Transcript Slavery & Empire, 1441-1770

Out of Many
Chapter 4
 The
development of the slavery system
 The history of the slave trade and the Middle
Passage
 Community development among African
Americans in the eighteenth century
 The connections between the institution of
slavery and the imperial system of the
eighteenth century
 The early history of racism in America
How did the modern system of slavery develop?
 Has
long been a part of Mediterranean
Europe
 Merchants would sell captured Slavic
peoples, Africans, and Muslims

Word “slave” derives from “Slav”
 Early
15th century, the Pope excommunicated
many merchants engaging in the sell of
Christian peoples as slaves

But, since the religions of Muslims & most
Africans were vastly different from that of
Christianity, most remained quiet on the issue
 Europeans
wanted to trade for gold, wrought
iron, ivory, tortoiseshell, textiles and slaves
 Typically left the capturing of men & women
to Africans

Willing to exchange the captured slaves for
European commodities
 The
first African slave
arrived in Lisbon in 1441
 Initially, most were sent to
work on sugar plantations

Columbus introduced sugar cane
to Hispaniola
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
The Portuguese, Dutch &
Northeast Brazil
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Because of disease & warfare,
the indigenous people population
has dropped dramatically
Began importing African slaves
from Spain
Portugal created a sugar
production center in Brazil
Became a model of the efficient
& brutal exploitation of African
labor
By 1600, some 25,000 enslaved
Africans labored on the
plantations in Hispaniola &
Brazil
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Local communities, organized by kinship, led by clan
leaders & village chiefs
Men often took a 2nd or 3rd wife
Women bore fewer children in comparison to European
women
Based on sophisticated farming system
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
Cleared land by burning
Used hoes/digging sticks to cultivate
Rotated fields to allow land to lay fallow
Men cleared the fields, women cultivated
Household slavery common

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Did no more work than a free person
Only real differences was that slave & free persons did not
eat together
Many thought that European slavery would be run in the
same fashion.
What is the history of the slave trade and the Middle
Passage?
 “With
us they did no more
work than other members
of the community, even
their master….Their food,
clothing, and lodging were
nearly the same as [the
others], except that they
were not permitted to eat
with those who were born
free.”
 “How different was their
condition from that of the
slaves of the West Indies!”
1789  wrote and published, The Interesting
Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or
Gustavus Vassa the African.
The movement across the
Atlantic to the Americas
was the largest forced
migration in world history
 Still disputes about accuracy
of the numbers
 10 to 12 million Africans
were transported by slave
ships
 Roughly 1 in 20 (est. 600,000) were transported to the
British colonies of N. America
 Men generally outnumbered women 2 to 1
 Ages ranged from 15 to 30
 Every ethnic group from West Africa was represented

Many colonial traders lived in permanent coastal
outposts & married African women
 The grim business of slave raiding was left to the
Africans themselves

“I must own to the shame of my own countrymen, that I was
first kidnapped and betrayed by those of my own
complexion.” –Ottobah Cugoano of Ghana
 Most slaves were enslaved through warfare
 More common were small, night time raids

As demand increase, slave raiders had to go deeper
into the interior, forcing the captive to walk very long
distances to reach the coastal trading posts
 Prisoners waited in dark dungeons called barracoons
 Many times, families were split up to prevent
resistance
 Those chosen for transport were branded on the
buttocks or back with the mark of the buyer

 In
the 18th century, English sailors christened
the voyage of slave ships as the “Middle
Passage”

The middle part of a trading triangle from
England to African to America and back to
England
 From
coastal forts, crews rowed slaves out in
tiny boats to be packed onto the slave ships
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Packed into shelves below deck
Six feet long by two & half feet high
Forced to lie in “spoon fashion”
One ship designed to carry 450 slaves usually
packed in 600+
 Morning
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Breakfast of beans
“dancing the slave”
2nd bland meal
Stowing away
 Below
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routine:
deck:
Lack of adequate sanitation
“necessary tubs”
“floor was so covered with blood & mucus that it
resembled a slaughter house”
 As
long as ships still had
the coasts of Africa in
their sites, there was
great risk of revolts
 As the coast diminished
from view, many slaves
tried to jump overboard
 Captains typically placed
netting around the sides
of the ship to prevent the
slaves from falling into
the water
How did slavery in the North differ from slavery in
the South?


First Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619
Slaves cost 2x’s that of an indentured servant, yet
had the same life expectancy
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Records show that some slaves were owned by other
Africans who had previously purchased their freedom
Sexual relations among Africans, Indians, and
Europeans created a whole ethnic group of freed
peoples

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Offered little economic benefit
The Chesapeake was a “society with slaves” –- meaning
that there were many forms of labor
Only later did the color of ones skin automatically
decide ones freedom
Many slaves were Christians which raised many
questions

Most regulations were
an accumulated
piecemeal, but in
1705, Virginia
gathered them into a
comprehensive slave
code:
“bond or free only
according to the
condition of the
mother”
 Baptism could no
longer alter conditions
of servitude
 The death of a slave
during punishment
“shall not be accounted
felony”

Slavery grew rapidly in the South
 The use of slaves made economic sense on
tobacco & rice plantations
 Northern slaves worked as servants, craftsmen,
and day laborers
 Plantation owners realized the benefits of slaves
having sexual relations

“A woman who brings a child every two years [is]
more valuable than the best man on the farm for
what she produces is an addition to the capital.” –
Thomas Jefferson
 They didn’t have to rely so much on the slave trade if
their own slave population could reproduce and
replenish itself
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Reduced migration:
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Dependable work force:
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Increases in wages in England reduced the supply of
immigrants to the colonies
Large-plantation owners were disturbed by the
political demands of small farmers and indentured
servants and by the disorders of Bacon’s Rebellion.
They thought that slavery would provide a stable
labor force totally under their control
Cheap Labor:

As tobacco prices fell, rice & indigo became the most
profitable crops. To grow such crops successfully
required both a large land area and a large number of
inexpensive, relatively unskilled field hands

Spanish Colonies
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French Louisiana
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Slavery in Florida was very benign
Conditions resembled the household slavery common in
Mediterranean & African communities
Spanish declared FL a refuge for escaped slaves from the
British colonies, offering them free land
The French Company of the Indies imported 6,000 slaves
Planters invested in tobacco & indigo
North
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Not “slave societies”
Slave ownership was universal among the wealthy &
ordinary among craftsmen & professionals
Quakers of PA & NJ were first to voice anti-slavery
sentiment
How did African slaves attempt to preserve African
culture in America?
1641, Massachusetts became the first colony to
recognize the slavery of “lawful” captives
 Virginia 1661, children took the status (free or
slave) of their mother
 1664, Maryland locked African slaves into
bondage by declaring baptism did not affect
their status
 White women could not marry African American
men
 Became customary for whites to regard blacks as
social inferiors
 Racism & slavery became an integral part of
American colonial society
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 Slave
codes prevented slaves from legally
marrying one another

“How can [wives] submit
themselves to their
husbands in all things? How
can [children] obey their
parents in all things?”
 Planters
commonly
separated families by
sale or bequest
 Generally, slave couples
“married” when the woman became pregnant
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Marriages performed amongst themselves
Jumping the broomstick
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Had separate graveyards
Decorated the headstones with shells & pottery
 Burial held at night to keep it secret
 Danced & sang around the deceased
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“a nation of dancers, musicians, and poets”
 18th century – invention of an African American
language
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A mixed dialect between the Guinea & English
Africanization of the South
Both whites & blacks had faith in slave conjurers &
herb doctors
 Introduced African styles of food & cooking
 Slave mothers nursed white children

 Slaves
were
whipped or beaten
by their masters
for disobedience,
running away, etc.
 The idea was to
make slaves
“stand in fear”
How did slavery fuel the economic development of
Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?
Generated enormous
profits that became a
source of capital
investing in the economy
 Supplied the raw cotton
essential to the
Industrial Revolution
 Provided an enormous
stimulus to the growth of
manufacturing by
creating a huge colonial
market for exports

