Transcript for:
Origins and Evolution of American Slavery

so this week's lecture is on the origins of american slavery uh so this lecture is going to be quite long so this will be your only one for the week just this one lecture here uh but of course this is a very difficult topic very sensitive topic so please i know that this information may be upsetting but please do try and keep through kind of stick with it um if you need to kind of watch a little bit at a time uh then then please do so but of course the the best way to learn about the difficulties of slavery uh is not to just gloss over it but to definitely go in depth uh in an analysis uh so uh just to kind of give you a heads up a a fair warning i guess if you will uh so we're going to talk about the development of slavery in the age of exploration uh as well as the uh history of native american slavery and how that comes into play uh with slavery in the colonies then we'll we will talk about the triangular trade system as well as the middle passage and then we will talk about how specifically within the 13 colonies the english colonies how there was a transition to race-based slavery and how that system developed and grew over time and the development is of course through slave code since we're going to talk about those and then of course we're going to talk about you know even though african americans and africans were victims that did not mean that they didn't have the ability to act the ability to make decisions so we're going to talk about the decisions they made which helped to create their own culture as well as various forms of resistance uh including some uh the most famous being the stoner rebellion so to move on to our first topic talking about slavery in the age of exploration uh so of course chattel slavery using humans as slaves is as old as human history it is very ancient practice goes back very far in fact it's been practiced by some of what we would consider the most intelligent and supposedly civilized societies uh the egyptians the greeks the romans uh even latin christians enslaved pagans slavs in the slavic regions which is actually where the word slave comes from however the enslavement of africans far outstrips what happened to any other culture society or group of course the connections that would bind black captives to the western hemisphere plantation slavery that emerges was definitely completely different than anything that the world had experienced and of course this was supposedly done by its quote-unquote advanced societies uh all for the enjoyment of wealth and luxury through cash crops there's also going to be a shift as we will talk about from enslavement as a result of warfare to um that that we had seen and not only native american cultures but in african cultures as well to slavery as an economic enterprise and the western world western culture and society becomes completely dependent on it they need it they want it they have to have it now slavery did not initially define all relations between africans and europeans in fact during the 14 and 1500s guests from various black african kingdoms were received by european monarchs in fact most west africans were agriculturalists and they lived in villages headed by royal families europeans divided western africa into two larger territories uh upper guinea and lower guinea and they did engage with africans in oceanic trade importing various crafted goods in exchange for rice sugar and other goods including other slaves in fact portuguese nobility was even intermarrying with various leaders of these african kingdoms so mixing races was not taboo at this time uh so of course various countries are trying to establish ports in africa uh and much like the colonies that would develop in the new world uh european men at these ports would take african women as wives and mistresses just as they were doing with native american women in the in the new world and their offspring not only increased the population of the port cities and the port towns but it also again created a new mixed race group they often refer to as creole or mulatto is another term that you will hear for a person who has mixed a white parent or one white parent one black parent and a lot of these creole or mulatto people were actually looked down upon by both whites and africans in these african port towns uh but they still were able to rise above and become affluent members of society now in the early years of the slave trade uh the portuguese really would be the main exporters and sellers of africans uh if you remember the the english the dutch and the french everyone's kind of behind everyone's kind of lagging the spanish definitely have capitalization of trade from the new world but if you remember uh shortly after columbus the pope made a line splitting the world in half saying okay spain you get everything in the west and portugal you have rights to everything in the east well that included the african slave trade uh so the portuguese viewed the slave trade in africa as one of the main ways that they could compete with spain with their growing empire from what they were getting out of north america so the portuguese established slave ports along the coast of west africa and they actually worked with local africans to purchase slaves very similar to native american culture various african groups and cultures practice slavery from capturing enemies unlike native american culture however adoption was not necessarily a feature a lot of these individuals often remained the lowest members of their society within their own class systems they could rise up and overcome and eventually gain freedom they did have servants so there was a little bit more mobility than what develops with slavery later on this type of slavery is of course very different than than the one that we see created the african slave traders did not trust the portuguese and they actually did not allow them to go further inland that's why the portuguese had to build settlements along the coast is because they weren't allowed to go inland the the african slave traders did not want the portuguese to know essentially where they were getting their supply from now uh many of these first slaves sold to the portuguese were captives of war uh this is how both africans and portuguese justified the slave sales you know these are enemies of war these are it's okay it's it's acceptable uh but because of cultural different differences the african slave traders really had no idea how terrible these slaves would be treated and neither the portuguese nor the africans had any idea how slavery would expand and develop and turn into a global enterprise this was just one nation trading with a bunch of local slave traders