Slavery in the American colonies

1. Slavery in the American colonies Beginnings, Growth and Expansion in England’s Colonies

2. Beginnings of African Slavery • Began mainly due to the death of the original “New World” slaves due to European diseases • Native Americans • Brought from Africa to the Americas • Middle passage • Second leg of the triangular trade route • Brought to Virginia to work on tobacco plantations • 1619; originally brought as indentured servants

3. Account of the Middle Passage A ship’s doctor’s account, published in 1788: The men, on being brought aboard the ship, are immediately fastened together, two and two, by handcuffs on their wrists and by irons rivetted on their legs. They are then sent down between the decks…They are frequently stowed so close as to admit no other position than lying on their sides. Nor will the height between decks…allow them to stand…The tubs (for “bathroom” purposes) are much too small for the purpose intended and usually are emptied but once every day…As the necessitities of nature are not to be resisted, [slaves who can’t reach the tubs] ease themselves as they lie. Exercise being considered necessary for the preservation of their health they are sometimes obliged to dance when the weather will permit their coming on deck. If they go about it reluctantly or do not move with agility, they are flogged (whipped); a person standing by them all the time with a cat-o-nine-tails in his hand for that purpose. The fresh air being excluded, the Negroes’ rooms very soon grow intolerably hot. The confined air, rendered noxious (toxic) by the effluvia exhaled from their bodies and by being repeatedly breathed, soon produces fevers and fluxes, [dysentery ensued], which generally carry off great numbers of them…The floor of their rooms was so covered with the blood and mucus which had proceeded from them in consequence of the flux, that it resembled a slaughter-house. It is not in the power of the human imagination to picture a situation more dreadful or disgusting. Cat-o’-Nine Tails

4. Slavery in England’s Colonies • Grew due to a lack of labor for the plantations • White indentured servants left the plantations • To get some of the available land • Fairly easy for white men to save enough money to start their own farm • Vast majority were in Southern Colonies • About 85% of enslaved Africans lived in South Carolina • Made up 40% of the South’s total population

5. Comparing the Condition of European slaves

6. Effects of Bacon’s Rebellion on Racial Slavery "[We must defend ourselves] against all Indians in general, for that they were all Enemies." This was the unequivocal view of Nathaniel Bacon, a young, wealthy Englishman who had recently settled in the backcountry of Virginia. The opinion that all Indians were enemies was also shared by a many other Virginians, especially those who lived in the interior. It was not the view, however, of the governor of the colony, William Berkeley. Berkeley was not opposed to fighting Indians who were considered enemies, but attacking friendly Indians, he thought, could lead to what everyone wanted to avoid: a war with "all the Indians against us." Berkeley also didn't trust Bacon's intentions, believing that the upstart's true aim was to stir up trouble among settlers, who were already discontent with the colony's government. Bacon took it upon himself to lead his followers in a crusade against the "enemy.“ Berkeley declared Bacon a rebel and charged him with treason. Just to be safe, the next time Bacon returned to Jamestown, he brought along fifty armed men. Bacon was still arrested, but Berkeley pardoned him instead of sentencing him to death, the usual punishment for treason. Still without the commission he felt he deserved, Bacon returned to Jamestown later the same month, but this time accompanied by five hundred men. Berkeley was forced to give Bacon the commission, only to later declare that it was void. Bacon, in the meantime, had continued his fight against Indians. When he learned of the Govenor's declaration, he headed back to Jamestown. The governor immediately fled, along with a few of his supporters, to Virginia's eastern shore. Each leader tried to muster support. Each promised freedom to slaves and servants who would join their cause. But Bacon's following was much greater than Berkeley's. In September of 1676, Bacon and his men set Jamestown on fire. The rebellion ended after British authorities sent a royal force to assist in quelling the uprising and arresting scores of committed rebels, white and black. When Bacon suddenly died in October, probably of dysentery, Bacon's Rebellion fizzled out. Bacon's Rebellion demonstrated that poor whites and poor blacks could be united in a cause. This was a great fear of the ruling class -- what would prevent the poor from uniting to fight them? This fear hastened the transition to racial slavery.

