1. Slavery in the Atlantic World

2. Slavery in the Early Colonial Period
More fluid, less oppressive
“Degrees of unfreedom”
African slaves already part of the Atlantic world
Labor shortage in the colonies
Young societies

3. African Slaves Already Part of Atlantic World
Came from Caribbean sugar plantations, or were pirates or military men
Were familiar with European languages, religions, trade networks, etc.
Creole societies

4. Labor Shortage in the Colonies
No strict division of labor or wealth. Everybody, free or slave, had to labor.

5. Young Societies No set hierarchy or staple crops (pre-1620s)
Laborers had more time to labor for themselves and their families
Community life $$
Creole societies
Interracial mingling among laboring classes

6. New World Slavery Created by growth of world markets
Sugar, tobacco, coffee, rice, chocolate, dyes (indigo), rice, hemp, cotton.
Stimulated domestic (English) job market
Stimulated economies of colonies, North and South
Justified by religion and classicism, tradition
Cain, Ham
Rome, Greece, Aristotle
White slaves in Europe, African slaves in North Africa and Middle East.

7. The Slave Trade in Africa
Factories
The Middle Passage
Creoles
Were familiar with European languages, religions, trade networks, etc.

8. Sugar Societies Majority black Methods of control
Brutality, coercion
Negotiations rather than outright freedom

9. The Chesapeake system
Rough equality between creole slaves and white indentured servants.
Trade networks
Creole societies
Anthony Johnson, 1621
The Plantation period
The rise of the “master” class
Africanization
An increasingly cruel system
African Americans

10. The Carolinas Creole stage very brief in South Carolina Militiamen
Cowboys
Trade networks
Running away
Maroonage
St. Augustine/Mose
Stono Rebellion

11. Louisiana French colony, not flourishing Importation of slaves
Maroon societies
Planters’ response
Natchez Revolt
Militiamen
Slave system weakens
Placees and Placage
Spanish rule

12. Northern Slavery 1770 statistics
CT 5700; VT 25; MA 4750; NJ 10,460; NY 19,060.
Occupations: farming, stock-raising, tanning, salt works, iron working, building roads, clearing land, herding, carpentry, shoemaking, blacksmithing, stoneworking, butchering, milling, weaving, goldsmithing, working on the docks, piloting boats.

13. Uprisings 1712 and 1741, New York Harsher Northern system
More Africans, fewer West Indies slaves
Harsher Northern system
Beginnings of free labor ideology

14. Slavery and the Revolution
Military service
General confusion and dislocation
Northern slavery
Gradual emancipation
Elizabeth Freedman (Mum Bett), 1791
Upper South
Diversification and greater control
Lower South
Caught between Patriots and Loyalists; slavery increases; cotton.

15. Black Americans and an Inverse Story of Freedom
White freedom built on black slavery
Shift from distinctions based on class and religion to race
Beginnings of modern racist thought
Indians, North Africans, Sub-Saharan Africans, Asians = not white, inferior
European, working class, upper class, educated, uneducated, male, female = white, superior