Chapter 4
Slavery and Empire
Mr. Logan Greene
AP United States History
West Blocton High School
Chapter Objectives
• Trace the development of the system of slavery, and discuss the way
it became entrenched in the Americas.
• Describe the effects of the slave trade on both enslaved Africans and
on the economic and political life of Africa.
• How did slavery in the North differ from slavery in the South?
• Describe the process of acculturation involved in becoming an
African-American. In what ways did slaves “Africanize” the South?
• Explain the connection between the institution of slavery and the
building of a commercial empire?
• In what ways did colonial policy encourage the growth of racism?
Beginning of African Slavery
• African slaves first came to the New World to work
the Spanish sugar plantations of the Caribbean
• At the same time the Portuguese began expanding
major sugar production in Brazil
• At the same time the Dutch expanded the desire for
sugar in Europe adding to demand and cementing
the need for the plantations
• The slaves originated from areas in Western Africa
were communities practiced sophisticated farming
techniques and adapted well to plantation life
The African Slave Trade
• Over the 400 years of the slave trade approximately
10 – 12 million slaves were moved from Africa to
the New World
• The vast majority of these slaves went to the sugar
plantations of the Caribbean or South America (in
fact only 1 in 20 went to the British colonies)
• Most slaves were young men aged 15 to 30 most
suited for fieldwork
• Virtually all the countries of Europe participated in
the slave trade with African traders
Enslavement and the Middle Passage
• Slavers routinely caught Africans, split up family and
ethnic groups, and then penned them until
shipment to the New World
• The travel across the Atlantic was known as the
Middle Passage in which hundreds of slaves were
put into small spaces on slave ships
• There was no sanitation and a death rate of 20%
was not uncommon and considered acceptable by
traders
The New World
• Many times the cargo of a ship would be sent to a
single wealthy planter or slave trader who would
then keep the slaves he wished and sell the rest
• Other times the group was auctioned off one by
one to the highest bidders
• In the English colonies the majority of slaves were
sent to work the fields of the tobacco plantations in
Virginia and the Carolinas
The Effect on Africa
• As the slave trade increased and European power
became global power Africa lost its semblance of
independence and power
• West Africa especially collapsed both culturally and
economically
• Many leading West Africans quit independent
endeavors such as farming to instead become slave
catchers
North American Slave Societies
• The first African slaves arrived in 1619 but for the
first few decades Chesapeake planters still used
mostly indentured servants creating an odd
situation of a society with some slaves
• However, by 1675 the Chesapeake was turning into
a truly slave society where the majority of labor was
completed by enslaved Africans
• As the slave trade increased heavily in the 1700 the
English tightened restrictions and rules on slavery
setting the stage for an explosion of tobacco
plantations
Tobacco Colonies
• As the 1700’s began the European desire for
tobacco increased heavily so the colonies
responding by increasing production (up to 25% of
the value of all colonial exports)
• Tobacco expansion led to a correlative increase in
slavery
• As well the Tobacco plantations began practicing
with slave families and births
• By 1730 the slave populations of the Chesapeake
were self-sustaining
Deep South
• As South Carolina grew into a full fledged colony
slavery grew immediately
• Originally, South Carolina practiced Indian slavery
but quickly switched over to African slavery by the
1730s
• As opposed to the Chesapeake area with
sometimes small tobacco plantations, South
Carolina practiced rice cultivation which led to
major large scale corporation style plantations with
at least 30 slaves
Slavery in the North
• None of the northern colonies were “slave
societies”
• However, in some of the commercial farming areas
of the middle colonies especially slavery was an
accepted form of labor
• As well in most of the port cities of the North most
of the wealthy families had at least some house
servants
• However, the Quakers of Pennsylvania were
vehement anti-slavery proponents
From African to African-Americans
• As many Africans arrived in the 1700’s they were met by
numerous “country” Africans who had been born in
America
• These groups intermingled and combined colonial cultural
identities with traditional African cultural ideals into what
became an “African-American” society
• Logically slaves were completely dominated by their work
lives and the relationship to this work depended on the size