7. Virginia Laws Concerning Slavery Virginia, 1639 Act X. All persons except Negroes are to be provided with arms and ammunitions or be fined at the pleasure of the governor and council. Maryland, 1664 That whatsoever free-born [English] woman shall intermarry with any slave. . . shall serve the master of such slave during the life of her husband; and that all the issue of such free-born women, so married shall be slaves as their fathers were. Virginia, 1667 Act III. Whereas some doubts have arisen whether children that are slaves by birth. . . should by virtue of their baptism be made free, it is enacted that baptism does not alter the condition to the person as to his bondage or freedom; masters freed from this doubt may more carefully propagate Christianity by permitting slaves to be admitted to that sacrament. Virginia, 1682 Act I. It is enacted that all servants. . . which [sic] shall be imported into this country either by sea or by land, whether Negroes, Moors [Muslim North Africans], mulattoes or Indians who and whose parentage and native countries are not Christian at the time of their first purchase by some Christian. . . and all Indians, which shall be sold by our neighboring Indians, or any other trafficking with us for slaves, are hereby adjudged, deemed and taken to be slaves to all intents and purposes any law, usage, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding. Black Laws of VirginiaNegro Universities Press, 1969Greenwood Publishing GroupBefore the Mayflower: A History of Black AmericaPenguin Books, 1983

8. The Plantation Economy and the Planter Class A plantation economy is based on agricultural mass production of cash crops; usually of a few staple products grown on large plantations such as tobacco. • Prominent plantation crops included cotton, sugar cane, tobacco, rice, and indigo. • Plantation economies have historically relied on slave labor to achieve profitability, particularly in the Americas. • Plantations typically export raw materials to industrial nations, which then sell manufactured goods back to the plantation nations. • The economy of Virginia was largely based on tobacco production, which was both lucrative and labor intensive, requiring many slaves. • Sugar plantations involved particularly arduous labor for slaves and had high slave mortality rates. • While the term "planter" has no universally accepted definition, historians of the antebellum South have generally defined it in the strictest definition as a person owning property and 20 or more slaves. • Planters are often spoken of as belonging to the planter elite or planter aristocracy in the antebellum South. • A distinctive plantation architecture consisted of the stately mansions built by planters.

9. Expansion and Resistance • Cultivation of fields of cash crops required considerable skill and back-breaking labor • The planter class developed due to the wealth generated by the farms • A planter was typically defined as someone who owned property and 20 or more slaves • Small % of people had large amount of power • Slaves had poor living and working conditions • Led many to rebel by working slowly, damaging profit, or revolting • Revolts led planters to make strict slave codes to limit their freedoms

10. Report from William Bull about the Stono RebellionIn a letter dated October 5, 1739, less than A month after the Stono Slave Rebellion in South Carolina, lieutenant governor William Bull reported to Britain's Board of Trade, informing them of the revolt and updating them on the status of the rebels. My Lords, I beg leave to lay before your Lordships an account of our Affairs, first in regard to the Desertion of our Negroes. . . . On the 9th of September last at Night a great Number of Negroes Arose in Rebellion, broke open a Store where they got arms, killed twenty one White Persons, and were marching the next morning in a Daring manner out of the Province, killing all they met and burning several Houses as they passed along the Road. I was returning from Granville County with four Gentlemen and met these Rebels at eleven o'clock in the forenoon and fortunately discerned the approaching danger time enough to avoid it, and to give notice to the Militia who on the Occasion behaved with so much expedition and bravery, as by four o‘clock the same day to come up with them and killed and took so many as put a stop to any further mischief at that time, forty four of them have been killed and Executed; some few yet remain concealed in the Woods expecting the same fate, seem desperate. . . . It was the Opinion of His Majesty's Council with several other Gentlemen that one of the most effectual means that could be used at present to prevent such desertion of our Negroes is to encourage some Indians by a suitable reward to pursue and if possible to bring back the Deserters, and while the Indians are thus employed they would be in the way ready to intercept others that might attempt to follow and I have sent for the Chiefs of the Chickasaws living at New Windsor and the Catawbaw Indians for that purpose. . . . My Lords, Your Lordships Most Obedient and Most Humble Servant Wm Bull Uncomfortable with the increasing numbers of blacks for some time, the white colonists had been working on a Negro Act that would limit the privileges of slaves. This act was quickly finalized and approved after the Stono Rebellion. No longer would slaves be allowed to grow their own food, assemble in groups, earn their own money, or learn to read. Some of these restrictions had been in effect before the Negro Act, but had not been strictly enforced.