Test 1 Flashcards
Background
- Time of empire building/quest to expand
- point of an overseas empire was to exploit resources: including labor
- The precedent for slavery had been set 100 years prior to an African slave even setting foot in the Americas
Prior to 1820, the number of Africans
outstripped the combined totals of all Europeans immigrants by ratio of 5 to 1
Dominant labor source replacing indigenous
Slave labor
__ million Africands landed alive in New World colonies; about ___ million departed from Africa. Slightly over __% came to the mainland colonies (US) and the rest went everywhere else
11
12.5
4
first European colony to make contact with Africa and establish and overseas empire that was strictly agricultural. ___% of the 11 million went to Brazil
Portuguese
40
The __ century was the peak era of the slave trade 6 million traded; By the mid who was responsible for the slave trade?
18th; Britain, France and Portuguese
By the 19th century…why?
trade dies off; 2 million traded; nations were being attacked in attempts to stop slave trade
Took about __ days for the slave ship to travel across the Atlantic
30
Higher mortality rates from Africa to …
American Mainland colonies (17.6 percent)
ship problems:
shipwrecks, pirates, epidemics, slave revolts
Example of resistance by Africans on ships
Amistad Mutiny (1839)
Amistad mutiny
- 1839
- kidnapped from home
- placed in a hold of a ship and found weapons left behind by crew
- killed many crew members including the cook
- ordered rest of white crew to sail back to Africa; instead they sail it to a port where naval officers arrested them
- Clinque (a Cuban-born slave leader of rebellion
- 52 Africans 1 Cuban aboard
- US Supreme Court ruled in favor of the African slaves because the Africans had been introduced into Cuba illegally thus making them never slaves in the first place giving them the right to use force to become free; eventually returned to Africa accompanied by Christian missionaries
Shipboard revolts occurred on __ percent of all slaving voyages
10’; slaves would jump overboard, refuse to eat, use physical force
Slave trade=
very profitable; keen competition drove prices up;
Angolan trade achieve a 30
% profit
Amazing Grace
- written by John Newton
- retired British ship captain
- went to the church to repent for involvement in slavery
- became an ordained Anglican priest
- Published Olney Hymns including Amazing Grace
Categories of Slaves according to Spanish
Bozal- fresh off the boat/little to no experience w European customs or lifestyle
Landino - Understood language and had experience with Europeans
Atlantic Creoles - people of mixed African, European and eventually American ancestry/ accompanies the first European explorers and settlers of Americas
Charleston, SC
- huge slave mart, primary source “Gang of 25 Sea Island Negroes”
- served as the major port of entry for Africans on the North American Mainland
- Imported 43 percent of all slaves brought into American colonies from Africa through the colonial era
- 18 merchant firms conducted 60 percent of the slaving business in Charleston
First person of African descent in North America
- 1528
- served as a scout, solider and cultural broker for Spaniard expedition to North America
- survived shipwreck and walked 8 years across the continent, eventually was able to obtain a ship and sailed through the gulf of Mexico
- 1536 told by native elders not to set foot in the village, did anyway and the locals killed him
First African Slaves in English North America
- first 20 slaves brought by pirates
- landed at Jamestown colony in 1619
- Their arrival was documented by John Rolfe (first english person to successfully grow tobacco)
- were part of a larger cargo of slaves
- from Angola
- literate, spoke Bantu Languages and some had converted to Christianity
- Jamestown was not funded as a slave society
- Jamestown;s goal was to plant crops
Why did Europeans use Africans as slaves in the New World?
- Faillure of Indians in every New World colony (new the land, could kill you, wanted good relations for trade)
- Africa practiced and traded in slaves at the time of European contact in 15th century
- Slavery a major institution in pre-colonial Africa
- Most Africans had not adopted Christianity
- possessed immunity to disease
- were adaptable
Evolution of Racial slavery
- developed slowly at different times in different regions
- emerged as a system of labor in every colony in mainland North America
- slave labor existed alongside free labor
- southern colonies were the first to import slave labor and the most to import although north used them too but never became dependent
- said they couldn’t attract enough free white labors, indentured servants and indians didn’t work
- only after the Africans have been brought to American colonies after a period of 400 years
- early slaves helped shape the development of this country; largest contribution was their labor specifically
slavery over time
- Charter generations: the first arrivals, their children and grandchildren
- Plantation generations: those slaves who were forced to grow the great staples ; longest period of slavery until Revolution (170 years)
- Significance of the Chesapeake region: VA and MA
Southern Colonies
1740
- Virginia (first to be settled)
- Maryland
- SC and Georgia: low country where rice and cotton will grow
Colonial Laws Governing Slavery
- 1619-1640: Legal and social status in flux
- 1640-1660: increasing evidence of discrimination
- Post-1660s: colonial laws establish racial slavery
- 1662 laws required persons to follow the status of their mother
- 1667 and 1682 laws address Christianity and its relationship to manumission
- 1691 laws restricted manumissions
Slave Codes
-developed in all New World
-Chattel: their status as property outweighs their status as a person
