Slavery

Question 1

What was important to West African people before Europeans arrived?

Answer 1

-Trading goods (e.g. gold, silver, spices, books, brass)
-Slaves were treated with respect (idea taken from Arab Muslims
-Slavery had little to do with race, more to do with class and if you were captured in Battle

Question 2

What was the triangular slave trade?

Answer 2

Buying and selling of slaves and goods across the Atlantic Ocean

Question 3

How did the English get involved in the slave trade?

Answer 3

In the late 16th century, England took control of several Caribbean islands from Spain. From 1625, England also established colonies in North America. English planters set up plantations in both areas and used slave labour like the Spanish and Portugese.

Question 4

When did the English merchants start the transatlantic slave trade?

Answer 4

Around 1650. By the end of the 17th century, thousands of Africans were being seized in west Africa, sailed across the Atlantic and sold to plantation owners each year. For the next 150 years Britain became the biggest slave-trading nation.

Question 5

Why were Africans taken from Africa to America and the Caribbean?

Answer 5

-High amounts of crop production needed a large workforce: required plentiful and a cheap supply of strong workers
-African slaves were considered more resistant to Western diseases
-Familiar with working effectively in hot weather
- Slavery was extremely profitable: An enslaved person could be bought on African coast for 14 pounds and sold for 45 pounds on American market

Question 6

How did the triangular slave trade work?

Answer 6

1. Textiles, rum, guns and manufactured goods taken to Africa to exchange for slaves
2. Slaves taken to the Americas to work and harvest sugar, tobacco and cotton
3. Slaves are sold and used to buy goods (sugar, tobacco, cotton) which are brought to Europe to be sold

Question 7

What is the middle passage?

Answer 7

Voyage from Africa to the Caribbean

Question 8

Why was triangular trade so profitable in Britain?

Answer 8

Sugar and wealth came to Britain. In the Middle Ages, sugar had been for the rich. The triangular trade changed this. Sugar spread to the middle classes. The sugar trade boomed.

Question 9

What is Dahomey?

Answer 9

Ancient Kingdom in south West Africa

Question 10

Who were the Agojie?

Answer 10

A group of warrior women from Dahomey. In 1840, the kingdom of Dahomey boasted an army so fierce its enemies spoke of its “impressive bravery”. The 6,000 strong force raided villages in surprise attacks, took captives and cut off enemies heads to return to their king. They established Dahomey’s superiority over neighbouring kingdoms and became known as “Amazons” by the Europeans. They started because there was a shortage of men after all the conflicts in the region. Women had to become very fit, learn to fight, learn to stifle pain and take a vow to not get married

Question 11

who was an overseer?

Answer 11

Someone in charge of a number of enslaved people to make sure they all worked as hard as possible.

Question 12

What was the treatment of slaves like?

Answer 12

Main punishment- .Being whipped (number of lashes decided by how serious the act of disobedience was)
. Violence used as a threat to make slaves work
. Some plantations offered extra food, clothing or time off to help slaves work efficiently
. Owners could move individual slaves without warning meaning families could split up
. Slaves were encouraged to marry as owners believed slaves were less likely to rebel if they had a family
. Women were encouraged to have children as it meant plantation owners would spend less money on buying new slaves, some owners promised freedom if they had 15 children

Question 13

What is passive resistance?

Answer 13

Opposition to or challenging with non violent methods

Question 14

What is active resistance

Answer 14

Opposition to or challenging with visible and sometimes violent methods

Question 15

How did slaves resist?

Answer 15

-Escaping (costs owner)
-Poison owner (Costs owner health/life-revenge)- Slaves in kitchen had access to poison
-Working slowly (less work, less profit)
-Breaking tools (wastes time, costs owner)
-Learning to read and write
-Uprising (revenge-can cost owner life)
-Faking illness
-Stealing
-Keeping traditions

Question 16

What was the underground railroad

Answer 16

The underground railroad grew during the 1800s. It was secret roads and paths that slaves used to escape from slavery in the south and travel to north america and canada where slavery was banned. Free enslaved people and antislavery activists helped others escape

Question 17

Who was Harriet Tubman?

