Analysis Of Slave Resistance: Enslaved Women In The Old South

Slave Resistance: Enslaved Women in the Old South
One of the ways that enslaved men and women retained their dignity during slavery is their resistance against their owners; covertly and overtly. Stephanie M. H. Camp’s book, Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women and Everyday Resistance in the Plantation South, emphasized the way slaves, particularly enslaved women, expressed their own unique forms of resistance. Often, researchers neglect to delve into other forms of resistance aside from obvious ones such as running away or rebellion. Camp utilizes slave narratives and interviews, papers and journals to scrutinize covert forms of resistance that enslaved women had done in the antebellum south. This is shown when she explains how slaves express, using Edward Said’s term, “rival geography” in which they utilize their knowledge and proper usage within and around the plantation space; thus, challenging the control of space, time and movement of southern plantation owners through movement of bodies, objects, and information (Camp 7).
Stephanie Camp explains how enslaved women challenged their

She focuses not only in the obvious forms of resistance, but also its disguised forms by utilizing resources such as slave narratives and interviews, papers and journals. She demonstrates how enslaved people threatened the control of plantation owner’s space, time and movement through movement of bodies, objects, and information. Her work exhibits extended research of analysis on already researched topics. Camp gives a new angle on these already researched topics by providing a deeper analysis as if she knows what these enslaved women truly think. Thus, successfully showing the efforts of black women trying to establish ownership of their own body, showing their hope for freedom, and expressing their emotions as a way to show that they are more than just the price they were bought