Blog for Week of November 11th

Generally, students are taught that the balance between slaves and their masters was extremely in favor of the masters. Especially in the United States leading up to the Civil War, Americans are taught about the domination of slavemasters and instances of going to great lengths to recapture runaway slaves. Although slavemasters had most of the power over their property, slaves actually had more power than I originally thought. In Latin America, slaves had various forms of resistance that could limit productivity. Whether it was through suicide, abortions, escape, or work ethic, slaves were just as important as their masters in determining success through their resistance. One form of resistance that I thought was unique for Latin American slaves was petit marronage. The way that slaves could leave and force change was incredible to me. It's almost like the slaves could tease the masters and say "you need me more than I need you." Petit marronage forced slave owners to rethink their plans while giving slaves time to recover. It's impressive how the same driving factors behind petit marronage have been applied time and time again to labor strikes and unions. In more modern standards, it's much easier to communicate to form strikes and force company owners to provide better conditions for workers. Because of this, it's amazing how ahead of its time petit marronage was. Slaves knew the needs of their owners and used that to their advantage. Dependence is a powerful tool that can be manipulated in one's favor. 

Comments

  1. Olivia SchienkeNovember 11, 2021 at 10:46 AM

    Hey Ben! I also thought that the idea of petit marronage was very interesting. It was a way of these slaves to reiterate to their masters that they still had human rights. In doing this it gave them some power over their masters and the relationship became a two-sided thing instead of just the master controlling the slave and the slave completely submitting.

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  2. Professor StarkNovember 12, 2021 at 8:01 AM

    Thank you, Ben, for the post. I like the discussion of petit marronage as a way of asserting a small measure of control and power to the master. Interesting comparison of this phenomenon to that of labor strikes today. The last sentence of the blog is a good point to make.

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