UC Berkeley

Abstract

Fires of Discontent:

Arson as a Weapon of Slave Resistance in Colonial New England, 1650-1775

By

Kerima Marie Lewis

University of California, Berkeley

Professor Mark Peterson, Chair

The dissertation offers a new look at the study of slave resistance in the Atlantic world. Centered in the New England colonies of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine, the project examines how enslaved Africans used the crime of arson to contest their captivity during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Aspects of the West African Diaspora are addressed by highlighting the consanguinity shared between Africans in New England and those in the West Indies. Although separated by the expanse of the Atlantic Ocean, these `captive cousins' were of the same ethnic origin as far as language, culture, kinship and spirituality. Such cultural relatedness shows that the rebelliousness often attributed to enslaved Africans in the Caribbean must also be applied to those Africans enslaved in New England.

Compared to their counterparts in the West Indies and the southern American colonies, enslaved persons in New England enjoyed certain limited rights that included being able to legally marry, to sue and defend in court as well as give testimony and retain counsel in legal matters. There was also an opportunity to learn to read and write, to hire out their labor and even make arrangements to purchase their freedom. It will be argued that such glimpses of liberty only made some enslaved persons more determined to be totally free. Despite these negotiated openings in the system of slavery in New England, some enslaved persons pushed for a broader liberty in a myriad of ways. They contested the restrictions that remained on their lives with acts of resistance from the more common running away and typical stealing to more violent acts which included poisoning, assault, murder, suicide and of course, arson. In fact, arson was the weapon of choice for enslaved persons in New England as it was for those enslaved across the Atlantic world since the act could be committed without detection.

The ambiguous nature of New England slavery with its truncated liberties provided enslaved persons with the means and opportunity to set deadly fires. Often the lone domestic servant in slave owning households, slave women in New England were often isolated and their lives restricted because of close monitoring as far as their having to complete inordinate household duties. Relegated to these roles as domestic servants, enslaved women in New England were not able to travel freely like enslaved men. Some of these women grew so desperate they used their access to flammable materials in their master's kitchens to start dangerous fires. In contrast, it was enslaved men in New England working in such gendered occupations as maritime workers, skilled artisans, personal valets, coach drivers and errand boys who had a level of independence and mobility that allowed them to jointly plan acts of arson.

Importantly, all enslaved persons shared a level of intimacy with their New England masters since most often they lived in the homes of their owners. Living in such close proximity not only gave enslaved persons the access to their owner's valuables including money, guns, gunpowder and flammable materials to start a fire, this intimacy in the living environment also facilitated a slave's ability to monitor a master's whereabouts so that these fires that were often set in retaliation were ignited at the appropriate time. Consequently, the flexibilities in the system of slavery allowed this rather small and dispersed slave population to set dangerous fires across New England.

Whites, in turn, grew nervous and fearful of the blacks in their midst who increasingly exposed them to the destructive forces of fire. Taking advantage of this fear, enslaved persons set numerous fires in and around the urban towns of New England including Boston, Newport and New Haven. Fires occurred rather frequently in the town of Boston with its closely built wooden houses on overcrowded streets where less than adequate fire-fighting practices were utilized to fight acts of arson. New Englanders responded proactively to these recurring conflagrations by passing even more laws to control their slave population, organizing fire wards headed by fire warden, increasing the number of men in their common watch as well calling out a military watch, if need be, increasing their use of fire engines and other technology as well as organizing fire clubs or mutual fire associations to protect the property of private citizens.