PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

Volume 2
Issue 1 Challenging Paradigms: New Frontiers Article 31
in Graduate Research

2006

Women and Resistance in the African Diaspora, with

Special Focus on the Caribbean, Africa, and USA
Clare Johnson Washington
Portland State University

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Portland State University McNair Research Journal 2006‐2008

Women and Resistance in the African Diaspora, with special focus on the Caribbean, Africa
and USA
by
Clare Washington

Faculty Mentor:
E. Kofi Agorsah

Citation: Washington, Clare. Women and Resistance in the African Diaspora, with special focus
on the Caribbean, Africa and USA. Portland State University McNair Scholars Online Journal,
Vol. 2, 2006‐2008: pages [352‐377].
McNair Online Journal Page 1 of 26

“Women and Resistance in the African Diaspora,

with special focus on the Caribbean, Africa and USA”

Clare Washington
Kofi Agorsah, Faculty Mentor

INTRODUCTION

Resistance to the institution of slavery was very widespread, persistent, and to be found in

almost every aspect of slave life (Beckles, 1989: 152). All groups of slaves, regardless of sex, color,

or work had an anti-slavery mentality when it came to obeying their masters, and women were

among leaders of resistance movements. Women’s leadership roles, however, have been minimized

in writings about slave resistance.

As early as 1500, captive women become active participants in resistance to slavery. There

are accounts of revolt during the middle passage. For example, an English slaver captain, John

Newton, reports that ships that were under his command survived at least five revolts. One such

revolt was aboard the "Thomas" in 1797. The women on board were released and let on deck to get

exercise and eat. When they discovered that the armory was unlocked, they seized guns from this

container and overpowered the crew. The men were then released and the ships eventually

controlled by the captives. However, it should be noted that they were eventually recaptured

because of their inability to navigate the seas (Beckles 1989: 155). Still this was an early indication

of women’s unwillingness to accept their enslaved position.

Resistance history in the Caribbean and Americas in its various forms has always emphasized

the role of men as leaders and heroes. Studies in the last two decades (Momsen 1996, Mintz 1996,

Bush 1990, Beckles and Shephered 1996, Ellis 1985, 1996, Hart 1980, 1985) however, are beginning
McNair Online Journal Page 2 of 26

to suggest the enormous contributions of women to the successes of many of the resistance events.

Also, research revelations are being made about the negative impressions and images of enslaved

women depicted in colonial writings (Mathis 2001, Beckles and Shephered 1996, Cooper 1994,

Campbell 1986, Price 1996, Campbell 1987). Some of these new findings depict women as not only

actively at the forefront of colonial military and political resistance operations but performed those

activities in addition to their roles as the bearers of their individual original cultures. One group of

special interest in the Caribbean consisted of the women of the “runaway” communities as in

Jamaica and Suriname, where the rich heritage of the contributions of such women appear to

continue to be significant. (Agorsah 1994, Craton 1992, Hart 1980, 1985, Zips 1999) The research

done on the achievements of these communities, does not give much attention to the role and status

of the women of those communities, except their role as house-wives and bearers of children.

For slaves, life was harsh and harsher still for slave women. Slave men, in Antigua, were the

ones likely to hold non-agricultural and less arduous labor (Hector, 1996). Women had to take the

full brunt. From age 14 or 15 every slave woman, like the men, were assigned a plot. The women

were expected to produce no less than a man! Gender, differences in strength seemed to be of no

account. Slave women bore the full weight of field work, while they were excluded from the factory

and other skilled work. Slave women also had to compete with poor white women as hucksters.

And naturally, (or perhaps, “un-naturally") the law took the side of the poor white women against

black slave women. So it was that black slave women could not sell sugar, cotton, rum, molasses or

ginger without written permission. These were left, in the main, for poor white women. Of special

note is how specific these white minority, and therefore, discriminatory laws were. They determined

where black women could live and could not live, when they could be out of doors, and when they

could not, who they could be seen with and whom they could not. Their sub-humanity was enforced
McNair Online Journal Page 3 of 26

by law. But slave women were always the backbone of resistance in this and other Caribbean

territories. Slave women filed more complaints in the courts than men. And slave women

outnumbered men as offenders under Slave Laws. For example, in a Report on slaves in Guiana,

the so-called protector of slaves in 1826 had this to say: "There is no question as far as has come

within my reach of observation as to the difficulty of managing the women and they [the slave

women] are irritating and insolent to a degree -- often instigated by the men -- to take advantage of

the exemption from stripes and in town do little or nothing” (Hector, 1996).

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Running away from the harshness of the fields, the masters and the overseers is what I
learned about slavery in junior high and high school history books. Neither my teachers, nor any of

the books I read talked about or even mentioned other forms of resistance to slavery by both male

and female slaves, other than running away. Acts of murder, though not common, were also

committed by black women against their white oppressors. Women have also been found to figure

prominently in such events as suicides and mass poisonings (Klein, 1986: 94). Another excellent

text which is full of information, first person accounts, and resources is Barbara Bush’s book, Slave
Women in Caribbean Society 1650-1838. It covers such topics as slave women in resistance, as

transmitters of African culture, and their role in the labor force.

