African Americans who came of age in the South in the past two hundred years ago faced a world dominated by institutional and individual oppression such as slavery, Jim Crow, mob violence, political repression, and economic subordination. Yet even in the darkest years the black experience was not without its points of resistance. Indeed, one of the dominant historiographical debates in the field of African-American history revolves around the question of resistance. Write an essay in which you explain how historians have struggled to articulate the nature and meaning of resistance in both institutional and day-to-day settings. What theoretical frameworks have been used to explain what resistance is, how it functions, and where it can be located? What are the key areas of contention among historians, if any?
