Freedom and Slavery in the Chesapeake and Lowcountry

  • The Transatlantic Enslaver trade had a lot of slave going into the Caribbean, Eastern coast of Mexico, North America, etc

Enslaved Africans in the Transatlantic Trade

  • 1500-1866

    • 12.5 million African people were sent into the trade, in which 3 major European imperial powers trafficked them

      • About 5 million were trafficked to Brazil (Portuguese-controlled)

      • About 1 million were trafficked to Cuba (Spanish-controlled)

      • About 1 million were trafficked to Haiti (French-controlled)

      • Only about 472k (6%) were trafficked directly to North America

Africans + Afro-Latinos on the Atlantic Coast in the 1500s

  • The first Africans on the North American Atlantic Coast arrived with the Spanish in the early 1500s

  • 1526: Enslaved Africans in present-day North Carolina

  • 1565: Elsaved Africans help establish St. Augustine, Florida

  • 1620: Thanksgiving occurs in Massachusetts

English Arrival in the Western Hemisphere

  • England arrives late 1500s

  • Most of Central/South America, Caribbean claimed by England’s rivals

Early Afro-English Exploits in North America

  • 1584-1590: Enslaved Africans arrive with English colonizer Francis Drake in Outer banks

    • Kidnapped those that were enslaved

  • June 1586: Drake freed African captives who weren’t Muslim

Stage 1: Charter Generations (1619-1700)

  • First generations of Africans to the Chesapeake region

    • Modern-day Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware

  • Most charter Africans came from Kongo and Ndongo (Modern-day Angola)

  • Also known as “Atlantic Creoles”

  • English slavery was more like indentured servitude

Afro-Anglo Identity and the Ambiguity of Slavery in the Charter Generations

  • English law, culture unlike Portugal, Spain, and France

  • Codification of slavery in English North American colonies evolved over decades

  • 1619-1660

    • Significant number of africans and afro-anglos successfully established themselves as free colonials

  • Freeborn Afro-Anglos insisted on their rights as English subjects, which propelled codifications of African enslavement

  • Elizabeth Key Grinstead was a key figure

    • Is granted freedom based on the fact she is the daughter of a free Englishman

  • Laborer was a gendered term

    • Primarily male

    • Eventually included women

Step 2: The “Plantation Generations”

  • 1700: Non-creolized Africans begin to be trafficked into North America for agricultural labor

  • Plantation generations: More rigid codification for enslaved people

    • Fewer opportunities to become free

  • Chesapeake and Lowcountry became enslaved societies,which are definded bt human, and bondage labor

    • 1708: More than 60% of the South Carolina colony was enslaved

    • 1750: 150k captives lived in Virginia alone

  • Slavery is woven into everyday life, with everything being ordered around slavery

Enslaved Labor in Enslaved Societies: The Chesapeake

  • Included Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware

  • “Gang Labor" and Tobacco

    • Helped developed the 3 states mentioned

    • Filled with African and European people, which allowed them to share their culture

Enslaved Labor in Enslaved Societies: The Lowcountry

  • Included North and South Carolina

  • The “Task System” and Rice Cultivation

    • Rice is a staple of the Southern diet

    • Rice was the Cash Crop of the lowcountry, specifically for South Carolina

    • Individuals were assigned to go in canoes and collect rice in marsh areas

    • Once an enslaved person finished their task, they were allowed to do what they wanted in their free time for the most part