In Bush’s study, new revelations regarding the female slave in Caribbean society were

uncovered, which included: the vital and significant contribution she (the slave woman) made to

West Indian slave society; how she exhibited strength and independence which wasn’t previously

accredited; how she struggled alongside her men-folk to live, maintain her dignity, to survive, and

retain her integrity and culture; and her positive role in slave resistance.
McNair Online Journal Page 4 of 26

Pero Gaglo Dagbovie notes in his article, “Black women, Carter G. Woodson, and the

Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1915-1950”, that “Woodson himself lacked

background for broad historical writing; he was almost contemptuous of emotion; he had

limited human contacts and sympathies.” But several months after his death, W. E. B. Du Bois

concluded this harsh criticism of the founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and

History adding:

“he had no conception of the place of woman in creation.”

It is thought that Du Bois was criticizing Woodson for supposedly ignoring black women's

role in history. In 1991, almost four decades after Woodson's death, historian Patricia Morton, in

her book Disfigured Images: The Historical Assault on Afro-American Women (1991) elaborated on Du

Bois's provocative comment. She argued that starting in the nineteenth century and well into the

second half of the twentieth, many black male historians have contributed to White society's most

detrimental views, myths, and stereotypes of black womanhood. Though she notes that Woodson at

times defended black womanhood, she stresses that the “Father of Negro History” largely omitted

slave women and black female activists from his work. At the same time, she praises Woodson for

challenging “conventional orthodoxies,” specifically for deconstructing some of the myths

pertaining to black women.”

Woodson's views of black women may appear to have been at times ambiguous. But,

overall they were quite progressive when compared to other black male scholars and historians of

his time.3 While he did not publish monographs devoted to black women or fight actively and

openly for women's rights, he did publish several important articles in the 1930s which sought to

reconstruct the prevailing negative images of black womanhood. He welcomed black women with

open arms into a movement very dear to him. He also supported and celebrated their efforts at
McNair Online Journal Page 5 of 26

legitimizing and popularizing the study of African American life and history. Black female teachers,

club-women, librarians, amateur historians, and social activists played vital roles in the activities of

the ASNLH (Association for the Study of Negro Life and History).

Verene Shephered notes in the Introduction of Women in Caribbean History (Shepherd, ed.,

1999), that until the 1970s, Caribbean history books contained very little information about women.

Some of the reasons, according to Shepherd, were 1). the main focus of the early historians was on

issues relating to colonization, government, diplomacy, religion, trade and warfare. Men were more

involved in these activities than women; 2). some historians did not think that women’s issues

merited inclusion in history books, therefore they did not write about the history of women apart

from those who were great leaders or were involved in ‘public’ life; 3). social history techniques had

not yet become widely used in the writing of Caribbean history. Social history pays more attention

to groups which are not of the elite class and to topics such as family and reproduction – not at first

considered suitable or important topics for history textbooks; and 4). many historians opted to write

what they regarded as ‘gender natural’ history, believing that this was a more objective way of writing

history.

Shepherd goes on to say that the factors that contributed to a change in the subjects chosen

for history included: the slow acceptance of the methods of social history; the influence of the

international women’s movement with its attention to women’s rights; the emergence of ‘women’s

history’ (‘women’s history’ challenged the claim that only men should be written about and writers

of women’s history argued that our view of history would change if women were included in the

historical accounts); the emergence of a group of demographic and social historians concerned with

Caribbean women’s history; and the need to project a more positive image of Caribbean women,

especially black women; because stereotypes and negative images of Caribbean women abounded in
McNair Online Journal Page 6 of 26

the journals of Columbus, the books written by the early colonizers and settlers, travelers,

missionaries and others who visited the Caribbean in that period.

The writers who have contributed much to overturning the negative images of Caribbean

women and increasing our knowledge of the history of the Caribbean women include pioneers such

as Elsa Goveia, Lucille Mathurin-Mair, Barry Higman and Kamu Brathwaite. More recently we have

benefited from the books written by people like Rhoda Reddock, Hillary Beckles, Barbara, and

Marietta Morrissey. But Shepherd cautions that the current research still does not reflect the

historical experiences of all groups of women in the Caribbean (Shepherd, 1999).

PRESENT STUDY AND METHODOLOGY

This project is a work in progress on women in slave resistance (a topic originating from my
previous class studies started first as a general reading to identify issues and references of interest to

this topic. This current study will extend that general background work). I became interested in

slave resistance, particularly female slave resistance after spending a quarter in Professor Agorsah’s

Caribbean Female Slave Resistance seminar at Portland State University. In the course, I learned

many things about slave resistance that I’d never heard of before. The most eye-opening
information and material I found in the readings for the seminar, were those related to the many

ways in which slaves (female and male) resisted the institution of slavery and harsh slave masters.

Historical documentation such as missionary and baptismal record, deeds, colonial maps and

military reports, “negro spiritual songs” ad festivities, oral histories or narratives, photographic

images and other archival material will be the main sources. Documentaries depicting colonial

plantation and resistance history will also be critically examined in order to identify issues relating to

the role of women in those episodes and the interpretations given about those events. Interviews

will be conducted among the older people of the selected communities who have preserved the

traditions.
McNair Online Journal Page 7 of 26

ASPECTS OF WOMEN RESISTANCE

The accounts of African American slavery in textbooks routinely conflate the story of male

and female slaves into one history. Textbooks rarely enable students to grapple with the lives and

challenges of women constrained by the institution of slavery. The collections of letters and

autobiographies of slave women in the nineteenth century now available on the Internet open a

window onto the lives of these women, and allow teachers and students to explore this history. One

such resource is the quarterly online journal, History Now: American History Online.

