slavery workshops

how useful are individual narratives, like Venture Smith’s, for describing the lives of enslaved people in other places and periods?

Were there any similarities in the lives of people enslaved in different colonial regions?

How might enslaved women’s lives have differed from enslaved men’s?

what do different types of sources reveal or obscure about the lives of enslaved people?

What opportunities, if an, did enslaved people have in colonial America?

In the absence of sources written by enslaved people themselves, how should historians use sources written by their enslavers?

How prevalent and effective was slave resistance?

venture smith’s memoir

• had been wealthy family in guinea but at 6 yrs/old village attacked and forced to march to coast to be sold as a slave

• survived voyage to barbados, then taken to rhode island

• as a child suffered harsh labour and punishment

• married another slave but at times separated to different masters

• briefly tried to escape but returned to master when failed

• through hard work earned enough money to buy freedom for him and his family, later owning property

shows 1st hand experience of slavery from africa to america to freedom

• not representative of all experiences

• shows money as key commodity

• shows slave resistance but also the failures of uprisings

william Morley’s memoir The Unfortunate describes slavery in mid-atlantic

• need servants from england to clear land with expiration unlike african slaves but meant getting rich because no rent or wages

• harsh conditions of slavery with harsh rules and punishments e.g., if slave killed only punishment is if it was someone elses slave

• some ahve land they can tend on sunday evenings however highly controlled with legal and financial restrictions

• also hard for indentured servants to escape as recieve longer term

• some think not god who makes them slaves, instead christians are cruel

harsh laws, forced labour, punishment and restricted freedom

• reveals conditions but obscures because european perspective

• emphasises runaways rarely escape and harshly punished after

runaway ads in chesapeake

• physical descriptions of runaway, their skills and clothing or items taken with them

  • often “cunning“

• shows repeated attempts to flee and had skills like reading

  • e.g., virignia gazette 22nd sept 1768 peter deadfoot had forged a pass with a fake name to pass as free with skills in butchering, farming, woodworking. described as intelligent and adpatable

• runaways varied in age, experience with some newly arrived and others not

shows commonality between slave owners i.e., help each other

• shows women also fled but mostly men

• reveals their skills, details, clothing and how owners viewed them

  • obscures emotions and experiences of enslaved people as reduced to descriptions

Johann Martin Bolzius (german clergyman) on Georgia

• Q&A of slavery in relation to costs, control and daily life

• treated as property portraying them as untrustworthy and in need of strict control

  • BUT recognises if too harsh then rebellion and suicide

• large numbers so outnumbered whites = fear uprisings

• enslaved have limited food and personal restrictions

• limited grants of freedom and even then seen as suspicious

• compared enslaved with white indentured

• shows

  • children inheriting mothers status and sexual exploitation

  • reavels laws, control systems, food, clothing and labour conditions

  • rare cases of freedom

  • clear prejudices but also factual e.g., costs, laws, daily life

  • resitsance as a key problem that is harshly repressed

“stono“ rebellion 1739 south carolina

50 slaves stole weapons and killed white settlers then marching to spanish florida in search of freedom

• most captured and executed

stono rebellion from white perspective

• begins with spain’s proclamation to help slaves in british colonies

• sundays they can work for themselves and they attacked a warehouse, killing, plundering and burning other houses as well as killing wives and children

• colonel bull escapes and raises the country

  • brutally ended

• frames it as a crisis successfully controlled, reinforcing authority of slave holders

george cato’s account (says he is descendant of leader in 1930s oral history)

• cato is a heroic figure

• organised effort for freedom and attempt to reach spnaihs florida

• killings of white settlers mentioned but focuses on purpose and determination of enslaved poeple

  • says 21 white men, women and children killed and 44 enslaved

use of oral histroies to give multiple perspectives

• numbers larger than white offical makes it sound = downplaying instability

• needed whole country to rise up and supress it

What motivated enslaved people to side with either the Patriots or the British?

What opportunities did the war provide to enslaved people?

How did planters explain the elopement of their slaves to British lines?

Why did many Indians try and remain neutral during the war?

What explains the Iroquois’ shift to the British side?

How did Patriot women envision their contribution to the cause?

Why would white Americans side with the British?

What was the price of loyalty for whites, Indians, and enslaved people?

