Was Slavery a choice?

Around this time 2 years ago Kanye West made the controversial comment that "slavery was a choice" while he was at the TMZ headquarters. At the time, like many black people, I was offended by what he said. Looking back at it, Kanye was just ignorant about black history and I can't blame him, or those who say "we are not our ancestors". In the west, what you are taught about Black history is that Europeans came to Africa, stole millions of African's with the help of other Africans, put them on  ships and took them to the America's where they were enslaved and worked on plantations for hundreds of years until the government, who out of the kindness of their hearts decided to abolish slavery. This narrative is false.

We are not taught about are the hundreds of slave revolts which took place in Africa,  on the slave ships and in the America's. We are not taught about the key figures who led these revolts. This post is to educate you about some of the revolts and freedom fighters, I urge to do further research on the African resistance to slavery..

Africa

The majority of the rebellions took place on the west coast of Africa. There were Africans who fought with Europeans to prevent them from  capturing and enslaving other Africans.  Some Africans would keep watch for European ships. Some were prepared and killed any European that stepped foot on their shores.

Queen Nzinga of Angola was born in 1583 to the Ndongo royal family. At this time, the slave trade was in full effect and the Portuguese were carrying out slave raids.  Queen Nzinga was military trained by her father and learned how to speak fluent Portuguese. This helped her to negotiate a Peace treaty with the Portuguese in 1622, which included the withdrawal of Portuguese troops and sovereignty for the Ndongo people. However, the Portuguese did not adhere to the treaty and continued the raids. This led to Queen Nzinga fighting numerous battles (some of which she won) against the Portuguese for 30 years to prevent them from capturing africans. After this a new peace treaty was signed between the two parties.

Slave ships 

There were 450 recorded forms of resistance on slave ships.

Amistad
In 1839 a slave ship called 'Amistad' which contained 53 Africans who were illegally captured, had set sail from Cuba to another island. One of the Africans, Joseph Cinque managed to break his shackles and then freed the other Africans on the ship. They revolted and killed the Captain and the cook but spared the life of the navigator who promised to sail the ship back to Sierra Leone, where the captured Africans were from. Instead, the navigator sailed the ship to the USA. The Africans were jailed and a long complex trial took place, about the status of the Africans. Eventually, the Court held that the African's could be returned to Africa as they had been captured illegally. In 1842 they arrived back in Sierra Leone.

The Marlborough revolt
In 1752 an english owned slave ship, the Marlborough contained 420 Africans from the west coast of Africa. Three days after the ship had sailed, the African captives revolted and killed 33 out of the 35 crew members. The remaining two crew members were used to sail the ship back to Africa where the captives returned.

Unites States of America

The USA alone had 250 slave rebellions who took place during the period of slavery.

Nat Turner
Nat Turner was a slave who became a preacher, he planned a rebellion and believed that he was led by God. On 21 August 1891, he along with other African slaves armed themselves with weapons and went from plantation to plantation killing all the white inhabitants, and freeing the slaves. Around 70 black people joined him. About 50-60 white people were killed including women and children. The state militia put an end to the rebellion and Nat Turner was eventually executed after being found whilst in hiding. Many of the black people involved were also executed and black people who were not involved in the rebellion were also killed by whites. This rebellion had created fear in the white communities.

Seminole/Gullah wars

A lot of enslaved Africans used to escape to the south in Florida, where a population of Seminole Indians lived. These africans assimilated with the seminole Indians and they became "Black Seminoles". As Florida was owned by Spain they allowed the black Seminoles to have settlements there. This was a safe haven for escaped slaves. The American government did not like this and wanted to take their land and remove them. As a result there were three wars which took place between 1817–18, 1835–42 and 1855–58. The second Seminole war was the longest war where 1500 US Soilders were killed. The Black Seminoles used Guerrilla warfare tactics and were known for heavily arming themselves. After the third war many of them migrated to Mexico while some remained in Florida.

Caribbean

The Bussa Rebelloin
Bussa was an enslaved African who led the biggest slave revolt in Barbados with 400 slaves  in April 1816. Many plantations were burned down as the slaves revolted. During battle, Bussa was killed but the slaves continued to fight the British militia, unfortunately the slaves were defeated. However, the legacy of Bussa remains.



Haiti 
The biggest rebellion in history was the Haitian revolution. It was started in 1791 By Dutty Bookman, an enslaved African and Voodou priest. In August, he presided over a voodoo ceremony, which was the start of the revolt. A week later 1800 plantations had been destroyed and 1000 slave owners were killed. The French killed Dutty Boukman in November 1791 and put his head on display as a warning to other slaves. This did not stop the revolution. The rebellion was then led by General Toussaint Louverture who successfully led the revolt and emancipated the slaves. He ruled Haiti until 1803 when he was captured and imprisoned by the French until he died. His general Jean-Jacque Dessalines took over and defeated the French army in 1803. Haiti was declared an independent nation in 1804, Dessalines ordered the killing of all the French people on the island. Haiti became the first black nation to become independent and successfully overthrow European rule. He ruled Haiti until his assassination in 1806. (You can watch 1804 by Tariq Nasheed which explains the revolution in depth)

South America

Zumba palmemra
Palmares in Brazil was established around 1605 by 40 enslaved Africans
who had escaped slavery. They discovered the first government of free Africans known as the Republic of Palmares.The population continued to grow until about 30,000 people. Zumbi became the king of Palmares and led resistance against the Portuguese, who kept attacking them. The Palmares military were experts in self defence . Zumbi never bowed down to the Portuguese and kept fighting against slavery. Zumbi was captured and killed on November 20, 1695. His legacy remains in Brazil.

The Berbice Slave uprising Cuffy was originally from Ghana and was enslaved in Guyana . On 23 Feburary 1763, he armed himself with weapons and along with numerous slaves, attacked slave owners seizing control over their plantations and freeing slaves. About 3000 blacks were part of the revolt and began to take control of some of the regions . Many white people had fled for their safety. In 1764 European troops came to put an end to the rebellion and took control of the land.


This is only a very tiny amount of the revolts that took place. Africans have always resisted against oppression, this includes slaves poisoning their masters, breaking machinery, refusing to work etc. Africans were not passive docile people but were freedom fighters (some were warriors) who fought hard for the freedoms that we have today. We are our ancestors.