Students too readily accept everything that they read in books as "the truth". Teachers often

hear, "Well, I read it in the book. It must be true." or "It was on the news, in the newspaper, or in a magazine."

I certainly wasn’t exposed to any of what I’ve learned since returning to higher education, when I

was in junior high and high school. Unfortunately, too many students hear teachers say that if it's in

the book, then it must be so. Much of what has been called history has been recorded by men of

the dominant culture of that society. The men who write the text decided what should be recorded

and what is important. There is little written about women, let alone minority women. A lot of

students have deducted that since women and members of minority groups rarely appear in history

texts, they contributed little to history.

Dr. Mary Pipher, a psychotherapist and New York Times best-selling author for her book,

Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls (1975), says that when girls and women read a

history of Western civilization, they are essentially reading a record of men’s lives. Pipher quotes

Dale Spender, author of Man Made Language (1980; 1985), “Women’s accomplishments are relegated
McNair Online Journal Page 8 of 26

to the lost and found.” As girls study Western civilization, they become increasingly aware that

history is the history of men. History is His Story, the story of man-kind. Pipher goes on to say,

“I discovered this when I read H.G. Well’s Outline of History and Winston Churchill’s
History of the Western World. Both are primarily histories of war and the distribution of
property. Women’s lives were ignored except as they influenced the course of men’s
lives. I remember, Pipher continues, wondering “where were the women during all
these events?” My daughter made the same observation about her history text: “It’s
so boring, just a bunch of kings and generals fighting each other. What were the
women doing anyway?”

Girls move into a culture with a Constitution that gave white men, not all Americans, the

right to vote, and that has yet to pass an equal rights amendment. They (girls) join a culture in which

historical documents proclaim the rights of man. As the writer and poet, Tillie Olsen observed,

“Women’s voices have been silenced through the ages, and the silencing continues in the present.”

(Pipher, 1975: 40-41).

Pipher notes that by junior high, girls sense their lack of power, but usually they cannot say

what they sense.

“If I ask who writes most of the material they study at school, they know it’s men. If
I ask who is more likely to be principal, they say a man. If I ask who has the most
power, they say men. I encourage girls to think about these issues and bring me
examples of discrimination.”

One girl noticed that the mountains in Colorado that were named for men had their last

names. She brought in a map to point out Mount Adams, Mount Audubon, Babcock Peak, Mount

Sneffels, and Mount Richtofen. The few natural features that are named for women are named with

only the women’s first name, such as Mount Alice, Mount Emma, Mount Eva, Lake Emmaline, Lake

Agnes, Maggie Gulch, and Mount Flora (1975: 41).

WOMEN RESISTANCE LEADERS

McNair Online Journal Page 9 of 26

A lot of work has been done studying the lives of slaves and the slave system in the United

States. From elementary school on through college we are taught the evils of slavery that took place

right here in the Land of the Free. Slavery is a term most of us are familiar with. Most people are

aware of the part America played in the business of buying and selling black people into forced

labor, but the United Kingdom also had her part in this twisted scheme that yielded an enormous

amount of money for certain people in the aristocracy and middleclass. Way back in the day

England was well known for its ships and the advantages this gave her in terms of defending the

seas and also transportation. The two main commercial activities that gave England its maritime

advantage were sugar and slaves. Ships would leave Britain with cargo of cheap manufactured

goods from Liverpool and Bristol and travel to West Africa where they would be exchanged for

slaves. The slaves were then taken to the Caribbean where they were exchanged for sugar that was

then brought back to Europe and sold for a very large profit. The huge monetary gain made sure

people were not overly concerned with the humanitarian aspect of the slave trade or even the ethical

issues. They were making money that enabled them to buy more ships and give Britain the

advantage of being the world's most forceful naval power.

Human men and women – slaves – were the sacrifices for all of this. The map below (Figure 1)

shows major areas involved as recipients of enslaved Africans (in the Caribbean) in the 18th century.
McNair Online Journal Page 10 of 26

Figure 1

NANNY OF JAMAICA AND OTHERS

Most historical accounts about slaves and slavery are written and taught mostly about the

men slaves and how they resisted and rebelled against the harsh and terrible treatment they endured

at the hand of their masters. Besides here in the United States, there were slaves and slavery in other

places also –especially in the Caribbean. It is important to note that female slaves were also not

willing to tolerate being enslaved, and also rebelled, resisted and ran away as the male slaves did –

oftentimes, even more so. But there is little written about these more obscure women. This same

concept has continued throughout history, and especially where the African American female’s role

in history is concerned. There are a few historical accounts of such female personalities as Nanny of

the Maroons. Almost every slave rebellion involved African spiritual practices, and leaders such as

Queen Nanny, usually practiced Obeah and were able to instill confidence in their followers. Nanny

was born in Africa, and was from the Ashanti tribe, but was brought to Jamaica as a slave. Nanny is

known to the Maroons of today as “Granny Nanny”. The Ashanti tribe was one of the powerful

tribes in West Africa. They were well trained in fighting battles, and their women were greatly

respected. Their women also knew about fighting battles. When Nanny arrived in Jamaica,

rebellion against slavery was going on. Rebel towns (the towns of run-away slaves) were all over the

island. The Maroon villages were the strongest of these rebel towns, and were well organized and

defended.

