Session 3: Resistance

Introduction

Resistance is a core element of the story of empire. It is closely related to power. Where efforts were made by imperial protagonists to exercise power and control over indigenous peoples, those people often expressed their own power through some sort of resistance.

Acts of resistance existed across a spectrum: they could be direct forms of action such as uprisings, or they could be indirect means for example, insisting on practicing outlawed traditions or speaking banned languages. They could be collective: such as the mass refusal to pay unfair taxes or to undertake forced labour, or individual, for example, the refusal of a woman to bear a child that would be enslaved.

Figure 1 Adolphe Duperly, ‘The Attack of the Rebels on Montpelier Old Works Estate in the Parish of St James’s, the Property of Lord Seaford’ (1833). This image depicted the Baptist War, Jamaica, 1831–32 when 60,000 enslaved people rose up to demand an end to slavery.

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A colour painting depicting the destruction of a plantation during the Baptist War. Enslaved African men and women can be seen gathered by a wall in the foreground, some hold flaming torches. Behind the wall is a complex of buildings including sugar works with grounds. In the background there are small domestic dwellings. There is a fire burning to the right of the image and there is a crowd of enslaved people with weapons and torches.

Figure 1 Adolphe Duperly, ‘The Attack of the Rebels on Montpelier Old Works Estate in the Parish of St James’s, the Property of Lord ...

These forms of resistance were connected. How so? Routine dissent created and sustained the possibility of revolutionary action. Everyday examples of insubordination allowed people to identify who could be trusted when planning or enacting collective action. They opened a conversation which enabled people to talk about dissatisfaction and the possibilities of dissent. Ordinary acts of disobedience and subversion forged the bonds of everyday solidarity necessary to organise widespread political action.

How did people subvert the absolute exercise of power through ‘everyday resistance’? People refused to comply with regulations, they sabotaged production lines, they deserted their posts, feigned ignorance, were disobedient and they laughed at their oppressors. These acts enabled people to exercise some limited forms of autonomy. They scratched at the edifice of total control and exposed the fault lines of power.

Resistance, whether overt or covert, was not always possible. We must think very carefully about how far concepts of agency can be applied to all situations that colonised people faced. Challenging imperial power could come at huge personal cost including threats of and actual physical violence, emotional terror, transportation, and death. One of the most effective methods of survival was accommodation.

This session examines some case studies to explore how people expressed their resistance during initial attempts at colonisation, in their everyday lives, and through the struggle to overthrow imperialism. Please be aware, this session contains images depicting slavery and racism. If you are likely to find this distressing, please consider carefully how you might want to engage with this.

By the end of this session, you will:

• understand different forms of imperial resistance
• explore how those forms of resistance were used in different contexts.

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