactly what the British tried to do.
Baldwin was a young lawyer at the time. He represented a shipload of ex-slaves who had taken over their Spanish slave ship and landed in America. The Spanish claimed, the ship owners and some of the crew all claimed the “property.”
One of the interesting arguments made against slavery prior to the Civil War was that as the proportion of slaves increased in America in general and the South in particular, the security risk from a slave rebellion increases markedly to the point that it was just too risky. John Brown’s small attempted slave revolt at Harpers Ferry put the entire state of Virginia in a panic and Virginia had relatively few slaves compared with deep South states.
In 1800 a Virginia slave, Gabriel, led a revolt. Whites panicked and a number of Blacks were killed:
This law, though clearly unconstitutional by modern legal standards, was used by the abolitionists to illustrate that slavery, in addition to infringing on the freedom and rights of Negroes, also curtailed the rights of white people who could not even read certain Biblical passages from the pulpit if a Negro was present. Virginia and North Carolina had similar laws except that they were more liberal. The death penalty could only be meted out for a second offense.
