AP® African American Studies review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/african-american-studies/units/2/2-13)
Unit 2 · Topic 2.13
2.13 Resistance and Revolts in the United States
Enslaved people resisted every day, by slowing work, breaking tools or running away, and sometimes through organized revolts. From a 1526 uprising in Spanish territory to Nat Turner's rebellion and the Creole mutiny, resistance was often inspired by religion, by African military experience and by the example of Haiti.
Key terms
- everyday resistance
- German Coast Uprising (1811)
- Charles Deslondes
- Nat Turner
- Denmark Vesey
- Creole mutiny
Everyday resistance
Most resistance was quiet and constant. Enslaved people worked slowly, broke tools, pretended to be sick, took food and ran away, sometimes for a few days and sometimes for good. These acts cost enslavers money and showed that enslaved people never accepted their condition. Day by day, they helped sustain the larger movement toward abolition.
Religion was central. Worship services, whether in churches or secret meetings in the woods, were places to gather, celebrate, mourn and share news. In the North, Black churches also became centers of political organizing against slavery.
Major revolts
| Year | Revolt | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| 1526 | San Miguel de Gualdape | Africans brought from Santo Domingo for a Spanish colony on the Georgia–South Carolina coast rebelled and escaped to nearby Native communities: the earliest known slave revolt in what is now the US |
| 1811 | German Coast Uprising | Inspired by Haiti, Charles Deslondes led up to 500 people, including maroons, on a march toward New Orleans: the largest slave revolt on US soil; it was brutally crushed |
| 1822 | Denmark Vesey's plan | A free Black carpenter and church leader in Charleston planned a revolt; it was betrayed, and Vesey and dozens of others were executed |
| 1831 | Nat Turner's Rebellion | Turner, a preacher who believed God had called him, led a revolt in Southampton County, Virginia; dozens of white people were killed, and Turner and many Black people were executed or killed in reprisals |
| 1841 | The Creole mutiny | Madison Washington led enslaved people aboard a ship carrying them from Virginia to New Orleans; they sailed to the British Bahamas, where nearly 130 gained freedom |
What made revolts possible
In some parts of the Americas, the slave trade brought together many men who had been soldiers in Africa, captured in wars and sold. Their military experience helped enslaved communities organize revolts, as at Stono (2.11) and in Haiti (2.12).
Religion inspired action, too. Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey drew on the Bible, and abolitionists such as Maria W. Stewart (2.14) and Henry Highland Garnet (2.19) used religious arguments against slavery. And news of the Haitian Revolution showed that enslaved people could win.
Madison Washington knew Britain had abolished slavery in its Caribbean colonies in 1833, so he steered the Creole toward freedom in the Bahamas.
Fear and reaction: Jefferson's 1802 letter
Revolts and plots terrified enslavers and led to harsher laws. After Gabriel's planned revolt near Richmond, Virginia, in 1800, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Rufus King, the US minister in London, in 1802. He asked whether Black people involved in such plots could be sent away to the British colony of Sierra Leone. The required letter shows how leaders responded to resistance by looking for ways to remove Black people rather than end slavery.
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
Describing goals and inspiration
Describe the inspiration and goal of the German Coast Uprising of 1811.
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: Name the inspiration: the Haitian Revolution.
- Step 2: Describe the goal and plan: a march toward New Orleans to win freedom.
- Step 3: Add evidence of organization: support across plantations and maroon communities.
Answer: Model answer: Inspired by the Haitian Revolution, Charles Deslondes organized enslaved people across plantations and maroon communities near New Orleans, including people who had escaped from Haiti. Up to 500 rebels marched toward the city aiming to overthrow slavery and win their freedom, as Haitians had done, before militias and troops violently crushed the revolt.
Common mistakes
- Thinking resistance meant only armed revolt. Everyday acts like slowing work and running away were far more common.
- Calling Nat Turner's revolt the largest. The German Coast Uprising of 1811 was larger.
- Forgetting the role of religion, which both inspired revolts and brought communities together.
On the exam
- Be able to name a revolt, its leader, its inspiration and its result.
- Explain how revolts led to harsher laws and fears among enslavers, using evidence such as Jefferson's 1802 letter.
Connected topics
Videos
Check yourself
5 questions on 2.13 Resistance and Revolts in the United States. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
Enslaved people often slowed their work, broke tools or took food. Historians treat these acts as
In 1738 the Spanish governor of Florida allowed people who had escaped slavery in the British Carolinas to settle at Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, a fortified town two miles north of St. Augustine, under the command of Francisco Menéndez. The next year, in September 1739, a group of enslaved people near the Stono River in South Carolina, many of them from the Kingdom of Kongo, raided a store for weapons and marched south toward Florida, gathering followers before militia attacked them.
Passage written for this practice set, summarizing historical scholarship on Fort Mose and the Stono Rebellion
The background of many Stono rebels in the Kingdom of Kongo helps explain
In 1893, Frederick Douglass, who had served as U.S. minister to Haiti, gave a lecture on Haiti at the World's Fair in Chicago, where Haiti had its own pavilion. In the lecture, Douglass argued that the world owed Haiti a debt, because the revolution its people waged against slavery had struck a blow for the freedom of Black people everywhere.
Summary written for this practice set of Frederick Douglass's lecture on Haiti, 1893 (no quotation)
Which revolt is most directly linked to the influence of the Haitian Revolution?
"Brethren, arise, arise! Strike for your lives and liberties. Now is the day and the hour. Let every slave throughout the land do this, and the days of slavery are numbered. You cannot be more oppressed than you have been—you cannot suffer greater cruelties than you have already. Rather die freemen than live to be slaves."
Henry Highland Garnet, "An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America," delivered at the National Convention of Colored Citizens, Buffalo, New York, 1843
Earlier in the same address, Garnet praised Madison Washington. Washington was honored for
Garnet, a minister, drew on religious language in his call to resist. This connects most closely to which pattern?
0 of 5 answered