Ch 4 Slavery and Empire

Essential Questions

• How did the modern system of slavery develop?• What was the history of the slave trade and the

Middle Passage?• How did Africans manage to create

communities among the brutal slave system?• What were the connections between the

institutions of slavery and the imperial system of the eighteenth century?

• How and why did racism develop in America?

Origins

• How long has slavery existed?• Why Africans?• In Jamestown?

• 1441: Portuguese brought slaves to sugar plantations on Madeira

Why the increase in demand?

Hints:

- Wages in England

- Bacon’s Rebellion

- Falling tobacco prices

Sugar First

Dutch – Slave Merchants

The “Middle Passage”

The “Middle Passage”

Olaudah Equiano

“We were not many days in the merchant’s custody, before we were sold after their usual manner, which is this: On a signal given (as the beat of a drum), the buyers rush at once into the yard where the slaves are confined, and make choice of that parcel they like best. The noise and clamor with which this is attended, and the eagerness visible in the countenances of the buyers, serve not a little to increase the apprehension of terrified Africans, who may well be supposed to consider them as the ministers of that destruction to which they think themselves devoted. In this manner, without scruple, are relations and friends separated, most of them never to see each other again.”

Why the difference?

Perception

• S• O• A• P• S

“Society with Slaves” or “Slave Society?”

• Servants/slaves worked, ate, slept in same quarters

• Dominant form of labor was slavery

• Christian baptism could no longer alter conditions of servitude

• Slaves could earn freedom by hiring themselves out in free time

• Slaves more expensive but could be worked longer and more days per year

• Slave codes

• Africans acquired slaves or servants of their own

• Decline in immigration of English servants

• Slaves generally more expensive than indentured servants

• Death of a slave during punishment “shall not be counted as a felony”

• Bacon’s rebellion• VA (1662): “bond or free only

according to the condition of the mother”

Slaves Codes• The 1712 South Carolina slave code included provisions such as:

– Slaves were forbidden to leave the owner's property, unless accompanied by a white person, or obtaining permission. If a slave leaves the owner's property without permission, "every white person" is required to chastise such slaves

– Any slave attempting to run away and leave the colony (later, state) receives the death penalty

– Any slave who evades capture for 20 days or more is to be publicly whipped for the first offense; branded with the letter R on the right cheek for the second offense; and lose one ear if absent for thirty days for the third offense; and castrated for the fourth offense.

– Owners refusing to abide by the slave code are fined and forfeit ownership of their slaves– Slave homes are to be searched every two weeks for weapons or stolen goods.

Punishment for violations escalate to include loss of ear, branding, and nose-slitting, and for the fourth offense, death.

– No slave shall be allowed to work for pay, or to plant corn, peas or rice; or to keep hogs, cattle, or horses; or to own or operate a boat; to buy or sell; or to wear clothes finer than 'Negro cloth'

Rebellion

• Slave system based on force and violence• Africans resisted by:

– Refusing to cooperate and malingering; mistreating tools and animals; Running away

– Revolting (NYC, 1721; Stono, 1739)• Fear of uprisings but slaves in North America

rarely revolted– Conditions for a successful revolt were not present

Stono Rebellion

1. What happened?2. Why?3. Why were these type

of rebellions not more commonplace?

Economics

How did slavery and the colonial economies benefit England?

• Cotton (eventually in U.S.)

• Shipping

• Manufactured goods

Mercantilism

How did mercantilism affect the relationship between England and colonies? In practice?

• 1651–1696: Navigation Acts – legal and institutional structure of Britain’s

colonial system.– “Enumerated Articles” such as sugar could only be

sent to Britain.

How about in practice?Salutary Neglect

Impact of Nav Acts in colonies

Positive• New England ship building

prospered• Tobacco monopoly in

England• Protection from England• Exports/Ports/Cities***

Negative• Limited colonial

manufacturing• Low crop prices• High priced manufactured

goods

Wars for Empire

• The English, French, and Spanish struggled for control over North America and the Caribbean in a series of wars that had their European counterparts.

• No country gaining upper hand

Sum it up!

• Southern planters, Northern merchants and British traders were all equally involved in slavery.

• Slavery permeated colonial societies and made colonies profitable to the mother countries.

• Mercantilism supported and reinforced slavery as profits flowed back to England.

RegionsRegion Crop(s) or

product slaves used to produce.

Why did slavery grow as an institution?

% of population by 18th Century?

Chesapeake(Upper South)

Tobacco Falling tobacco pricesDecreased migration

Lower South

RiceIndigo

Decreased migration; agricultural skill

North CattleDairy farmingPort laborServants

NA