Closer to Freedom

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses—often in graphic detail—slavery, white supremacy, killing, sexual assault and rape, torture, surveillance, and other forms of violence. Source materials also include racist and sexist language.

The Introduction begins with an assessment of slavery studies over the last hundred years. Stephanie M. H. Camp notes that the study of enslaved resistance gained sustained attention among scholars at the end of the 20th century and helped move historical research away from earlier nostalgic, apologist approaches to slavery. At first glance, this scholarship seems to approach the lives of enslaved people through inquiries that assume an either/or approach of accommodation or resistance: Scholars wonder if enslaved people identified with their enslavers or created their own identities, for instance, or if enslaved people accepted their positions as enslaved, or refused it. These either/or questions, however, dissolve upon closer inspection, and many contemporary scholars explicitly explore the dissolution of these supposed dichotomies, investigating the ways that enslaved people were “both agents and subjects, persons and property, and people who resisted and accommodated” (1).

Nonetheless, studies of resistance to enslavement are often accused of being naïve—of placing too much emphasis on the ability of enslaved people to resist the system of slavery.