They faced much adversity on their tireless path to gain freedom from their oppressive owners. Slaves were thought to be inferior to their white owners. Therefore they were not allowed to take part in anything other than that of their life as servants. They were subject to oppressive laws, "Slave Codes", brutal torture, sexual abuse, and were also culturally scarred. In response to this horrible mistreatment, they took part in many different types of resistance against their enslavement.
The African resistance in the United states was much different than that of African resistance in other parts of the world. The population of the U.S. was smaller, yet there was not enough unsettled land for the slaves to run to and start their own rebel colonies. Even if they did happen to escape, the harsh weather made it almost impossible to maintain their communities. Their efforts to organize against their oppression was stunted because the plantation life was very isolated. In 1807 the federal prohibition of the importation of enslaved persons caused a loss of the rebellious spirit in the slaves. Also the plantation owners started to let the slaves create families, which caused the male slaves to decline to try and rebel for fear of loosing ones family. However these factors did not seem to hamper the rebellious spirit in slaves too much.
There was still a lot of resistance against the oppressive slaveholders. The slaves resisted in many different ways. They resisted culturally, on a day-to-day basis. Culturally they would continue to practice their native dances, read moral narratives, played music, kept their native language patterns alive, built and maintained families, practiced their own spiritual beliefs, and even did magic. "The slaves made European forms serve African functions." The slaves also tried to stay as creative as possible, even though their owners tried to destroy any sort of past and future that their slaves might have.
