The Enslaved In Washington's The Heroic Slave

In The Heroic Slave by Frederick Douglass, Madison Washington claims that “the ocean, if not the land, is free.” In part four, a shipmate and a man named Jack Williams have a conversation about just that - while the latter underestimates the power and strength of enslaved persons, the former makes his case about the difference between the land and the sea and how enslaved persons behave accordingly. Washington and the shipmate are correct - the ocean makes it easier for the enslaved to revolt or have a chance to become free due to the differing circumstances in the two environments. One difference between freedom on land and on sea is the support system available to both parties (the enslaved and the enslavers). The shipmate mentioned above states, “it is quite easy to talk of flogging n--- here on land, where you have the
This is important because on land, there are several groups of people - the plantation owner(s), the local community, the government - that can extinguish any form of rebellion from one slave or even a whole group. The enslaved person(s) is easily outnumbered and therefore it is not usually in their best interest to risk their life and attempt to run away or something of that sort. Meanwhile, when they are on a ship, in the middle of the sea, they have a greater advantage. Not only are they underestimated, as Jack Williams believes, they are also more easily able to overpower and gain control of a ship by working together. This is because there is no backup on the ship - no form of outside or government interference to quell any attempt at insurgence. If something like that were to happen, no one would know because they are