MASTERS OF THEIR OWN FATE

AFS 300 Lesson 4
MASTERS OF THEIR OWN FATE

Throughout the South, a continuing power struggle raged in which slaves strove to increase their independence and masters strove to limit this independence. The security and stability of these families faced severe challenges: no state law recognized marriage among slaves, masters rather than parents had legal authority over slave children, and the possibility of forced separation, through sale, hung over every family. When resistance occurred, it was always quickly suppressed and followed by harsh repression designed to discourage repetition. The most noted uprisings included the Stono Rebellion near Charleston, and the Nat Turner insurrection that rocked Southampton County, Virginia, in 1831. Like other slave uprisings in the United States, it caused enormous fear among whites but did not seriously threaten the slave regime. Just after the revolutionary war ended, the institution of slavery in th...