Unit VIII Blacks in America
Black Americans have had a tremendous impact on the development
of the United States
• Essential Questions:
– 1. Students will study the reasons for slavery in
the new world.
– 2. Students will trace the beginnings of the
slave trade in the Americas.
– 3. Students will investigate the transportation
of African slave routes to the Americas
• The triangular trade route and the middle passage
Steal
Away
– 4. Students will investigate the role religion
played in the culture of Black America.
Go Down
Moses
Assessments
• Essay questions available both online and in the
listening guide.
– What were the reasons for slavery in the new world?
Explain the role religion played in the lives of Black
Americans. Trace the beginnings of the slave trade in
the Americas and explain the transportation of African
slave routes to the Americas i.e. the triangular trade
route and the middle passage
• There will be a Multiple Choice WalkAway
covering The Early Culture of Black Americans.
• Sample questions/exams are currently posted
online.
Journal Write 1
• If it were legally acceptable would you own
slaves? It would be your responsibility to
feed, house and clothe them- they in turn
would have to do what ever you wished.
What would you have them do? Would
you find it morally acceptable? Explain
your answer
Black Americans
• African Americans were among the first to
colonize the Americas.
– There was at least one black man who arrived with
the first English colonist in 1607 in Jamestown.
• During a 350 year period over 11 million
Africans were sold into slavery in the Americas.
– 1/10 died en’route.
– By 1860 appx. 500,000 of them (1/8 of the total
Black population) were free Americans
– 3,500,000. of them were enslaved.
– This is their story.
Part I 1 of 9
Textbook 4 Call to Freedom
• Read pages 98-100 in the Call to Freedom
textbook, pay particular attention to the
graphics. While reading define the
following highlighted terms:
– Mercantilism
Balance of trade
– Imports
Exports
– Duties
Free Enterprise
– Triangular Trade
Definitions
• Mercantilism-Practice of creating and maintaining
wealth by carefully controlling trade.
• Balance of Trade— A Nation could be self-sufficient if
it had fewer imports than exports
• Imports—Goods bought from other countries
• Exports—goods sold to other countries.
• Duties—import taxes
• Free enterprise— economic competition with little
government control.
• Triangular Trade— Trading networks in which goods
and slaves moved among England, the American
colonies, the West Indies, and West Africa
Blacks in the American Colonies
The evolution from indentured servitude
• Both Africans and Europeans initially had
the same status and rights in the
Colonies.
– They worked side by side in the fields
– They were equally punished when they
broke their contract as servants.
– There was no distinction or discrimination
based upon color.
Part I 2 of 9
Beginnings of Slavery
• Freed indentured servants began to pose a
threat to the property-owning elite.
• In response the colonial establishment
placed limits on the amount of land that
could be given to freed indentured servants.
– This created unrest among newly freed
indentured servants.
– They had often worked with the promise of a
larger amount of land.
Part I 3 of 9
Beginnings of Slavery
• Indentured Servant were an expensive long
term labor source.
– They moved on, forcing a need for costly
replacements.
A family of Black slaves outside of their slave
quarters
• Slaves, especially ones you could identify
by skin color, were more cost efficient.
& Whiteon
Indentured
– They could not Black
move
and become free
Servants at Jamestown
competitors.
Part I 4 of 9
The Story of Anthony Johnson
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p265.html
• Traditionally, Englishmen
believed they had a right to
enslave a non-Christian or a
captive taken in a just war.
Africans and Indians might fit
one or both of these definitions.
• But what if they learned English
and converted to the Protestant
church? Should they be
released from bondage and
given "freedom dues?" What if,
on the other hand, status were
determined not by (changeable )
religious faith but by
(unchangeable) skin color?
Beginnings of Slavery
• The disorder of the indentured servant
system, made racial slavery especially to
Southerners who did not have enough
laborers (workers), much more attractive.
• Black slaves were a permanent
dependent labor force.
• They could be identified as a people
For centuries Africa's chief export was human
racially set captured
apart.
and sold into slavery. Long before the
discovery of the Americas, Slavery was practiced in
Europe, Africa & Asia.
Part I 6 of 9
Beginnings of Slavery
• In 1641, Massachusetts became the first
colony to legally recognize slavery. Other
states soon followed.
• In 1662, Virginia decided all children born
in the colony to a slave mother would also
be enslaved.
– Slavery was not only a life-long condition; now
it could be passed, like skin color, from
generation to generation.
Part I 7 of 9
Triangular Trade
• The Triangular Trade Route was the name given to
the trading route used by European merchants who
exchanged goods with Africans for slaves.
• They bought slaves from Africa, shipped the slaves to
the Americas, sold them and brought goods from the
Americas back to Europe.
• Merchants who traded in this way could get very rich.
American goods fetched a high price in Europe.
• It was called the triangular trade because of the
triangular shape that the three legs of the journey
made.
Africans being kidnapped and transported by
Africans being sold to Portuguese traders
neighboring tribesman
Part I 8 of 9
The Route
• The first leg was the journey from Europe to
Africa where goods (metal objects, pots, pans,
knives, horses & guns) were exchanged for
slaves.
• The second, or middle, leg of the journey was the
transportation of slaves to the Americas. It was
nicknamed the 'middle passage.‘
• The third and final leg of the journey, was
the transport of goods (raw products, wood,
molasses, fish, sugar) from the Americas back to
Part I 9 of 9
Europe.
The Middle Passage
From the beginning to
chapter 5 46:39 min.
When finished
follow the
instructions in
your listening
guide and
complete a Two
voice poem or a
analogy poem.
It was the route between Africa and the New World
that carried slaves to exchange for sugar and tobacco.
