Antebellum Slavery
The Roots of Slavery
• Slavery was introduced in North America from
the Carribean.
• First “Africans” arrive in 1619 in Jamestown, Va.
• Slavery gradually develops with three defining
characteristics:
– Racial
– Hereditary
– Chattel
• By 1750, all the British North American colonies
had legalized slavery.
Defining Slavery
– 1641: Massachusetts = first colony to recognize slavery as a
legal status
– 1663: Virginia declares that children of slave mothers are slaves;
– 1690: South Carolina Slave Code adopted – modeled after
Barbados Slave Code.
– 1705: Virgina Slave Code adopted
• defines all “negro, mulatto, and Indian servants” as property.
Authorizes physical punishments including whipping, branding,
cutting off ears, and mutilation.
– 1740: South Carolina “Negro Act”
• Response to the Stono Rebellion 1739
• Prohibited slaves from learning to read or write, assembling,
dressing in clothing other than an approved list.
Slavery During the Revolutionary
Period
• 1750 – 300,000 slaves in America (20% of the total
population)
• American Revolution begins a discussion about freedom
& the role of slavery in the United States
• Following the Revolution, many northern states began
abolishing slavery
• 1787 – Northwest Ordinance bars slavery in the NW
Territory
1776 – Declaration of
Independence
drafted; includes a
condemnation of the
slave trade.
References to the
slave trade are
removed at the
request of southern
delegates.
1773-1777: Free blacks in
Massachusetts submit a
series of petitions urging
an end to slavery.
“they have…with all other
men, a natural and
unalienable right of
freedom”
1777-1783 – Over 5,000
African-American
men serve in the
Continental Army
and Navy
Many receive their
freedom in reward
for their service.
By 1790, there will be
60,000 free blacks in
the US;
250,000 by 1860
List of casualties from
Lexington & Concord
Slavery and the US Constitution
• 1787 – Constitutional Convention
– A new, more powerful gov’t
– Southerners demand protections for slavery
• Protections for slavery in the new Constitution
– No interference with the slave trade for 20 years;
– Fugitive slave law;
– Gov’t will help put down “domestic insurrections”
th
19
Century Slavery
• As America
expands, slavery
expands.
• US doubles in size
from 1800-1831
• Slavery expands
west into new
territories in the
South.
• 1793 – Cotton Gin
Population
US Population/
Slave Population
• 1780: 3.5 million /
575,000
• 1800: 5.3 million /
900,000
• 1830: 12.8 million /
2.5 million
Slave Life
• Kin to kint
• 14 hr days
• 4 in 10 live to
60 years
• Dehumanizing
slave auctions
• Info: WPA
Slave
Narratives
Resistance to Slavery
• Running away
– 76% under 35; 89% are men
– Underground Railroad
• Organized in the early 1800s
• By 1850, an estimated 50,000100,000 escape this way
– Most runaways leave
temporarily, hide-out, then
are captured or return.
• Harriet Jacobs
• Revolt
– The least common form of resistance.
– All major slave revolts in American history
are thwarted:
• 1739 Stono Rebellion – S.C.
• 1800 Prosser’s Plot – Va.
• 1822 Denmark Vesey Plot – S.C.
• 1831 Nat Turner’s Rebellion – Va.
• 1860 John Brown’s Raid – Va.
• Sabotage
• Feigning Illnesses
• Work slow downs
• Cultural Resistance
– Slave songs
– Religious practices
– Learning to read / write