The shrewder men all said substantially the same thing.

What was the use of insurrection, where everything was against them?
They had no knowledge, no money, no arms, no drill, no organization,--above all, no mutual confidence.

It was the tradition among them that all insurrections were always betrayed by somebody.
They had no mountain passes to defend like the Maroons of Jamaica,--no unpenetrable swamps, like the Maroons of Surinam.

Where they had these, even on a small scale, they had used them,--as in certain swamps round Savannah and in the everglades of Florida, where they united with the Indians, and would stand fire--so I was told by General Saxton, who had fought them there--when the Indians would retreat.
It always seemed to me that, had I been a slave, my life would have been one long scheme of insurrection.

But I learned to respect the patient self-control of those who had waited till the course of events should open a better way.