The Man in the Middle: Covert Communication, Resistance, & Overcoming Surveillance

Historical Precedents of Pervasive Surveillance and Control

During the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, enslavers enforced extreme surveillance, language suppression, and physical separation to prevent organizing and resistance.

Covert Channels, Steganography, and Coded Communication

Alexis Hancock examines how enslaved Africans developed resilient covert communication channels—using music, spirituals, visual patterns, and linguistic steganography.

Connecting Historical Resistance to Modern Anti-Surveillance Tooling

Hancock draws direct parallels between historical resistance systems and modern privacy technologies—such as end-to-end encrypted messaging, Tor, and mesh networks.

Reclaiming Community Connection Against Modern Authoritarianism

The presentation emphasizes the enduring imperative of building decentralized, open-source communications infrastructure to resist state and corporate surveillance.