Slavery in North America (1619 - 1740)

Pages 73-78 of FoMM

1619

The first enslaved African people arrived in America, specifically Jamestown, in…

Indentured White Servants

Enslaved African laborers had less rights than [_______], making them easier to exploit and thus preferable as a source of cheap labor. However, the two groups had compatible class interests, which led them to team up a few times and rebel against the white landowners. This was undesirable to the capitalist class, who then strengthened the unofficial system of racial hierarchy in order to keep the lower classes divided and to keep enslaved people in perpetual servitude. Furthermore,[______] could be released, and would then become landless poor with an ax to grind against the capitalist class, which was undesirable.

Partus Sequitur Ventrum

Translates from Latin to “Birth Follows the Womb,” means “the child’s station in life follows the mother’s.” System of maternal heredity which was used to keep the majority of biracial children in servitude and relieve white fathers from having to take responsibility for their biracial children; also removed Black mothers’ control over their children’s welfare.

Cash Crops

Tobacco, cotton, indigo, rice, sugar, coffee

Indigenous Americans

Enslaved Africans were a preferable source of cheap labor to [_______] because they were removed from their homelands and thus did not know the land, did not have kin or governments to support them, and were easily identifiable as enslaved by skin color, whereas [________] could run away into the wilderness or to another tribe for asylum, and could not be easily identified as enslaved.

1662

The Virginia partus sequitur ventrem law was penned in…

1691

Virginia outlawed all interracial marriage in…

1667

Virginia revoked the unofficial law that freed enslaved people who converted to Christianity in…

English Civil War

Between 1642 and 1651, this war disrupted English trade to the Americas, allowing the Dutch to take advantage of the gap, which resulted in them bringing more enslaved Africans to the Americas. This war also employed more poor British people, cutting into the supply of white indentured servants in the Americas. These factors increased the prevalence of chattel slavery.

Royal African Company

English company that specialized in the trans-atlantic slave trade, shipped 90-100k enslaved people from Africa to the Americas throughout its existence

Bacon’s Rebellion

This rebellion happened in 1676 in Virginia. It was led by Nathaniel Bacon, a wealthy white colonist, with his army being made up of enslaved Black people and disgruntled poor whites, both of whom were angry at the wealthy planter elites. They wanted more land from the Native people, and wanted the colonial government to start wars with all neighboring tribes, and tried to do so themselves before they directly attacked the government. English troops had to be brought in to crush them. Highlighted 2 problems for the white capitalists: the indentured servants and enslaved people had common interests and could team up against them, and the indentured servants (once released) were landless and disgruntled and at the perfect age to commit acts of political violence (20-35).

Racial Hierarchy

This was invented due to colonialism and chattel slavery, and was solidified in the American colonies once the capitalists realized the compatible class interests of enslaved Black people and poor whites. By making laws that explicitly placed Black people in a lower social caste than all white people, poor whites were given someone to feel superior to, giving them something to lose by overthrowing the capitalists. Furthermore, by putting Black people in a lower social caste, they were made easier to control and keep in perpetual servitude.

Black Population

Chesapeake’s [_______] increased from 7% to 44% from 1680-1750, and Maryland’s increased from 9% to 30% in the same time span. This was due to a shift from an indentured servitude based economy to a chattel slavery and plantation based economy.

25%

After arriving in America, [___] of all enslaved people died within the year

67%

Enslaved people in America were [___] male, making it more difficult for them to form kinship systems or families, especially because they were initially segregated by sex in on-plantation housing

Language barriers, physical separation

Enslaved people in America faced many challenges in creating communities due to [_______] and [______]

Creole

Because of the language barriers between them, enslaved Africans created new languages to communicate, comprised of their enslavers’ languages and their own. These languages are known as [____] or sometimes pidgin.

Seminole People

Originally an Indigenous group in South Florida, they were severely depopulated due to colonialism, leaving few people of the original culture. However, they took in Black and Indigenous refugees who had escaped slavery and massacre/disease, forming a very interesting mixed community in the 17th and 18th centuries. They are also a great example of practical anarchism.

Religious Syncretism

A phenomenon in which two religions merge to create a new, mixed religion. Took place forcibly in the Americas as enslaved African people were forbidden from practicing their own religions and made to convert to Christianity; created religions like Vodou and Santería

Elizabeth Key

Biracial woman of a Black mother and white father who petitioned for her freedom prior to 1662; she won, but only after she married her white lawyer.

18th Century

The American economy was completely dependent on slave labor by the…