Answer 17

Born enslaved in Maryland. In 1849 Tubam escaped by travelling through the underground railroad to the North. She travelled by night for a week before reaching Pennsylvania. A year later she became a conductor herself. She risked capture and losing her freedom for others. Her bravery and acts of selflessness led to her nickname “Moses”. To protect her passengers, she could be ruthless. She thought if a slave gave up on the journey, they should be shot so that the slave did not betray the rest of them when they were re-captured. During the Civil War she served as a nurse in the Union army. In 1863, she organised her own band of spies chosen from former slaves as they knew the countryside better and could guide the soldiers. Led by Tubman, people piloted gunboats down the river and burned crops and buildings. She became the 1st and only woman in american history to lead a military attack.

Question 18

Why did the slave trade end in Britain?

Answer 18

At the end of the 1700s public opinion in britain started to turn against slavery. In 1787, Quakers formed the society for the abolition of the slave trade. This group, including Thomas Clarkson, collected evidence of the horrors of the slave trade. They believed slavery went against Christ’s teachings. They collected signatures from the public on huge petitions. They convinced politicians like William Wilberforce to make speeches in parliament. The abolitionists organised local petitions, gave out information leaflets at public meetings, asked members of parliament to vote for slavery to be abolished, collected eye witness statements about the slave trade, got influential people to support the cause and helped free slaves read and write so they could write autobiographies about their life which had a huge effect. Women visited people in their homes to persuade them to support the cause and sign petitions, paid campaigners to give public lectures and refused to buy sugar or bread grown on the plantations using slave labour

Question 19

When was slavery banned in Britain

Answer 19

1833

Question 20

When was the slave trade act?

Answer 20

1807. It banned slave trade in the british Empire

Question 21

What were the causes of the civil war?

Answer 21

-South needed slaves for labour whereas North believed it was wrong. People in North wanted to make slavery illegal and the people in the South feared their way of life would come to an end

-North had moved away from farming and built factories but the South had kept a large farming economy meaning they still relied on slaves

• As Lincoln was a member of the ant-slavery republican party the south felt that he was against slavery and against the south.

-South thought the federal government was taking away their rights
-When Lincoln was elected, many southern states decided they no longer wanted to be part of the united states. 11 states, starting with south Carolina, left to form the confederate states. Lincoln said they didn’t have the right to leave and sent in troops

Question 22

When did the Civil War begin and end?

Answer 22

April 1861-1865

Question 23

What was the emancipation proclamation?

Answer 23

Lincoln issued emancipation proclamation in 1863. It declared that all persons held as slaves within the rebellious states are, and henceforward shall be free and announced the acceptance of Black Americans into the union army. The proclamation also prevented european forces from helping the confederacy

Question 24

How did the North win the war?

Answer 24

-North controlled railroads and shipping giving them excellent railroad links meaning they could transport soldiers and supplies fast and inexpensively
-North was far more industrialised than South and was able to produce weapons, ammunitions and equipment

Question 25

What was the 13th amendment?

Answer 25

1865- abolished slavery

Question 26

What was the 14th amendment?

Answer 26

1866- freed enslaved people are citizens

Question 27

What was the 15th amendment?

Answer 27

1870- African Americans can vote

Question 28

What problems did freed enslaved people face?

Answer 28

-Didn’t know how to read/write
- Weren’t welcomed by everyone
-Weren’t citizens
-Started from zero after they were freed- no money, food, house or job
-Viewed unequal to white population
-Had been separated from family

Question 29

What did enslaved people do after given freedom?

Answer 29

-Renew wedding vows
-Set out to find relatives
-Dropped slave nicknames
-Moved from areas they had been enslaved at
-Travelled
-Adopted children of close relatives

Question 30

What is the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

Answer 30

Created in Tennessee in 1866
Most members were former soldiers of the Confederate Army
They attacked African Americans trying to vote, murdered African American politicians and were allowed to terrorise the African Americans through whipping, burning, murder and lynching for 5 years

Question 31

What was the Reconstruction?

Answer 31

Period after the American civil war when America had to rebuild its country. It lasted around 10 years (1865-1875), the 3 amendments were passed and gave African Americans more freedom, some states elected African Americans to be in charge, this period saw the rise of the KKK. Rutherford B.Hayes ended reconstruction when he was elected in 1877