This chapter looks at how on the plantations and farms of nineteenth-century Florida, enslaved people, like their counterparts throughout the South, rarely rose up in rebellion against their masters. In their daily dissidence, slaves—as Gerald W. Mullin noted for eighteenth-century slaves in Virginia—more commonly used inward or non-threatening forms of rebellion that did not undermine Florida′s slave society in any profound manner. These could involve work stoppages and feigned illnesses, among other things. Yet, enslaved Florida blacks often did not bite their tongues when expressing thoughts about their work routines. These tactics could have proven self-destructive and even fatal in a violent Florida frontier area, but slaves still used these token forms of rebellion to wrest concessions from their masters as they strove to create, preserve, and protect family and community.
: Marriage, Class and Colour in Nineteenth Century Cuba: A Study of Racial Attitudes and Sexual Values in a Slave Society . Verena Martinez-Alier.