The remarkable resilience of enslaved people in colonial America
Historical interpreter Stephen Seals discusses the everyday lives and remarkable resilience of enslaved people in Colonial Williamsburg and the United States.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING] STEPHEN SEALS: With Williamsburg being a town of around 2,000 people, more than 1,000 of them are enslaved. Their lives though are connected to those that have enslaved them, but are also connected to each other. And what I mean by that is oftentimes, they're not going to know who their parents are. That wasn't something that the individuals that owned them kept records of necessarily. Some did, but some did not. Therefore, if you're serving within a household, those individuals around you become your family. And they're everywhere.
Because these enslaved individuals are in every room, serving, it means that they're hearing the conversations. Many of those that we call the founders are talking about these ideas of liberty, of equality, of not wanting to be slaves to England. The enslaved that are serving them are around them the entire time, which means they're hearing all of these, and they're sharing that.
It was often said that if you really wanted to know what was happening within a town, you would talk to the enslaved population of that town because they were everywhere, and they shared that information. Because that information may help someone else on another plantation or some enslaved person in another tavern. It may help them survive. Or it may help them to know how to better communicate with the person that owns them. So that information is precious. That information is important. Sometimes, it's life or death. Sometimes, it's knowing whether your family is going to be sold off from you. But as far as the law was concerned, you all were property, and you did not have that familial connection.
Oftentimes, it can be said that the enslaved didn't have agency, they didn't have power. But in truth, in some ways, they did. They had family. They had friends. They had events that they would go to. They had gatherings that they would have. When you are put into a position where you are being controlled or where you don't feel like you can necessarily do in your life what you want to, you find those things that can that bring you joy. Maybe it's the children that you do have. Maybe it's your uncle that happens to tell funny stories. Or maybe it's the time that you can get away for a bit to see the person that you're married to, though you're not married by the law.
They found ways to survive. And not just survive, but to flourish, in a manner that allows me to be here today, being able to tell this story. And that would not have happened without their resilience and without the joys that they were able to find in an institution that was not meant to be joyful. These individuals were human beings, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, lovers. They found their lives and how best they could. And they had lives.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Because these enslaved individuals are in every room, serving, it means that they're hearing the conversations. Many of those that we call the founders are talking about these ideas of liberty, of equality, of not wanting to be slaves to England. The enslaved that are serving them are around them the entire time, which means they're hearing all of these, and they're sharing that.
It was often said that if you really wanted to know what was happening within a town, you would talk to the enslaved population of that town because they were everywhere, and they shared that information. Because that information may help someone else on another plantation or some enslaved person in another tavern. It may help them survive. Or it may help them to know how to better communicate with the person that owns them. So that information is precious. That information is important. Sometimes, it's life or death. Sometimes, it's knowing whether your family is going to be sold off from you. But as far as the law was concerned, you all were property, and you did not have that familial connection.
Oftentimes, it can be said that the enslaved didn't have agency, they didn't have power. But in truth, in some ways, they did. They had family. They had friends. They had events that they would go to. They had gatherings that they would have. When you are put into a position where you are being controlled or where you don't feel like you can necessarily do in your life what you want to, you find those things that can that bring you joy. Maybe it's the children that you do have. Maybe it's your uncle that happens to tell funny stories. Or maybe it's the time that you can get away for a bit to see the person that you're married to, though you're not married by the law.
They found ways to survive. And not just survive, but to flourish, in a manner that allows me to be here today, being able to tell this story. And that would not have happened without their resilience and without the joys that they were able to find in an institution that was not meant to be joyful. These individuals were human beings, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, lovers. They found their lives and how best they could. And they had lives.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
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