The Unthinking Decision: Slavery

How did economic, geographic, and social factors encourage the growth of slavery as an important part of the economy of the southern colonies between 1607 and 1775? (01)Compare the ways in which 3 of the following reflected tensions in colonial society: Bacons Rebellion (1676), Pueblo Revolt (1680), Salem witchcraft trials (1692), Stono Rebellion (1739) (03B)Analyze the origins and development of slavery in Britains North American colonies in the period 1607 to 1776. (11)

I. Introduction of Slavery into the AmericasHow did slavery get introduced in British North America when England had no history of it?

A. Early Slavers1450: Portuguese reach sub-Saharan Africa + establish trading posts for slave trade to Portugal and Atlantic islands

By 1502 Spanish bringing slaves to New World to supplement Indian slavery1600: 5,000/year1700: 30,000/yr1750: 75,000/yr1502-19th C: approx. 10 million Africans carried outVast majority to the Caribbean and South AmericaAfricans capture other Africans, take to coast, sold to Euro traders Middle Passage

B. Middle Passage4-6 weeksPoorly fed1 in 7 or 1 in 4 diedDepression: suicide, starvation

C. Varieties of SlaveryDespite horrors of Middle Passage, earliest form of Spanish slavery relatively mild:Allowed to marryWork on sideAbility to buy self and familyNo sharp color lineComplex system of 15 gradations from blanco (pure European) to negro (pure African) and indio (pure Indian): mulatto (7), mestizo (5)

Harshest system was Portuguese in Brazil (1550)Sugar plantationsOthers followed Portuguese model to grow rice, cotton, coffee, sugar, and tobaccoEconomically cheaper to work to death and buy another than to maintain

II. The Unthinking Decision in Virginia to 1705English did not adopt full scale slavery overnight3 periods: 1619-1640: black status poorly defined1640-1660: spotty evidence of enslavement1660-1705: gradual hardening in statutes

A. 1619-1640: Time of Possibility1619: 1st blacks (20) arrive in Jamestown from Dutch shipIronically days after 1st meeting of 1st representative body in America (House of Burgesses)1650: 300 blacks/15,000 VASome sold to planters (so were indentures), some severely mistreated (like indentures), some enslaved but some set free

Anthony JohnsonFree black, property + slave holder, master of a few white servantsOwned over 250 acres (enormous for former servant)

Best guess of black status: black indentured servants served longer terms than whites

B. 1640-1660: A Closing Door1640: 1st clear legal indication of slavery (life term, biological status passed from mother)3 indentured servants (Dutch, Scot, African) run away together: All punished: white have 4 years added to indenture, African indentured for lifeBut also shows that lower class did not see sharp divisions amongst each other

Increasing evidence of slavery:1) 1653: 10 yr old girl sold into servitude for life and all descendants owned by master2) Black male servants cost more than whiteEven larger differential black female and white female

C. 1660-1705: CrystallizationFormal laws recognize nature of black slavery1669: whites can be punished by extending service but what about blacks? legal to kill a slaveBeating necessary to keep controlNo one would intentionally destroy their own propertyTherefore, any death of a slave must be an accident

D. Why Enslave Africans?1) Need labor to work land, makes more economic sense to have servants for life (once mortality rates fell)2) Didnt use whites because of racism: but chicken or egg?Limited use of Indians: easier to run away and hide, didnt survive wellWinthrop Jordan, White over Black (laws come after behavior; racism existed for long time)Edmund Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom (slavery created need for racism to control poor whites)

Racism produced initial rationale, but slavery then degraded blacks and reinforced notion of difference and inferiorityVirginians (like NE) initially discriminated because of religion/culture problem of conversion loophole racial/biological statusAssociation of black skin and status of slave grows stronger, laws reinforce divisions

E. Virginia Slave Code, 1705But blacks and whites (esp. poorer) work together/run away together and are having sex revulsion isnt inherent laws against interracial sex and marriage (miscegenation) Blacks banned from: testifying, politics, commerce, travel, group gathering, land ownershipAnthony Johnsons lands in VA were confiscated in 1670 because "he was a Negro and by consequence an alien" Restraints on masters actions lifted

F. Atlantic CreolesBesides economic motivation, an important change was also demographic:Early slaves were taken first to the Caribbean where they learned English culture and language (Atlantic creole) and then re-exported to VA seen as less diff.As VAs plantations grew, slave ships came directly from Africa no cultural assimilation, seen as more different

III. From Black Pioneers to Full Enslavement in South CarolinaA. Moment of OpportunitySettled 1670s by Barbados Englishmen; bring slaves w/them (slaves 25-35% from beginning)Initially raised cattle: slaves had skills from AfricaTransition to rice: Africans have skill, whites do not reliance on African skills, methods, rituals Black slaves become majority around 1708West Africans also resistant to yellow fever and malaria (killing off whites)

B. Slave Conditions in SC1670-1708: black pioneers: despite racial distinctions, white + black worked side-by-side, faced similar conditions great deal racial equalityGreat deal interracial sex, manumission Early generation skilled: rice, cattle, coopers, boatmen, frontier warfare: they were needed and skills encouragedTask system: slaves allowed to set own pace and techniques, largely autonomousDoomed by rising white anxiety

C. Fear of the (Black) Man1) Black majority2) Preservation of African traditions (gullah) greater autonomy and self-assertionWhite backlash: 1) systematic limitation black economic opportunities + deskilling2) physical degradation3) Stop interracial sex (fantasize black rape as fear of black revolt)4) new forms of control: slave patrols, whips, overseers, chain gangs

D. Negro Act of 1740Irony: harder whites clamped down (SC, VA, NY) more resistance: slow downs, talking back, conspiracies, uprisingsStono Rebellion, 1739: Spanish in Florida offer freedom to slaves who flee hundreds of slaves apparently spontaneously leave plantations and work way South Negro Act of 1740: even more severely curtailed liberties than VAs 1705: no literacy, no meetings, no growing own foodGap indentures and slaves growing

IV. Stabilization of Southern SocietyIncreasing gap rich and poor: took $ to buy slaves to make $Increasing landlessness: those who did well early took the best land (on rivers) and pushed the poor into the interior Bacons RebellionIrony: instability Whites come together to keep blacks down: race trumps class stability of power structure Poor whites act to maintain white supremacy, which serves the interests of rich whites to the economic detriment of poor whitesEdmund Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom