- Direct Resistance: This involved overt acts of defiance and resistance, such as refusing to work, sabotaging equipment or production processes, running away, or even organizing armed rebellions and revolts.
- Indirect Resistance: This encompassed behaviors and strategies that indirectly challenged the system of slavery, such as feigning illness, slowing down work, engaging in covert forms of sabotage, or resisting orders and instructions.
- Cultural Resistance: This involved preserving and expressing African cultural traditions, practices, and beliefs as a way of maintaining a sense of identity and community and rejecting the dominant Eurocentric culture of the slaveholders.
- Legal Resistance: This form of resistance involved the use of legal avenues and strategies to challenge the institution of slavery, such as petitioning for freedom, filing lawsuits, and seeking the intervention of the courts to protect their rights and freedoms.
- Religious Resistance: Many enslaved people used religious beliefs and practices as a source of comfort, strength, and resilience in the face of oppression. Spiritual leaders and preachers played a crucial role in fostering solidarity, hope, and resistance within the enslaved communities.
- Underground Networks: Enslaved individuals often established secret networks and alliances with abolitionist groups, free Black people, and sympathetic whites to facilitate escape attempts and gain information about the outside world.
- Psychological Resistance: This form of resistance involved maintaining a sense of self-worth, dignity, and resilience in the face of oppression and dehumanization. Enslaved people frequently employed humor, satire, and storytelling as forms of psychological resistance.