Chapter 4

The Beginnings of African Slavery

Sugar and Slavery
Portuguese used slaves in Madera
Columbus had slaves in his colonies
Slave in Brazil
Model for efficiency
Dutch expanded sugar market = more slaves
British in Jamaica
French in Martinique
West Africans
Local community was important to blacks
Women had economic independence
Burned wild land to farm
Big population-Timbuktu
Slavery in Africa
More benevolent form of slavery
Incorporated into the family
Slave children were born free
The Demography of the Slave Trade
10 million slaves
Males were favored
Wanted young slaves
Slavers came from all countries in Europe
Actual raiders were black
The Middle Passage
Forts in Africa
Horrible ships
Arrival in the New World
Doctored up to look good so they would be sold
Political Effects in Africa
Losses of people = no more money in Africa
Slavery comes to North America
Indentured Servants were cheaper
However Europeans began to find out that they could become free in other
colonies (Pennsylvania)
Virginia Slave Code
Can kill slaves
No freedom for slave children
Baptism doesn't matter
The Tobacco Colonies
The South soon became the tobacco colonies
Better conditions that the rest of North America
Lost of food
Slaves weren't killed because they were more useful alive and making more slaves
The Lower South
South Carolina
Started the FNP slave trade
Shipped FNP to other colonies to prevent rebellion
Rice and Indigo were grown
Both needed slaves and were very profitable

Georgia
Slavery was illegal but that was abandoned
Extension of the South Carolina system
Slavery in the Spanish colonies
Florida offered freedom to any escaped British slave
Escaped slaves had to help defend Florida and convert to Christianity
New Mexico used FNP slaves
French Louisiana
New Orleans
Defended the Mississippi
Not many slaves
Slavery in the North
Few but not concentrated
Quakers were the first to oppose slavery
Slaves gangs herded cattle
The Daily Life of Slaves
Creole-American born slaves
Slaves became specialized as plantations grew
Diet was sufficient
Families and Communities
Whites banned legal marriage of slaves
Family was important
Marriage was common but not legal
Community family
Afro-American Culture
Ethnic groups became one
Masters didn't want slaves to convert or they'd be equals
Own burial ceremonies (secret)
Music
The Africanization of the South
Black "doctors'
Whites became black
Black cooking
Black nurses taught children how to talk
Banjos
Violence
Slavery was based on fear
Escape among young males
Fugitive communities in swamps
Well fed and low survival rates in swamps = no revolts
Slavery and Empire
South had plantations and little industrialization
Slavery was big in the Empire
South took 95% of the exports
Slavery made British Empire a success
South crops were valuable
Empire was built on slaver
Merchant navy depended on slavery
The Politics of Mercantilism
All trade for Britain was made by Britain
Based on slavery
Wars for the Empire
King William's War, France vs. Britain

Queen Anne's War

Georgia invades Florida and destroys St. Augustine
Spanish bombard Charleston
Brits win = exclusive slavery rights to Spanish America
France lost Acadia and Newfoundland
War of Jenkin's Ear
British try to eradicate the Spanish colonies
Georgia invades Florida and Spain invades Georgia = both lose
King George's War
England battled France
France attacked border New York and New England
War ends in stalemate, and pre war borders are recognized
British Colonial Regulation
Casa de Contraction, HBC, Royal African Company
Navigation Acts
However any acts that hurt business were ignored by authorities
The Colonial Economy
Protected economy due to mercantilism
American were rich and had a huge merchant navy
Intercolonial trade boomed
South made the exports while the North shipped it
Social Structures of the Slave Colonies
Few wealthy planters = aristocracy
Large middle class
White Skin privilege
Virginia sponsored racism
Penalty for sexual relationships (does not apply to white man and women though)
Slaves inherited mother's status
Mulattos were no better than slaves