so so it wasn't the massive business enterprise that it became that they didn't realize how that this was just the tip of the iceberg and everything would really explode from there now of course as the years move on the dutch really take over as the main purveyors the main continuers of the slave trade slaves continue to be sold by african traders from central africa all the way to the west coast which is also referred to as the gold coast that's where the money is coming in from the slave trade so that's where the name comes from the gold coast the dutch east india company is definitely leading uh the uh trade of slaves and uh if you remember those images that you saw from just how wealthy the dutch east india company was you know it was a 7.9 trillion dollar company well a huge portion of that wealth came from the slave trade just because it was so lucrative that was one of the main commodities that made the money that's why the dutch east india company was so wealthy but of course there are other companies involved in the trade the dutch are just the number one exporters but there are of course various french english uh even the portuguese are still trying to get involved so there's so there still is some of it occurring uh but definitely the dutch and specifically the dutch east india company is number one now although initially african traders sold enemies of war as the demand for slaves by european increased the slave traders began to increase their captives by raiding villages and simply kidnapping people for the purpose of slavery so that demand for slaves pushes them to actually go out and and seek people instead of just waiting for victims of war or enemies of battle to be captured also europeans begin to venture into central africa themselves they don't want to wait for the slave traders to bring people to them they want to cut out the middleman make a higher profit because if they capture them themselves they don't have to pay the traders for the slaves that they've captured by the time that slavery is established in the colonies which is about 1620 and onwards slavery is already a business for many many nations the english however had difficulty incorporating slavery into their colonial culture society economics and such the english had not really been involved in a slave system before this the closest thing the english had to slavery was the feudalism system of the middle ages as well as indentured servitude but even then those are just nowhere near the same as permanent lifetime slavery however the standards for slavery as a business are set forth by other nations and other countries and many of the race-based aspects of slavery were starting to come forth and starting to express themselves so england would definitely incorporate a lot of these ideas from other nations and then i'll kind of explain that in a little bit when we talk about the transition to race-based slavery now an important point to note is as we have discussed slavery was practiced in many native american cultures and many native american people especially in south america and the caribbean had been captured as slaves by europeans specifically by the spanish because they were the main occupiers of that land and territory but this same practice was occurring in the north american colonies as well it was just not as large scale as was going on in south america many native american people from new england and from the middle colonies that were captured were often sold down to the caribbean now in the south there was purchasing of captive native americans as well if you remember specifically the tuscarora war was a war fought with people that were tired of being captured and sold into slavery uh but the the tuscarora and the yamasee war which followed uh demonstrate that there are some serious conflicts that are caused by having native americans as slaves in the south uh not only is it literal conflicts as warfare because these people are sick and tired of it so they fight back but there are some other issues with having native americans as slaves uh first off it's too easy for them to to rise up and to fight back uh they have allies everywhere even if you know they may not have been the best of friends with another group they may see the the slavery and the system as being very unjust and so native americans who normally would sit back and not do anything decide to rise up and help out their brothers also they can escape very very easily they were born here they've walked the land they know it they are very aware of their surroundings that's why a lot of them would be sold to the caribbean it's harder to escape from the caribbean if you've never been there never seen it also a lot of native american people have actually converted they have adopted english culture english language english clothing and such so it's very hard for the english to justify enslaving them if they are behaving so similarly to colonists it just doesn't look right it doesn't you know appear correct to them native american slaves are also not sustainable as an economic source many of them have died from disease uh also war has created population decreases as well so many of them also migrate westward because they just want to get away from europeans they don't want to deal with them so there's just not as many native americans that are there for purchasing and acquiring in as a slaved individual of course as dependence on plantations increases the need for individuals to work the plantations increase and the lead for labor is increased so the english decide to go to the dutch for a solution or actually the dutch come to the english as we will talk about but before we get into that i do want to talk about the triangular trade system because slavery was an integral part of that trading triangular trade is a term that is used by historians it's not a term that would have been used at the time but it reflects the patterns of trade and the colonial world during the height of trade import and exportation so i'm going to go to the next slide here but i'll come back to this one uh but triangular trade as you can see uh we're gonna start let me grab my pen here all right so we have finished goods manufactured goods from europe such as things like textiles guns furniture even ships housewares food items things like coffee things like tea they come from europe and they are sold to africa and then the africans import they purchase and acquire these goods and then they sell and export their slaves to the colonies now this map has a little triangle or the the arrow is pointing to the 13 colonies but slaves are being sold throughout the region of course the 13 colonies central and south america the caribbean islands slaves