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

and skills, the closing of the "slave trade" also affected the military know-how of
the Black population in the U .S . Taking Thornton's thesis into consideration, the
creolization of the enslaved African population in the U .S .A. lessened Black
military preparedness . As the enslaved population on the plantation became more
creole, any military experience was rare . Antebellum states also limited Black
military capability by placing restrictions on the use of firearms by Blacks, slave
or free . While Southern law denied Blacks access to weapons, there were gener-
ally exceptions to these measures . Not only were slaves allowed to be armed by
their slavers, but in some cases clandestinely obtained firearms. During the
American Civil War, Union Colonel Thomas Higginson reported formerly en-
slaved Blacks had "as much previous knowledge of the gun" as the average white
recruit." Finally, the numbers of enslaved African laborers on the average Carib-
bean and Latin American plantation was larger than their counterparts in the U .S .
Smaller plantations made it more difficult to communicate in the type of numbers
necessary to coordinate a massive rebellion.
In spite of the above and other obstacles, the number of attempted insur-
rections is remarkable . Most documented slave conspiracies were by definition
not spontaneous, involving planning and daring . Evidence shows that several
attempted insurrections took place when enslaved Africans sensed a shift in the
balance of forces . The previously mentioned maroon and Spanish support for
uprising in colonial South Carolina was certainly inspiration for the African rebels
of Stono . Internal debates within the political hierarchy of white American society
occurred prior to the attempted insurrections led by Gabriel Prosser in 1800,
Denmark Vessey in 1822, and Nat Turner in 1831 . 2 ' An aborted insurrection in