This graph highlights the fact that blacks remained rare in the Chesapeake prior to the 1660s. While the number of blacks increased steadily over the decades, this region’s black population nevertheless grew more slowly than its white population throughout most of the 17th century

Slavery in the Chesapeake Tobacco revived the colony and created a new market for labor The early years of the colony, white servitude, rather than black or Indian slavery predominated in Virginia Enslaved Africans moved from slavery to freedom easily than they would in later generations Enslaved black women & the system of chattel slavery The legal status of slave women’s children - case of Elizabeth Key

This map shows the distribution of blacks and whites in British North America in 1680 and 1740

The Expansion of Slavery In the early 18th century, slavery began to extend further west and south into frontier colonies Between 1717 and 1731, thousands of slaves were imported into the Mississippi valley Africans in French Louisiana and the Code Noir “Black Code” Africans in Spanish Florida and Catholic conversion of refugees The Stono Rebellion (1739) – slave uprising and the aftermath

Slaves & Free Blacks in the Colonies In the period of 1740 to 1750s, slaves shipped from Africa increased greatly Most of the newcomers ended up in the southern colonies but also their numbers increased in the North Enslaved labor expanded into new occupational sectors in the North As slavery expanded in the 18th century America, black freedom contracted

Shaping an African American Culture The increase of African slaves to the colonies transformed African American communities greatly Early black organization – African Lodge No. 1, a black Masonic lodge founded in 1776 Negro Election Day – combined the Puritan tradition of an election day holiday with African rituals of festive role reversals African-influenced funeral ceremonies Conjures – “root doctors” also known as “Negro doctors”

The Slaves Great Awakening Afro-Christianity inspired by the Great Awakening, a wave of religious revivals that began in New England in the mid-1730s New Lights welcomed black and Indian congregants since they stressed that faith was open to all Phillis Wheatley – African female slave who could read and write known for her poetry on freedom Slave preachers and the “invisible institution”

Phillis Wheatley began writing poetry in her teens, publishing her first book of poems in London when she was 21 years old Her work Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral won her a following among British antislavery activists and also helped her win her own freedom