are all throughout the americas so it's not just to the 13 colonies as we'll discuss in a moment uh and then of course various colonies import the slaves they purchase them and then they will export raw materials so they will send the the baseline for the goods that things like cotton lumber sugar cane coffee beans and cocoa beans so then those those products are manufactured and finished and finalized to be then sold to africa again for slaves which are then sold to the colonies which are then sold for raw materials so you can see that this is where the triangle comes in here now these products um or although the this seems like a like a circle like a round there is a lot of money to be made every single time something is imported for a low price it is then sold for a higher price so then something is imported for a lower price sold for a higher price so every time you have a sale being made you're making a huge amount of money so a lot of money is being made from this again think of the dutch east india company they are heavily heavily involved in this triangular trade system so it is very profitable and a lot of nations have strict adherence to ensure its success for example the english had the navigation acts they have anti-smuggling policies there's this is also why pirates raid the caribbean so much is because there's a lot of good stuff coming in this area a lot of good stuff coming in and a lot of good stuff going out so that's why there's a lot of piracy in this region because there's there's a lot of trade routes there's a lot of money to be made now the middle passage uh is another historical terms that historians use and that refers specifically to this portion of the triangular trade specifically the trip from africa to north america so i'm going to go back to my other slide here so the middle passage is estimated that anywhere it's really hard to make these estimates because there's a lack of historical record and there were just so many various ships and companies and and nations that were involved in the slave trade so we do know that most of the slave ships actually sold slaves to brazil and the caribbean and the most recent estimates show that about 12 million people made the forced migration to the new world with about 1.5 million dying along the middle passage believe it or not only five to seven percent of african slaves came to north america of course that sounds like a very small percentage but when you do the math on this this means about uh the numbers that you see here 500 25 hundred thousand to seven hundred thirty five hundred thousand people were coming to the thirteen colonies uh now the port of charleston is actually we're going to be where a majority of these slaves come in uh of course other major port cities new york boston places like that but definitely a good portion of them come through charleston now as the slave trade became professionalized and people were treated of course like chattel they were a product they were a commodity so the conditions aboard the slave ships were terrible in fact the image that you see uh to the side here is actually a kind of a how-to for a slave ship showing you how to basically stack people in to make sure you get the most space out of your your vessel here in most cases many people were not allowed to even get up or move around they would often be shackled one person to another they had to lay in their own excrement their urine their puke and it was very disease ridden because of these conditions in fact many slaves chose suicide over the cruelty of the middle passage as was previously mentioned it was estimated that 1.5 million people died on the voyage because of the terrible conditions and illnesses or because of suicide many more would actually die after they arrived to their destination because they were forced to work but were in such terrible health from the middle passage now the dead were simply just tossed overboard there is a myth that developed that people would or that the slave traders would throw living people who were chained to the dead overboard as well because they just didn't care uh this is not quite true of course they would take time to unshackle and unchain and remove the deceased only throwing the deceased person overboard and keeping the living person aboard but this is not because they care this is not because you know they're worried uh this is because this is a commodity they are a product you don't want to get rid of a good viable product as as crass and terrible as that may sound now slaves would also rebel during the middle passage through mutinies and attempt to take over the ship but this was rarely successful it was just very hard if you think a lot of these people are sick and ill it's very hard for them to fight back against people who are not in the same position pirates would also capture slave vessels and sometimes they would actually allow the slaves to join the crew but more often they would actually sell them because again this is a commodity it's money over humanity over goodness so an interesting aspect of life on the middle passage is actually concerns the sailors that were aboard the ships the greed and savage nature nature of the slave ship captains did not stop with enslaved individuals although free many of the sailors who worked aboard these ships were treated very very harshly and they were denied housing below deck and they had to basically sleep aboard ship at all times disease was very rampant for the the sailors as well and many of them were actually cheated out of their wages they got paid terrible terrible wages now around 20 percent of sailors aboard slave vessels died but this is compared to the 15 of slaves who died so if you were born a slave ship you were more likely to die as one of the sailors than you were as one of the enslaved individuals many sailors grew to hate slave ships and avoided them at all cost of course their motives may be different they may have disliked the diseases the wages and some of them didn't like the inhumanity that they saw in slavery it was very difficult for slave ship owners to get people to work aboard their vessels and this of course is a good problem to have for people nowadays we see that you know we're glad that people wouldn't work on slave vessels but it definitely made it harder for them to get people to work on their ships now the violence and degradation that a lot of these sailors saw actually turn them away from the slave trade entirely there's actually a really excellent example of this a man named john newton who you see pictured to the top left there newton had worked aboard a slave ship in his youth and he actually worked his way all the way up to captain he experienced a reconversion