objective: to examine slave family life and methods of resistance

Objective: To examine slave family life and methods of resistance.

Image taken from Harper’s Weekly,

July 4, 1863

Life Without Freedom

· Slaves often worked up to 16 hours per day and were whipped often.

Life Without Freedom

Images taken from Harper’s Weekly,

July 4, 1863

Smithsonian Photography Initiative

Images taken from Harper’s Weekly,

July 4, 1863

Life Without Freedom

· Strong family relationships were formed through extended families.

· Owners could separate families by selling husbands, wives, and their children to different buyers.

Five generations of a family born into slavery on aSouth Carolina plantation.

Resisting Slavery

· Many slaves tried to escape to the North. Few were successful.

· In 1831, an African-American preacher named Nat Turner led a revolt in Virginia, killing 57 whites.

· Turner was caught and hanged. His revolt, however, increased Southerner’s fears of slave revolts.

American Colonization Society (1817) – wanted to end slavery by setting up a colony in West Africa for freed slaves.

· In 1822, the nation of Liberia was formed and several thousand African-Americans settled there.

· Most African-Americans wanted to stay in the U.S., which was their homeland.

Trustee R.M. McGill 1846

Liberian flag