Slavery Unit

Racist Ideas

Used to justify racist actions. Actions come first, according to our author.

Antebellum Period

The time period before the Civil War during which there were many reforms, including the establishment of free (tax-supported) public schools, improving the treatment of the mentally ill, controlling/abolishing the sale of alcohol, winning equal legal/political rights for women, and abolishing slavery.

Racist Actions

Actions that treat a particular race differently. Usually have an economic or social power purpose. Are later justified by racist ideas, meaning actions come FIRST according to our author.

Segregationist

one who favors, encourages, or practices segregation, especially racial segregation.

Assimilationist

advocate of blending in with the culture of another, usually more powerful, group.

Antiracist

One who is supporting an antiracist policy through their actions or expressing an antiracist idea.

Triangle Trade

the extensive exchange of slaves, sugar, cotton, and furs between Europe, Africa, and the Americas that transformed economic, political, and social life on both sides of the Atlantic

Middle Passage

A voyage that brought enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to North America and the West Indies; generally under very harsh conditions.

Olaudah Equiano

sold into slavery at age 11; after gaining freedom, he spoke out against slavery and published his autobiography

Indentured Servant

Colonists who received free passage to North America in exchange for working without pay for a certain number of years

Enslaved Person

a person without rights or privileges who is forced to serve another; Status racially based and hereditable based on the mother's status in the Americas generally

Slave Codes

Laws that controlled the lives of enslaved African Americans and denied them basic rights such as education, property, marriage, or travel.

Slave Patrols

Police-type organizations created in the American South during colonial times to control slaves and support the southern economic system of slavery.

Plantation

A large farm in tropical and subtropical climates that specializes in the production of one or two crops for sale, usually to a more developed country.

House Slave/ Field Slave

Two main categories of work performed by enslaved persons in the United States

Gang labor system

a system used on most plantations in which all field hands worked on the same task at the same time

Corporal punishment

Common use of physical punishments to enforce rules, decisions, etc. Enslaved people in the South were commonly whipped, but many other forms were also used.

Cash Crop

a crop produced for its commercial value rather than for use by the grower.

Sugar, Tobacco, Cotton, Rice, Indigo

Cash Crop Examples

Cotton Gin

A machine for cleaning the seeds from cotton fibers, invented by Eli Whitney in 1793

1808- End of International Slave Trade

Based on a compromise made at the Constitutional Convention to appease Southerners who wanted to import more slaves.

Interstate Slave Trade/ Domestic Slave Trade

After the end of the international slave trade, a new domestic trade emerged to take slaves from where they were more numerous to places where they were in greater demand. "sold down the river"

"Second Middle Passage"

Name for domestic slave trade that emerged to acknowledge the trauma of family separation and harsh conditions that awaited slaves that were sold from the upper South (VA and MD) to the "Deep South" (GA, AL, MS, and LA)

Denmark Vesey

United States freed slave and insurrectionist in South Carolina who was involved in planning an uprising of slaves and was hanged (1767-1822)

Nat Turner

Leader of a slave rebellion in 1831 in Virginia. Revolt led to the deaths of 20 whites and 40 blacks and led to the "gag rule' outlawing any discussion of slavery in the House of Representatives

David Walker

He was a black abolitionist who called for the immediate emancipation of slaves. He wrote the "Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World." It called for a bloody end to white supremacy. He believed that the only way to end slavery was for slaves to physically revolt.

Frederick Douglass

(1817-1895) American abolitionist and writer, he escaped slavery and became a leading African American spokesman and writer. He published his biography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and founded the abolitionist newspaper, the North Star.

Sojourner Truth

United States abolitionist and feminist who was freed from slavery and became a leading advocate of the abolition of slavery and for the rights of women (1797-1883)