Their attention did not extend to the slaves themselves, however. As much as ten to thirty percent of slaves transported across the Atlantic along the middle passage of the triangular journey perished, but the slave trade flourished in Europe just the same (Williams and Palmer, 133). Disease, complete immobility, lack of space and fresh air, and sometimes even a lack of food and water, claimed many victims along the journey, yet these conditions were often legally sanctioned. For a slave that had been captured in Africa, however, this was just the beginning of the trouble. Life on the plantation was not easy, either, and many deaths occurred from overwork (Maroons). In response to this, a group of escaped slave known as the Maroons established their own successfully resistant government in the mountains of Jamaica in the late seventeenth century.

One of the first truly great leaders of the Maroons was Cudjoe, who began a series of campaigns against the white plantation owners and the militias present to protect them. They eventually retreated back to the mountains, but remained free and independent. Often known at least ceremoniously as...

She was probably born free in the maroon community, which Cudjoe is alleged to have been, but which it is doubtful he was (Rodriguez, 342, 148). Francois Mackandal attempted a similar type of revolution in Saint Dominique in the island that would become Haiti, but was before his time, and he revolution there would not succeed until 1790 (Rodriguez, 302). Still, his story, as well as the other stories of resistance, demonstrate the for freedom despite extreme adversity.
Works Cited

Klein, Herbert S. The Atlantic Slave Trade. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Maroons." Slave Resistance: A Caribbean Study. University of Miami. Accessed 18 January 2009. http://scholar.library.miami.edu/slaves/Maroons/individual_essays/leanna.html

Rodriguez, Junius P. Encyclopedia of Slave Resistance and Rebellion. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007.

Williams, Eric E. And Palmer, Colin a. Capitalism and Slavery. Raleigh: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.