BROUGHT 20 AFRICANS ASHORE AT THE BRITISH COLONY OF JAMESTOWN, VIRGINIA, SLAVERY SPREAD THROUGHOUT THE AMERICAN COLONIES. WHY DID SLAVERY START IN AMERICA? IN THE EARLY 17TH CENTURY, EUROPEAN SETTLERS IN NORTH AMERICA TURNED TO AFRICAN SLAVES AS A CHEAPER, MORE PLENTIFUL LABOR SOURCE THAN INDENTURED SERVANTS (WHO WERE MOSTLY POORER EUROPEANS). WHY DID THE WHITES WANT SLAVES?
MOST OF THE TIME TO WORK IN
RICE PLANTATIONS, IN THE PRODUCTION OF TOBACCO CROPS AND LATER, COTTON. TOBACCO CROPS
COTTON CROPS WHAT PROBLEMS DID THE AMERICANS HAVE? 1)THE SOUTH FACED A CRISIS BECAUSE THE LAND USED TO GROW TOBACCO WAS EXHAUSTED.
2)THERE WAS A HUGE DEMAND FOR COTTON
BECAUSE OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND(1760-1820/1830) BUT THE PRODUCTION OF COTTON WAS VERY DIFFICULT AND TOOK A LOT OF TIME. HOW DID THEY SOLVE THIS?
IN 1793, A YOUNG AMERICAN NAMED ELI
WHITNEY INVENTED THE COTTON GIN. HIS DEVICE WAS WIDELY COPIED, AND WITHIN A FEW YEARS THE SOUTH WOULD TRANSITION FROM THE LARGE-SCALE PRODUCTION OF TOBACCO TO THAT OF COTTON, A SWITCH THAT REINFORCED THE REGIONS DEPENDENCE ON SLAVE LABOR. A COTTON GIN HOW DID THE COTTON GIN WORK? WHAT WAS BEING A SLAVE LIKE? PART 1 MOST SLAVES LIVED ON LARGE FARMS OR SMALL PLANTATIONS SLAVE OWNERS SOUGHT TO MAKE THEIR SLAVES COMPLETELY DEPENDENT ON THEM. THEY WERE PROHIBITED FROM LEARNING TO READ AND WRITE, AND THEIR BEHAVIOR AND MOVEMENT WAS RESTRICTED. MANY MASTERS: TOOK SEXUAL LIBERTIES WITH SLAVE WOMEN REWARDED OBEDIENT SLAVE BEHAVIOR WITH FAVORS BRUTALLY PUNISHED REBELLIOUS SLAVES. WHAT WAS BEING A SLAVE LIKE? PART 2
THERE WAS A STRICT HIERARCHY AMONG SLAVES
WHICH WOULD HELP KEEP THEM DIVIDED AND LESS LIKELY TO ORGANIZE AGAINST THEIR MASTERS. SLAVE MARRIAGES HAD NO LEGAL BASIS, BUT SLAVES DID MARRY AND RAISE LARGE FAMILIES, BUT THERE WAS AN INHERITED SLAVERY AND SOMETIMES THEY WERE SEPARATED. WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH? BY 1860 SLAVE POPULATION HAD REACHED NEARLY 4 MILLION, WITH MORE THAN HALF LIVING IN THE COTTON-PRODUCING STATES OF THE SOUTH. THE ECONOMY OF THE SOUTHERN STATES BASICALLY DEPENDED ON THE SLAVES. IN THE NORTH, SLAVERY WAS NEVER WIDESPREAD. IN FACT, THERE HAD ALWAYS BEEN PEOPLE AGAINST IT BECAUSE THEY LINKED THE OPPRESSION OF BLACK SLAVES TO THEIR OWN OPPRESSION BY THE BRITISH. WHAT WAS THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD? IT IS A MOVEMENT WHICH MAY HAVE HELPED FROM 40,000 TO 100,000 SLAVES REACH FREEDOM. FREE BLACKS AND OTHER ANTISLAVERY NORTHERNERS HAD BEGUN HELPING FUGITIVE SLAVES ESCAPE FROM SOUTHERN PLANTATIONS TO THE NORTH VIA A LOOSE NETWORK OF SAFE HOUSES AS EARLY AS THE 1780S. WHAT WERE THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD?
APART FROM SLAVES BECOMING
FREE, THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD ALSO CAUSED TENSIONS BETWEEN THE SOUTH AND THE NORTH AS THE SOUTH CONSIDERED THAT THE NORTH WAS AGAINST THEM. WHAT DID THE SOUTHERN STATES DO? AMONG THE 34 U.S. STATES IN FEBRUARY 1861, SEVEN SOUTHERN SLAVE STATES INDIVIDUALLY DECLARED THEIR SECESSION FROM THE U.S. TO FORM THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. HOW WAS SLAVERY ABOLISHED? WITH ABRAHAM LINCOLN AS THE PRESIDENT, THE CIVIL WAR TOOK PLACE FROM 1861 TO 1865. IN DECEMBER 1865, THE 13TH AMENDMENT WAS FORMALLY ADOPTED INTO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION, ENSURING THAT NEITHER SLAVERY NOR INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE SHALL EXIST WITHIN THE UNITED STATES, OR ANY PLACE SUBJECT TO THEIR JURISDICTION.
Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad: Comprising Many Thrilling Incidents of the Escape of Fugitives from Slavery, and the Perils of Those who Aided Them