Resistance and Revolt: How the Enslaved Fought Back

Abolition was not simply a gift from reformers; enslaved people resisted slavery constantly. Everyday resistance included working slowly, preserving languages, music and religious practices, learning to read in secret, and running away. Some escapees formed free communities known as maroons: in Jamaica, maroons fought the British to a standstill and won treaties in 1739, and in Brazil the settlement of Palmares survived for most of the seventeenth century.

Large revolts shook slave societies, including Tacky's Revolt in Jamaica (1760), the Demerara rising of 1823, and the Christmas Rebellion or Baptist War in Jamaica in 1831–32, led by Samuel Sharpe. These risings were suppressed, often with mass executions, but they convinced many in Britain that slavery could not last and that its violence was intolerable. Historians now see this resistance as a major cause of abolition, alongside campaigns in Europe and the Americas.