It was the sea that carried a human cargo, a resting
place for thousands who would not survive the journey.
It was called THE MIDDLE PASSAGE.
I am….
Two Voice Poem or Analogy Poem
I am black
I am white
We are human.
I am from Africa, I lived on a farm.
I am from the West Indies, I lived on a
plantation.
We were farmers
I am on a slave ship- I am a slave.
I am on a slave ship- I am a slaver We
hate our life!
I fear the slavers
I fear the slaves
We fear them!
I want to go home
I want to go home
We want to go home!
I am black
I am white
We are human.
See instructions in listening guide
I am like a mule
A mule eats others leftovers, a mule is
like a work horse.
A work horse does other peoples work,
a work horse is like a slave.
A slave is like dirt, it gets stepped on by
others, Dirt is like waste.
Waste is what we throw away when we
have used up all that is good, waste
is like garbage.
Garbage rots or burns, garbage gets
destroyed. Garbage is like a mule.
I am a mule.
See instructions in listening guide
Textbook 5: Call to Freedom
• Read pages 101-102 in the Call to
Freedom textbook. When finished answer
the following question:
– List at least three factors that caused the
slave trade to grow and three ways this
affected conditions on the Middle Passage
– Three factors that caused the slave trade to grow
»1
2.
3.
– Three ways this affected the Middle Passage
» 1.
2.
3.
Answers
• What factors caused the slave trade to grow? -- Slave
labor and slave trade were important parts of the colonial
economy—indentured servants turned into
competitors—lost money trying to replace them—slave
labor was cheap.
• How did this affect conditions on the Middle Passage? -Slave trader’s desire for profits led to horrible conditions
on slave ships—they could cram more onto a ship—no
food or little food—if a few died, at least some would
make it alive.
Religion in African American Culture
• African-American religion is a tale of variety and
creative fusion (mixing).
• Enslaved Africans brought many local religious
beliefs and practices. They reflected the many
cultures and linguistic groups from which they
had come.
• The majority came from the West Coast of Africa,
but even within this area religious traditions
varied greatly. Islam had exerted a powerful
presence in Africa for several centuries before
the start of the slave trade:
– An estimated twenty percent of African Slaves were
practicing Muslims.
Part II 1 of 7
Religion in African American Culture
African traditional women and male
priests, West Africa, 2006.
• Catholicism had established a presence in
areas of Africa by the sixteenth century.
– A number of African Slaves were Catholics.
Part II 1 of 7
Religion in African American Culture
• The wide majority practiced
animism… ie. they believed
that everything has a "soul",
an "anima" including
animals, plants, rocks,
mountains, etc… each
“soul" is powerful, and can
help or hurt you, including
the souls of the dead, the
"ancestors". . Common in
their worship was the use of
music and dance.
Part II 1 of 7
Religion in African American Culture
• Preserving African religions in North America was
difficult.
– The harsh circumstances under which most slaves
lived—high death rates, the separation of families and
tribal groups, and the effort of white owners to get rid of
non-Christian customs—made keeping religious
traditions difficult.
Funeral in Guinea, west Africa,
drawn by a French painter, ca. 1789
Part II 2 of 7
"Heathen practices in funerals,"
drawn by a Baptist missionary in
Jamaica, ca. 1840
Religion in African American Culture
• Songs, rhythms, movements, art, belief in
the healing powers of roots and the reality
of a world of spirits and ancestors did
survive into the 1900’s.
– Many were combined in
creative ways with
Christianity to which
Europeans and Americans This rare African American memorial
from the 1800’s mixes Christian
introduced African slaves. quiltsymbols
with religious symbols
found in nature.
Part II 2 of 7
Religion in African American Culture
• In Latin America & the West Indies where
Catholicism was most dominant, Slaves
mixed African beliefs and practices with
Catholic rituals and theology, resulting in
the formation of entirely new religions such
as voodoo in Haiti.
Notice the similarities between these Catholic Iconic cards
and the Voodoo tarot cards in the following slide.
Part II 3 of 7
Religion in African American Culture
.
• During the 2nd Great Awakening Evangelicalism took root
among African-Americans. Large numbers underwent
conversion, baptism, instruction & worship.
• In some ways, church life proved to be more important
than family life, (evidence of the instability of the family
under slavery).
Part II 4 of 7
Religion in African American Culture
• The spiritual music composed and sung by
African-Americans was as direct, heartfelt,
and expressive as preaching.
– Such African-American hymns as "Swing low,
Sweet Chariot" conveys a message that few
whites heard: a equality of persons. God
welcomes both whites and blacks to heaven.
Part II 5 of 7
Religion in African American
Culture
• As Black Christians had
the opportunity to develop
their own styles of
preaching and singing
they did so. Slaves were
highly critical--in these
settings--of white
preaching that tried to
keep them in their place.
It was alright to steal a
ham--they reasoned--if it
was needed to feed one's
family. This theology is
reflected in a song sung
by the slaves
Part II 6 of 7
We raise de wheat,
Dey gib us de corn;
We bake de bread,
De gib us de crust;
We sif de meal,
Dey gib us de huss;
We peal de meat,
Dey gib us de skin;
And dat's de way
Dey take us in;
We skim de pot,
Dey gib us de liguor,
And say dat's good enough for
nigger."
Music & Culture
• Are there parallels in your life?
• How has/ does music impact you? Do you
express yourself through music? How?
Why or why not? Explain
Black America: Religion & The
Early Civil Rights Movement
• As early as the 1820’s the Black American
church led the movement for black
equality.
• In the 1940’s, 50’s & 60’s it was black
preachers that led the civil rights
movement.
Part II 7 of 7