in his life to christianity and completely denounced the slave trade he became a member of the clergy for the anglican church and this is where he wrote the very famous hymn amazing grace if you remember the words as i was lost and now i'm found i was blind and now i see it's his position on slavery this hymn became a song of hope for many enslaved africans and abolitionists alike he published a first-hand account of the terrors of the middle passage and worked with the parliament in england as well as an abolitionist by the name of william wilberforce to finally illegalize the slave trade in 1807. uh this strong of a turnaround was not common for most slave sailors and captains um most of them just avoided the slave trade avoided the ships but were still participants in the slave system somehow but we will see examples of people who witnessed the horrors of slavery firsthand and turned to abolition a lot more in the american antebellum era now one man who was another amazing voice for slaves during this time was olaudah equiano and you see a picture of him to the top right although much of his work was in england his words definitely struck a chord with many people living in the american colonies in fact the excerpt that you're going to read for your discussion board post one of them is equiano's writings now after uh in order to really illustrate the horrors of slavery after his freedom he decided to write a slave narrative it was the first narrative of its kind uh if you think about it there would probably be no narrative in the life of frederick douglass if there had not been the interesting narrative of the life of olaudah equiano so no one had really thought to write a narrative about a slave's life and more importantly the the slave himself or the freed slave had written it to express just how terrible it was uh so in his account equiana writes that he was born in africa near the modern day region of nigeria and as the son of village elder he actually had quite a bit of status and prominence in his local community he and his sister were unfortunately captured by an enemy african tribe and sold off to another tribe it's at this time that he and his sister are separated uh then equiano explains how african slavery worked and how it is very different than the european ideals of slavery it helped to show the differences and the illogical nature that you know because africans enslave each other it's okay if you know europeans enslave them he demonstrates that that's not logical because these slave systems are two totally different systems now eventually he meets his sister one last time before he has sold off to slave traders he then discusses how he was brought aboard a slave ship and the first time he met white men uh and it's definitely that's what you're going to read is is that account of seeing a slave ship seeing white men uh and it's it's definitely a very interesting uh perspective to read and he was a child when this happened so keep that in mind when you read that uh he goes on to of course detail the horrors of the middle passage and explaining much of what we had discussed specifically how many slaves would rather die than stay aboard the slave ship he also explained just how cruel the captains were uh to members of the crew again demonstrating that slavery it hurts everyone not just africans and as a child specifically he just could not understand how such evil could exist in the world his narrative went on to discuss of course the cruelty of the slave system in the caribbean in fact working the sugar cane that was coming out of the caribbean and the processing of it was far worse than doing plantation crop work in south carolina in fact for a lot of people working in the caribbean was a death sentence it was very difficult very hard work and a lot of people died as a result uh it's in south carolina or not south carolina excuse me it's in the caribbean uh that ekwano is given a new name he is named gustavus vassas or vasa and that's the name that he has given but of course he prefers to go by his his birth name uh and he eventually makes his way up to virginia and then on to england and it's in england that he's able to save up enough money to buy his freedom his story is of course full of a lot of emotion as well as being very logical very well written it's highly religious as well he converts to christianity uh and the inclusion of christianity and the incompatibility of that and slavery is also an aspect his narrative was an instant bestseller in england uh as well as the english colonies the thirteen colonies uh and even the us by the time it comes out it's the united states um although most of the events that happened in his life were during the colonial era by the time the book was published it was just right after the revolution uh so it was heralded by abolitionists and anti-slave traders as you know an amazing work an enlightening piece believe it or not people could be anti-slave trade but not abolitionist basically people wanted to end the slave trade but they didn't want to end slavery altogether thomas jefferson is an example of this and we'll talk more about that of course later on but opponents to the work claimed that um aguiano was not even born in africa he made the story up uh he was actually just you know born in the caribbean and he listened to a bunch of lies that these african slaves told him and that you know it's all made up it's all you know bogus basically uh he didn't even write it himself you know it was probably written by an abolitionist there's no way an african could write something like this so that was during his own time things that people said about him modern historians have actually even gotten into the debate about his narrative there is some historical evidence which indicates that eccleano may have actually been born in the carolinas these historians argue that he probably learned of the middle passage from those who actually took it and then just compiled their stories together but he called it his own so that they could have a face to the tale it would it would have been more important and more effective to have an african telling this story as opposed to an african american who had not witnessed the events however there are other historians who argue that his knowledge of his home culture called the e-boy it's e-b-o-e it's far too vast and accurate to have heard it second hand also his description of the middle passage itself is is far too detailed to not have seen it himself in fact they argued that his old masters wanted to make it look as if he was american-born after he rose to fame they could negate his story if they could basically prove that he was a liar also equiana was extremely intelligent