Soon after arriving in Jamaica, Nanny and her five brothers escaped from slavery. Her

brothers were Cudjoe, the great Maroon leader, Accompong, Johnny, Cuffy and Quao. This Ashanti
McNair Online Journal Page 11 of 26

family soon became leaders of the Maroons and of many other free Africans. Nanny and her

brothers decided that a movement should be started to drive away the British. Cudjoe went to St.

James and built a village. This village was called Cudjoe Town. Accompong went to St. Elizabeth.

Accompong in St. Elizabeth is named after him. Nanny and Quao went to Portland to organize the

free Africans there. There were, therefore, two main groups of Maroons. There were those in the

west of the island called the Leeward Maroons. Those in the east were called the Windward

Maroons. Under her protection, many would hide in 'Girls' Town' or 'Women's Town' in the John

Crow Mountains. Nanny made a vow on Pumpkin Hill in 1737 to fight the British to death.

For her role in resistance movements and rebellions, Nanny deserves to be written and

talked about in the historical context; however, other women in Caribbean and African countries

contributed much to the freedom of their families and communities as well. Some of these women

include: Queen Yaa Asantewa of Ghana; Queen Nzingha of Ndongo of Southwest Africa; Mary

Thomas a.k.a. Queen Mary of St. Croix, Virgin Islands; and two others who fought alongside Queen

Mary were Alexina Solo aka Queen Agnes and Susana Abramson aka Queen Matilda (nicknamed

“Bottom-Belly) also of St. Croix, Virgin Islands; and Queen Coziah Harmon (she along with her

three sisters, Clara, Ezba and Lala, were coal loaders).

YAA ASANTEWA AND OTHERS

There are some pages of history which testify that having realized with dismay that the

Ashanti kings were generally filled with cowardice to militarily confront the British colonial

administration in the Gold Coast that had detained their king, Nana Prempeh I in 1896, five years

later, Queen Mother Yaa Asantewa took up arms and led an Ashanti army in the Gold Coast to fight

the British troops in the last and most bloody battle of the 10 Anglo-Ashanti wars. She was later
McNair Online Journal Page 12 of 26

captured and banished into exile in Seychelles where she died in 1923. Her most famous words to

the Ashanti kings were, "If you the men of Ashanti will not go forward, then we will. We, the women will. I

shall call upon you my fellow women. We will fight the white men. We will fight until the last of us falls in the

battlefield." It is this war that entered in the annals of history as the last war in Africa ever led by a

woman.

QUEEN NZINGHA

In 1624, Queen Nzingha of Ndongo of Southwest Africa led her people to take control of

their territory. She was 42 years old at the time. For the next forty years, Nzingha led her people

into battle against the Portuguese from the rocky slopes of Matamba. Her sisters were captured

during a battle, but with the help of slaves in Luanda, they escaped from slavery. Later, her sister,

Kifunji, died from battle wounds.

Nzingha led many battles and peace treaties, some with the Portuguese, some with the

Dutch, but she never resisted against slavery and the ill treatment of her people. She never returned

to the ruins of Kabasa, and many remember her as the Queen of Matamba, because she ruled from

the Matamba Mountains and countryside, never from the Ndongo territory, despite her titles. When

she died in 1663 at age 82, her sister, Mukambu, took over the seat of power as head of the Mbundu

people. Mukambu had Nzingha laid to rest in her leopard skins and with her bow over her shoulder

and arrows in her hand.

QUEEN MARY THOMAS OF THE CARIBBEAN

Queen Mary Thomas, and the two others who fought alongside her, Queen Agnes and

Queen Matilda (nicknamed “Bottom-Belly) of St. Croix, Virgin Islands, were leaders of the
McNair Online Journal Page 13 of 26

Agricultural laborers Revolt in October 1878, also known as Fireburn of 1878. There is a road in St.

Croix named “Queen Mary Highway” to commemorate this lady.

The title of queen was bestowed on these women because they were selected by the workers

on the plantations to preside over all ceremonies, rituals and celebrations. These women were held

in the highest esteem and were well respected as leaders by their fellow workers.

Nearly all the estates along Centerline west of Kingshill were burned out. Near Christiansted, Anna's

Hope and Work and Rest went up in smoke, bu t the town itself was left unharmed. Not only the

men were the heroes to the laborers this time, the women too, played their part in the action. The

most famous was Queen Mary. After all settled down the Queens were led away to prison in

Denmark, but were eventually returned to St. Croix.

QUEEN COZIAH HARMON

Queen Coziah Harmon, and her three sisters, Clara, Ezba and Lala, were all coal loaders on

St. Thomas. For all intents and purposes, the coal-carrier strike on St. Thomas in 1892, embodied

the principle of nonviolent protest, a concept that was to become a central ingredient of the civil

rights movement of the 1960s under the inspired leadership of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

(The Virgin Island Daily News, January 19, 2006).

