African American History Unit 2: CH 4-6

HIST 3350

In 1754, the French and Indian War which began in
North America spread to Europe (1756), where it was
called the

seven years war

The war was fought to control the Ohio River Valley and
the lucrative

fur trade

In 1758 Great Britain undertook an expensive military
effort that by 1763 forced ___ to withdraw from North
America.
• Great Britain took Canada from France
• Florida from France’s ally Spain.
• Spain receives the huge French province of Louisiana.

France

During the 1760’s Parliament passed laws that many
Americans considered oppressive.
• ______ of 1763 prohibiting American settlement
west of the Appalachian mountain.

The Proclamation Line

The Sugar Act of 1764
• Levied import duties (_____)

tax on sugar brought into America 

1765 ___
• Heavily taxed all printed materials such as
• Playing cards
• Newspapers
• Deeds

Stamp Act 

_____ 1765, (NY)
• Americans take first steps in united resistance.
• They force Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act in 1766

Stamp Act Congress 

1767 Parliament forces the NY assembly to provide housing for
British troops.
• _____ Acts taxed imported items
• Glass, lead, paint, paper and tea

Townshend

______ 1770
• British troops killed 5 Bostonians
• Amongst the dead Crispus Attucks (became a martyr)

Boston Massacre 

The 1773 ___ reignited the dispute over taxation without
representation in the American colonies.
• The British government awarded the East India Company a monopoly
on tea and excluded colonial merchants from the trade in tea.
• This led to the Boston Tea Party, in which men in Boston, who called
themselves the Sons of Liberty dressed like Indians threw the East
Indian Company Tea into the water.

Tea Act 

John Locke’s essay “______”
published in 1690, Locke maintained that human society- like the
physical universe – ran according to natural laws.
• He argued that at the base of human laws were natural rights that all
people shared.
• Human beings according to Locke created governments to protect
their natural individual rights to life, liberty and private property.
• If a government failed to perform their basic duty and became
oppressive, Locke insisted that the people had the right to over throw
it.

Concerning Human Understanding 

Locke’s ideals inspired appeals on behalf of black liberty.
• According to Lock’s ideas black people had every right to demand
freedom and natural rights as human begins.
• Lock also argued that the human mind was ____, a blank
slate and that knowledge and wisdom were not inherited but were
acquired through experience.

tabula rasa 

In January 1776 slaves marched through Charleston, South Carolina,
shouting “____!”
• In the South Carolina and Georgia low country, slaves escaped in
large numbers throughout the revolutionary era.
• Between 1770 and 1790 the percentage of black people in South
Carolina’s population dropped from 60.5% to 43.8 %
• In Georgia the population dropped from 42.2% to 36.9%

Liberty

African Americans in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and
Connecticut began to petition their colonial legislature for gradual
___. African Americans wrote in their petition:
• That in 1765 black men had demonstrated against the Stamp Act in
Boston.
• In 1770 black men had joined Crispus Attuks at the Boston
Massacre.
• Black men fought with their white comrades at the battle of Lexington
and Concord.

emancipation

_____
• John Wheatley, a wealthy merchant purchased Phillis at the age of
7 or 8, as a servant for his wife.
• Phillis was taught to read and write English and Latin.
• By the age of 13 she became a poet.

Phillis Wheatley 

In 1773 the Wheatley’s sent Phillis to London where her first
book of poems, was published:
• The title of her book was Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.
• The Wheatly’s freed Phillis after her return to Boston, but she continued to live in their home until both of them died.
• Phillis was a Patriot and an advocate and symbol of ______ ideas.
• Phillis became an example of what people of African descent could achieve if they were freed from slavery.

John Locke’s 

Benjamin Banneker was born free in Maryland in 1731, he died in 1806.
• He was the son of a mixed-raced mother and an African father.
• Banneker inherited a farm in Baltimore from his white ___.
• His farm gave him a steady income and the leisure to study literature
and science.
• Banneker mastered Latin and Greek and had a working knowledge of
German and French

grandmother 

Benjamin Banneker gained international fame as a mathematician and astronomer.
• Because of his knowledge of math and science he became a member of the Survey Commission for Washington D. C.
• This made him the first black civilian employed by the ____.
• Between 1791 and 1796, he published an almanac based on his observations and mathematical calculations.