he taught himself to read taught himself to learn english of course and he learned english so well that he didn't even have an accent and so for many european people and many english people in their minds africans were not that intelligent they they were not that smart so if they could alter his record to make it look like he was african-american having you know some sort of influence of white heritage white culture then it could make it okay for him to be smart enough to write a book because that's basically that's the white side of him that's able to do that as as terrible as that sounds uh but of course regardless of what uh historians say uh the contemporaries of ecualliano uh his work was of course instrumental in the illegalization of the slave trade in england he worked with newton as well as wilberforce to outlaw the slave trade in england in and in fact america would do the same uh er would also outlaw slavery the same year now the idea of a slave narrative again a first-hand account written by someone who had lived the life of the slave was definitely an impactful idea and one which eventually spread to america especially with the growth of the abolition movement basically how did race-based slavery really become something in america in in the colonies how did it really go from you know the english culture didn't have any slave systems at all to one which was an integral part of colonial history well as far as the 13 colonies goes the first record of enslaved individuals arriving comes from a jamestown record in august of 1619 and it was written by none other than john rolfe the famous tobacco farmer and husband of matawaka or pocahontas uh he explains that a dutch ship came to town to trade goods and sold off quote 20 nagar's n-e-g-a-r-s is what he writes down in his record uh so historians believe that that was the first slaves that were sold in the area now as we had discussed the english had very little familiarity with a system of slavery but they did have the system of indentured servitude so initially the first africans to the colonies were treated as indentured servants and if you remember an indentured servant is basically someone who is you know someone will pay their way across the seas to the new world and then they will work for a set amount of years before they are freed and given their own land uh so in a similar fashion someone would per would have purchased these slaves they would have worked for a while and then they would have been freed uh just like their white counterparts uh the slave trade was not in full swing so africans were gradually coming to the colonies not in as many numbers as they would be later on uh very similar to whites who were coming over as part of their indentures and you know various religious migrations however there are examples of subtle racial prejudice for example an indenture for a white person is only seven years whereas for a black person it was ten so there are hints that there is racism that exists uh but it's not the system of slavery entirely based on race so at first whites and blacks actually work side by side to satisfy the term of their indentures after they fill their indenture they work the number of years they have to blacks and whites alike become indefend independent farmers property owners and employers in fact one example of this is a man by the name of quote antonio the negro that was his name on record he eventually became called anthony johnson he lived in virginia and he was able to gain autonomy property wealth and legal rights and some accounts actually argue that he was one of the first slaves that arrived at jamestown in 1619. other historians believe that he didn't get there until about two years later but we do know for a fact that he was in jamestown by march 22 1622 because his name was recorded concerning a native american attack he was indentured at the time to the bennett family of jamestown and so that's where his name shows up into the record his record does show that he had a longer indenture than was typical for whites of the time again suggesting early on racism now anthony johnson eventually completed his indenture and married a woman by the name of mary they had multiple children and we know for a fact that his sons did quite well financially so not only did he gain his own wealth and prominence but was able to pass that on to his sons by 1640 he and his family live on a 200 acre property by the eastern shore of the chesapeake he was growing tobacco and even bought the indentures of both white and black workers alike again this is not a strictly race based system now in early 1650 one of his black indentures a man by the name of john caesar ran away from johnson claiming that he was abusive caesar sought asylum with a white planter a friend by the name of robert parker who refused to return caesar back to johnson so johnson takes parker to court uh you know you're holding my property this is illegal you're basically you're stealing my stuff the court rules that caesar has to be returned to anthony johnson and caesar's punishment for running away is servitude for his natural life this is one of the first records we see of a legal case determining that a person can be a servant for life lifelong servitude some historians argue that this means the first slave owner in america was in fact an african man but this may not be the case uh specifically you know the question is why would the court make this you know jurisdiction why would they say that this is the law if it hadn't already been done before in fact there is a record which refers to a case that happened beforehand by of another man by the name of john punch but we don't have the original record it's just a reference to an earlier record so we don't know for sure but but either way this demonstrates that of course despite some of the racial prejudices that existed at first slavery in the colonies was number one not a fixed system the english were unfamiliar with slavery so they were slowly adjusting it and tweaking it to their needs uh number two slavery was not entirely dependent on race uh and that's gonna be something that changes though and the real question that historians pose is why does it change why not keep it the way it was why go from an indenture to slavery uh well there's quite a few reasons and we're going to get into those details right now so we learned in earlier lectures that both the middle colonies and the southern colonies developed of course plantations there was slavery in all of the colonies but by far the south was much more dependent on plantations on cash crops than any other regions they had enslaved native americans from wars and battles but the fallout of the tuscarora and then the