THE LIVING AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY

On July 27, 2006, I interviewed Ann Whiting, a direct descendant of Queen Coziah’s. Ann

noted that at no time did Queen Coziah and her sisters want the coal strike to be of a violent nature.

They were to accomplish the goals they set out by non-violent means only. She also noted (as does

Eddie Donoghue, who wrote the play, “Queen Coziah”, notes), that it is considered ironic that
McNair Online Journal Page 14 of 26

whereas Martin Luther King, Jr. drew many of his followers from black colleges, Queen Coziah and

the participants in the coal-carrier strike had little or no formal education. Yet both groups had a

disciplined commitment to nonviolent action and passive resistance.

Queen Coziah, was intuitively aware that given the size of the well-equipped Danish militia

and fire corps arrayed against them, any collective violent action on the part of the strikers was

doomed to culminate in bloodshed and a setback for their cause. Coziah was non-compromising in

her approach. As she addressed the coal strikers gathered in the park ready to march on the three

major ship-coaling companies with offices on Main Street, she emphasized the need for

nonviolence. Violence, she insisted, would tarnish the moral justification for the strike.

ARONA PETERSEN

At this same interview with Ann Whiting about Queen Coziah, I learned of another famous

Caribbean woman, and ancestor of Whiting’s – Arona Petersen (sometimes spelled ‘Peterson).

Arona Petersen was an herbalist and culinary specialist from St. Thomas, who wrote many books, of

those, the most well-known being Herbs and Proverbs. “My Aunt Ronie got me started on learning

about our family’s history,” Whiting recalls. “Any questions I had, I went to Aunt Ronie, and she

always gave me an answer. This was from the time I was 9-years old. And she understood why I

was asking questions. She understood that when I had began reading the Old Testament of the

Bible, and reading about who “beget” whom, I wanted to know how our “begets” began. She

helped me understand our family’s history, and all of this has remained with me.”

It was important for Arona Petersen to keep the history and culture of their family ancestors

and family in the forefront at all times. She wrote The Food & Folklore of the Virgin Islands (Romik,

1990) so that the regional flavor of Virgin Islands fare could be captured in her recipes, and the
McNair Online Journal Page 15 of 26

idiomatic dialogues of island people are perfectly re-created as she spun old island tales and wisdom.

It is some of these island tales that Ann Whiting fondly remembers hearing from her ‘Aunt Ronie’.

St. Croix's Top Hat Restaurant also serves some of the food with an adaptation from Arona

Petersen's The Food & Folklore of the Virgin Islands book. And in 1991, Roberta Q. Knowles, who

teaches English at the University of the Virgin Islands, St. Croix campus, and a contributor to

Caribbean Writer, wrote the book, Arona Petersen: Famous Virgin Islander. During Black History

Month in 2005, the St. Croix’s Carabana Ensemble Theater put on a play entitled, Arona, which was

about the life and times of Arona Petersen. It is noted in the Summer 2005 issue of Tidings, a

newsletter of Friends of Virgin Islands National Park, that the play was a smashing hit.

Ann whiting herself is contributing, and has contributed much in keeping her family’s

history and culture alive, as she notes in the mini-biography she sent to me. “I am an amateur

genealogist; I began when I read the “begat” in the bible, and wanted to do my own Begat. I have

been documenting my family history for the better part of 40 years. My database consists of over

1200 names thru 8 major families. The branches extend to England, France, Germany, Norway,

Denmark, China, Russia and India. I have not yet been able to document a specific place in Africa,

though West Africa is looking like a good jumping off place. My mentors in this quest have been

my God Father, J. Antonio Jarvis, a historian, photographer, author and educator; and my Cousin,

Arona Saunders Petersen, a world traveler, chief, painter, poet, author, a walking textbook on Virgin

Islands history and Caribbean culture.”

Ann Whiting shared a portion of her writing about her family’s history with me in the

manuscript she’s been writing. She summarizes in her the mini-biography, “I am in the process of

writing, what I wanted my grandchildren to know of their culture, but has taken on a life of it’s own,

and may become a book. The title, The Other Caribbean History, it is my attempt to explain, not from
McNair Online Journal Page 16 of 26

a scholastic but a common sense point of view, how the Caribbean was colonized, and its affect on

the world, then and today. I am, however, being pulled or swayed by my first love, genealogy, to

slant it that way or to merge history with genealogy, my problem now is how to be analytical about

both.”

THE UNITED STATES

In the U.S. Harriett Tubman and Sojourner Truth are the most well known and have the

most history written about them. A great woman of African descent is Sojourner Truth who was

born as a slave in 1797 in the USA. One day she left her home with only 25 cents in her pockets to

launch a massive campaign against slavery. Though she was physically assorted and mudslinged for

merely exposing the brunt of slavery, Sojourner Truth could not be swayed an inch nor be stopped

outright. In 1843, she began a 40-year crusade against slavery.

There is also Harriet Tubman who was born in 1820 on one of the slave breeding

plantations in the USA. She first freed herself, then later her brothers and sisters who were also in

the shackles of slavery and went on to establish a route called the ‘underground railroad’ through

which she rescued many other Africans to find the road to freedom. Angry slave owners to offered

$40,000 as a reward for Harriet’s capture. However this did not materialize.

