Civi US

Slavery based on which system ?

Plantation system: large number of workrs under one owner’s authority

Journey made by slaves crossing the atlantic ocean.

Middle passage

Atlantic slave trade

organized business between European merchants, African merchants and American planters

The first twenty Africans arrived to Virginia. Brought how ?

1619. Brought by British pirates who had seized them from a portuguese ship

Laws passed to limit the freedom of this increasing population:

• punish the sexual relations between blacks and whites

• prevent them from serving in the militia

• poll tax (to have the right to vote)

• punish white women who had children with black men

• make the status of children the same of the mother (encouraged rape of enslaved women by white men)

Bacon’s rebellion: What ? When ?

1676: Armed conflict between natives and settlers who had to cohabit in Virginia. Settlers asked for the removal of natives to the governor, who refused. Uprising of the farmers led by Nathaniel Bacon. Burned Jamestown to the ground, the governor had to flee and Bacon replaced him.

The Virginia slave code. When ? What does it say ?

1705:

• all slaves were property to be bought, sold, inherited

• blacks could not own firearms, strike or hit a white man, employ a white servant

• any white person could demand a certificate from slaves, either a certificate of freedom or a pass by their owner who allowed them to be outside the plantation

• white people could hunt and capture slaves

Chesapeake = plantations based on …

tobacco

South Carolina & Georgia: plantations based on …

Rice (The Rice Kingdom)

New england: based on…

non plantation slavery system (cooks, blacksmiths…)

Slave system & African-American culture in Chesapeake area:

family-centered communities → children born from slaves, no need to import slaves

Slave system & African-American culture in South Carolina & Georgia:

Hard conditions, low birth rates, had to import new slaves. No contact w white people, more autonomy. African-based culture + free mulattoes

Slave system & African-American culture in Northern colonies:

more assimilated. Hard to have African American culture. More mobility and access to life but very isolated so harder to create a family life & community;

New York Uprising: when ? What happened ?

1712: a group of slaves set fire to houses and killed 9 whites (consequence = public execution for 18 of these slaves)

Stono rebellion, South Carolina: when ? What happened ?

1739:Group of slaves seized weapons in the town of stono, burned houses and killed the women here. 20 whites killed. Then 200 slaves executed.

New York Conspiracy: When ? What happened ?

1741: Rumor that slaves & whites wanted to burn parts of the city. Nothing happened but execution of slaves to discourage rebellion

American Revolutionary War

1775-1783: the 13 colonies rose against Britain because of taxes and the lack of political representation in the government (no taxation without representation)

Nat Turner’s rebellion, what did it led to

1831: deadliest slave revolt, fueled the abolitionist movement, slaves were assisted by some white allies

1775 / 1779

Dunmore Proclamation offered freedom to slaves who would go fight with the British troops. Philipsburg proclamation followed 4 years after, following the same premise.

1777-1804

Every state north of Maryland took steps toward emancipation. Laws provided liberty to children born from slaves. They became indentured servants bc they had nothing else to do.

Up to 200 000 free black by the year…

1810

The slave trade clause

In the 1790s and lasted until the act prohibiting the importation of slaves (1808). States that congress could notban the importation of slaves until 1808. Federal government limited slave trade after 1808 but sustained slavery where it existed.

The fugitive slave clause

in the 1790s: Empowered enslavers to capture slaves who ran away from their plantations

No need for trial to return slaves, only oral claim

Anyone who interfered could be fined or sued by the enslaver

→ reinforced by the fugitive slave act of 1793

Repealed in 1864

The three-fifth compromise:

1787: Article 1 of the constitution: counted slaves as 3/5 of a person (for the purposes of determinging a state’s population and representation in congress)

Lasted until the 14th amendment of the constitution (1868)

1808

Abolition of slave trade → Led to a system of domestic slave trade in the deep south

The second middle passage

Importing slaves from old states to new states. Taxed = instutionalized.

Primary form of resistance:

day-to-day and silent sabotage

1833

American Anti- slavery society. Radical but rejected violence, used moral suasion. Leader William LLoyd Garrison.

Kansas Nebraska Act: When ? What ? What did it led to ?

1854: Bill that divided the west of Missouri into two territories. Made it possible for the settlers to decide if slavery would be legal there. Created a conflict.

• Creation of the Republican Party

1848

Creation of the free soil party, opposed to the expansion of slavery in the US.

The Republican party is made of:

Free soilers + Anti slavery Democrats + Northern Whigs. Against expansion of slavery in new states.

Dred Scott decision:

1857: Dred Scott = enslaved man who sued for his freedom after living in free territories for some time. Court ruled against him.

1860 Election: what ideas had the Republican candidate to presidency ?

• denying the validity of the Dred Scott decision

• Opposition to slavery’s expansion

• Free homesteads in the West

American Civil War: When ? Who was president ?

1861-1865: Jefferson Davis was president of the Confederate states of america at that time.

April 12, 1861:

Confederate attack at Fort Sumter. Beginning of the first modern war. Mass armies with new deadly weapons. Vast propaganda effort. Photography. Railroads…

The main Battles (4)

1861: Battle of Fort Sumter. First confrontation between the southern confederates and the norther unionists

1861: Battle of Bull Run: first major battle, won by the conf.

1863: Battle of Gettysburg: turning point in the war

1865: Battle of Appomatox: marking the end of the Civil War

Human toll after the civil war:

between 620 000 and 750 000

+ destructed southern economy

Emancipation Proclamation

January 1, 1863. By president Abraham Lincoln to abolish slavery. Came after a shift in the public opinion on Northern states and alliances with international powers.

13th amendment: When ? What did it do

1865: Abolished slavery. Led to reelection of Lincoln (assassinated right after and succeeded by Johnson, racist)

Radical reconstruction: what measures were taken

Dissolution of southern states, federal interventions to secure the south for newly freed blacks, new state goverenments, some blacks had political power.

Freedmen’s bureau: When ? What ?

1865-1870: to help black people to integrate into society (aid to the poor and old, establishing schools…)

What did replace the plantation system ?

The Sharecropping system: landowner provides land + tools in exchange of a share of the crops/cash produced.

South Carolina & Mississipi Black codes

1865-67: African Americans could own property, marry, make contracts.

They could not serve on juries, testify against white people, victims of mob violence.

Civil Rights Act

1866, followed in 1868 by the 14th Amendment: gave black people Citizenship. Protected the bill of rights.

1867:

first Reconstruction Act - led to the 15th amendment which gave black people the right to vote

1876

The US Supreme Court ruled that the bill of rights did not limit the power of private actors of state government despite the 14th amendment, which led to segregation in the government.

Why did black families tried to escape to the north during the segregationist era ?

• industrial jobs hard to find

• careers very limited

• secret societies like KuKluxKlan, lynching (murder & public torture of black ppl)

What is disenfranchisement ?

Finding methods so that black people could not vote even though they should:

• poll tax

• literacy test

• grandfather clause (if your grandpa had the right to vote you’re exempted from these measures)

1896 Plessy V. Ferguson

Validated institutionalized segregation. Separate but equal. Led to a dramatic increase of white violence against blacks.

New system of oppression:

The color line:

black workers could not join unions, had no access to skilled employment, confined to domestic/farm work, and racial segregation in federal departments