Freedom and Slavery

Metaphorical Slavery

A way to mention slavery without explicitly saying it

Institutional slavery

A system of enslaving a group of people based on race for the purpose of profit. Outlawed in many Northern states and eventually in the entire U.S. in 1865

Chattel Slavery

A system of bondage in which a slave has the legal status of property and so can be bought and sold like property.

Importation Clause

A compromise between states where congress cannot prohibit the importation of people before 1808 however, it can impose a tax on importation not exceeding $10

Fugitive Slave Clause

Requires the return of enslaved people who flee to another state

Gradual emancipation

Phasing slavery over time

Atlantic Slave Trade

The transportation of enslaved African people to the Americas by European slave traders.

Indentured Servant

A person who agrees to work for another person for a set period of time in exchange for payment of travel expenses and maintenance

Tyranny

A government where a single ruler or small group of people have absolute power and uses it unfairly or cruelly

Declaration of Independence

The principles on which our government, and our identity as Americans, are based

Natural Rights

"Life , liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"

Constitution

A body of fundamental principles or establish precedents according to which a state or other organization is acknowledged to be governed

US Constitution

The supreme law of the land and the foundation of the federal government

Elector

a person who has the right to vote in an election

Anthony Johnson

An Angolan-born man who achieved wealth in the early 17th-century Colony of Virginia. Held as an indentured servant in 1621, he earned his freedom after several years and was granted land by the colony

Mum Bett

Elizabeth Freeman was one of the first enslaved African Americans to file and win a freedom suit in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling, in Freeman's favor, found slavery to be inconsistent with the 1780 Constitution of Massachusetts.

Quock Walker

An enslaved American who sued for and won his freedom suit case in June 1781. The court cited language in the 1780 Constitution of Massachusetts that declared, "All men are born free and equal"