Enslaved blacks used a variety of ways to resist slavery in addition to escaping or conducting armed rebellion. Slaves would work as a team doing rice cultivation to make things easier while at the same time planning strategies to contest labor by breaking tools, dishes, prolonging the work, faking sick, and pretending that they don’t understand what the master is telling them. They would even destroy crop by removing seedlings that were previously planted and improperly harvesting crop on purpose (Finkenbine, p.81). Slaves resorted to other measures in an effort to resist being enslaved such as poisoning the animals and their masters, killing infants, self-mutilation and suicide. While others would disappear for a few hours or even days despite the punishment they would face upon their return. Another common form of slave resistance was the theft of food. The slaves would pilfer fruits, vegetables, tobacco, livestock, liquor and money from their masters. Food theft was a justifiable way for the slaves because of inadequate rations, lack of nutrition and calories they needed in order to perform plantation labor. Yet other aspects of slave resistance was the Muslim nations opposed human trafficking by threatening death to anyone who attempted, while others banned the slave trade and attacked he European forts along the coast.
In their struggle for citizenship free blacks faced many obstacles they were still treated as inferior to other races and denied full citizenship. They had limited recognition of their rights as Americans due to the Naturalization Law whites who regarded them as dangerous and useless in the building process. Free salves were denied work an even entry into Northern territory as well as their ownership of black churches these actions caused the blacks to consider returning to Africa. In an effort to respond to the growing segregation in free America they began establishing their own communities by building schools and churches....