Eye for an Eye: The Role of Armed Resistance ... - Freedom Archives

Chapter One: Historic Armed Black Resistance :
Establishing a Tradition
The presentation of Black Southerners in popular culture, rarely represents
a tradition of armed resistance . Images of docile slaves and terrorized sharecrop-
pers reinforce the "happy darkie" mythology presented by apologists for the
systems of chattel slavery and Jim Crow . The existence of armed resistance by
Africans and their descendants in North America contradicts the myth of the
"happy darkie ." While one must understand that the Black experience contains a
spectrum of responses to slavery and oppression, it is clear armed resistance is a
significant aspect of the Black experience in North America and in the South, in
particular. Black armed resistance represents a continuum within the Black expe-
rience which goes back to the sixteenth century. Several factors are responsible
for the development of this tradition . The continuity of the African traditions of
warfare as well as influences from the Native American and Euro-American
military traditions were significant agents in the development of this Black armed
resistance . Most important is that the use of force has historically been a means
of resistance for a people fighting against social oppression . In the context of
responding to oppression in a society where there is a high level of violence and
quantity and of guns, the use of violent force by oppressed groups should not
come as a surprise .
African Military Tradition and Resistance in North America
One of the most important debates within the historiography of the Black