Into the Depths: The women who mutinied
"The more women on board a ship the more likely a revolt. Rebel leaders were often female."
By Rachel Jones, National Geographic contributor
When historian Rebecca Hall was poring over slave ship captain's logs and databases for her Ph.D. dissertation, several remarkable items stood out. First, during the transatlantic slave trade, there was a shipboard uprising by enslaved Africans on 1 out of every 10 vessels.
But even more intriguing, these acts of resistance were more likely to occur aboard ships where female Africans outnumbered males. The reason why seemed obvious to Hall, 59, author of the book Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts.
European crews may have viewed African women through the same cultural lens as their own wives, mothers and daughters—as docile and meek and not needing restraints, Hall says. "When the ship voyage began, all of the Africans would be confined in the lower deck. But soon, the women were allowed to come up on the upper deck. They also weren't chained like the men."
Some of those women found the courage to commandeer the tools needed to break the chains of the men and boys onboard. They were equally prepared to fight their tormentors, or die trying to be free.
Hall's book highlights several women-led revolts, like those on the slave ship Unity, which took its first voyage from a port in Middelburg, Netherlands, in 1761. “What’s striking about that one is that [ship's logs] document four different revolts, all led by women on that same voyage." The identities of those valiant women are lost to the historical record. "All we can know about those events is that this woman may be so-and-so's purchase number 12, or something like that."
The impact of American slavery has never been a vague concept for Hall. Her father's parents, Harriet Thorpe and Haywood Hall, were both born enslaved in 1860—the former on a Virginia plantation and the latter on a plantation in Tennessee. As Hall's knowledge grew of these life and death struggles for freedom, so did her desire to honor the role of resistance in Black history.
"People want to talk about Black joy and focus on it as one of our strengths," Hall says. "I love Black joy, too, but without understanding the beauty of our resilience and resistance, it’s kind of a fragile, surface joy. I want us to be able to draw on that strength of resistance for moving forward and figuring out how we're going to bring about the change that we need for our communities."
Rachel Jones is Director of Journalism Initiatives for the National Press Foundation and a frequent contributor to National Geographic.
Imagine if they grew wings
Traveled through the sky
And returned Back to Africa
Their souls seeped into the soil
To fall in love
To dance
And to have those who love them say their names againAlyea Pierce, poet and National Geographic Explorer, on the Africans aboard the hijacked ship Guerrero, Into the Depths, Episode 2
DID YOU KNOW?
In 1811, more than 500 enslaved people armed with knives, guns, and farm tools rebelled on Louisiana's German Coast—the largest slave revolt in U.S. history. Their goal? To form an independent black state.
READ MORE: How two centuries of slave revolts shaped American history
WANT TO LEARN MORE?
Learn more about the people, places, and ships mentioned in the podcast Into the Depths in the National Geographic Society's Resource Library for educators, students, and lifelong learners. And visit the links provided here for more stories about the men and women who survived the slave trade.
• Abache was one of 110 men, women, and children forced aboard the last American slave ship, Clotilda, in May 1860. Many years later, she described to a writer from Harper’s Magazine what it was like on the ship—the filth, the darkness, the heat, the chains, and the thirst. Read more here (behind a paywall).
• Ellen Craft and her husband, William, were both enslaved in Georgia. Because of the very real fear of family separation, they believed the only way they could build a family and a future together was to escape. In 1848, they did just that—in broad daylight, with Ellen disguised as a white man. Read about their daring escape (behind a paywall).
• Cape Coast Castle, in what is now Ghana, was one of dozens of Portuguese-built castles and forts used as holding places for enslaved Africans before they were shipped across the Atlantic. They were held in the castle's dungeons before passing through the main gate, known as the Door of No Return. Learn more here.
