ORIGINS OF SLAVERY• As old as civilization itself

– Primarily involved prisoners of war in ancient times

• No particular bias towards race or ethnicity

• Arabs began African slave trade around 700 AD– Obtained slaves (generally

pows) from tribes south of Sahara Desert

– Small business• Probably only involved

about 1000-5000 individuals per year

AFRICAN SLAVERY IN THE NEW WORLD

• Transatlantic trade in African slaves started by the Portuguese– Provided slaves for Spanish

and Portuguese plantations and mines in the New World

• Trade later taken over by the Dutch– Brought first slaves to

British colonies• 20 African slaves

brought to Jamestown in 1619

SLAVERY AND INDENTURED SERVITUDE

• Number of slaves in Virginia remained small until around 1670

• Reason– Cheaper to use indentured

servants• Because of huge surplus

of unemployed young people in England willing to do anything to get fresh start in the colonies

Indentured servant girl

SLAVERY TAKES OFF

• Population in England began to level off after 1670– Reduced number of

young people desperate enough to become indentured servants

– Created labor shortage in Virginia

• Tobacco planters turned to slaves to make up the difference

BRITISH SLAVERS• Growth of slavery also

influenced by growing involvement of British merchants in slave trade– Parliament passed law in

1660 prohibiting the American colonists from buying slaves from anyone but British merchants

• Growing labor shortage and growing British involvement in slave trade therefore sparked increase in the number and use of slaves in southern colonies after 1670

OTHER FACTORS• Slavery only pays if slaves are

kept working all year long– Since they have to be fed,

clothed, and housed all year– Cannot be laid off in slow

seasons• Tobacco had long growing

season and required intensive labor over most of the year– Kept slaves working all year

long and gave slave owners excellent return on their investment

THE CAROLINAS• In 1663, Charles II granted

eight friends a royal charter to colonize 600 miles of coastline between Virginia and Spanish Florida

– First settlement established in 1670

– Colony grew rapidly and eventually split into two

• North and South Carolina

CAROLINA ECONOMY

• Economy originally based on exporting meat, corn, and wood to sugar-producing Caribbean islands– Slaves sometimes

used to produce these products but free white labor remained dominant within agricultural labor force until 1680s

RICE

• Sugar market collapsed in 1680s, plunging Caribbean islands into a deep depression– Bought much less of

Carolina products• Carolina colonists looked

for new staple crop– Found it in rice

• Perfectly suited for local climate and terrain

• Very strong market for it

RICE GROWING• English colonists knew

little about the complexities of rice-growing– But West African slaves

had much experience in growing it• Their expertise made

rice-growing a success in the Carolinas

RICE AND SLAVERY• Rice-growing sparked tremendous

increase in slavery– Not a crop for a small farmer

• Most efficiently grown on large estates, worked by gangs of laborers toiling on their knees all day in six inches of water and mud

– White men would not do this type of work

– Black men would not do it either—but they could be forced to

– Slave labor thus rapidly replaced free white labor on rice plantations along coast

• Former white laborers moved further inland and set up subsistence farms

SLAVE LAWS IN THE CAROLINAS

• By 1710, slaves made up majority of population in Carolinas– Especially in South Carolina were

they accounted for 65% of population

• This numerical superiority frightened whites– Caused them to enact series of

savagely repressive slave laws• Even made it illegal for slaves to

read the Bible• Designed to keep huge black

population under white minority control

SLAVERY IN THE NORTH• Slavery existed in northern colonies

– But it was not as deeply rooted or widespread as in the South

• Reason?– Had nothing to do with

humanitarianism– Real reason was because it was

not suited to agriculture in the north

• Slaves remained a luxury for the wealthy classes and because the wealthy only represented a small fraction of northern population, there were relatively few slaves

Slave servants with children of Puritan

preacher

VIOLENCE AND SLAVERY• White masters held

awesome power over their slaves– Including the power to

whip them to death

• The right to inflict violence upon slaves made the entire system work– The whip made the

entire system go round

PASSIVE RESISTANCE• Means for slaves to resist their

masters were limited– But they still resisted

• “Puttin’ on ol’ Massa”– They goofed off when not

watched– Pretended to be stupid and

broke tools and destroyed crops– Stole food, clothing, and drink– All forms of passive resistance

• Caused continual headache for masters but never occurred on large enough scale to seriously hurt planter profits

ACTIVE RESISTANCE: RUNNING AWAY

• Newly arrived Africans most likely to run away– But also usually easily caught

• American-born slaves were apt to be more successful– Especially if they knew a trade and

could make it to a town or city• Planters formed vigilante patrols to hunt

down runaways, required slaves to carry passes when off their home plantation, and offered rewards for their capture and return– These measures kept runaway

problem from reaching critical proportions

– But the practice remained

ACTIVE RESISTANCE: REVOLT

• Ultimate fear of all white slave owners

• Odds against a successful revolt were high– Mainly because slaves

were always kept under close supervision

– But they still did occur

STONO, SOUTH CAROLINA (1739)

• 30 newly arrived slaves from Angola escaped, broke into a general store and armed themselves– Then killed about 24 white

planters and burnt their plantations

• Tried to escape to Florida– Number had grown to over 100– But caught by planter

vigilantes and most were slaughtered

• Survivors tortured to death

CONCLUSION

• In the wake of Stono Rebellion, South Carolina enacted even more repressive slave laws– But occasional small and

isolated slave revolts continued to erupt all the way to the Civil War

• Although some planters would later claim that slaves were happy under their benevolent rule, these revolts and unceasing efforts by planters to enforce black subordination and white supremacy indicate that, in their hearts, they really knew better