BEHIND THE BIG HOUSE: SLAVERY ON LOUISIANA PLANTATIONS - Part 2

Part Two: Resistance, Survival, and the Road to Freedom

Written by: Mark Collins and Barbra Anderson

Slavery on Louisiana plantations was built upon forced labor, violence, and control, but enslaved people continually found ways to resist the system imposed upon them. Their resistance ranged from quiet acts of defiance to escape, rebellion, and eventually participation in the struggle that helped bring slavery to an end.

Everyday resistance could take many forms. Enslaved workers sometimes slowed their labor, damaged equipment, gathered without permission, or found ways to challenge the authority of enslavers and overseers. Maintaining family relationships, religious practices, music, food traditions, and other elements of culture also helped enslaved communities preserve identities within a system that attempted to control nearly every part of their lives.

Escape represented a more direct challenge to slavery. Louisiana’s swamps, forests, rivers, and isolated areas could provide temporary refuge for people fleeing plantations. Some escaped to avoid punishment or visit relatives, while others sought permanent freedom. The decision was dangerous, as capture could result in severe punishment and a return to enslavement.

At times, resistance became open rebellion. In January 1811, enslaved people along Louisiana’s German Coast launched a major uprising and began moving toward New Orleans. The revolt was violently suppressed by military and militia forces, but the uprising remains one of the largest organized revolts by enslaved people in United States history. It demonstrated that plantation slavery was never accepted without resistance.

Family and community were equally important to survival. Despite the possibility that husbands, wives, parents, and children could be separated through sale, enslaved Louisianians formed strong relationships and passed knowledge from one generation to another. Stories, music, religious beliefs, foodways, craftsmanship, and other traditions survived because people continued to preserve and share them.

The Civil War fundamentally changed the struggle for freedom. As Union forces gained control of areas of Louisiana, enslaved people fled plantations and sought refuge behind Union lines. Their departure weakened the plantation labor system, while Black Louisianians who entered Union military service participated directly in the conflict that helped destroy slavery.

The end of slavery brought enormous change, but freedom did not immediately mean equality. Formerly enslaved Louisianians faced new struggles as they attempted to reunite families, find employment, establish schools and churches, acquire land, participate in politics, and secure the rights promised by emancipation.

The history of Louisiana’s plantations, therefore, is not simply a history of oppression. It is also a history of people who protected their families, maintained communities, preserved their cultures, resisted enslavement, and pursued freedom despite extraordinary obstacles.

Behind the big house was not only a story of slavery. It was also a story of survival, resistance, and an enduring determination to be free.

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