Slaves who did not directly rebel made their masters’ lives miserable through a variety of indirect protests against slavery. These include sabotage, stealing, malingering, murder, arson, and infanticide. Many day to day resistance of plantation slaves took the forms of doing breaking tools, doing shoddy work, feigning illness, stealing, and running away. These resistance usually occurs when a master or overseer overstep customary bounds. Slaves tried to establish proper treatment through these acts. This was the slave’s way to express their opposition towards slavery.

There were major revolts (or attempted slave insurrections) before the Civil War. In 18

Slave revolts were most likely to occur when the number of slaves outnumber the number whites, when masters are absent, during economic distress, and when there’s a large slaveholding unit. Unfortunately, these types of conditions did not happen in the American South compared to the West Indies or Brazil. Therefore, slave uprisings in American South were less extensive and less frequent than the West Indies. The chances of success and consequences of defeat are catastrophic in American South. In Jamaica, the number of slaves outnumbered whites 10 to 1 whereas in the American South, whites were a majority in every state and there’s a large number of white population committed to suppressing rebellion. Also, the slaveholding units in American South were much smaller than in Western Hemisphere. For example, half of all US slaves work in units of 20 or less compared to a sugar plantation in Jamaica that has more than 500 slaves.

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