AHH Unit 2 (Slavery)

First slaves (1619)

August 1619 marks the first time white Virginians bought African slaves. British pirates stole the slaves, consisting of men and women, from a Portuguese ship heading to Angola. The slaves were forced on a brutal 100-mile journey on foot before being brought to America to work on tobacco plantations. The only documented slave was Angela, who worked for a wealthy planter. Slavery came to a slow start in America; slaves were expensive and had a high death rate in Virginia, so it was not profitable to buy labor for life. By 1680, only 5% of the population was black.

Plantation system

Differing from the rest of the world, slavery in America was based on plantations: and agricultural enterprise that brought large amounts of slaves under one owner. The skewed balance between slave and owner magnified the possibility of resistance and uprising massively, causing owners to rigidly enforce policy through violence and fear. Labor on plantations was far more demanding, causing a spike in death rate amongst slaves on plantations. By 1600, plantations spread across the America’s and West Indies.However, by 1850, three-fourths of white-southerners owned no enslaved people, and the majority of enslavers owned fewer than five enslaved people.

Indentured servants (1550-1700)

Before enslaving Africans became mainstream, many planters utilized indentured servants to perform manual labor. Indentured servants or European immigrants who sign a contract to work for x amount of time for a master in order to start a new life in the colonies. by 1700, the death rate began to fall, making it far more profitable to buy labor for life. This caused a sudden shift away from Indentured servitude and towards enslaving Africans.

Chattel slavery (1661)

Chattel slavery marked the turning point to slavery based on race. Under Chattel slavery, slaves were now complete personal property of the owner. Slaves were a source of labor that could be sold and traded like livestock. Slave masters were also now entitled to the descendants of their slaves, spurring a domestic slave market within the US. This system contrasted with other colonies like Brazil, where slaves were freed in celebrations.

Bacon’s Rebellion (1676)

By 1676, governor William Berkley had already been running a corrupt regime in alliance with the nations wealthiest tobacco planters for thirty years. He rewarded his followers with more land and wealth. Freed servants were forced to work as tenants and other low paying jobs as all the land for farming was taken by Berkley’s followers; on top of this, the right to vote for men without land had recently been taken away in 1670. In Bacon’s Rebellion, settlers demanded Berkley to kill or remove natives on the colonies’ borders to make room for whites. Nathaniel Bacon and his team of landless men, servants, and even some Africans, marched on Jamestown causing Berkley to flee. Bacon’s Rebellion was successful as the right to vote was restored for the landless was restored, and a more agressive policy was implemented to give native land to the whites. Virginias government promoted slavery to stop freed indentured servants from rebelling again.

Slave codes / laws around slavery

English North America was one of the most oppressive places on the globe when it came to slavery. Early on in the 1600’s the line between slavery and freedom was quite permeable as many slaves were able to be freed after working long enough. As early as 1620, Blacks were banned from enlisting in the army. In 1643, a poll tax was imposed on only black women. In 1660, authorities sought to improve the status of white people to counter the claim that Virginia was a death trap, this meant removing rights from Blacks. In 1662, a law was passed to make the offspring of a slave property of the master. In 1667, Christians were now allowed to have other Christians as slaves. No mixed race existed, only black and white in the US.

Chesapeake slavery (1619-1850)

Slavery in Virginia (Chesapeake) was based on harsh tobacco plantations. Chesapeake slavery was the oldest and largest of the three system with 270,000 slaves by 1770. Most slaves, both men and women, in Virginia worked in the tobacco fields, performing manual labor, but others labored as craftsmen or boatmen. Woman became cooks and servants. By 1770, half of Virginias white families owned at least one slave. Slavery in Chesapeake caused a social hierarchy with slave masters at the top, with others in between and slaves at the very bottom. Slavery also caused a division between race, for many feared black people claiming them to be dangerous and uncivilized. In 1723, free black people, making up only 4% of the population, were no longer able to vote.

Rice slavery: Georgia and the Carolinas (1670-1850)

Slavery in Georgia and South Carolina was based off of rice production. The settlers of this region first utilized native Americans before switching over to imported Africans for their labor. Since rice required lots of investment to drain swamps and create irrigation systems, rice plantations were as large as possible. In these swamps, disease flourished causing high death rates among slaves. Under the task system, individual slaves were assigned daily jobs, the competition of which granted them free time. By 1770, over half the population in this region were slaves.

Slavery in the north (1619-1790)

Unlike the rest of the nation, slavery was not central to the economy of the North. Slaves made up a minute percentage of the population and it was rare for families to own more than one or two slaves. With such a small percentage of slaves, laws were less harsh regarding Blacks than in the South. Black marriage was legal, and slaves could testify in court. Most Northern slaves worked as artisans or servants, not much plantation labor.

