15 Responses from slaves / Slave resistance

Slaves responded or reacted differently to all forms of ill-treatment which they received from their masters.

• They would connive/ collaborate with the house maids and poison their masters
• In some cases they would break the bottles, grind them and apply them in the food for their masters.
• They boiled seeds so that they will not germinate.
• They also responded by damaging equipment
• They would also derelict/adjust equipment to reduce levels of production.
• Female slaves practiced infanticide whereby they killed their new babies so that they will not be enslaved.

• They would stick to their African music and way of life even though they were in the new world (cultural resistance)
• They would also take advantage of language to give nicknames to their masters.
• They would also continue to do their cultural practices.
• At times if they get a chance they would run away into secluded places where they would establish maroon societies where they would be free.
• They would defend their maroon societies against invaders.
• They facked illnesses so that they will not go to work.
• Some practiced self- mutilation like breaking their hands to deny the masters profits associated with their labour.
• Some responded by doing the jobs so slowly and badly
• Some stole equipment, machinery and seeds as an act of sabotage