yamasi wars um made it basically ended the slave trade they made it non-existent uh they needed to the people of this the south needed to switch to a new system if they wanted to continue to thrive with the plantation system uh this also coincided with an increase in the triangular trade and more importantly the trans-atlantic slave trade there was a high demand and a high supply for laborers so if you go back to you know the laws of supply and demand uh there's a high demand of slaves but there's also a high supply of them coming out of africa so that this means that slaves are actually going to be pretty cheap right off the bat there's definitely a huge influx to fulfill this demand so people can afford it now as the economy of the colonies begins to grow and triangular trade becomes more fully developed virtually all plantation owners merchants businessmen anyone who wants to make money recognizes the merits of a slave system as opposed to one of an indenture why is that though well a couple of reasons and you'll see that these are listed here uh so this is basically compare and contrast indenture to slavery so number one it is more cost effective although an indentured servant is cheaper it's much cheaper to pay for an indenture than for a slave you only have them for seven to ten years uh for just a bit more money you can have a worker for the span of the entire slaves life so your investment is one which lasts more time and in line with that cost-effectiveness it is a self-sustaining system slaves will reproduce they will have children and so because of that those children will become your slaves as well so this is much more self-sustaining unlike indenture once those people are free you have no more legal claim on them or on their children also point number two it concerns land bringing in indentured servants means you have to share land and resources with them once they are free that's actually part of the indenture is to give them land and resources so they can kind of get started if the worker is never freed you don't have to worry about that land use is of course a growing issue it's an issue with native american people so it's going to be an issue with indentures as well uh in the early colonial days the conditions for indentured servants were actually quite terrible they did the worst the hardest the dirtiest jobs in the worst conditions a majority of these indentured servants died before they could even complete their contract however as the standard of living in the colony increases indentured servants are living longer and most of them complete the service of their indenture they work the amount of time that they have to so this is going to be a problem for many of the upper class plantation owners who want to keep themselves on top basically we have too many people that are living long enough that we have to give land to so this is another motivation for a permanent slave system and if you remember bacon's rebellion was also made up of people who had come to virginia as part of an indentured servitude uh and their contracts were either currently under indenture or they had just been freed from their indenture uh so these indentured servants are causing problems in virginia specifically they're they're not you know they're not making things easy for the wealthy uh also um an interesting factor here actually comes with immunities many africans were actually immune to various diseases that were killing off whites these diseases were actually transported as part of the atlantic slave trade so because they originated in africa the people of africa were much more resilient to them uh so uh they were viewed as africans viewed as you know better often more resilient to diseases because of this so uh in general they're they're much just much better as you know a quote-unquote product now another one is is again this this idea of the creation of superiority africans and blacks are easy to define as different with indentured servants you look at them you don't know for sure are they indentured are they not i don't know but if you look at an african you know that they're not european so the probability of them being a slave is pretty high at least this is the idea initially there was also justification because many of them were non-christians and so this created a system to keep christianity on top european culture on top and then eventually white skin on the top creating a class system creating superiority this class system is also going to be accepted by lower class whites even though they're not the plantation owners they're not the incredibly wealthy they have someone who is lower than them they're not at the bottom they're not the the ones that are at the worst of society uh they can feel superior to somebody they can have more rights than someone else they can be on top in their own way they're not at the very top but they're not at the very bottom either so the wealthy hope to appease the poor by keeping this slave system in place so this really works to create a cyclical behavior of racism and slavery so the real question it's kind of you know the chicken or the egg question which came first the chicken or the egg well for historians the question is which came first did racism create slavery or did slavery create racism the simple answer is historians don't know they still discuss and debate and argue a lot of people have varying perspectives but it is certain that the slavery system did create a cycle that reinforced racist ideas and attitudes over the generations so basically parents teach their children children teach their children and that cycle of prejudice based on race based on slaves is very prevalent in southern culture now over the years slave codes and slave laws actually begin to develop to go with this system that is slowly being established to restrict the rights of africans and african americans again kind of forcing them into the slave system one of the most impactful slave codes is one that was established in all colonies this was everywhere it was the condition of the mother or the status of the mother so basically when a child was born it inherited its free or slave status from the mother in regards to what her status was so if if the mother was free the child was free if the mother was a slave the child was a slave this is going to be one of the most important slave codes simply because of how it justifies a lot of the assault the rape the the mistresses of white plantation owners because masters could basically impregnate their female slaves to give themselves more slaves and this became this was not a huge practice in the colonial era it did happen absolutely definitely uh but especially during the antebellum era this is going