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Mark Fritz posted Apr 12, 2022 11:31 PM

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Growing up in Dorchester country Maryland we always use to ride past Harriett Tubman’s childhood house. It was taught to us at a young age who she was and what she did to free the slaves. I’ve been to the Harriett Tubman Underground Railroad National Park many times since its opening and was always in awe at the conditions slaves lived under. It wasn’t until reading the Slave Resistance narratives that the true feeling of actual conditions set in. It pulled at my heart strings and made me quite upset at the actions of slave owners. The museum was a bit lighter on how it portrayed their lives though. The underground railroad was one example of a subversive tactic used to resist slavery. Arnold Gragston nicknamed by himself as the “Conductor” would organize the underground railroad at night to free fellow slaves while working during the day. With his master never suspecting him of such activities, he chose to live on his master’s plantation as a life was provided for him there. The greatest story of resistance for myself was reading about William Colbert’s brother January. We all know the greatest way to invoke a reaction from someone is to not let it bother you. January took his beatings to a point where he enraged his Master and without crying out until he had no voice, he said with a hoarse voice “Massa! Massa! have mercy on dis poor nigger.” January stood strong against his beatings and resisted becoming dehumanized. The more depressing resistance to slavery by “Slaves” was suicide and murders. Women committing suicide to free themselves from a world of torment. Mothers killing their babies to prevent them from being born into a world of slavery. Slaves resisted self-definition of “slaves” by creating family. It gave slaves dignity, although it was something slave owners sought to stifle. In some instances, it gave the slaves a feeling of independence and families were split up in certain states to control the dehumanization of slaves. Families would protest peacefully through prayer, waiting for the Lord to free them, with prayers answers after the war. Many slaves sought to steal food to survive on the plantation. One instance of a slave in the night killing off hogs and blaming disease in order to feed the community. I particularly enjoyed reading of the act’s slaves used as a sort of escape and evasion tactic. Using graveyard dust and lightwood splinters they would smoke their feet to confuse the purpose bred “nigger hounds” from finding them as they escaped. If there weren’t high levels of dehumanization and demoralization of slaves during the time, slaves being quite crafty may have fought back sooner. As Felix Haywood said “If every mother’s son of a black had thrown ‘way his hoe and took up a gun to fight for his own freedom along with the Yankees, the war’d been over before it began.”