Is there a difference between resistance and rebellion?

While writing my final paper, I chose to write on the second option where we were asked to pick two themes from the entirety of the course to evaluate. This was no small task to decide on, considering the vast amount of literature we have read, as well as supplemental outside sources we have discussed. Three themes that immediately came to mind were rebellion, resistance, and resiliency, in no particular order.

When I thought about resiliency, I pictured slaves crossing the Atlantic Ocean during the Middle Passage. A voyage that was terrifying, to say the least, and that lasted anywhere from a few weeks to several months. The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade was responsible for the deaths of millions of enslaved Africans, forced to emigrate from Africa’s Gold Coast. Those who survived the passage demonstrated copious amounts of resiliency. Arriving at their destination was also no easy task, especially if the slaves ended up in the Caribbean where the expected life expectancy was about 7 years.

When I thought about resistance, I imagined the women that killed themselves and their children to escape the horrors of slavery. I think about Kojo’s wife, Anna, who committed suicide after being captured by slave traders despite being a free woman, or Margaret Garner, who killed her infant child with her own two hands and even attempted to kill her other children. In the contemporary moment, I thought about how hip-hop is used as a form of resistance. The lyrics of songs like Beyoncé’s “Formation” or Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” are often about the struggle that Black people endure and how we must persevere despite the world being against us.

When I thought about rebellion, I thought about Nat Turner, a slave who led a large slave rebellion in Virginia that killed at least 50 white people before he and his fellow slaves were killed. I also thought about the readings about the sit-ins and nonviolent protests that happened around the country during the Civil Rights period and beyond, which we can argue about whether or not we are still living in that time period.

After grouping together examples of resiliency, resistance, and rebellion, I realized that they are all interconnected. Someone that is resisting can appear to be rebelling, depending on who is observing. Likewise, a person who is resisting could be seen as someone being resilient. To resist, seems to be almost synonymous to rebelling and vice versa. Were slaves resilient, resistant, or rebellious? The answer depends on the person. I also believe that resiliency, resistance, and rebellion, all fall under the idea of Black Empowerment because in order for Blacks to show that they were and are people too, they had to and have to be resilient, resistant, and rebellious.

WC:446