# Was there ever meaningful armed resistance to slavery & Jim Crow in the south **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 29, 2016, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-meaningful-armed-resistance-to-slavery-jim-crow-in-the-south/755998 "2016-05-29T15:40:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2016, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-meaningful-armed-resistance-to-slavery-jim-crow-in-the-south/755998/41 "2016-06-01T03:26:49Z")
The Lowrie war [Lowry War - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowry_War) , and exploits by other Lumbee tribesmen were not so much in response to slavery, but in response to the poor treatment of “people of color” which included Indians and free mulattoes. “Meaningful” is a relative term, but think they did pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2016, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-meaningful-armed-resistance-to-slavery-jim-crow-in-the-south/755998/42 "2016-06-01T19:30:49Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I don’t want to do another abortion debate but there really are more people enslaved today in the world than any time in history (in absolute numbers). Why aren’t more people tossing in their sleep over that let alone bearing arms to stop it if they are truly that outraged by the practice? That is an honest question and I expect an answer from the people that claim they would have done something about it if they lived during the Antebellum period in the Southern U.S. because that is obviously not true as demonstrated by (in)actions. The difference for me is that the slavery is not right here in my country, or in my town, sanctioned by my government. > [@](#): > > I know the answer for myself. It is because I am selfish and don’t care enough just like the vast majority of people in human history and I make no apologies for that. I guess that’s sort of my answer too, though there’s this - to stop slavery all around the world would require a massive effort that we could never muster - an enormous war. We’d never accomplish it, and the damage could likely far outweigh the benefits. And how long would it last? Once we left the old regimes and customs would take over again. So I just don’t think we could do it even if we tried. We have to accept that we can’t fix all the world’s problems. But yeah, if slavery were reintroduced here in the U.S., I’d fight against it, even if I wasn’t enslaved. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2016, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-meaningful-armed-resistance-to-slavery-jim-crow-in-the-south/755998/43 "2016-06-01T21:28:04Z")
> [@lance\_strongarm](#): > > But yeah, if slavery were reintroduced here in the U.S., I’d fight against it, even if I wasn’t enslaved. It is one of the points of pride that my northern state not only outlawed slavery decades before the civil war, but my state also fought for the union against the confederacy. I’d like to believe if I were alive back then I would offer moral and financial support to the opponents of slavery. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2016, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-meaningful-armed-resistance-to-slavery-jim-crow-in-the-south/755998/44 "2016-06-01T22:32:54Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Slaves running away was also a form of rebellion. As was buying and otherwise gaining ones freedom and then freeing other slaves. Great point! > [@](#): > > While slavery sucked some slaves actually did pretty well. Thats why after freedom many went back to work for their former masters. Are you talking about people who were emancipated after the Civil War and stayed on the plantations to continue to work the land? Or are there examples of runaway slaves who returned to the South after the Civil War? I hadn’t heard of the latter. > [@](#): > > In Jim Crow blacks established their own institutions like banks, businesses, newspapers, cinemas, etc… and look at the Negro Baseball Leagues. I originally though that white owners owned the Negro Leagues, but I guess I was mistaken. Ignorance fought (sincerely)! > [@](#): > > Most people dont know it but while it was true blacks were excluded from many white business, also whites were excluded from black businesses. And dont think for a second that “black” meant “bad”. Black hotels and restaurants could be just as good or better than white owned. > > There is an interesting scene in the movie “The Buddy Holly Story” where Holly and the Crickets are touring with a black band and they would have to alternate sneaking the other group in by claiming the other groups were their valets. They would go back and forth calling each other “boy”. Again, I was not aware of white’s being excluded. I figured there were places where they felt unwelcome, but was it force of law? ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-meaningful-armed-resistance-to-slavery-jim-crow-in-the-south/755998/45 "2016-06-02T13:58:17Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > While slavery sucked some slaves actually did pretty well. Thats why after freedom many went back to work for their former masters. Um, no, genius, any who did that did it because they had no other choice. They owned no land of their own to work. And just because some may have gone back to work - for pay, while free to leave any time - that’s not an indication that they were “doing well” as slaves. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-meaningful-armed-resistance-to-slavery-jim-crow-in-the-south/755998/46 "2016-06-02T14:03:48Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > Again, I was not aware of white’s being excluded. I figured there were places where they felt unwelcome, but was it force of law? Sometimes it was a law. Sometimes it was simply strong social pressure from whites for the races not to mix, even when it meant keeping whites away from blacks along with keeping blacks out of white places. And sometimes there was fear that blacks who mixed with whites could face all sorts of repercussions, including violence. Other whites might not like it, or it could expose blacks to some kind of accusation they mistreated the white people, even a little, which could bring on a lynching or riot or whatever. Anyone who is trying to suggest that whites being excluded from black establishments was just blacks hating whites, or that this was “separate but equal” behavior that made segregation justified, is full of it. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-meaningful-armed-resistance-to-slavery-jim-crow-in-the-south/755998/47 "2016-06-02T16:03:03Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Thomas Jefferson had children with his slave Sally Hemmings but their relationship wasn’t like most people picture. Sally was also Thomas Jefferson’s sister-in-law through his deceased wife and only 1/4 black. You know, I looked it up, and you’re right, their relationship wasn’t like I pictured. I didn’t realize she was 14 and he was 45 when he started screwing her. I mean, I’m generally a big Jefferson fan, but that is not something that reflects well on him or his time and institutions. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-meaningful-armed-resistance-to-slavery-jim-crow-in-the-south/755998/48 "2016-06-02T16:14:35Z")
In the post-Reconstruction era African-Americans were subject not just to lynching and race riots, but mass killings that came up to the standard of massacres. Some of the more infamous ones are listed at [List of massacres in the United States - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_the_United_States) So while there might have been small individual victories here and there, any meaningful resistance to Jim Crow would have led to outright genocide. African-American leader Booker T. Washington eventually counseled accepting segregation and other inequalities in part because he feared that pushing harder would lead to race war, which African-Americans would have almost certainly lost. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-meaningful-armed-resistance-to-slavery-jim-crow-in-the-south/755998/49 "2016-06-02T19:04:48Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > You know, I looked it up, and you’re right, their relationship wasn’t like I pictured. I didn’t realize she was 14 and he was 45 when he started screwing her. > > I mean, I’m generally a big Jefferson fan, but that is not something that reflects well on him or his time and institutions. By the way, it’s not 100% certain that Thomas Jefferson is the father of Hemmings’ descendants. The genetic testing only proved someone in his male line with the same Y chromosome was the descendant. It could have been his brother, for instance. But of course, the historical evidence still points strongly to Thomas. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-meaningful-armed-resistance-to-slavery-jim-crow-in-the-south/755998/50 "2016-06-02T19:06:26Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > In the post-Reconstruction era African-Americans were subject not just to lynching and race riots, but mass killings that came up to the standard of massacres. Some of the more infamous ones are listed at [List of massacres in the United States - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_the_United_States) > > So while there might have been small individual victories here and there, any meaningful resistance to Jim Crow would have led to outright genocide. African-American leader Booker T. Washington eventually counseled accepting segregation and other inequalities in part because he feared that pushing harder would lead to race war, which African-Americans would have almost certainly lost. And this is where some yahoo apologist say that the fact that there was little rebellion or resistance to slavery or Jim Crow means blacks were happy with it. :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-meaningful-armed-resistance-to-slavery-jim-crow-in-the-south/755998.md?page=2)