U.S. government

In 1791 Banneker sent
Thomas Jefferson, a copy
of his almanac to refute
Jefferson’s claims made in
• Notes on the State of
Virginia:
• that ____ were
inherently inferior intellectually
to white people.

black people

According to historian Benjamin Quarles, “The Negro’s role in the Revolution can best be understood by realizing that his major
loyalty was not to a place nor to a people but to a ___”
• African Americans joined the side that offered them freedom.

principle

In the South, the British promised freedom to blacks in exchange for military service,
• Several black men fought on the British side as Loyalist.
• Loyalist were Americans who sided with Great Britain
• American Indians, also almost always fought on the British side because they wanted to stop white colonial expansion westward.
• Black men fought on the ___ side in the North, where white were more committed to human liberty.

Patriot

On November 7, 1775; Lord Dunmore, the last royal governor of Virginia, issued a ___ offering to liberate slaves who joined the British cause. Among those who responded to
the offer was:
• Ralph Henry, a 26 year old slave of Patrick Henry.
• Patrick Henry was the person who made the famous “___” speech.
• James Reid, he later became a leader of Sierra Leone, Britain’s colony founded in 1787, for former slaves on Africa’s West coast.

proclamation; give me liberty give me death 

Dunmore recruited black soldiers out of desperation, and then he became the strongest advocate of their fighting ability.
• The African Americans wore uniform with the motto “____ ” on them.
• In all, more African Americans fought as Loyalists (British side)
than Patriots (American side) during the war.

liberty to slaves

Economic, religious, and intellectual change convinced many whites that slavery should be abolished.
• Slavery appeared to be inefficient, barbaric, and oppressive.
• White people began to believe general emancipation was in their best self-interest and their ___ duty.
• In the North where economic stake in slave labor was relatively small, emancipation made steady progress.

christian 

In the Chesapeake, emancipationist sentiment grew and many masters manumitted their slaves, but there was no serious threat to the slave system.
• In the __ of South Carolina and Georgia, white commitment to slavery remained strong.

low county

The movement among white people to abolish slavery began within the Society of Friends or the Quakers as they were called.
• In 1758, at the Quakers annual meeting they officially condemned slavery and the slave trade.
• Under Quaker leadership, ___ came into existence in the North and the Chesapeake.

antislavery societies

By 1774 these societies had joined with African
Americans in petitioning northern legislation and the
___ to act against slavery and the
slave trade.

continental congress

Chesapeake slaves made gains during the Revolution because the war slowed down the production of tobacco.
• Planters began to switch to raising wheat and corn, which required fewer year-round, full-time workers. Because of the shift in crops some planters:
• began to free their excess labor force
• or ___ contracts that allowed slave to server for a term of years rather than for life.

negotiate

Some masters allowed slaves, primarily males, to practice skilled trades instead of doing fieldwork.
• Such slaves often “___” in return for giving their masters a large percentage of their wages.

hired their own time 

Northwest Ordinance 1787 provide for the political
organization of region beyond the Appalachian
Mountains.
◦ Orderly sale of land
◦ Support for education
◦ Territorial government
◦ ___

New States 

The Articles of Confederation was ratified in 1781.
 Weak central government
 Strong State government
 In 1787, (53) delegates representing all of the states except ___ met in Philadelphia to write a new constitution designed to create
a more perfect union.
◦ Northerners wanted to create a powerful central government.
◦ Southerners did not want a powerful central government.

rhode island 

The U. S. Constitution was ratified in 1788
 Slaveholder concessions:
◦ Continuing the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years until 1807.
◦ Fugitive slave clause:
 Returning escaped slaves to masters
◦ Three-Fifths Compromise:
 Congress decided to count ___ of all slaves in the population calculation for House of Representatives seats.
 This enhanced representation for slaveholders in Congress and the electoral college

three-fifths

Britain led the world in textile manufacturing
thus, their demand for raw cotton increased.
◦ In 1793, Eli Whitney invented the ___.
 Provided a easy way to remove seeds from the type of cotton most commonly grown in the South.

cotton gin

Cotton became the most lucrative
export in the U. S.
 It encouraged the development of cotton mills in
the New England States.
 It ___ the slave labor system.
 It encouraged an domestic slave trade.

