These are few instances where slaves fought for their freedom against the odds.
Kanye West’s comments about slavery and racial relations in the United States in the past few weeks have not gone down well with anybody.
After weeks of spewing out nuggets of (his own brand of) wisdom on Twitter over the past few weeks, African Americans (and in a way, all Africans) had enough when ‘Ye bellowed in a recent visit to American Gossip site, TMZ, that “Slavery seemed like a choice”.
Excuse you, sir?!
Fans of Ye’s free-thinking have tried to counter his opponents with various arguments about love and why we need to understand the past.
It isn’t particularly surprising that most of these arguments have ignored basic facts of history.
‘Ye saying that slavery was a choice implies that the Africans and people of other nationalities who were abducted, broken, bartered, subjugated and overworked during that dark era in the world’s history did so, even though they had an alternative.
The many slave uprisings during the slave era are evidence that even after they had been brought to a new continent, even after new generations were born into slavery, the oppressed still made attempts to regain their freedom.
Slave owners often lived in fear of their slaves, who were much stronger, resilient and numerous than them. On certain occasions, the pain of bondage boiled over and the slaves revolted, most times, with fatal consequences.
Here are 5 slave uprisings that someone needs to remind Kanye West about:
(1) Nat Turner’s Rebellion:
After experiencing prophetic visions asking him to take his freedom by force, a deeply religious Nat Turner and his accomplices killed his master’s family as they slept. So began what would be called Nat Turner’s Rebellion of 1831, a bloody uprising in Southampton County, Virginia.
Turner’s small band of slaves, about 70 of them, moved from house to house, eventually killing over 50 white people.
It eventually took a militia to suppress the uprising. Even after Turner and about 55 other slaves were executed, reprisal attacks from white mobs and militias killed as many as 200 slaves.
Turner was a well-read slave and in the weeks after, his intelligence was cited as the reason for his revolt. To forestall future occurrences, several states passed laws prohibiting anyone from teaching blacks to read and write.
(2) The Haitian Revolution:
Regarded as the most successful slave rebellion in history, the Haitian Revolution began with slave riots and ended with the creation of an independent state.
In 1791, slaves in the French colony of Saint-Dominique launched a well-organised revolt against their white masters, killing thousands. Sugar plantations where the blacks were put to work were burned to the ground, as the rebels continued to gain ground across the colony.
The revolution did not end until three years later when the French government banned slavery in all its territories. Now free, the famed rebel general Toussaint Louverture joined forces with French Republicans and become governor of the Island.
However, the war was not won yet. When Napoleon captured Louverture and attempted to reintroduce slavery, the former slaves found a new leader and defeated French forces in 1803.
The next year, they declared the colony independent and founded the free republic of Haiti.
(3) The St. John Insurrection:
In November 1733, a group of slaves from the Akan tribe of Ghana, plagued by harsh conditions and stringent slave laws, decided it was time to revolt against their masters on the Danish-owned island of St. John.
The slaves began by using smuggled weapons to kill soldiers stationed in a fort inside one of the plantations where they worked.
Soon enough, co-conspirators gathered on the island’s other plantations. With time, they seized control of St. John’s, ruling it for six months.
Their time in the sun was cut short when in May 1734, several hundred French troops arrived and suppressed the rebellion.
(4) The Creole Revolt of 1841:
In November 1841, an American slave cook by the name Madison Washington led what would become the most successful slave uprising in American history.
While in service on the brig Creole, which was transporting 134 slaves between states, Washington spurred 17 of his fellow slaves to revolt.
They killed one of the slave traders, and in time, seized possession of the ship. Then they changed course to Nassau, which was under British control and had abolished slavery.
Despite demands from America for their return, the slaves were declared free by the British Government.
Washington and his band of rebels faced a different fate though; the wrong end of a mutiny charge.
Months after their revolt, a court ruled in favour of the freedmen in April 1842.
Apart from five who preferred to return to America and slavery, 128 slaves got their freedom.
(5) The Igbo Landing of 1803:
Yes, it’s Igbo as in the dominant tribe in South-East Nigeria.
The Igbo landing refers to the site of a mass suicide at Dunbar Creek,Georgia in the United States. In 1803, a group of captive Igbos who took control of their slave ship and refused a life of slavery in the United States.
Upon landing in the United States, a group of 75 Igbo slaves were sold to agents of John Couper and Thomas Spalding for 100 dollars each.
The Igbos had already built a reputation for being fiercely independent. So when they were packed under the deck of a small vessel to take them to the plantation, someone must have expected them to put up one final fight.
Which was exactly what they did. They drowned their captors and grounded the vessel at the site now known as Igbo landing.
There are varying accounts of what happened next. One account claims the slaves walked into the creek, singing in Igbo, “The Water Spirit brought us, the Water Spirit will take us home”.
The event is of deep cultural and political significance in the struggle for black independence as a symbol of defiance and the lengths to which one must fight oppression.
Source: News Agencies
