2.4 Slavery in the British Colonies

Causes:

need for labor (indentured servants too few and caused problems, natives died of disease or if enslaved could easily escape bc they knew the land)

Slave trade was already established by Portuguese and African Kingdoms

Africans were immune to diseases (small pox, malaria)

all colonies had slaves: New England: very few, mainly helped on small farms

Middle Colonies: mainly in Port Cities or household servants

South: a majority due to plantation economy; however most slaves went to West Indies on sugar cane plantations

Effects:

Slave resistance: slowed work down, faked sickness, broke tools. Also, kept many cultural attributes from homelands in secret

Stono Rebellion

Black Codes/Slave Laws

Stono rebellion

Event that occurred in 1739 in South Carolina, where a group of enslaved Africans rebelled against their masters, killing more than 20 whites. The rebellion was quickly suppressed, and the participants were executed or sold to other colonies. It led to stricter slave codes and restrictions on enslaved people's rights.

Slave Laws

slaves are chattel, illegal to teach them to read or write

whites had a legal right to kill their slaves

got harsher over time