BakerJournal

Zinn’s chapter 9 article stated the ideas and attempts of slaves. Zinn talks about how the U.S. had such a desire for slave labor because of the production and sale of cotton. The slaves made it possible for their masters to produce more cotton than they could ever imagine with very little costs. The southern states had an enormous compilation of laws, courts, armed forces and etc. behind them to keep their control over the slaves strong. Zinn goes on to say that it would take either a full scale war or rebellion to free these slaves and change these deeply held beliefs that blacks were second class citizens at least. A large misconception back then was that slaves were happy and enjoyed there lives because of their singing and dancing at night. A former slave John Little spoke about this by saying that it was all that they could do to keep their hearts from breaking. The loud noises and celebrations were their only refuge from the painful lives they lived. Though there were many slave revolts in America, they were no where near as frequent or as large as some of the ones in the Caribbean or South America. One of the largest revolts in America was one that took place in New Orleans. This encompassed roughly 500 slaves. They first killed their masters and then proceeded to go from plantation to plantation and retrieve more help. This was ended when the military arrived and killed 66 slaves on the spot and many others were sent to trial. Most of the trials ended in death by firing squad. Revolts, wars and running away were the most probable actions masters would expect from their slaves. Running away was the most common practice and was generally much easier to accomplish than gathering a multitude of followers. It was tolled that an average of 1000 slaves ran away and escaped every year. Many would go north to Canada or south to Mexico. These countries often offered some refuge since the American government had very little power and these were not large slave using countries. Harriet Tubman was a leader of the Underground Railroad which carried slaves from the south to the north. Tubman, a slave used to say that she would either live free or die, she would never return to being a slave.
Why did the slaves not revolt in a large scale before Lincoln?
How did slaves begin a revolt?
I already knew that there were many attempts by slaves to run but did not know about all of the attempted revolutions undertaken. I don’t understand how they could not revolt for such a long time. The horror of slavery I think would be worth dyeing for instead of ever being a slave.