early slavery3

8/4/2019 Early Slavery3

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The Institution of Slaveryin America

The history of slavery did not begin in America. Slavery hasbeen around since the beginning of mankind. The word slave isderived from the word “slav,” a term coined for the Slavic,

Muslim and African people who were slaves in MediterraneanEurope. People were often traded in exchange for fabrics likesilk, wines, and weapons. When too few enemies wereavailable to be placed into slavery after a conflict, some tribalsocieties went after competing tribes and placed their tribespeople into slavery. Slave traders did not care who the peoplewere, whether from nobility or someone else’s slave. Ancient

trade routes crossed the Sahara Desert to the MediterraneanSea made it easier to capture slaves. Trade between Europe

and Africa was centuries old . When the Turks cut offConstantinople in 1453 they cut off European’s supply of slaves

from the Slavic areas around the Black Sea.Europeans needed slaves to work their sugar plantations on theMetering islands and advances in navigation by the Portugueseenabled Portuguese sailors to sail around the tip of Africa,beginning the African slave with Europeans.

Most Africans understood slavery because it was seen as abasis of wealth. African slavery could be brutal, but Africanmasters did not hold the power of life and death over theirslaves. They were seen as people and their African mastersknew they had a responsibility to their slaves, much like a fatherto a child. They received punishment for discipline, but nothinglike the treatment the slaves will receive as slavery took hold in

the America’s.



Sugar and Slavery went hand in hand – mostAfrican slaves went to the Caribbean.Caribbean planters wanted agriculturalslaves, not nomadic slaves because theywere easier to force to work. By 1472, thePortuguese were negotiating the first Africanslave trade agreement – trading gold andivory for humans. They traded Africanpeoples for fabrics and weapons. By 1600 thePortuguese had transported approximately25,000 slaves to Brazil and Hispania (Cuba).

By the 18th century, Europeans were coveting

items from Africa, such as textiles and ivory.Africans were likewise coveting Europeanitems, like guns. As mentioned earlier, whentoo few enemies were available, they wentafter other tribes to capture for slavery.Competition for slaves increased betweenEuropean countries, thus the establishment ofthe Dutch West Indies Company and Britain’s

Royal Africa Company created a string offortresses along the African coast.Approximately 50 forts along a 300 hundred-mile coast from Senegal to Angola werecreated. One of the first forts was Elmina in1481, established by the Portuguese. It wastaken over in 1637 by the Dutch.



Beginnings of African SlaveryWhat do you think were their first impressions of a white male?

When the Africans first saw the Europeansthey believed they were savages with redfaces, often with beards and long hair.They spoke a different language theynever heard before and many of the thembelieved they came from a bad spirit.

Legends had been passed down fromgenerations in African folklore that thesered-faced men were cannibals and hadcome to eat them. This was a verycommon fear among many of the Africans.For many of the Africans, the first time theysaw a European wasn’t until they reached

the coastline. European slavers who madetheir way further inland from the shores ofAfrica soon found they could not stayinland for long because of the heat andhumidity. Sixty percent died within the first8 months of arriving in Africa due todisease.This laid the way for traders called Atlantic Creoles – off

springs of mixed races of Africans and Europeans from

Portuguese sugar plantations of Cape Verde who becamethe middlemen for the Europeans and played a significantrole in the slave trade.These Africans controlled the interior of the slave tradeand worked as agents. Guns and gunpowder were one ofthe first items traded thus increasing the power of certaintribes. Europeans allied themselves the more powerfulgroups of Africans for trade and helped defeat the tribe’s

natural enemy, thus enabling them to capture more slaves.

Africa’s Middlemen



March to the Coast

Many factories were build along coastal areas where the slaveswere kept until sold to Europeans. Many looked like forts andthe quarters where the slaves were kept were no better thananimal stables. Sometimes the slaves would be here for a yearor more waiting to be taken to the new world.

Many inland Africans never saw theocean before their capture. Theywere often held together with ayoke, leg and hand irons.

Slave Factories

Leg Irons

The neck yoke you see above was placed around the neck of aslave to prevent him/her from running away.

The leg irons to your left were used mainlyon men to prevent them from escape. Awoman whose child was tied to her generallywouldn’t attempt to run away for fear of

injury or death to her child.



View inside a slaver ship

Slaves were placed into the cargo holds like sardines. As you can see from the depiction above, slaves werepacked in tight, sometimes lying from head to foot and often chained together. There was no way of escape, soquite often you were laying in someone’s vomit, urine or fecal matter. Time spent aboard a slave ship could be

anywhere between 3 weeks to several months depending on the departure location, weather, and finaldestination.



