Slavery in Colonial America: 1600 - 1860

Slavery in Colonial America: 1600 - 1860

1. System of Slavery

   • Maryland and Virginia
     • It was widely used in
       • Agriculture
         • Raising tobacco and corn and other grains
       • Non-agricultural Employment
         • Shipbuilding, ironworking, and other early industries
     • 1660's
       • They created new laws deprived blacks, free and slaves, of many rights and privileges.
       • They began to import thousands of slaves directly from Africa.
   • South Carolina
     • Slaves developed a labor system known as the task system
       • They were able to reconstitute African social patterns and maintain a separate Gullah dialect.
         • They often passed their property down for generations.
   • Long Island - Southern Rode
     • Slavery was concentrated in productive agriculture
       • They were engaged in farming and stock raising for the West Indies.
     • Slaves were household servants for the urban elite.

2. Revolutions

   • Demographic Revolution
     • Slaves had been born in the New World
       • They could sustain their population by natural reproduction.
   • Plantation Revolution
     • Increased the size of plantations, more productive and efficient economic units.
     • More supervision on their slaves.
   • Religious Revolution
     • Planters resisted the idea of converting slaves to Christianity out of a fear that baptism would change a slave's legal status.
   • There was a revolution in values and sensibility.
     • Religious and secular groups denounced slavery as a violation of natural rights.
   • Fourth Revolution
     • 835,000 slaves were moved from Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas

3. 1700

   • Most slaves were born in Africa, few were Christian, and very few slaves were engaged in raising cotton.
   • Despite the loss of slaves, slavery quickly recovered in the South.
   • Antislavery Movements
     • The Free Soil Party
     • The Liberty Party
     • The Republican Party

4. 1800

   • Slaves found in Christianity a faith that could give them hope in an oppressive world
     • Slaves did not join their masters' churches.
   • A growing number of northerners were convinced that slavery posed an intolerable threat to free labor and civil liberties
   • Major conspiracies or revolts against slavery took place in Richmond, Virginia

5. 1600

   • The royal governor of Virginia, promised freedom to all slaves belonging to rebels who would join "His Majesty's Troops."
     • 800 Slaves joined to them
   • No church condemned slave ownership or slave trading