Slavery


 * SLAVERY MODULE**


 * Learning Objectives**:

Discuss the similarities/differences between the North and South. Discuss the lives of planters. Explain their value system and their attitudes toward slavery, blacks, and women. Explain the conditions under which slaves lived their lives. How did slaves learn to cope with their bondage?


 * African Societies**

Map: Trade Routes in Africa []

Slavery. An internal traffic in slaves had existed long before European contact.

Trading factories:

Europeans restricted to trading posts on the coast.

Europeans did not venture far inland

Strength of African military groups

Death of Europeans from African diseases [reverse of pattern with Indians]

https://youtu.be/Ajn9g5Gsv98
 * Crash Course #13: Slavery**

Africans in America (PBS) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html See my Website Spotlight blog post http://thelearningprofessor.blogspot.com/2012/06/website-spotlight-africans-in-america.html

Rise and Fall of Jim Crow (PBS) http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/ See my Website Spotlight blog post http://thelearningprofessor.blogspot.com/2012/06/website-spotlight-rise-and-fall-of-jim.html

African American Christianity (National Humanities Center) http://www.nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/aareligion.htm

Enslavement (National Humanities Center) http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/enslavement/enslavement.htm http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/enslavement/text3/text3read.htm

Check out this map on where slaves came from and to where they were sold: []


 * North American slave trade**

Slavery and sugar shifted focus of world economy from Asia and the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Being black did not initially mean being a slave. By the 1670s, mainland colonists imported large numbers of Africans Only a few Quakers had any moral problem with using slaves. Slave trade made many merchants wealthy.

The middle passage: voyage from Africa to America.

Amazing Grace http://youtu.be/CDdvReNKKuk []

In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience http://www.inmotionaame.org/home.cfm See my Website Spotlight blog post http://thelearningprofessor.blogspot.com/2012/06/website-spotlight-in-motion.html

Captive Passage (Mariner's Museum) http://www.marinersmuseum.org/sites/micro/captivepassage/index.html See my Website Spotlight blog post http://thelearningprofessor.blogspot.com/2012/06/website-spotlight-captive-passage.html


 * Slavery in the South**

By 1720, Africans were 20% of overall population. Autobiography of Olaudah Equiano gives details of slave life. Relationship between the large number of slaves in South Carolina and the survival of African culture.

Gospel According to Gullah (Los Angeles Times) http://articles.latimes.com/2005/dec/29/nation/na-gullah29

New Testament Translated into the Gullah language. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5283230


 * Slavery in the north**

North had fewer slaves (personal servants; dock workers) In some cities, slaves 10 % of population. Low northern slave population accentuated differences with South


 * Description of the South**

Old South or Antebellum South (before the Civil War) (1800-1860)

North grew and changed

South just grew
 * Remained a rural, agrarian society
 * Thin population distribution
 * Few cities
 * Small number of factories


 * Rise of the Cotton South**

Slave concentrations 1820 []

Slave concentrations 1860. []

Several factors increased the growth of slave–supplied cotton plantations:

1. Cotton gin [before gin:10 hours for 1 pound; after: 1000 pounds/day] http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/02/cotton-gin-animated.html#.UJ5lFoY9WSo

Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin (Africans in America) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3h1522.html

Eli Whitney (PBS) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/whitney_hi.html

2. Short–staple cotton

3. English and northern U.S. textile factories need for cotton


 * Southern society**

Remember: Some 75% of white southern families owned NO slaves at all. But the slave society influenced all aspects of southern culture. Planters. Most planters owned fewer than 10 slaves. Big planters set the tone for southern society.


 * Planter paternalism**

Life on a plantation (Slavery and the Making of America) http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/living/history.html

A Year in the Life: Pages from a Plantation Account Book (Slavery and the Making of America) http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/living/feature.html

Controversy Over Mascots at Ole Miss (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/us/15mascot.html

Men treated both women and slaves in a domineering manner Racism in the master–slave relationship Sexism in the male–female relationship

Women raised to be wife, mother, and subordinate companion to men Wives helped oversee the plantation household

Wives had to tolerate husbands' sexual infidelities with female slaves

Check out this diary entry from a woman slaveholder (New York Times) []


 * Black codes**

Slaveholders saw free blacks as potential instigators of rebellion Southern states wanted free blacks to move away to the North