Just as it is the Caribbean and in other countries, there were other heroines with little or no

history written about them in the U.S. The list is long, but Ellen Smith Craft and Anna Kingsley are

two of the many that I uncovered in my research.

ELLEN CRAFT SMITH

Ellen Smith Craft was born in 1826 in the town of Clinton, Georgia, and died in 1891. She

was from the state of Georgia. On December 26, 1848, she pulled off a daring slave escape,
McNair Online Journal Page 17 of 26

wherein she impersonated a slaveholder, and she and her husband, William Craft, walked off to

freedom. Ellen Smith Craft is a Georgia woman whose life story reads like a Hollywood script of

adventure and courage: an unlikely escape from the shackles of slavery followed by the selfless

pursuit of justice despite continuing threats to her own safety and well-being.

ANNA KINGSLEY

Anna Kingsley was from Spanish Florida, and in March 1811, she became a landowner and

slaveholder. Anna was the African wife of plantation owner Zephaniah Kingsley. At an early age,

she survived the Middle Passage and dehumanizing slave markets to become the property of

Kingsley. After manumission by her husband, Anna became a landowner and slaveholder. She raised

her four children while managing a plantation that utilized African slave labor. She survived brutal

changes in race policies and social attitudes brought by successive governments in Florida, but

survival demanded difficult, often dangerous, choices. She was a woman of courage and

determination. She is an example of the active role that people of color played in shaping their own

destinies and our country’s history in an era of slavery, oppression, and prejudice.

THE CARIBBEAN: DOORWAY TO SLAVERY

The Caribbean was the doorway to slavery here in the United States, and it is important that

we study the hardships that slaves suffered through in this area. Slaves regularly resisted their

masters any way they could. Female slaves, in particular, had a very strong sense of independence

and they regularly resisted slavery using both violent and nonviolent means, even though, like the

male slaves, they were considered property. Caribbean slave women exhibited their strong

character, independence and exceptional self worth through their opposition to their tasks

performed in the fields on plantations. This resistance was expressed in many different rebellious
McNair Online Journal Page 18 of 26

ways including not getting married, refusing to reproduce, and various forms of other physical

resistance.

In the Caribbean, the system of slavery sought to degrade women and womanhood in such

ways as to force aspects of their resistance to take on specific forms. Maternity and fertility was at

the core for plantation survival, and so women’s resistance to these policies were all too common

(Reddock, pg. 24). For this reason, slave owners were as fearful, suspicious and distrustful of

women’s activities as rebels, as they were of men’s. Women were very visible participants to

resistance movements.

There have been many myths, stereotypes, labels, and misleading images about slave women,

including: they didn’t have valid roles in slave resistance (which has been proven to be untrue).

Some of the most common myths and labels were that the slave woman was: “promiscuous harlot”,

cruel, negligent as a mother, fickle as a wife, passive, downtrodden, had no moral codes, no single

connection with the other sex, subservient, and a resigned slave who contributed little to the cause

of slave resistance. Yet, as Moira Ferguson writes in The History of Mary Prince, women were very

visible participants in resistance movements. Mary Prince ran away from her one master, Captain

Ingham, although this proved to be unsuccessful. In the end, however, she eventually beat the

system. She got her freedom, but she had to give up her husband for it (Ferguson, 1997). And new

research by Edward Kamau Braithwaite (The Development of Creole Society in Jamaica, 1971), shows the

contribution women made to slave cultural life. Also, cultural histories written by Eugene Genovese

(Roll Jordan Roll) and others including Blassingame (1972), Rawick (1972-3), and Gutman (1976),

have contributed to presenting the woman slave in more positive ways.

Female opposition to Caribbean slavery took on many different forms, both violent and

nonviolent. Armed rebellions were the rarest form of resistance (Beckles, pg. 157). The more
McNair Online Journal Page 19 of 26

ordinary day-to-day resistance was much more common and they were designed with two objectives

in mind: First, actions designed to weaken the slave system and hasten its collapse;

Second, actions designed to improve the efficiency of the system so as to extract greater benefits.

Field women adopted the strategy of labor withdrawal, where they performed less productively than

they otherwise could.

The greatest contribution women made for the resistance of slavery were individual battles

for improved conditions and freedom, in addition to individual acts ranging from refusing to get

married all the way to infanticide. Acts of infanticide were very frequent as both an act of resistance

and an unwillingness to bring children into the world of slavery (Reddock, pg. 14). Slave women

would just refuse to have children all together as an act of resistance. Another common anti-slavery

action was running away. Those who not themselves take flight frequently assisted others in doing

so.

PASSIVE AND NON-PASSIVE RESISTANCE

As has been noted, resistance to slavery and oppression was in several forms. Most notable,

of course, was the aggressive resistance in the form of revolts and rebellions. But as discussed

above, there were also passive resistance to slavery and oppression. Queen Coziah used non-violent,

passive resistance in the Coal-Carriers Strike of 1892, in order to reach her goals for the workers.

Ellen Smith Craft used passive resistance and non-violent means to free herself and her husband

from enslavement; and Anna Kingsley, a free woman on the first day of March 1811, when white

plantation owner Zephaniah Kingsley put his signature on a document that forever changed the life

of a young African woman. The document was a manumission paper, which ensured her legal

freedom. She then became a landowner and slaveholder herself.

