British North America

Introduction

The American colonies were diverse, with people arriving as servants, slaves, free farmers, and planters, creating new societies.
Native Americans witnessed the growth of settlements into large populations that took over resources and transformed the land.
Labor arrangements and racial categories evolved into race-based chattel slavery, which became a defining feature of the British Empire's economy.
The North American mainland was initially a small part of the empire compared to the wealth of Caribbean sugar islands.
The colonies were connected to larger Atlantic networks, forming a complex Atlantic World linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
Events in Europe influenced the lives of American colonists, with civil war, religious conflict, and nation-building reshaping societies on both sides of the ocean.
Colonial settlements matured into societies capable of warring against Native Americans and suppressing internal conflicts.
Patterns established during the colonial era shaped American society for centuries, with slavery being a particularly brutal and destructive institution.

Slavery and the Making of Race

Reverend Francis Le Jau, a missionary in Charles Town, Carolina, was disillusioned by the horrors of American slavery.
He encountered enslaved Africans suffering from the Middle Passage, Indians enslaving other Indians, and colonists fearing invasions.
Le Jau criticized the English traders for encouraging wars to acquire slaves and planters for justifying slavery by claiming white servants were useless.
He baptized and educated slaves but could not overcome masters' fear that Christian baptism would lead to emancipation.
The 1660s marked a turning point as new laws in English colonies like Virginia and Barbados legally sanctioned the enslavement of people of African descent for life.
The permanent deprivation of freedom and separate legal status of enslaved Africans reinforced racial barriers.
Skin color became a marker of division between white and black races.
Not all seventeenth-century racial thought aligned with modern racial hierarchy classifications.
Captain Thomas Phillips, a slave ship master in 1694, saw the profitability of slavery as its only justification, without assigning intrinsic value to one color over another.

Native American Enslavement

Wars were the most common way for colonists to acquire Native American slaves.
Seventeenth-century European legal thought considered enslaving prisoners of war as more merciful than killing them.
After the Pequot War (1636–1637), Massachusetts Bay colonists sold hundreds of Indians into slavery in the West Indies.
Dutch colonists in New Netherland (New York and New Jersey) enslaved Algonquian Indians during Governor Kieft’s War (1641–1645) and the Esopus Wars (1659–1663).
These captives were sent to Bermuda and Curaçao.
King Philip’s War (1675–1676) resulted in the enslavement of many Indians, but Barbados refused to import them for fear of rebellion.
Wars in Florida, South Carolina, and the Mississippi Valley produced more Indian slaves in the eighteenth century.
Some wars were for land, while others were pretexts for acquiring captives, with some being illegal raids by slave traders.
Historians estimate that between 24,000 and 51,000 Native Americans were enslaved in the southern colonies between 1670 and 1715.
Many enslaved Indians were exported through Charles Town, South Carolina, to Barbados, Jamaica, and Bermuda.
Colonial governments often discouraged the Indian slave trade due to the violence it caused in frontier territories, but it never stopped completely.
Native American slaves died quickly from disease, murder, or starvation.
Plantation economies needed a reliable labor force, which the transatlantic slave trade provided.

The Middle Passage

European slavers transported millions of Africans across the ocean in a journey known as the Middle Passage.
Olaudah Equiano described the crew's fearsomeness, the hold's filth, inadequate provisions, and the desperation that led to suicide.
Alexander Falconbridge detailed the sufferings of slaves from shipboard infections and close quarters, including dysentery.
Slaves chained in small spaces suffered skin and flesh loss from chafing, and there were reports of rapes, whippings, and diseases like smallpox and conjunctivitis.
The Middle Passage had various meanings:
- For ship crews, it was a leg in the maritime trade of sugar, manufactured goods, and slaves.
- For enslaved Africans, it was the middle leg of three journeys:
  - An overland journey in Africa to a coastal slave-trading factory.
  - An oceanic trip lasting one to six months.
  - Acculturation (or seasoning) in the American colonies where enslaved Africans were forced to accept new identities and lifeways, and those who survived the passage

Africans in America

By 1700, Africans had become the largest immigrant group in the Americas, with around 10,000 arriving annually in the British mainland colonies alone.
In the Chesapeake colonies, enslaved Africans formed a substantial minority of the population, with nearly one in eight residents being black.
The introduction of rice cultivation in Carolina led to planters seeking enslaved Africans from the rice-growing regions of West Africa, increasing the black population.
New York and Philadelphia served as major entry points for enslaved Africans in the Mid-Atlantic colonies, with one in thirteen residents of New York being enslaved by the early eighteenth century.
Enslaved Africans worked as house servants, skilled artisans, and dockworkers in northern cities like Boston.
The economies of all British colonies relied to some extent on the labor of enslaved Africans, who produced commodities for consumers in North America and Europe.
Africans resisted enslavement in myriad ways, including subtle acts of sabotage, work slowdowns, and overt rebellions.
Although the Stono Rebellion in South Carolina in 1739 was quickly suppressed, it struck fear into colonists and led to more repressive laws.

Africans Creating New Identities

British planters sought to control all aspects of enslaved people's lives but faced significant challenges in suppressing African cultures and lifeways.
Africans arrived from diverse regions, spoke various languages, and practiced different religions, making resistance easier.
European observers often described African practices as heathen, savage, or superstitious, failing to recognize their sophistication.
Enslaved Africans came from various parts of Africa, including Senegambia, the Gold Coast, and Angola, each with distinct cultural traditions.
Despite the diversity, certain patterns emerged in how enslaved Africans adapted to the American colonies.
Enslaved Africans were forced to adopt European languages, but they often transformed them into new vernaculars used to conceal meanings from their masters.
Many enslaved Africans converted to Christianity but incorporated African spiritual beliefs and practices into their worship.
African music, dance, and art forms persisted in slave communities, providing cultural cohesion and resistance.

Resistance and Rebellion

Enslaved Africans resisted their bondage through various means, including individual acts of defiance and collective rebellions.
Subtle acts of resistance included slowing down work, damaging property, and feigning illness.
More overt forms of resistance included running away, forming maroon communities, and organizing armed rebellions.
The Stono Rebellion in South Carolina in 1739 was one of the most significant slave revolts in British North America.
The rebellion was led by enslaved Africans from Angola, who marched toward Spanish Florida seeking freedom.
Although the Stono Rebellion was quickly suppressed, it led to stricter slave codes and increased fear among white colonists.
Despite the risks, enslaved Africans continued to resist their bondage, demonstrating their resilience and determination to be free.

Conclusion

British North America was shaped by diverse groups, including European colonists, Native Americans, and enslaved Africans.
Slavery became a defining feature of the British Empire's economy, particularly in the southern colonies.
Enslaved Africans resisted their bondage in various ways, preserving their cultures and challenging the system of slavery.
The legacy of slavery continues to shape American society, with its effects still visible in racial inequalities and social injustices.