4a. The Battle Over Slavery Flashcards
As people who’ve never grown up with slavery like the one we had for 150 years of our history, what do WE fail to grasp.
We fail to understand that slavery was powerful because it contributed so much to the economic interest of those who profited. We see the human story, but they saw profit.
What does the book of Daniel reach us about how masters use slavery as a social control mechanism?
- He separated them from their families.
- He changed their names.
- He attempted to change their culture by making them read Babylonian literature.
- He forced them to lean a new language.
- He attempted to change their diet to keep the new culture.
- He ordered them to change their religion and bow down to an idol.
To be free in America is what?
It is the opposite of slavery. Free to do everything and anything you want. This is a U.S. understanding of freedom and slavery that has been ingrained in us because of our history. Not every culture sees slavery (or freedom) the same way.
What role did each continent play in the slave trade?
- Europe traded and sold them.
- Africa was the source, but we can’t totally blame the Europeans because some Africans betrayed their own people.
- America bought and exploited them. And when Europe stopped sending them, we bred them.
Where did the bulk of slaves come from?
Angola
Why did the Spanish get African slaves instead of Indigenous ones?
Because Native Americans died too easily from diseases. They needed cheap labor, so they got it from Africa.
Who were some of the first to engage in the slave trade?
The Portuguese and the Dutch. They began getting Africans and taking them to the Caribbean. The Portuguese took them to Brazil for sugar production.
What was one of the implications of the Dutch taking sugar production from the Portuguese?
It motivated England and France to do the same in the Caribbean.
What prompted more slaves being taken to Brazil.
The discovery of gold in the 18th century.
How many slaves were in the United States?
50,000 in 1700, 1 million in 1800. So 20% of the population at the beginning of the 19th century.
When was the international slave trade abolished?
1808, at the height of American slavery. But it had no impact on the United States, because we just bred more.
In 1800, what percentage of clergy owned slaves?
40%!
Richard Furman
Baptist pastor who believed that slavery was for the greater good of society. But he was not alone in his thinking. Many pastors served on slave patrols to look for runaways.
What were the three main crops in the U.S.?
Sugar, tobacco and cotton.
What was the relationship between America and Europe in the benefits of the slave trade?
America produced the cotton, and Europe had the textile mills.
Where was the cotton being produced?
In the deep south, places like Mississippi and Georgia where slaves outnumbered whites 40:1. Cotton production increased dramatically from 1830 to 1859, and so did the number of slaves.
Why didn’t anyone say anything against slavery?
Because so many people owned them. And because the slaves were making them rich.
Cotton was king, a huge cash crop, and there was no stopping it. Morality took a back seat to sound economic policy.
Who was William Pitt?
The Prime Minister of England in 1783 who estimate that 80% of foreign income was related to the slave trade.
In the United States, who were the first to say something against slavery?
The Quakers, Methodist and Baptists in Virginia.
Jean Rousseau
Condemned slavery because it was not needed in the Age of Reason. He attacked slavery from a philosophical point of view.
Which Pope ended slavery?
Pope Clement XI (1649-1721), he told the Spanish and Portuguese to knock it off, and they did.
Equiano
Slave who was sold to a Quaker in the Caribbean. Master set him free, and Equiano wrote about the horrors of the trade.
abolitionists
those who fought to end the slave trade in England, it happened in 1807.
emancipators
those who fought to liberate those who were already in slavery
