SlaverySlavery

Essential Questions• Why were African Americans more desirable as slaves than indentured

servants or Native Americans?

• What sort of conditions did Africans endure on their voyage to the New World?

• What impact did slavery have on both sides in the American Revolution?

• What impact did slavery have on the writing of the Constitution and the Northwest Ordinance?

• How were slaves’ family and personal lives different than those of other Americans?

• What sorts of conditions affected the development and growth of slavery in the North? In the South?

• What tactics and strategies did the leaders of the abolitionist movement use to promote their cause?

• How did blacks and whites seek to assist those who wanted to escape slavery?

• How did slavery lead to the rise of sectionalism and the beginning of the Civil War?

Slavery in Africa• Slaves represented the

bottom stratum of African society

• Different from slavery as it developed in the Americas

• Most African slaves were captives of war

• Slavery in Africa not permanent or hereditary

• Assimilation

Africans enslaved by other Africans

Indentured Servitude• A means for people to get

to the New World• Master paid for passage to

America• Indentured servant then

owed 5–7 years of work• Once indenture was paid,

servant became free• Indentured servants

initially more desirable than slavesA certificate of indenture

The Origins of American Slavery

• First African slaves in America brought to Jamestown in 1619

• Slavery institutionalized in many states by 1640

• Slaves became “chattel property”

African slaves landing at Jamestown, 1619

Development of Slavery in the New World

• Using Native Americans as slaves problematic

• African slaves became more cost effective than indentured servants

• Colonists viewed blacks as inferior

• Slaves were servants for life

South American Indians captured as slaves by Europeans

The Middle Passage

• Voyage of slaves from Africa to the New World

• Slaves tightly packed in ships’ holds

• Filthy conditions• Disease outbreaks• Some 20% died during

the voyage to America

Diagram of a tightly packed slave ship

The Triangular Trade• Involved Europe,

Africa, and the Americas

• Trade goods carried to Africa for slaves

• Slaves taken to the Americas and traded for raw materials

• Raw materials sent to Europe to be made into trade goods

Slave Auctions• Slaves

“seasoned”• Slaves

auctioned in a manner similar to livestock

• Inspected by potential buyers

• “Grab and go” auctions

Slave auctions such as the one depicted here were common in the colonial era and after the Revolutionary War

African Americans in the Revolution

• Blacks fought for both sides

• British promised freedom to slaves

• Washington originally denied black enlistments

• Rhode Island free black regiment

Crispus Attucks, a former slave, was one of those killed by British troops in the 1770 Boston Massacre