to be a very common thing in fact there was a slogan during the antebellum era that everybody on the plantation knew who the master's kid was except for the master because he refused to acknowledge who his child was uh because of you know what he did so it's definitely going to be a huge factor in uh slavery and specifically the effects that it has on on female slaves so this is just a really quick chart on or not a chart more of a list of the evolution of slave codes and vergia you do not need to write all of these things down this is just an outline to kind of show you how these codes develop and change over time so you'll see here that in you know 1639 1640 the general assembly just excludes blacks from the requirement of gun ownership so so they're not allowed to have guns that's it and then we have the anthony johnson case which determines that a person can in fact face servitude for life and then in 1662 is where the status of the mother slave code comes into play here uh so a child is either free or dependent or excuse me free or slave dependent on the condition of their mother and then of course things start to change a little bit more baptism does not bring freedoms to blacks free blacks although baptized cannot buy christian servants so if anthony johnson had been freed in 1670 he would not have been able to acquire white or black indentured servants 1680 the assembly restricts the gathering of blacks and in 1691 any white person who is married to a african or african american or mulatto which is someone who like i said again has a white or a black uh one parent is white one parent is black uh is banished from virginia you're not even allowed to stay in virginia anymore and then in 1692 slaves are denied the right to a trial by jury and then in 1705 everyone is if you are black mixed you are deemed property so you can see how it's just gradual over time until it becomes a very strict very rigid system in 1705. so talking about specifically about these enslaved people themselves of course they were in a system that met was meant to keep them down that was meant to keep them in a certain place uh that it restricted their freedoms their liberties uh they still were able to express agency agency is basically the ability to act so even though a person is enslaved they still have agency and and as the system of slavery developed of course a unique slave culture developed as part of this agency that they had and now the nature of slavery created a society that was generally segregated so whites and blacks did not mix a lot and but slaves created their own traditions often blending african and european concepts religion was one of the ways that people blended african and european tradition together various pagan african religions were blended with christianity much in the same way that indians of central and south america had done and held on to their their own culture the creation of voodoo and hudu for example were traditions uh based that have their roots in african religion uh various oral stories from the homeland are incorporated into religious practices and traditions uh specifically the presence of spirits was very prominent in africa and those ideas were brought over to the colonies that there are you know random spirits that are you know out there to help you whether good or bad you know trickster spirits and things like that uh there's also a very strong belief that develops in um a belief and a reverence for the moses of pr the prophet moses uh of course as a biblical figure he led his people to freedom one day you know we will have our own exodus we'll have our own moses we'll be freed as well so there's a strong reverence for moses for a lot of african slaves also african medicine is very very prominent in fact various homeopathic remedies were quite effective and many african and african-american slaves were well known in their local communities for being excellent healers uh sometimes they were more trusted than the white doctors whites would even come to them for medical aid because they knew that they were the best in town also just various things like you know basket weaving rug making cloth and textiles would include a blend of african and european traditions various foods were also incorporated certain cooking styles you know things like peanuts spicy rice dishes okra watermelon and other various foods are cooked in an african style a lot of times it's much spicier than the europeans we're used to english cooking is pretty bland a lot of what we would consider soul food today fried chicken gumbo jambalaya spicy rice is based on cooking styles that were created by slaves you know african traditions that were mixed with european ones uh the language also used by africans was not so much a blend as much as it as it was transitioning african phrases into the english language so english people were using words that were actually african words uh some some examples of this include words like banjo okra jambalaya mojo mumbo jumbo [ __ ] goober gumbo banana a lot of these words have their roots in african languages or they are african words in fact on the topic of language it's a little bit of a digression but still important to talk about here there's an interesting case of a girl named phyllis wheatley in fact you'll also read one of her works for your discussion board post she was born in about 1753 and we aren't quite sure how how old she was but as a young girl she was kidnapped in africa and sold into slavery she was actually named after the boat which took her to the colonies and upon her arrival she was purchased by a merchant by the name of john wheatley his wife susannah and the family's children recognized how intelligent phyllis was and so they encouraged her and then helped teach her how to read and write as well and in about one month she masters the english language and begins to write she also learned learned how to speak latin and greek by the age of 12 she is writing poetry and her writings are actually published in a local newspaper word got around about it that there was an african girl uh that was you know writing these really beautiful poems so some men come together and form a committee to interrogate her to basically say see if she's really writing this in fact one of the members of this committee is john hancock she was actually able to prove the legitimate legitimacy of her work uh by actually writing a poem right in front of them uh proving that she was the one that wrote these works this act uh really indirectly revealed a lot of the hypocrisy of prevailing racist attitudes about of course the intellectual inferiority of africans and specifically african and african-american women she basically just proved them wrong