Black codes regulated free blacks who remained in the South

Black codes required
 * Black skilled laborers to be licensed
 * Banned blacks form specific jobs (such as river boat captains)
 * Forbade blacks to assemble in public
 * Prohibited teaching blacks to read and write


 * Slave life**

Food generally adequate, but plain and monotonous Slaves owned few clothes and lived in small, one–room cabins

Slave quarters on St. Georges Island []

Slaves worth more healthy than sick Women as child bearers were particularly valuable to owner

Slaves treated as property: Pledged for a debt Gambled away in a card game

White crimes against slaves went unpunished Slaves could not testify against whites

Enslavement (The Making of African-American Identity, National Humanities Center) http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/enslavement/enslavement.htm


 * Slave work routine**

The Varieties of Slave Labor (National Humanities Center) http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1609-1865/essays/slavelabor.htm

1. House slaves

2. Field slaves Most field slaves worked in the **gang system** White overseer: compensated on how much he produced Black slave drivers: foremen to keep down dissension

3. Some slaves worked the **task system** In urban settings and on some rice plantations Assigned daily tasks to complete at their own pace Remainder of the time was their own

4. Slave **hire system** Some skilled slaves were able to hire themselves out They could keep most of their wages Often used proceeds to purchase their freedom


 * Slave religion**

The Secret Religion of the Slaves (Albert Raboteau, Christianity Today) http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/1992/issue33/3342.html

Slave Religion (Slavery and the Making of America) http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/religion/history2.html

Religion of the South and Slavery (National Humanities Center) http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/community/text3/religionofthesouth.pdf

Most white southerners were religious Most believed they should help slaves become Christians [I wonder how prevalent Islam was among slaves.]

But they did so on their own terms Whites used religion as a form of control: God commanded slaves to serve and obey their masters

Slaves felt there must be a real Bible somewhere One not written by their white owners

Many whites unwilling to accept slaves as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Christianity helped slaves cope with bondage Slaves used religion as a refuge Inner sense of personal worth and dignity Slaves hoped for deliverance from bondage Surely in heaven but hopefully in this lifetime


 * Slave family life**

How Slavery Affected African American Families (National Humanities Center) http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1609-1865/essays/aafamilies.htm

Slaves tried to be monogamous Slave marriages had no legal basis Slaves still had marriage ceremonies Vows were changed to "till death or distance do us part"

Family was central to slave life Worst fear was family separation by sale At any moment, the master could a. Sell a slave husband or wife b. Die in debt, forcing a division of his property c. Give a slave child away as a wedding present

Husbands tried to provide for their wife and children Could not protect the females from sexual exploitation by the master

Sorrow Songs https://www.learner.org/series/amerpass/unit07/authors-9.html


 * Slave attitudes toward whites**

Most slaves suspicious of white motives Slaves hated their oppression Whites stereotyped slaves as docile Sambos

To keep from being whipped Slaves learned to act subservient Slaves spoke respectfully to their masters


 * Slave resistance**

Slave Resistance (National Humanities Center) http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1609-1865/essays/slaveresist.htm

Few violent rebellions Whites had firepower, slave patrols, militia, and federal troops

Slaves tried to preserve mental independence and self–respect

The Trickster in African American Literature (National Humanities Center) http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1865-1917/essays/trickster.htm

Coping mechanisms
 * Trickster tales
 * Nonviolent forms of resistance
 * Stealing food
 * Temporarily running away
 * Slacking off at work


 * Nat Turner slave rebellion in Virginia** (1831)

Nat Turner []

Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property (video) http://youtu.be/oL9d65BgqV8

Nat Turner (Encyclopedia of Virginia) [slavery modulr] http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/_The_Confessions_of_Nat_Turner_1831

Nat Turner's Rebellion (On This Day, Finding Dulcinea) http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/July-August-08/On-this-Day--Nat-Turner-Leads-Slave-Rebellion.html

Nat Turner's Rebellion (Africans in America) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p1518.html

Turner an educated black lay preacher Key slave rebellion—a violent one Caused an intense white reaction in the south

"The Confessions of Nat Turner" (Africans in America) []


 * Virginia legislature slavery debate** (1832)

White advocates of gradual abolition of slavery forced a debate Arguing that slavery was injurious to Virginia's modernization Motion favoring abolition lost Last public debate on slavery in the antebellum South