of the plantation, on smaller farms they might work side by
side with their owners where as on large farms they might
be out of touch with their owners
Families and Communities
• Slave codes prevent slave marriages and family legal
status but the family unit still was maintained as the
center of slave culture and life
• Planters commonly sold family members to break
up families and prevent the possibility of rebellion
• Despite this throughout the large plantation areas
where families were not broken up so commonly
family units began many traditions that built the
ideal of the “African-American”
Culture
• As the 1700s wore on the development of AfricanAmerican culture
• This was due to high birth rates and a continual
influx of slaves
• African-Americans showed their pension and talent
for music, song, and dance while on the plantations
• As well, there was even a distinctive AfricanAmerican language
Southern Africanization
• As slave culture was more of a part of high levels of
Southern society there was more of an infiltration
of African ideals into the South
• African cooking techniques appeared in Southern
food
• African women raised high class white children
• African-American song and dance could be seen in
white styles
Resistance and Violence
• Overall, the slave system was built on violence, fear, and
brutality
• Despite the constant mental suffering Africans constantly
fought back against their overseers
• When caught, those who ran were severely punished to be
used as examples
• Organized revolts did occur including New York in 1712,
Virginia in the 1720s, and Chesapeake in 1730
• Also isolated smaller revolts occurred in the deeper South
• These revolts were brutally put down
Slavery and Empire
• Slavery and the products from it greatly improved
Great Britain’s economic power
• Later the cotton produced by the South jumpstarts
the Industrial Revolution by fueling Britain’s cotton
mills
• Slavery also perpetuated the Triangular Trade from
Europe to Africa to America which built the
backbone of European commerce for two centuries
Mercantilism
• European powers believed colonies existed SOLELY
to benefit the mother country and created a new
system of international economies known as
mercantilism
• Mercantilism existed to control colonies and make
sure maximum amounts of wealth were funneled
back to the mother country
• Power in countries was rested solely in the amount
of gold and silver it acquired
Wars for Empires
• Numerous colonial wars break out over trade and
various issues between the great European powers
• All of these wars aimed to deal the decisive blow of
mercantilism and dominate world commerce
• All of these wars led to continued conflict between
France and Britain especially with Spain and the
Dutch constantly dragged into the fray
British Colonial Regulation
• Britain consistently passed regulatory actions to
control the colonial economy and keep the bounds
of mercantilism as strong as possible
• Parliament passed the Navigation Acts between
1651 and 1696, these acts controlled trade and
named certain items that could only be shipped to
England
• As well, England set out strict measures to control
colonial business ventures and keep the colonies at
a certain level of financial dependence
Colonial Economy
• Despite the restrictions of the Navigation Acts the
colonial economies still flourished
• The agricultural producers of the colonies produced
great number of crops for sale and profited
immensely
• The merchant classes sold the items under the
Navigation Acts to their maximum profit and also
sold whatever goods they could profit on that were
not under the Acts
• This created a varied and extremely healthy
economy
Slave Structure
• Slavery produced a specific social structure of high
class planters at the top, merchants and smaller
planters came next, and lastly were the yeoman
farmers and free blacks who survived through
subsistence farming
• At the same time all white colonists shared in being
above their black counterparts and laws existed to
prevent this from being corrupted
• Marriage between races was forbidden; however,
mixed race individuals were born and this led to
difficult circumstances for all invovled
Chapter Objectives
• Trace the development of the system of slavery, and discuss the way
it became entrenched in the Americas.
• Describe the effects of the slave trade on both enslaved Africans and
on the economic and political life of Africa.
• How did slavery in the North differ from slavery in the South?
• Describe the process of acculturation involved in becoming an
African-American. In what ways did slaves “Africanize” the South?
• Explain the connection between the institution of slavery and the
building of a commercial empire?
• In what ways did colonial policy encourage the growth of racism?