Atlantic slave trade (1619-1808)

The Atlantic slave trade was a regularized business following a trade of goods and slaves. This trade followed a triangular path across the Atlantic where goods would come out of Europe, slaves out of Africa, and raw materials out of the colonies. European slave traders would bargain with African leaders on the West coast of Africa as they did not want to travel towards the mainland. This took a huge toll on the economies and societies on the West coast of Africa. They voyage the slaves took across the Atlantic, known as the middle passage, was brutal with one in five slaves dying before they arrived in the colonies. Slaves were packed as tightly as possible and were given very little food and hygiene. Sick slaves were even sometimes thrown overboard to stop they disease. The US imported ~500,000 African slaves.

Slavery in the Constitution (1787-1788)

The articles of the constitution pertaining to slavery were largely a result of needing to gather support for ratification among slave states. One such example, the three-fifths compromise, was implemented into the constitution to garner support for the document. It stated that three-fifths of the enslaved population would be counted in determining each state’s representation in the House of Representatives and its electoral votes for president. This allowed the white South to exercise far greater power in national affairs than the size of its free population warranted. Another way to gain support for the constitution among slave-states was the Fugitive Slave Clause, which required states to return fugitive enslaved people back to their owners. The clause accorded slave laws "extraterritoriality", meaning that the condition of bondage remained attached to a person even if they escaped into a state where slavery had been abolished. This ambiguity became a major source of conflict between the North and the South. Despite the pledges to universal equality found in the Declaration of Independence, the constitution served to protect slavery.

Spread of slavery (1690-1850)

Despite slavery coming off to a rocky start due to death rates and cost, by 1860 there were more than four million slaves in the US. In the south, slaves made up 33% of the population, in the cotton producing states it was almost 50%. Slavery quickly expanded west along with the nation. The sharp rise in slavery is due to the death rate decreasing in slave states, a booming domestic slave market, and the new found profitability in cotton.

Second middle passage (1808-1850)

After Congress banned the importation of slaves from Africa in 1808, slaves had to be traded domestically within the US. Between 1820 and 1860, more than two million slaves were sold. Auctions took place at slave markets all across the South. Newspapers carried advertisements for local slaves for sale. Southern banks financed slave trading. Southern states supported the domestic slave market because they made money from taxing it.

The Old South (1800-1850)

After the North abolished slavery gradually, slavery had become the peculiar institution of the Southern states—an institution unique to the South. The Mason-Dixon line divided the nation by slavery: North and South. Slavery quickly grew, especially in the South, where slaves made up almost a third of the population. With the rise of cotton production, needed for clothes in the Industrial Revolution, slavery rapidly grew. Around 75% of cotton came from the US. After 1808, Congress banned the importation of African slaves. After this, the second middle passage was a domestic slave market in the US.

Cotton (1800-present)

Essential to the rise of slavery, the cotton industry supplied money and reason for the expansion of slavery in the South. During the 1800’s, cotton replaced sugar as the world’s major slave crop; this was due to the industrial revolution, requiring cotton to use in factories to produce clothing and other cloth things. 75% of raw cotton came from the US exports alone. Cities as far as Eastern Europe depended on the cotton output of the US. One the eve of the civil war, cotton made up 50% of the money generated from US exports. The cotton gin allowed cotton to be cleaned faster, requiring more intensive slave labor to keep up with its demand. The Lower South was entirely dependent on cotton. Cotton crippled the South’s ability to urbanize and industrialize due to cottons need for large plantations. In 1860, the South produced less than 10% of the nations manufactured goods.

Proslavery arguments (1750-1850)

especially in the 1800s, the proslavery argument swept across the South. Even those who did not own slaves themselves still found a deep connection to white supremacy. Many believed that Blacks were uncivilized and simply lesser “creatures” than those of European descent, this was of course reinforced through slavery. Some owners even utilized the bible to justify their role as a master. Other argued that slavery was necessary because it gave free time to the whites who advanced science and society. Another argument made was that a lower class, such as slaves, needed to exist to guarantee equality for the whites. Paternalist ethos were a group of planters who argued to protect slavery by using the viewpoint that they act as fathers in the slaves lives and they could not survive without them. This enabled slaveowners to think of themselves as kind, caring, and responsible. This is idea was reinforced when a law was passed to grant the offspring of a slave to the master.