revitalized

North and Upper South
◦ Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, and Boston
 ____ were established to:
◦ To avoid inferior status in white-dominated
organization
◦ Preserve African heritage
 Mutual aid societies
◦ Provided for members burial, medical expenses and helped support widows and children.
 First mutual aid society was organized in Rhode Island 1780.

black institutions

Free African Society
◦ Founded in Philadelphia in 1787 by Richard Allen and Absalom Jones.
 Only admitted ___
 Brown Fellowship 1790
◦ Only admitted free black men with light completions.
◦ In Charleston, South Carolina.

men

There were several female Benevolent
Societies as well.
◦ ______ 1796 (established by Richard Allen’s wife Sarah)
 Christian Morals
◦ Members had to pledge to refrain from:
 Fornication
 Adultery
 Drunkenness
 Black Freemasons
◦ A secret society filled with rituals. Black men had the opportunity to:
 Wear fancy regalia
 Bond
 Achieve prestige

Benevolent Daughters 

Independent churches
 The first independent churches emerged in ____ (1780-1800s)
 Richard Allen and Absalom Jones left St. George’s Methodist
Church (a white controlled church).

philadelphia

St. Thomas Episcopal Church
◦ A Black Church within the white led Episcopal Church.
 _____ was the priest.
 The church opened July 1794
 Mother Bethel Church
◦ The first truly independent black church.
◦ The birthplace of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME Church, 1816)
◦ Richard Allen became the first bishop.

Absalom Jones 

Slave rebellions in the1800s sought to destroy the
institution of slavery.
◦ Toussaint L’Ouveture, leader of the rebellion in St.
Domingue (Haiti) 1791-1804.
◦ Point Coupee, Louisiana rebellion (1795)
 The rebels were captured before the rebellion began.
 Twenty-three rebels were hang, their severed heads were nailed to post along the ____ from Point Coupee to New Orleans as a
warning to others.
 Gabriel Prosser
◦ A 24 year old slave who worked as a blacksmith. He planned an uprising on August 30, 1800 in Virginia.
 The rebellion never happened
 Gabriel escaped to Norfolk, Va.
 He and 26 others were captured and hang.
◦ Significance
 Frightened white southerners
 Raised the hope of freedom among slaves

Mississippi River

Sancho’s Easter Rebellion
◦ Was a ferryman, he was one of Gabriel’s follower’s who escaped.
◦ Plotted and “Easter rebellion,” to take place on ___ 1802.
◦ His plan was to burn houses and fields to bring about slavery’s
end.
◦ The rebellion never took place.
◦ 30 slaves were hanged.
 Charles Deslondes Rebellion, New Orleans 1811
◦ Deslondes was a biracial slave
◦ 500 escaped slaves marched to New Orleans.
◦ Largest slave revolt in U.S. History

Good Friday

Slavery became an issue that could no longer be avoided in ___.
 Henry Clay, (Kentucky)
◦ Proposed the Missouri Compromise in 1820.
◦ He was the Speaker of the House of Representatives
 Under the Missouri Compromise:
◦ Missouri entered the Union as a slave state,
◦ Maine entered as a free state
◦ Congress banned slavery in the huge unorganized portion of the old Louisiana Territory north of the 36° 30 ́ line of latitude.
 Missouri‘s constitution forbade free blacks from entering the state.
◦ Southern congressmen argued that free black people were not U. S. citizens.

national politics

__ percent of South’s slave population were
agricultural laborers
 55 percent of slaves cultivated cotton,
 10 percent grew tobacco,
 10 percent produced sugar, rice, or hemp
 15 percent domestic servants;
 10 percent worked in trades and industries

75

Tobacco
◦ Tobacco remained important in Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, and parts of North Carolina and Missouri
◦ Tobacco difficult to produce.
◦ In the spring slaves had to transfer seedlings from sterilized seedbeds to well worked and manured soil.
◦ Than they had to hoe weeds and pick off insects, and prune lower leaves so the top leaves grew to its full extent.
◦ Than slaves had to cure the tobacco and prepare it for market.
 Rice
• Rice production confined to South Carolina, and Georgia
• Rice production required a large labor force.
◦ By 1860, 20 rice plantations had 300 to 500 slaves each, and eight others had between 500 and 1,000 each
 If a slave missed a ___ work they risked forfeiting their weekly allowance of either bacon, sugar, molasses, or tobacco

days

Sugar
• Slaves cultivated sugar on plantations along the
Mississippi River in southern Louisiana
• Commercial production of sugarcane did not begin in Louisiana until the 1790s
 Slave life on sugar plantations was ___
 Hot, humid conditions strain on slaves’ health
 Slaves worked every day of the week.