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The more violent rebellions, revolts and resistance movements weren’t just carried out by

male slaves. Female slaves played a big role in some of these movements, too.

Tim Hector, in his article, Women & Youths in Antigua - The Hidden Story, points out

some interesting facts about the status of women in Antigua. The articles talk about how her man

contracted her to work for the planter, as if she were his property. Slavery had brought the woman

to work, admittedly as chattel, but in her own capacity. Post-slavery, the man contracted his wife or

woman to work for the same planter, as his property. The law forbade women to sign contracts in

her own right. The personhood of the black women was assaulted and violated even though "freed"

that same year of the Contract Act, namely, in 1834.

Women in Antigua retaliated and resisted. That resistance by women, often ignored by the

men who write history is nonetheless one of the corner stones of our history. Men, both as

historians or as men, glorify and sanctify women as "Mothers" to whom they swear undying love.

But the same women, other than their mother presumably, they subordinate with a ruthlessness,

exceeded only by that of the Planter (Hector, 1998).

How did Antiguan women resist? So as to eliminate any personal bias, as chauvinists might

argue, let me quote an objective source. Louis Rothe, in a Description of the Island of Antigua wrote “on

many estates the women had completely withdrawn their labour or worked only for a few days a

week and they were unwilling to put their children to work in the fields. What a bold and heroic

move in hard, very hard, indeed the hardest times!”

Men often see themselves as the motive force of history. But there clearly can be an

argument here, that Antiguan women had done one of the most dramatic things in our history. They

had, on several sugar estates, completely withdrawn from estate labour and prevented their children

from engaging in plantation work. This is a good example of passive resistance.

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It was mainly women who started the free villages in Antigua. They wanted to get away from

the plantation "cottage," really the slave hut, and establish a home of their own in which they could

raise their children, free from the dreaded plantation and planter control - in terms of manual labor

and sexual labor. That “general capacity” in which women worked for the planter or his overseers

involved sexual favors as well. Women dreaded it, and sought dignity, human dignity, in their own

homes, however poor and without material comforts, but far from the dreaded plantation.

The more violent women resisters and rebellious leaders include: the Amazons of Dahomey,

whom some have called a crack all-female troops. They were all females, who served also as royal

bodyguards. They were also priestesses & wore crescent moon crowns; the Hausa had a number of

warrior queens, notably Amina of Zau Zau; a woman named Bazao-Turunku led warriors and

founded a town south of Zaria; and Nupe women warriors called Isadshi-Koseshi fought as fiercely

as the men, opposing invasions of the Fulbe conquerors who raided the Nupe for cattle & slaves,

especially women.

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH

These are the main questions addressed: Who were the major contributors in the selected

resistance episodes in the selected areas? How did they relate to the events – politically, socially,

militarily and economically? What exactly were their contribution and impact of those contributions?

I found that many of the more obscure female personalities in resistance movements have

been overlooked and understudied by historians. Although research has been done of the

achievements of many of the slave communities, not much attention has been given to the role and

status of the women of those communities, except their role as housewives and bearers of children.
McNair Online Journal Page 22 of 26

Further research needs to be done to fully examine the more important roles of the more obscure

women that have simply been left out of history. In addition to examining these roles, the study will

also examine similarities in personalities and strategies used by women among these communities as

they headed toward the achievement of equality. Jamaica, Suriname and southern United States will

be the initial geographical areas of focus. Women’s spirituality as vehicle as well as weapon and its

impact on the resistance activities will also be investigated.

The results of this study should help to explain that although there were many horrors

witnessed by the women of these resistance movements, there were a large number who made it and

contributed substantially to the labor force on the plantations, especially on the Caribbean sugar

plantations.

Although they exhibited so much rebelliousness to the slave system, the nineteenth century

women actually exceeded male slaves when it came to work and value (Beckles, 1989: 32). Slave

women were the dominant force behind production and labor reproduction. The hardships of

slavery and the coinciding opposition to the system helped to mold the Caribbean woman into what

she is today. Rhoda Reddock, puts it even better in an excerpt from Women, Labor and Politics in

Trinidad and Tobago:

“Despite the treachery and inhumanity of the plantation experience it brought to

the fore the potentials for production, self-sufficiency, rebellion, and the relentless
quest for personal autonomy still present in Caribbean women today.” (Reddock,
1994: 11)

The list is endless. Probably due to a large extent because of their skin color and to a certain

extent because of their gender, there are many other great "queens" or rather, women of African

descent, who have unfairly been denied the utmost veneration and great honor they deserve.

