Origins of Slavery
The first known civilization to practice slavery, existing around 3500–3000 BCE.
the Sumerians
The only one of the first four U.S. presidents who never owned a slave in his life.
John Adams
The man who invented the cotton gin in 1793, transforming Southern agriculture and dramatically expanding slavery.
Eli Whitney
The secret network of routes and safe houses used to move enslaved people from the South to freedom in the North.
The Underground Railroad
The number of days per week enslaved people typically worked on plantations, from dawn to dusk.
6 days
So many people from this region were enslaved that their name became the English word for the condition.
the Slavs (Eastern Europeans)
He wrote "All men are created equal," yet publicly called slavery a "moral and political depravity" while continuing to enslave people.
Thomas Jefferson
The cotton gin could process cotton approximately this many times faster than by hand
50
A formerly enslaved person who wrote a famous autobiography and delivered powerful speeches exposing the realities of slavery.
Frederick Douglass
Under the laws of Southern states, enslaved persons were legally considered this — not people.
Property
The year enslaved Africans first arrived in English colonies in America.
1619
The number of enslaved persons George Washington held at Mount Vernon at the time of his death in 1799
By 1850, this was the single largest American export, produced almost entirely by enslaved labor.
Cotton
She repeatedly risked her life by returning to the South to guide dozens of enslaved people to freedom.
Harriet Tubman
One of the most serious crimes in the South during slavery — teaching an enslaved person to do this.
Read or Write
The African kingdom from which the first enslaved people brought to English colonies originated, located in present-day Angola.
the Kingdom of Ndongo
The anti-slavery organization Alexander Hamilton founded in New York in 1785 to protect free Black persons and work toward abolition.
the New York Manumission Society
The year Abraham Lincoln was elected president, triggering the secession of Southern states.
1860
The name for secret worship gatherings held by enslaved people hidden in woods and swamps, away from white supervision.
Hush Harbors
Families of enslaved persons were routinely separated primarily through this brutal practice.
Being sold
The medieval form of bondage where peasants were bound to land and masters with few rights
serfdom
The 1807 law signed by Jefferson that banned importing new enslaved persons, but did nothing to stop the domestic slave trade
the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves
At slavery's peak, slave states created approximately this percentage of the total wealth of the United States.
Between 25 & 35 percent.
This spiritual song contained hidden directions guiding enslaved people escaping northward to freedom.
Follow the Drinking Gourd
Some enslaved persons were carpenters, blacksmiths or cooks, and considered this type of laborer.
Skilled laborer.