Prelim Revision Flashcards
Describe the conditions on the Middle Passage
- Families separates - men, women+children
- Nutrient lacking food - starch based - rice yams sea biscuits - force fed
- Raped - dehumanised - objects of pleasure
- Diseases - malaria, yellow fever
Describe what conditions were like for enslaved people on the Caribbean Plantations
- Owners broke in new slaves - learn new language + new name - dehumanised
- work very long hours - 12hrs
- Subjected to severe discipline, torture, cruelty + sexual abuse - whipped if work too slow
- flimsy huts - draughty + cold Winter
Explain why Britain became involved in the slave trade
- Sugar becoming more desirable - mass market - no longer luxury item
- Many Brit Businessman already had plantations in the Caribbean
- Early attempts of using British workers in the Caribbean were unsuccessful- couldn’t survive the climate
- Shipyards, rope-makers, metal workers, banks, insurance companies gained profits - compete with Spain + France
- Racist attitudes
- African Chiefs eager to trade - wanted money and goods to get rich
Describe the impact of the slave trade on the Caribbean islands
- Population wipeout - Europeans introduced new diseases to natives
- Landscape Changed - cleared for plantations + houses
- Brought wealth - meant economies dependant - Barbados 93% exports sugar
- Demographic shift - native population overtaken by slaves (C18th 80% pop black)
- Social divides between rich whites + poor blacks still haunts Caribbean today
- Segregation
Explain why it was difficult for enslaved people to resist in AFRICA
- No leader - any efforts messy + unorganised
- Severe punishments - flogged, beaten, killed - threat of death too risky
- Guards has weapons - easily overpower + kill
- scared of whites - thot going to eat them
Describe the ways slaves resisted on the Middle Passage
- Jumped overboard - owners lose money
- Attacked sailors with knives
- Threw sailors overboard
- Killed captain - battered captains face to a pulp with their wooden bowls
Explain why it was difficult for enslaved people to resist in the Middle Passage
- Really Weak from hunger + disease
- Enemies has guns
- Shackled
- I have nowhere to go
- Severe punishments
- Too many languages
Describe the ways slaves resisted on the plantations
- Run away
- Keep traditions alive - keep own names in secret - African music
- Pretended to be stupid - broke things
- Kill newborns - deprive owner of another slave
- Tried to kill owner - female cooks poison
- Injured themselves to prohibit working
Explain why it was difficult for enslaved people to resist on the plantations
- Weak from hunger/ disease
- Nowhere to go
- Language Barrier
- Easily identified if escaped (skin colour)
- Severe punishments
- Owners has weapons
Explain why the slave trade was abolished
- Christian groups eg Quakers became vocal
- Role of Wilberforce- regularly intrigued anti slavery motions for 18 yrs
- Former slaves enlightening ppl - Equiano book shocked many ppl
- Publicity - Pamphlets, Articles, Posters to inform - Wedgewood China
- Reports being written - for >100 yrs conditions in Caribbean not improved - shared with public + MPs - upsetting
- British economy was changing - new markets - paid workers in India for less money - economy no longer depended on slave trade
Describe tactics used by Abolitionists
- Wedgewood - China - Upper classes
- Sugar boycott - 1792 400,000
- Petitions - 40 presbyteries 1788-92
- Evidence - Equiano
- Propaganda- pamphlets + posters
- Lectures - James Beattie
Explain why the US closed its doors on immigration
- Nativism - thot imms threatens the way of life they’d established- racist - ruin communities + law & order
- Fear of new religions- white Protestants felt superior to Jews + Catholics - scared they’d overthrow + enforce
- Anger over jobs - imms work for very little - acted as strike breakers
- Fear of disease - thot imms dirty unintelligent + brought diseases like cholera - slightly true - 1918 Spanish Flu
- Fear of government systems - many imms escaping communism but US scared they’d try overthrow current govt and enforce communism
Describe the Jim Crow Laws
- Transported segregated - buses
- Eating places segregated- lunch counters
- Education separate - Black + white schools
- Social places separate - toilets, water fountains, parks
Describe the effects of Jim Crow Laws on blacks in the South
- Etiquette- polite - sir/ma’am
- Discrimination of jobs
- Fear - punishments of laws not adhered to
- Segregation of housing - natural - live with ppl like them self
Describe the activities of the KKK
- Cross burning - terrorise, intimidate - symbolised white supremacy
- Lynching - hang, beat, shoot - no police / courts
