Introduction

This introductory chapter explores slave resistance in Florida while incorporating perspectives that reach beyond its borders to embrace a regional and even larger context. In doing so, it builds upon the foundation laid by John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger and also upon the works of scholars such as Jane Landers, Michael Gomez, John Blassingame, Lawrence Levine, Margaret Washington Creel, Walter Johnson, Sterling Stuckey, Freddie Parker, and Gwendolyn Hall. Taken together, these historians of slavery, among other things, offered highly useful tools for conceptualizing and analyzing the slave′s experience in the Old South and beyond. These authors note that a supportive African, Caribbean, and African American culture helped slaves to maintain a sense of agency and humanity.