According to Abu-Jamal:

Some Africans, early in the eighteenth century, resisted the status quo by seizing control of their slaveships and setting sail for freedom in Africa. Ninety-six Africans aboard the Little George slipped their bonds and overpowered the crew. Some of the crew were not slain, but were locked in their cabins so that they could not interfere with the trek home. The Black naval rebels sailed for nine days and made landfall on the West African coast in 1730.

Two years later, the captain of the William was slain by its Black captives, its crew was set adrift in the waters of the Atlantic, and a new, rebel crew pointed the bow of the vessel homeward, to Africa.

Nor were things quiet and sedate for Africans on land.

The period of the 1730's and 1740's has been seen by some historians as an era of incessant resistance. One contemporary observer described the period, almost as if he were referring to a prevalent disease, as "the contagion of rebellion" sweeping the colonies. Indeed, this spirit of rebellion flashed up and down the coasts of the British colonies and encircled the isles claimed by tribes of Europe in the West Indies, lighting fires of freedom in the dark night of bondage. (p.14)

I don't know about you all, but my courses in Amerikkkan history have tended to gloss over this time period, minimizing the cruelty of the slave trade and ignoring the constant struggle against it. Most white historians who write the history books like to portray enslaved Africans as passive objects in the story, rather than the active resisters they were.

If you haven't read Abu-Jamal's latest, I highly recommend it. He gives a really interesting insight into his life as a Black Panther and describes what daily life was like for those in the movement. But he also makes a very strong argument. Black resistance wasn't an anomoly that started in the 1950's and 1960's. Black resistance has been going on since the beginning of Amerikkka.