Movements Towards Emancipation

Slaves' Actions

• Slaves initiated the movement towards their emancipation.
• They employed methods like infanticide, abortion, sabotage, running away, suicide, malingering, and revolts.
• Some slaves viewed death and a return to Africa as preferable to slavery's abuses.

Reasons Female Slaves Ran Away

• Sexual exploitation by planters and white employees.
• Brutality from planters' jealous wives.
• Separation from families or mates.
• Cruel treatment by planters.
• Forced to work in fields until shortly before childbirth and return soon after, limiting newborn care.
• Distress over children's deaths without consideration.
• Passionate desire for freedom for emancipation.

Factors Affecting Success of Running Away

• Refuge among escaped slaves (especially Maroons) or freed slaves.
• Topography in larger territories (e.g., Jamaica) aided escapees.
• Runaways in towns could find safe haven due to shifting population of free coloureds and blacks.

Constraints to Escape

• Lack of manumission meant runaways were easily detected.
• Planters used severe punishments to discourage running away.
• Maroons in Jamaica signed a treaty in 1739 to return runaways.
• Betrayal by some slaves dependent on masters.
• Fear of inability to support themselves outside the estate.
• Small islands offered few hiding places.
• Planters used militia to track down runaways.
• Pregnancy and children hampered women.

Revolts

• Revolts were a constant feature of Caribbean slave society and the method most feared by whites.
• Most revolts were initiated and carried out by African-born slaves.

Reasons Most Revolts Were Instigated by African-Born Slaves

• African-born slaves from militaristic societies like the Akan resisted enslavement.
• They possessed skills in forest warfare and guerrilla tactics.
• In some territories (e.g., Jamaica, St. Dominque), they outnumbered Creole slaves.
• They knew and resented the loss of freedom experienced in Africa.
• Obeahmen, often African-born, led and planned revolts, convincing slaves of immunity through potions.

Reasons Slaves Felt Revolts Could Bring Freedom

• They vastly outnumbered whites.
• They knew the countryside well.
• They were skilled in guerrilla tactics.
• They planned strategically and timed actions.
• They aimed for surprise attacks.
• They could escape into the interior in larger colonies.
• They were inspired by the Haitian slaves' success.

Effects of Methods Used Against Slavery

• Growing fear among planters due to vulnerability to domestic slaves.
• Sabotage and malingering undermined profitability.
• Denial of labor lowered production while maintenance costs remained constant.
• Birth control and infanticide reduced natural population growth, necessitating continued slave imports until 1808.
• Running away further undermined profitability through labor loss.

Difficulties Experienced in Using Resistance Methods

• Lack of unity among slaves.
• Shortage of weapons.
• Lack of coordination.
• Fear of punishment.
• Limited scope of infanticide and abortion due to planters' dependence on natural growth.
• Limited effectiveness of running away in certain areas.
• Need to defend hideouts militarily.
• Planters' access to militia and mother country troops.
• Planters' 'divide and rule' policy fostered disunity.
• Strict laws and severe punishments for offenses.

Effects of Revolts on Planters

• Financial losses from destruction of buildings and crops.
• Loss of slaves through death, injury, or escape.
• Instability made it difficult to get loans.
• Some planters terminated businesses due to fear.
• Planters blamed interference from metropolitan governments and abolitionists instead of addressing the severity of conditions.
• Missionaries suffered intensely after slave revolts.
• Planters' attitude hardened, leading to brutal suppression.
• Hostility towards metropolitan governments due to reforms.
• Some planters benefited from increased sugar market in British Caribbean due to revolts elsewhere.
• Revolts forced planters to recognize their dangerous position and accept emancipation with compensation and apprenticeship.

Effects of Revolts on Slaves

• Death in battle.
• Execution.
• Deportation.
• Merciless punishment.
• Intolerable conditions due to retaliatory actions.
• Some were cowed into submission.
• Others maintained the will to resist.
• The Haitian revolution inspired the Maroons of Jamaica to revolt.
• Demonstrated that Europeans were not invincible.
• Some slaves became impatient for their freedom.
• Revolts created divisions among the slaves.
• Created opportunities for leaders to emerge.

Reasons Slaves Failed to Overthrow the System of Slavery

• Divisions within the slave group between Creole and African-born slaves.
• Limited aims of some rebel groups.
• Treaties between Bush Negroes/Maroons and colonial powers.
• Betrayal by domestic slaves.
• Unity among free groups (coloureds and whites) against slaves.
• Size and topography of the territory.
• Leadership struggles (e.g., Cuffy and Atta in Berbice Revolt).
• Military strength of the whites.
• Lack of external assistance.

Abolitionists' Actions

• Abolitionist including humanitarians, Quakers and some industrialists successfully completed the task that the slaves failed to accomplish.

Granville Sharpe

• Granville Sharpe took up the cause of slaves, following his discovery of Jonathan Strong.
• Sharpe secured Strong's release and brought the case of James Somerset to court.
• In June 1772, Lord Mansfield ruled that owners could not use force against slaves in England, leading to Somerset's freedom.

Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade

• In 1787,