harsh

Cotton
• Cotton was by far the South’s and the country’s most important staple crop
• By 1860, cotton exports were more than 50 percent of the value of all U.S. exports
• By 1860, Mississippi and Alabama were the leading cotton producers
• By 1860, out of the 2,500,000 slaves employed in agriculture in the United States, 1,815,000 of them produced cotton
•Enslaved men and women who worked in the cotton fields rose before dawn, ate breakfast, and then worked under the control of black slave drivers
•As plantations grew the cost of slaves ___.
• Male slaves during 1830s $1,250 ($32,000 today)
• 1850s slaves cost $1,800 (more than $52,000 today)
• Slave Women were $500 less than men.

increased

Cotton and Technology
• Nineteenth century technology impacted slaves’
lives
• Steamboats in the Mississippi, railroads open old Southwest to cotton, which expanded the domestic slave trade.
• In some instances, technology ___
plantation conditions
• Slaves used the cotton gins
• Technology available to slave women less
sophisticated
• They used heavy cast iron pots for cooking food and washing clothes.

improved

• Other Crops
• Kentucky was the center of the hemp
industry
• Hemp was used to make rope and bagging
for cotton bales.
• 3 slaves could tend 50 acres of hemp
• ____ replaced tobacco as the main
cash crop in much of Maryland and
Virginia

wheat

House servants under close white
supervision
 Cut off from slave communities
 House slaves worked as cooks, maids, butlers,
nurses, gardeners
• Skilled slaves more elite, more ____
 Some skilled slaves hired out to work for money
 Slave carpenters, blacksmiths, and millwrights
built and maintained plantation houses, slave
quarters, and machinery

freedom

Urban and Industrial Slavery
• Slave populations in southern cities were large
• 1840--slaves are majority of Charleston’s 29,000
population
• They tended to decline between 1800--1860
• Urban slaves could earn money; masters had less
___
 Urban slaves purchased freedom over term of years
• Industrial slavery overlapped with urban slavery
 Industrial slaves not purchased but hired from masters
 Industrial slaves had more autonomy, opportunity for advancement

control

White southerners believed slaves needed ______ in order to work.
• Few slaves escaped whippings.
• Parents and older relatives taught slave children how to avoid punishment and still resist the masters and overseers.
• They worked slow, but not too slow
• They broke tools and injured mules, oxen, and horses

threat of beatings

Enslaved parents instructed their children in family history, religion, and the skills required to survive in slavery.
• The extended black family provided slaves with the resources they needed to avoid complete subjugation to their masters.
• There was a high infant mortality rate amongst slave babies and children.
• 50% of slave children died before the age of 5.
• Early on, parents and others taught youngsters about the realities of plantation life
• Children started working at age ___ for light chores, ages eight to twelve for adult fieldwork

six

Masters’ often sexual exploited black slave women.
• Hemmings/Jefferson relationship began in 1787 when Hemings served as caretaker to one of Jefferson’s daughters at his household
in Paris—she was 14, he was 44
• White southerners justified sexual abuse of black women in several ways:
• Claim black women were ____,
• Reduced prostitution,
• Promoted purity among white women
• Routine rape more common than long-term relationships
• Slave women forced to have sex against will
• Sexual abuse highlighted black men’s inability to protect women

promiscuous

Slaves usually received clothing twice a year. Clothing usually made from home spun cotton or wool.
• Slaves went barefoot during the warm months and wore cheap shoes in the winter
• Black women particularly sought to ____
clothing--changed the colors with dyes they extracted from roots, berries, walnut shells, oak leaves

individualize

During 1910s, southern historian Ulrich B. Phillips portrayed slavery as a benign, paternalistic institution in which Christian
slaveholders cared for largely content slaves.
• More brutal realities prevail in the twenty-first century interpretation:
• most masters never met slaves face to face,
• most slaves were whipped,
• over half of slaves were ____ from families

separated