Slave labor across the nation

Across the US, all slaves worked grueling hours from dusk till dawn at the obedience of their masters. Although, slaves worked all kinds of different jobs: artisans, farmers, house maids, or factory workers. Still, around 75% of all American slaves worked in the fields, mostly farming cotton. On smaller farms, the owner often worked alongside them. On larger plantations in the Cotton Belt, the enslaved of all ages labored in groups, often under the direction of an overseer and a slave “driver” who assisted him. The master and his servants role during the work day was to “encourage” the slaves to work harder by beating them, most commonly with the whip as it left no permanent cognitive damage. Freedoms such as the task system and their own living quarters started to diminish as slaveholders became increasingly convinced that the growing independence of skilled urban slaves posed a danger to the relationship of “master and servant” that the institution is built on.

Systems of control

The efficiency of a slave relied almost entirely on pain and fear inflicted by the master and his workers. Systems such as the Push System were set in place in order to punish slaves who failed to work to their maximum. Slaves would be beat if they were caught slacking off, going against order, failing to meet the daily quota, or really anything to the dismay of the master. Owners exploited division amongst their slaves, especially those working in the field versus the house, by creating social hierarchies in order to turn the slaves against each other instead of all against the owner. Enslavers also used the fear of selling: threatening to sell a slave or one of their relatives for slacking off.

Resistance amongst slaves

Slaves rebelled in many ways, some more subtly than others. Some of the most common ways a slave rebelled was by Silent Sabotage: the act of misbehaving, going against the master’s orders, or breaking tools or property in order to disrupt daily life on the plantation. Other slaves rebelled in more vulgar forms, such as stealing food, arson, running away, or even armed assaults against their owners. Fugitive slaves often ran North to freedom, as that is all they knew to do once they were free. Patrols were constantly on the lookout for runaway slaves. Fugitive slaves consisted mostly of men, as women did not want to leave their children behind. Some native tribes even helped slaves flee to Canada or Mexico. The Underground Railroad was a system of escape routes where slaves could run north while being assisted by abolitionists, such as Harriet Tubman. Other more organized revolts also took place, such as the Amistad, where fifty-three slaves successfully freed themselves by hijacking their transport boat. In 1800, another revolt took place in Virginia, organized by a slave named Gabriel; five hundred men and women armed themselves and marched toward the city, destroying property and whites in their path. Within two days, the revolt was put down; sixty-six died. The Denmark Vesey Conspiracy was led in 1822 by Denmark Vesey. Vesey utilized passages from the bible to prove slavery’s wrongness and how it should be abolished. In the summer of 1831, Nat Turner led a revolt after seeing religious visions of him being the savior of the slaves. Turner and his group marched from farm to farm killing whites and burning crops. By the time the militia put it down, sixty-six whites and eighty slaves had been killed. This rebellion caused mass hysteria across plantations and a crackdown on slaves across the nation.

Barriers to resistance

Resistance to slavery was constantly met with challenges along the way. The fear of physical assault and being sold made even the smallest act of rebellion almost impossible on plantations. Fugitive slave patrols roamed the nation looking for runaway slaves to return to their masters. Furthermore, especially after Nat Turner’s Rebellion, the governments in slave states implemented new laws to limit Black freedoms further. They banned Black people, free or enslaved, from acting as preachers (though this was impossible to enforce), strengthened the militia and patrol systems, banned free Blacks from owning firearms, and prohibited teaching the enslaved to read.

African identity

The captured Africans initially imported to the Americas came from different cultures, spoke different languages, and practiced many religions. They had never considered their race or residence on a single continent as a source of identity or unity. By the nineteenth century, however, the enslaved no longer identified themselves with traditional African groups but instead as African Americans. This new identity mixed traditional African culture with European and American elements and ideas. During the eighteenth century, developing Black societies in America often differed between the regions in which they were held captive. In the Chesapeake, many learned English and participated in Christianity. On the rice plantations, the limited interaction with whites created a culture more deeply rooted in African heritage and traditions. Despite their differences, all the enslaved were united by the shared experience of slavery and the desire for freedom. Christianity became a major source of solace in the face of hardship and hope for liberation. On every plantation there was a Black preacher. The enslaved saw similarities between themselves and the oppressed in the Bible. The Christian message of brotherhood and the equality of all souls before God offered an irrefutable indictment of the institution of slavery.

Dates to know

• 1619 - First African slaves are brought to the Americas

• 1661 - Chattel Slavery

• 1676 - Bacon’s Rebellion

• ~1700 - Slavery starts to gain popularity quikly

• 1788 - Constitution is ratified

• 1793 - Cotton gin is invented

• 1808 - Importation of African slaves is banned by Congress

• 1831 - Turner’s Rebellion

• 1861 - Start of the Civil War