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African American History

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Submitted By JoyJones86
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June Kight
The Institution of Slavery
Bethel University

The Institution of Slavery
When we think about the institution of slavery we automatically assume that they were completely dominated by their owners. Although this was mostly true, there were many slaves that resisted and fought back. Sometimes the slaves fought back by being blatantly disobedient to their masters. Other times the slaves rebelled covertly, sneaking and doing things that were forbidden for them. Whether the slaves started a rebellion, ran away or resisted their day to day responsibilities, the found ways to rebel. The slaves were even successful in many of their attempts at rebelling.
One of the main reasons that slaves rebelled was to protect their families. Human nature propels us to protect our family. It was the same way for slaves. Not only did they have to worry about their families dying due to poor living conditions, they had to deal with slave auctions. Slaves had to wrestle with the fact that at any moment, a loved one could be sold to the neighboring plantation or several cities and states away. One form of rebellion to this type of treatment was running away. Many slaves ran away for short periods of time to escape punishment or gain relief from their daily workload. Other slaves ran away to escape the slave lifestyle. Of course it was easier for men to escape, but many women and children were successful at this type of rebellion. Slaves used songs to hide instructions on where to go. They also had a network of people helping them, known as the “Underground Railroad”.
One of the most common forms of slave rebellion was the day to day rebellion. This consisted of the slaves doing small acts of rebellion that interfered or complicated things for their overseers and owners. Day to day rebellion could range from anything such as acting as if they were sick, taking longer than usual

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