- Marched throughly streets - threatening posters - warning ppl to leave town- intimidate
- Arson - burned down black communities, schools + churches
Explain why the Civil Rights Movement grew from 1900-55
- Jim Crow laws - fed up of being mistreated, segregated, forced to be polite - angry unfair
- lynchings - blacks scared they could be killed by whites with no repercussions
- ‘NAACP’ formed 1909 - 1st organisation resulted in growth
- Allied victory in WWII - blacks found it unfair ironic they fought for freedom but still didn’t have it themselves
- India demanding independence from Britain - inspired blacks as India managed to get results
- Emmet Till death 1935 - brutal unfair nature of death sparked outrage + protests
Explain why Abolitionists wanted to end the slave trade
———————————————— RELIGIOUS ———————————————— • Many Quakers - slavery is a moral sin • God creates mankind as brothers and sisters
——————————————————————
ECONOMICAL
——————————————————————
•Sugar could be produced cheaper by free workers in India
• British industries did not need triangular trade to survive - banking businesses already established in the city
• British trade with the Far East was more important
• Sugar sales falling anyway
—————————————————————— SOCIAL —————————————————————— • Slave trade brutalised Africans • Revelations of the horrors of the trade
——————————————————————
REVOLUTIONARY
——————————————————————
•Ideas spreading (French Rev 1789) - change possible by ppl
• House of Lords
Explain why it took so long to abolish the slave trade
————————————————
WAR WITH FRANCE
————————————————
•top priority
• expensive - soldiers had to be transported
• claimed was training ground for navy
• trained soldiers + gave them basic skills
—————————————————————— SUPPORTED BY POWERFUL PPL —————————————————————— • King George III • Mps - made hard put ideas forward in parliament
—————————————————————— ECONOMIC ISSUES —————————————————————— • Result in huge loss of money • Thousands lose jobs • Poor financial consequences
—————————————————————— PETITIONS —————————————————————— •ignored bc vast no.of MPs for ST • Mayors + merchants petitions complaining they’d lose all trade tied to ST
——————————————————————
FEAR OF REVOLT
——————————————————————
• many thot slaves in West Indies would revolt if trade ended thinking they were free
• fear fuelled by Haitian rev as showed slaves could defeat owners
——————————————————————EXAGGERATION
——————————————————————
• many genuinely believed the Abolitionists were exaggerating - making stuff up
• they did only talk about worst parts in order to gain sympathy
• however not all owners treated slaves the same
Describe the economic benefits to Britain
- Banking industry grew in London
- Liverpool grew from a small fishing town to a city producing 2/5 slave ships
- Creation of jobs like rope makers, insurance companies, shipyards in all ports especially Bristol
- Glasgow flourished due to money from the ST - this is reflected in street names eg Jamaica St and Glassford St
Describe the experience of immigrants in America
———————————————— JOBS ———————————————— • low pay, unskilled • Discrimination eg Ford not empty Jews
—————————————————————— LANGUAGE BARRIER —————————————————————— • Not all spoke English • Couldn’t communicate • Frustration/ suspicion • Mix with ppl who speak same lang
—————————————————————— RELIGION —————————————————————— • WASPs • Catholic’s from Italy + Jews from E.Europe eg Ford not employ Jews
—————————————————————— POVERTY —————————————————————— • Low pay or no job • slums - overcrowding • work no better than previous homes
—————————————————————— DISCRIMINATION —————————————————————— • Religion • Crime stereotype • Dirty - Diseases • couldn’t get jobs • political • Tension
Describe the Montgomery Bus Boycott
- 1955 - blacks were angry that Rosa Parks had been arrested after refusing to give up her seat to a white man - fed up
- Black decides to boycott buses as they made up majority of ppl using them - would hurt bus companies
- Decided to walk everywhere or organised car pools
- Huge economic impact on bus companies
- Buses eventually desegregated
Describe the events in Little Rock in 1957
- The high school was to be desegregated and NAACP wanted to test the law
- 9 black kids were sent to the school
- Orval Faubus (gov of Arkansas) sent state soldiers to the school to stop black kids getting in
- White protestors formed angry mob around school
- Elizabeth Eckford - 1st black student to try to enter
- Met by adults spitting and shouting at her
- Outraged, the President order Governor to remove soldiers
- Pres sent 1000 US soldier to escort the black kids to school
- Stayed for 1 yr to ensure kids were safe in school