A Black Patriot (Boyrereau Brinch) describes his service in the Revolution, 1777

• height and strength means want him to fight in many battles

• one time kills brit and captured his horse but cheated out of owning it

• reflects on irony of slave fighting for the freedoms of other

• emanicipated in 1783

• lived in vermont, becoming economically stable

• BUT takes years to get military pension

Boston King sided with British 1780-3

• fled his slave owner

  • apprentice carpenter but treated harshly, to escape punishment for a missing horse he fled to brits who readily receive him

• got smallpox alongside many other black soliders

• found out Lewes (commanded militia) had gone to other sides

  • warns brits who burned his house down

• captured by americans but escapes NJ and swims to NY

• after war protceted by british and taken to Nova Scotia

• —> moved to Sierra Leone 1792 and published memoirs

An Oneida Indian advocates neutrality, 1775

• most Oneida side with Americans, splitting Iroqouis Confederacy who - with brits - forced Oneida into refuge camps in NY

• family quarrel between “brother“ so shouldn’t interfere

• if either offer aid will refuse and situtaion unknown to them

• it is their problem not the Indians

Joseph Brant a mohawk sachem sides with brits 1776

• pledge support to king and british cause

• staunch and feared allies of brits

• americans had deceived them to help fight in canada and tried to take their lands so want brits to help

Mary Jemison (kidnapped and integrated with seneca)

• britisih called council at Oswego asking six nations for help in return for promises of wealth, rum, good and rewards for scalps

• after neogitaions Iroquis agree to help

  • big losses at Fort Stanwix

  • seneca lands become damaged and later they are vcitims of destruction and disease after war

  • starvation

• flee with runaway slaves, women and children

• oral history

Esther De Berdt Reed = patriot woman 1780

• wife of state governor

  • spearheaded philadelphia fundraising campign with other women = $300,000

• published to promote, explain and justify women’s campaign for fundraising the war effort

• women’s duty to be involved

  • images of historical heroines

  • historical exmalples of seiges, donations and active supporters

• pledge to reduce comofrts to support war effort

• should help make the uniforms for soliders

anna rawle (punished for loyalism 1781) after cornwallis’ surrender

General Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown 1781 dooming british cause

• rawle = prominent quaker family in philadelphia

• patriots begin burning down houses wuhtout viisbile signs of loyalism

• annas house was attacked until candle signifying victory at yorktown put up

• philadelphia no longer refuge for Quakers

• the violence and intimidation towards loyalists

What, if anything, united colonists in the variegated American colonies?

How would you characterize gender relations in colonial America?

How did class mold people’s daily lives?

How did religion shape how colonists perceived the world or organized their societies?

What differentiated American colonists from English people?

How can historians access the experiences of women in colonial America?

Did colonists enjoy greater liberties than their counterparts in Europe?

Who was “free” in colonial America?

court minutes from the trial of ann Foster = 1692 SWT

arrested because 2 girls fell into fits at the sight of her

• devil appeared to her and she was pressured into witchcraft by another woman

• admits to bewitching animals and people with other witches

• her daughter and granddaughter were questioned and both admitted involvement in some way

• later her son released a statement that she was innocent but pressured by interrogators

  • shows limited personal and legal freedoms

  • deep fear of religious evil

  • societal pressure to conform

Francis Daniel Pastorius describes Pennsylvania 1683

promotional tract to encourage germans to immigrate

• went on to lead settlement of Mennonites and Quakers at Germantown.

• long, difficult sea voyage in harsh conditions but no one died

• emphasises how people are from different backgrounds and religions on boat

• notes growth of settlements but order and discipline in the face of financial struggles

  • land ownership struggles with william penn

• overall encouraging people to go

  • splits NA and Europeans but doesn’t differentiate savage vs civilised

• NA are friendly, strong and reasonable

links

• hopes for separate german community

• clear means of control i.e., Penn has authority

• frames his journey through God

• male dominated society with women in specific roles

• more positive view of NA than other europeans

James revel (transported felon) describes servitude in Virginia, c.1656- 1671

• transportation instead of execution

• harsh voyage, sickness, and death then sold to planters like goods

• hard working days on tobacco plantation with african slaves

• turned to religion for comfort, believed punishment for sins

• sold to a nicer master and was more servant than slave

• after 14 year sentence went back to england

• warns others to act morally to avoid same fate

links

• freedom is limited for many people with strict punishments

• god and religion as comfort and moral explantations

• strict social heirachies, forced labour and relgious beliefs

william Byrd II secret Virginia planter, 1709-1710

member of plantocracy - inherited 1,200 acres 1705. his diary details his daily life, relationship with his wife and punishments to slaves and servants

• regular routine; walking, reading, praying, simple meals

• frequently talks about religion and his “sinful“ thoughts of other women

• leisure activites = gambling, dancing, socialising

• family lfie with his wife, concerns about her health

• son died

• everyday life for colonial wealthy planter

• severe physical punishments on both enslaved people and white servants, including frequent whippings.