The Middle PassageManufactured goods from England wereshipped to Africa. Slaves were thenexchanged for the manufactured goodsthen imported to the British colonies, thuscreating the middle passage. The lastsection of the triangle was the shipping of

raw materials from the British Colonies tobe manufactured in England.

Slave ships crews treatment was almostas intolerable as the slaves. Many of themen who worked for slave traders werenot paid, but forced into service or wereconvicts who chose the slave ship versusa prison term.

Jamaica90 – 100 %

Hispaniola90 – 100 %

Lower South 40-49.9%

Chesapeake 30-39.9%

Louisiana 30-39.9%

Bahamas90 – 100 %

In the West Indies the English brought slaves to theJamaica and North America where they worked their

slaves to death which increased the traffic in slaves.Slaves were not viewed as a commodity as they wouldbe later. Between 1701 to 1710 nine thousand slaveswere imported to British North America. Between 1761to 1770 almost 70,000 slaves were forced over to theBritish colonies.



Slave Auction Advertisement

Only 6% of Africans came directly to the Americas.Most stopped in the West Indies first.

Drawing of a Slave Auction



Instituting Slave Laws By the mid 1660s colonists began to realize thatowning a slave was a better investment than havingan indentured servant for 5 -7 years. As moreslaves came to America many of the coloniescreated laws as a way to control the slaves.

In 1664, Maryland discouraged interracialrelationships with a law stating any white womanmarrying an African slave could be forced to serveher husband’s master for as long as her husband

lived.

In 1681, a white servant married a black slave andher and their children became the property of themaster.

In 1691, South Carolina established the firstcomprehensive slave code: “All Negros, Mulattoes,

and Indians sold into or intended for sale intobondage are slaves.” By 1696 , South Carolina

determined that slaves were property, much likechattel or horses.

By 1700 most all of the colonies had similar laws.In 1704, Massachusetts established a law banninginterracial marriages and any men or women whowere in these relationships could be whipped andsold into slavery outside the colony. White menwho were in an interracial relationship werewhipped, fined and held responsible for any

children conceived.



The Lower South and the Plantation Slave

Gang Labor vs. Task Labor

Slaves who worked the coastalareas of the colonies becameknown as Salt Water Africans.They grew rice and indigo (a verypopular blue dye). They workedon large plantations. Many of theslaves worked by a system thatwould become known as GangLabor. Gang laborers worked inthe fields, sun up to sun down.Those who were lucky enough to

work as a cook or as a servantworked by a system known astask labor. Once your tasks weredone, you were free to work inyour own garden, etc. Don’t get

me wrong though, task laborerslaves still worked long, tiringdays, just as those in the fields.

But they could have a little moreautonomy during their work day.



The Life of a Slave

Life was different for a plantation slave than itwas for a slave who worked for a small farmer.

Those who worked for a small farmer generallyworked along side his master and there maybe one or two other slaves in the samehousehold, if any. They ate the same foods,ate at the same time, had closer quarters andwas generally always within sight of themaster. Whereas a plantation slave usually

lived in the slave quarters among many slaves,sometimes there could be over a thousandslaves on one plantation. This gave plantationslaves a sense of community among otherslaves. They could cohabitate with someoneof the opposite sex, even though marriagewasn’t viewed as legal among the slave

community, they still formed relationships, until

one or the other was sold. They had moreautonomy away from the master since theslave quarters weren’t usually in eye sight of

the main house.Some of the masters believed that if they gavesome of their slaves a little autonomy theywould be less likely to revolt against them.



The Africanization of the South

How did African Americans work to adapt theirnative traditions under the conditions of NewWorld slavery? What kinds of traditions do youthink were successfully preserved?

This is called the Africanization of the South.All of the slaves who were brought over fromAfrica, brought over their culture and traditionsthat can still be seen and heard today, likebarbeque and other southern cooking, today’s

music (much of American music came from theslave spirituals), architecture, and the southerndrawl, which is a combination of Africanlanguages and the accents of England andIreland.



Slavery and Economics of EmpireThe institution of slavery created more competitionbetween European powers and the ideas that themore slaves you owned meant larger quantities ofproduction, which in turn meant a larger profit thatled to an increase in land to produce more product.

This is called Mercantilism. As slavery increasedthe products that were produced increased andcould only be sold from within your same controllingcountry, for example England. Only the productsproduced by English colonies could be sold inEnglish colonies, thus keeping out the competitionand keeping the wealth for the mother country. The

competition for slaves and the increase in land willeventually lead to wars between England, Spain,and France.

So what do we remember about slavery today?

A quote by William Prescott, a former slave during a1930s WPA interview stated, “They will remember

that we were sold but not that we were strong; theywill remember that we were bought but not that wewere brave.”

A very powerful quoted indeed.

early slavery3

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