Among the many are those listed below in Table 1:

McNair Online Journal Page 23 of 26

Female Location (U.S. Major Timeline Other

Personality or Other Contribution (Year(s), etc.) Information
Country
Queen Kahina North Africa Fought Arab Died in 705
incursion in North A.D.
Africa
Hatshepsut, Tiye Kemet (Land of Otherwise known
and Nefertari, the Blacks) as ancient Egypt.
Nefertiti
Nandi Queen of overcame many 1778-1826 Mother of Shaka
Zululand obstacles to raise Zulu
to a power in all
Zululand
Empress Taytu Ethiopia led the 1889-1913 she was a key
Betul conservative player in the
faction that conflict over the
resisted the Treaty of
modernists Wuchale with
Italy
Mary Church Washington, DC had been a leader 1954 Born in 1863,
Terrell in the fight fight to during the Civil
end Jim Crow War, and died in
segregation 1954
Ida B.Wells Tennessee went on to lead the 1892 born the daughter
American anti- of slaves in Holly
lynching crusade Springs,
Mississippi, on
July 16, 1862
Queen Mother Louisiana demanded 1950s Grandfather
Moore reparations lynched
Louisa Picquet South Carolina; Worked to free her May 1860 As a baby, she
Buffalo, NY mother (in Texas) and her mother
were sold to a
plantation owner
in Georgia

Table 1

The evidence needed to rescue slave women from the iniquity of oblivion is not only lost or

hidden but often distorted by men. Inspired by the 'strong polemical articles' of women activists,
McNair Online Journal Page 24 of 26

Barbara Bush, in her book, “Slave Women in Caribbean Society 1650-1835”, set out to analyze myths

and 'the fallacious assumptions upon which they were based'. Her book is a thesis converted to

instruct the general reader about the misconceptions of historical information as it is written female

slaves in the Caribbean.

REFERENCES:

Books:

Agorsah, E. Kofi
1992 Archaeology and Maroon Heritage in Jamaica, Jamaica Journal, 24 (2): 2 - 9.
1994 Maroon Heritage: Archaeological, Ethnographic and Historical
Perspectives, Kingston, Canoe Press: 5 - 8 and 163 - 187.

Beckles, Hilary and Shepherd, Verene

1996 Caribbean Freedom: Economy and Society from Emancipation to the present,
Kingston, Ian Randle Publishers.

Beckles, Hilary
1989 “Natural Rebels: “A Social History of Enslaved Black Women in Barbados
Rutgers University Press. New Jersey,

Bush, Barabara
1990 Slave women in Caribbean society 1650-1838, Kingston, Heinemann (Caribbean)

Campbell, Horace G.
1987 Rasta and Resistance, New Jersey, Africa World Press.

Craton, Michael
1982 Testing the Chains: Resistance to Slavery in the British West Indies, Ithaca, Cornell University
Press.
Ellis, Patricia
1985 Women of the Caribbean, Kingston. Kingston Publishers.

Ferguson, Moira
1997 The History of Mary Prince. University of Michigan Press. Anne Arbor.

Hart, Richard
McNair Online Journal Page 25 of 26

1980 Slaves Who Abolished Slavery: Blacks in Bondage, (Vol 1) Kingston, University of the
West Indies.
Hart, Richard
1985 Slaves Who Abolished Slavery: Blacks in Rebellion, (Vol2) Kingston, University
of the West Indies.

Klein, Herbert S.
1986 African Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean. Oxford University Press.
New York.

Mathis, R.
2001 The Black Woman in the Public Eye: An Ethnoanthropological Perspective,
Freedom in Black History and Culture, Middletown, Arrow Point Press.

Mintz, Sidney
1996 Black women, Economic roles and Cultural traditions, Caribbean Freedom:
Economy and Society from emancipation to the present, Ed. Hilary Beckles and
V. Shephered: 238-244

Momsen, Janet H.
1996 Gender roles in Caribbean agricultural labor, Caribbean Freedom: Economy and
Society from emancipation to the present, Ed. Hilary Beckles and V. Shephered:
216—224

Morton, Patricia
1991 Disfigured Images: The Historical Assault on Afro-American Women. Praeger
Publications.

Pipher, Mary
1995 Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls, Ballantine Books;
Reissue edition
Price, Richard
1996 Maroon Societies: Rebel Slaves Communities in the Americas, Baltimore, The
Johns Hopkins University Press.

Reddock, Rhoda E.
1994 Women Labour and Politics in Trinidad and Tobago, Zed Books, London.

Shephderd, Verene A.
1998 Women in Caribbean History: The British-Colonised Territories, Markus Wiener Publishers,
Inc.

Spender, Dale
McNair Online Journal Page 26 of 26

1990 Man-Made Language, Pandora Press; 2nd edition.

Zips, Werner
1999 Black Rebels: African Caribbean Freedom fighters in Jamaica, Kingston, Ian
Randle Publishers

Articles:

Dagbovie, Pero Gaglo.

Winter 2003 Black Women, Carter G. Woodson, and the Association for the Study of
Negro Life and History, 1915-1950. The Journal of African American
History 88:1 [Winter 2003] p.21-41

Web Sites:

History Now: American History Online. Quarterly Journal, Issue 2, December 2004. Web
address: http://www.historynow.org/12_2004/lp1.html

Tidings, a newsletter of Friends of Virgin Islands National Park. Web Address:

http://www.friendsvinp.org/archive/05tdsummer.pdf

Hector, Leonard T., Women & Youths in Antigua - The Hidden Story, February 13, 1998. FAN
THE FLAME. Web site address: http://www.candw.ag/~jardinea/ffhtm/ff980213.htm

Hector, Leonard T., Women in Antigua – A Historical Overview, December 17, 1996. FAN THE
FLAME. Web site address: http://www.candw.ag/~jardinea/ffhtm/ff980213.htm