Docile as the African slave was, he was bound at times to attempt to
free himself from the drudgery and sufferings of his lot. Naturally
the most direct, impulsive, and simple method was escape. Hence, we
are brought to compare the fugitive slave problem in Brazil to the
same problem in the United States.
In our own country the South had to combat an effective force which
did not exist in Brazil, namely, the antagonism of an Anti-slavery
North, which aided the Negroes by "underground railroads" to escape to
free territory, or to cross the Canadian line, where slavery was
prohibited. The Dismal Swamp in Virginia, and the Everglades of
Florida were favorite hiding places for fugitives.[43] In Brazil the
universal prevalence of slavery and the lack of opposition to the
practice by any considerable group up to the last days of its
existence gave the fleeing slave few friends. However, there was a
trackless wilderness to which he might flee. Especially qualified
runaway slave catchers were employed to trail such fugitives.
The other method of resisting the institution of slavery was by
organized risings. Riots and local revolts occurred occasionally in
the Old South, but were never serious and were easily quelled. The
most noteworthy revolts of blacks in America were actually mere
spouts. In the first half of the eighteenth century, for example, New
York was thrown into hysteria at the rumors of a threatened Negro
plot,[44] out of which nothing materialized. Gabriel's riot planned in
Richmond, Virginia, in 1800, ended very much like that in New York.
Another incident was the attempt in 1822 of a certain Negro, Denmark
Vesey, to start an insurrection at Charleston, which utterly failed.
Nat Turner, a religious fanatic, was the cause of the most serious
uprising of all. In 1831 he organized a revolt in Virginia which cost
the lives of several score of whites before it was quelled.[45] The
other spontaneous turn of the worm was the _Amistad_ incident,[46] in
which Negroes of the slave ship _Amistad_ rose and took possession of
the ship, and ordered the crew to guide her back to Africa. Instead,
the crew steered the vessel into a hospitable harbor, thus baffling
its captors. The rising of the slaves of the _Creole_ in somewhat the
same manner was more romantic.
All these pin pricks in the South are now to be contrasted to a series
of serious organized risings of slaves in Brazil, eruptions which at
times threatened the political control or integrity of a whole
district or province. In the United States the slave placidly
submitted. In Brazil he was at periods actually class conscious.
In Pernambuco, the Brazilian government was actually challenged by
slave rebels. It was during the chaotic days of 1630-1654, when the
Dutch were in occupation of Pernambuco, and the Brazilians were at war
with them, that hundreds of slaves fled to the interior, where they
established an independent state, consisting of a cluster of fortified
villages. Establishing a rude form of administration and a primitive
adaptation of Christianity, they actually governed themselves. After
the Dutch had been fairly well beaten, the whites turned to make war
upon the villages. For fifty years the villages held out, until in
1697, Palmares, the last and most important of the fortresses,
capitulated.[47]
Bahia lived in a perpetual fear of Negro uprising, and well were her
fears grounded, for here the Negro was most assertive against his
mistreatment. The population of Bahia in the first decade of the
nineteenth century is estimated by Henderson as being in the
neighborhood of 110,000, two thirds of which was slave. Once let the
slave get a start and with such odds in his favor the masters had best
beware. For this reason, slaves were prevented as much as possible
from organizing. No bondman might go on the streets of Bahia after
evening vespers, save with a pass from his master.[48] Yet the slaves
did at times organize. In 1808, when John VI, the Portuguese king,
arrived in Bahia, the slaves boldly communicated with him, asking
that the punishment of one hundred and fifty lashes be abolished.[49]
A short time after this episode, matters came to a culmination. As was
usual at holiday time, slaves congregated in plazas, chose a chief for
the day, to whom they did homage. This was a customary feat, tolerated
by the authorities of the city. On this particular occasion, a friend
of Henderson noticed that a white man was being hanged in effigy. He
sniffed trouble. Only a few months later the Bahian authorities were
lucky, by timely arrests, to save the whole population from being
massacred by the enraged slaves in an impending insurrection, whose
purpose was nothing less than the wholesale slaughter of the entire
white population of the city, with the exception of the governor,
D'Arcos, whom the insurrectos were to raise as their prince. Already
they had murdered many whites in the outskirts of the city.[50]
Thus, in the Old South, flight was the leading form of resistance to
the institution of slavery; whereas in Brazil the more effective form
of resistance by organized uprising was more frequently attempted.