-1669 harsh code allowing masters to discipline their slaves as harshly s they saw fit including killing
- slavery as a source of tension in colonial
legislation
- Africans as an inferior racial caste- “Mala Raza” bad or evil race
Slavery and Race in New England
- Puritans active in slave trade as early as 1638
- Few Africans brought to New England - 17,000 on eve of American Revolution
- Slaves worked in every phase of New England’s economy
- shipbuilding, fishing, whaling, commerce, timber, and lumber manufacturing
- majority of black new englanders worked small farms
New England Slavery
- enjoyed more favorable social legal status than southern slaves
- slaves marriages binding under law
- slaves recognized under law as bother person and property rights as persons much closer to property rights than in the south
- attained much high rates of literacy
- Phillis Wheatley
- James Forten
- Puritans set up slavery after biblical Jewish slavery; treated one like an extended member of the family most were only slaved for a specific period of time
Paul Cuffe
- lived in the north
- connections w Quaker community
- became one of the most successful of the maritime merchants
- Entrepreneur and merchant
- Grew up as free black in Massachusetts
- Educated by Quakers
- Owned 6 ships and employed crew of whites and blacks made living trading
- first wealthy African American
- Important because of the two voyages to African 1811 and 1815
- trade, identification with African heritage, bring Christiantiy to Africa
- attempted to reverse the image of black inferiority
- earliest black nationaists and places emphasis on self-help and economic independence
Slave Culture
- African culture could be found in dance, music, arts, food prep, religion, funeral practices, etc.
- culture that developed among black slaves developed bc of the synthesis of the European and African culture
Syncretisms
- blending of all the cultures to create slave culture
- folk tales, riddles, proverbs, passing down through oral conversations and primary carriers of the history because they are illiterate
- Joel Harris- heard many of these stories as a young boy and wrote them down and popularized them: Br’er Rabbit
- told tales of triumph of a smaller animal
- Known as trickster tales in Africa
Language
Gullah or Geechee
Gullah speech: “the roots of black English”- Peter Wood
-Pidgin English (misnomer)
-Creole language: a symbol of cultural unity
Naming- a way to preserve the linguistic heritage of slaves
Cultural Survivals and Adaptation
- slave religion
- slave songs
- spirituals : most significant musical creation
- Folk Expressions: Juju, gooby dust (voodoo)
- witch doctors
- slave doctors
- creole language
Plantation Slavery
plantation: large scale farming, staple crop, at least 20 slaves
- far more productive to use slaves on large farms than small farms
- large planter class (over 100 slaves)
- key staple crops in colonial America: tobacco, rice, indigo, hemp
- American economy a staple-exporting economy
- slaves were a liquid asset, could be bought, sold, used as collateral
The planter class
- served as merchants/creditors/political elite/cultural elite
- George Mason (VA) Median value 3 million dollars; wealthy man
- William Byrd: member of planter elite; from VA founder of Richmond, owned most presitgious plantation in VA known as Westover Plantation
“Necessary Evil”
planters agreed with Thomas Jefferson that Africans were racially inferior to move up political hierarchy without owning slaves and being a planter
Plantation Hierarchy
- Plantation owner
- Steward
- Overseer
- Driver
- Slaver foremen
- Privileged slaves
- Domestic slaves
- Field Hands
Slavery and the American Revolution
- The American Paradox: slavery and freedom
- slave pop about 500,000 in 1775
- colonial leaders could not visualize a multiracial society
Blacks and the American Revolution
- App. 5000 served and fought
- Colonial navy
- “public negors” - state funds were used to pay for the purchase of slaves to be used in colonial navy or army
- Wide range on attitudes about slaves fighting
- substitute system - could find free black and pay him to take your place
- George Washington was against using slaves but later changed his mind
- VA utilized more slave labor during revolution than any other state in the colonies
Black Soldiers
- Most African American soldiers confined to menial tasks
- some fought in major battles and skirmishes
- Black soldiers fought alongside white soldiers in integrated units
- despite their service, black soldiers and sailors were not part of the official military establishment
- civil war is the first time blacks are officially part of the militia
Impact of American Revolution on slavery
- gradual abolition in New England
- Abolition societies
- more emancipation in the south
- sharp increase in free black population: 59,000 to 109,000 from 1790-1808
The US Constitution and Slavery
- three fifths compromise: encourages the perpetuation of slavery by giving southern states a positive incentive for their number of slaves
- prohibition of slave trade in 1808
- permitted the return of fugitive slaves
- “government would rest upon the dominion of property”
- 3/5 rule gave Southerners 20 additional representatives by 1820
- Herrenvolk Democracy : democracy for a white race
Lower Mississippi Valley
- French established first settlement in :)
- Critical trade area
- By the 1720s blacks would outnumber whites in this area
- became an Africanized area
- French issues a slave code in 1685 which gave slavery its legal basis in this area controlled by France
- All slaves were required to be only instructed and baptized publicly in the catholic church
- had a large free black population; much higher status than enslaved blacks, large population of Mulattos
