Throughout the brutal centuries of American slavery, resistance was as common as the oppression itself. Enslaved Africans did not passively accept their bondage; they rebelled, sometimes in open defiance, other times in carefully organized revolts that struck at the...
Slavery in the Caribbean was anything but a civilizing mission, it was a system of violence, exploitation, and relentless suffering that lasted over 300 years. In Cuba, where the sugar economy thrived on the backs of enslaved Africans, generations...
In the late 19th century, as European powers carved up Africa during the Scramble for Africa, many African leaders rose to resist colonial oppression. One such hero was Mangi Meli of the Chagga people in present-day Tanzania. His courageous...
On April 26, 1826, a desperate struggle for freedom unfolded aboard the Decatur, a coastwise slave ship sailing from Baltimore, Maryland, to New Orleans. Among the enslaved Africans on board was 24-year-old William Bowser, a young man who had...
The Tryal Rebellion of 1805 is one of the lesser-known but significant accounts of shipboard resistance against slavery. It took place in the South Pacific, off the coast of Chile, involving a group of Senegalese who were being transported...
The transatlantic slave trade was built on extreme violence, but it was never without resistance. From the moment of capture to the brutal conditions aboard slave ships, enslaved Africans fought back in every way they could. Revolts were frequent,...
In 1841, a group of enslaved Africans aboard the American brig Creole staged a daring revolt "The Creole Mutiny of 1841" that would become the most successful slave revolt in U.S. history. Led by Madison Washington, the rebels seized...
Charles Deslondes was an enslaved African man who was brutally executed for leading the 1811 German Coast Revolt, widely regarded as the largest slave uprising in U.S. history, involving over 500 people.
Born around 1789 on the plantation of Jacques...
Marcos Xiorro was an enslaved African in Spanish Puerto Rico who, led an unsuccessful slave revolt against the sugarcane plantation owners and the Spanish Colonial government in 1821. His story, though largely forgotten, remains a significant chapter in the...
In the early 18th century, the island of Curaçao, a Dutch colony in the Caribbean, was a hub of the transatlantic slave trade. During this time, the island saw few significant rebellions. However, one uprising in late 1716 would...
