Topic 1
What was significant about the Middle Passage?
The voyage across the Atlantic
1 in 5 perished
Let's look at pages 107-109
What is significant about Chesapeake slavery?
-Tobacco plantation system
-Growing demand for labor in response to global demand for tobacco, resulting in large numbers of slaves
-Most Chesapeake slaves worked in the fields, but some engaged in skilled and domestic labor
-Slavery laid the foundation for the consolidation of Chesapeake elite
-Elaborate hierarchy with planters at the top
Freedom and Slavery in the Chesapeake
-Legal measures passed to enhance power of masters over enslaved people and whites over blacks
-Race took on increasing importance as a line of social division
How did African American culture develop in the Chesapeake?
-Family-centered slave communities
-English and religious conversion
How did slaves resist slavery? (Give 2 examples)
1. runaway
2. slave uprising
The Middle Ground
Western frontier of British North America (The Ohio Valley)
Borderland between French and British empires and Indian sovereignty
Competing land claims inaugurated the Seven Years’ War (known in the colonies as the French and Indian War)
The Seven Years’ War
In 1754, British efforts to remove French forces from forts in western Pennsylvania ignited a worldwide struggle for domination
After brutal backcountry fighting, the British emerged victorious
What were the three systems of slavery?
By the mid-eighteenth century, there were three distinct slave systems in British North America: tobacco-based plantation slavery in the Chesapeake, rice-based plantation slavery in South Carolina and Georgia, and non-plantation slavery in New England and the Middle Colonies.
What is significant about the Rice Kingdom slavery?
-Ironically, Africans taught English settlers how to cultivate rice
-“Task” system
-Assigned daily jobs
-If completed, allowed time for leisure or to cultivate their own crop
How did African American culture develop in the South Carolina and Georgia?
-African-based culture
-Gullah
What was the most common way for slaves to escape slavery?
Running away
What were some impacts of the Seven Years' War?
Global balance of power shifted
Peace of Paris (1763)
The war was enormously expensive
Increased taxes on American colonists
How is African religion different from Christianity?
African religion believes in the presence of spiritual forces in nature. It is more similar to Native American religion than to Christianity.
What is significant about slavery in the North?
-Less central to the economies of New England and the Middle Colonies, but not marginal to northern colonial life
-More lenient laws because lower numbers of slaves made them less of a threat in the eyes of whites
-Skilled labor and domestic workers
-In an urban economy based on fluctuating trade, wage labor (hiring and firing) made more economic sense than slavery
How did African American culture develop in the North?
-Few slaves dispersed across the region
-A distinctive culture developed slowly
Where did most enslaved people go?
South America
Compare and contrast the different slave systems.
Chesapeake Slavery
-Tobacco plantation system
-Growing demand for labor in response to global demand for tobacco, resulting in large numbers of slaves
-Most Chesapeake slaves worked in the fields, but some engaged in skilled and domestic labor
-Slavery laid the foundation for the consolidation of Chesapeake elite
-Elaborate hierarchy with planters at the top
Freedom and Slavery in the Chesapeake
-Legal measures passed to enhance power of masters over enslaved people and whites over blacks
-Race took on increasing importance as a line of social division
The Rice Kingdom
-Ironically, Africans taught English settlers how to cultivate rice
-“Task” system
-Assigned daily jobs
-If completed, allowed time for leisure or to cultivate their own crop
Slavery in the North
-Less central to the economies of New England and the Middle Colonies, but not marginal to northern colonial life
-More lenient laws because lower numbers of slaves made them less of a threat in the eyes of whites
-Skilled labor and domestic workers
-In an urban economy based on fluctuating trade, wage labor (hiring and firing) made more economic sense than slavery
How is African religion similar to Christianity?
They both believe in a single creation.
Who was Olaudah Equiano (what was his significance)?
From Africa???? Middle Passage????
Traveled all over
Wrote best known narrative by an 18th century slave
The portrait of Equiano in European dress and holding a Bible challenges stereotypes of blacks as “savages” incapable of becoming civilized.
Explain the basics of the Atlantic Trading Route. (Simplified version)
Raw goods from colonies to England
Manufactured goods to Africa
Slaves to the colonies
Explain the Georgia Experiment (how it was set up and what changed).
Rice cultivation
No slaves and no liquor
After it becomes a royal colony, Georgia’s elected assembly allowed slavery
Became a miniature version of South Carolina
Explain the Stono Rebellion.
In 1739, the War of Jenkins’ Ear, between England and Spain, prompted a group of South Carolina slaves to seize arms at Stono. They marched toward the safety of Spanish Florida, which offered security to escaped British slaves, killing whites and shouting “Liberty!” as they went. The Stono Rebellion was crushed by colonial militia and led to the tightening of South Carolina’s slave laws.