 The
slave colonies accounted for 95% of the
exports from the Americas to Great Britain
from 1714-1773
 All trade in empire to be conducted in
English or colonial ships
 Channeling of colonial trade through England
or another English colony
 Subsidization of English goods offered for
sale in the colonies
 Colonists prohibited from large-scale
manufacture of certain products
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Imperial officials argued that colonies existed solely for the
benefit of the mother country
Mercantilism = an economic system whereby the
government intervenes in the economy for the purpose of
increasing national wealth
The monarchy & Parliament established:
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a uniform nat’l monetary system
regulated wages
encouraged agriculture & manufacturing w/subsidies
erected tariff barriers to protect themselves from foreign
competition
Sought to organize & control colonial trade to the max
advantage of its own shippers, merchants, manufacturers &
bureaucrats
Believed that the essence of the competition between
states was the struggle to acquire and hoard the fixed
amount of wealth that existed in the world. Thus, whoever
had the most gold/silver would be the most powerful

King William’s War, 1689-97
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
Queen Anne’s War, 1702-13
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
Great Britain versus Spain in the Caribbean & GA. Part of the
European conflict known as the War of the Austrian Succession
King George’s War, 1744-48
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England fights France & Spain in the Caribbean and on the
northern frontier of New France. Part of the European conflict
known as the War of the Spanish Succession
War of Jenkin’s Ear, 1739-43
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France & England battle on the northern frontiers of New
England & NY
Great Britain & France fight in Acadia & Nova Scotia; the third
Anglo-French war in North America; the second American round
of the War of the Austrian Succession
French & Indian War, 1754-63

Last of the great colonial wars pitting Great Britain against
France & Spain. Known in Europe as the Seven Years’ War
 Between
1651 & 1696, Parliament passed a
series of Navigation Acts
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Created the legal & institutional structure of
Britain’s colonial system
Defined the colonies as both suppliers of raw
materials & as markets for English manufactured
goods.
Merchants from other nations forbidden to trade in
colonies
Specified a list of “enumerated commodities” that
could only be shipped to England
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
Sugar, molasses, rum, tobacco, rice, indigo, furs, skins,
pine masts, tar, pitch, resin, & turpentine
Most were not for English consumption, but rather
reexported elsewhere
 Wool
Act of 1699
 Hat Act of 1732
 Iron Act of 1750
 Colonies were forbidden to place tariffs on
English imports
 Local banking & coinage disallowed
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Some colonies were in desperate need of money
and had started to print/mint their own
Began to depend on “commodity money” &
foreign currency

Used official rates of exchange
 Southern
slave owners enjoyed a protected market
in which competing goods from outside the empire
were heavily taxed
 PA, NY, New England & the Chesapeake began to
produce flour, meat, & dairy products
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None of these were enumerated goods, so they could be
sold freely
Resulted in larger purchasing
power & profits
 Colonial
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exports
Chesapeake = tobacco
South Carolina = rice & indigo
Middle Colonies = wheat
How did slavery shape southern colonial society?
 Was
no formal colonial aristocracy – no royal
recognition of rank
 Wealthy planters were at the top of the social
structure

“First Families of Virginia”
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Elected to the House of Burgesses
Became a self-perpetuating governing class
 Typical
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Slave ownership became widespread in this class
 Poor
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southern landowner
& landless
Some rented land or worked as tenant farmers
Hired out as overseers or farm workers
Some were indentured servants
 However
poor a white might be, having white
skin was a tremendous advantage
 Laws stated that the mother determined a
baby’s free or unfree status
 Many white men’s children were raised as
slaves
 Laws also insured that privileges of
citizenship were restricted to whites
 These helped to insure a sense of distance
between the races and a sense of superiority
among the white population
In large part it was the labor of African slaves
that produced the goods that made the New
World economies grow.
1.
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7.
What characteristics of Africa made it vulnerable to being a
source for slaves? Was the slave trade something Europeans did
to Africans or did African actively participate in it?
Prior to 1500 slavery was rarely found in Europe. Why did
Europeans suddenly start trying to get slaves? How did the
changing economy affect the slave trade?
The text refers to “Shock of Enslavement.” Why was this so
great? How did slaves respond to it?
How did slavery vary in different places? Compare slavery in the
Chesapeake with slavery in the Lower South, North, New Spain,
and New France.
The authors refer to the emergence of African American culture.
What do they mean by this? By what process did this take place?
What was the nature of the conflict between the English and
French empires? How did slavery play into this? What other
factors led to the nearly century of warfare between the two
nations?
How would you characterize the white place in slave societies?
Were all whites members of the elite class?