Michel Foucault's Definition Of Slave Resistance

Michel Foucault once said “ Where there is power , there is resistance.” Foucault’s def-inition of power transcends what we often resonate it with in regards to status or politi-cal standing with in a community. He refers to it as something that is not socially con-structed but rather something more elusive. The way that Foucault defines power em-bodies exactly what unfolded within the African Diaspora so that there could be a tri-umphant resistance. The resistance to slavery was global and persistent. Despite the age, color , or sex of a person, an anti slavery mentality was usual. Unbeknownst to a lot of people and unacknowledged in a lot of historical texts women played a major role in slave resistance. Religious groups too played a fundamental role in the rebellion.
The topic of slave resistance is nothing new and has been a topic of discussion for a very long time. Post World War I , U.B. Phillips published a very “paternalistic” view of slave history and portrayed blacks as racially inferior. Ac-companied by this assumption , Phillips also said that their was very little evidence of Black revolts in the United States. Such behavior would be incompatible with his claims against a submissive natured group of people who he categorized as stupid , docile , in-constant , negligent and inept. Until about 1943 , the image of slavery in the South remained unquestioned and universally accepted. In 1943 a book was published challenging all of Phillips paternal-ism theories. Herbery Aptheker’s book “American Negro Slave Revolts testifies the re-bellions. Of the many short comings of slave history, one of the biggest is the inclusion of the participation of slave