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Enslavers, civic leaders, and ministers attempted to dictate most aspects of the lives of the enslaved. Massachusetts laws mandated a curfew for all enslaved people and forbade their consumption of alcohol. The Reverend Benjamin Wadsworth of Boston linked Christian virtue to obedience: “When your master or Mistress bids you do this or that, Christ bids you do it, because he [Christ] bids you obey them.” Despite these coercive efforts, the enslaved found a variety of ways to exercise some personal control over their lives and culture.
Enslaved people resisted their enslavement beyond running away, breaking tools, and participating in rebellions; they resisted by forming families and communities despite the constraints of bondage. While often unacknowledged, such actions were critical in helping enslaved people maintain their sanity, dignity, and humanity. Those in bondage also resisted the institution of slavery through recreation; they reserved time for themselves. For example, Caesar Lyndon, the enslaved business agent of Rhode Island Governor Josiah Lyndon, recorded the contents of a rather elaborate cookout held by several enslaved people. On August 12, 1766, “Boston Vose, Lingo Stephens, Phyllis Lyndon, Nepton Sispson and Wife, Prince Thurston, Caesar Lyndon, and Sarah Searing” left Newport and went to Portsmouth for a day in the country. They took “a pigg to roast, wine, bread, rum green corn, limes for punch, sugar, butter, tea and coffee.” Two months after their outing Caesar Lyndon and Sarah Searing married; a year later, Lingo Stephens and Phyllis Lyndon became man and wife. These friends were asserting their humanity amidst an inhumane institution.
Evidence in Deerfield likewise documents that enslaved residents claimed their humanity by resisting legal and societal restrictions. Jin, abducted from her African home as a young girl, continued throughout her life to collect small objects in preparation for her spirit’s return to Africa, maintaining her African beliefs despite decades of servitude in a minister’s household. In 1749, Prince ran away from Joseph Barnard of Deerfield, Massachusetts, taking with him extra clothing, a gun, and a violin that he could use or barter for his survival on the road. His freedom was short-lived; he died back in Deerfield in 1752. As late as the 1840s, Deerfield residents still remembered that half a century earlier, Titus and several other enslaved people “belonging to some of the most respectable people” stole food and rum and gathered for a frolic at a “place of resort.” The risk inherent in such activities was dramatically demonstrated when they were caught and whipped:
“The story runs thus, that some half a dozen negroes belonging to some of the most respectable people, set out to have a frolic. They pilfered rum from the store of Maj Williams eggs butter and bread from some pantry and chickens from some hen-roost and met at some place of resort to cook their meal and enjoy themselves. They were detected and with out judge or jury sentenced to the whip. In other words, they were lynched. Maj [Seth] Catlin was selected to carry into execution the sentence. Titus Daniel Arms's negro was first drawn up. His back laid bare and the Majr plied with all his force the woodchuck. It was rather hotter than poor Tite liked to soup it. Every stroke drew blood. Tite cried out "O Lord blessee Massa Catlin, do stop and let us take bres" (Pliny Arms, "Deerfield History " c. 1848.)
Gatherings such as the Deerfield "frolic" and and the outing in Rhode Island were not frivolous; they were essential and enslaved people were willing to risk severe punishment for companionship. Socializing was critical to surviving enslavement. Being part of a community where they were valued as persons, not just laborers, allowed Black people to mentally and emotionally survive bondage.