they thought there's no way a woman an african woman could do this but she did right in front of their very eyes she went with the wheatley family to england and had a book published there a collection of her poems and she was actually the first african american to be published shortly after the publication of her books the wheatley's freed her she was actually called in the newspapers and in the media as the african genius is what she was referred to at one point she actually wrote a letter to george washington to which he responded and he expressed the desire to meet her one day unfortunately they did not ever meet she married a free black by the name of john peters who wanted to gain status in many various schemes he he attempted and one of them was to pass off her work as his own he fell into debt and went to prison so she had to work very hard and lived a life of poverty and unfortunately she died at a pretty young age in 1784. so despite her sad ending she was able to as a very young woman able to disprove many of the racist ideas about the intelligent intellect and intelligence of africans african-americans and and specifically african women uh so jumping back into uh various uh aspects of slave culture music is another form of course bringing over traditional african roots instruments like the drums were very common among enslaved people also the invention of the banjo was was by enslaved individuals african folk music which featured a lot of traditional humming rhythmic tunes uh was very common and it was sung to help pass the time occasionally to share messages and warnings and just in general to help ease their suffering so modern music like soul blues jazz bluegrass and country all have their roots in music that was created and sung by slaves in fact many white masters actually commented that slaves always seemed to be singing of course they interpreted this as these slaves are happy they love to sing whether they really believed that or it was just a form of denial we aren't sure but singing was a very popular way for a lot of africans to uh slaves to deal with their situation so just as african people created a thriving and unique culture as part of their transition to a life of slavery many of them came up with very new and intelligent ways to fight against the slave system of course keeping culture alive is one way to fight back there were laws that attempted to restrict the use of drums that you know tried to restrict uh speaking your african language you know you can only speak english or spanish or what have you uh so trying to maintain your culture maintain your language and your words are ways of fighting back but there are some other more direct methods many people would fake illnesses uh if you couldn't work if you were sick and so masters did have some concern about your welfare not again not as you know humane reasons but you know i don't want to lose my my slave or my property or something and they're not going to be as efficient workers so you want to protect your investment if you will and so masters for the most part would let slaves take a break if they were sick many also worked very slowly if you have to work every day of your life until you die you're going to take your time to work so a job that would normally be done in a day you might take three or four days to do it because why not that's that's a small way that you can resist that you can push back uh task masters and overseers tried to encourage rapid work uh both positive and negative as we will discuss in our uh antebellum slavery lecture but slowing down pretending to be lazy is is a very common form of resistance however this creates a negative stereotype among a lot of the whites basically they believed that blacks were lazy they didn't know how to work uh and that was also they would play dumb to slow down the speed of work so again you know created the stereotype that african americans were unintelligent uh so again these are these are incorrect assumptions uh but it definitely unfortunately created some some negative stereotypes now some more direct things are also sabotage basically breaking tools destroying crops or some simple ways but also some more dangerous ones like burning fields and plantations are definitely going to be more risky but they were definitely things that people did to of course not only slow down work damage the goods but also you know this is what is making your money this is what your value is so i'm gonna burn your crops you know they're gonna be gone uh so that's definitely a way to fight back running away is one of the more extreme member measures of resistance simply because the risk and the punishment if you are caught is very great again this is something that we'll talk more about with the antebellum era because not too many people are running away in the colonial era there's just nowhere to go all the colonies had legalized slavery some did try to go down to florida or run away and join native americans but it's really not until the antebellum era when the northern colonies illegalize slavery that there's more of a push for people to run and to get away but of course it does happen in the colonial era but it is still pretty risky now there are also straight up rebellions this is the rarest form and also the riskiest form of resistance gathering of slaves together and getting weapons is also very difficult there's laws that prevent them from gathering from you know even free blacks there are laws that prevent them from owning certain types of guns uh so it makes it very difficult for slaves to gather together in a formal resistance but of course there were several attempts in fact the most famous slave revolt during the colonial era was the stono rebellion in south carolina a literate slave a slave who had learned how to read uh named jimmy led 20 uh congolese slaves people who were from congo in a rebellion near the stone river on september 9 in 1739 22 of these slaves including jimmy marched through the streets of town with a banner that had the word liberty written on it and they were just chanting the phrase over and over liberty liberty liberty so they went to a store killed two store keepers and stole their weapons and ammunition the goal was to march southward to make it into spanish florida the spanish had illegalized slavery at this time so spanish florida was definitely a haven for a lot of escapees now a lot of these men were willing to fight because they had not been born into slavery they were free in africa they had been captured and sold here so there's definitely more of a willingness to rise up as these men marched they gained an additional 60 followers the group of 80 or so continued to march southward and they killed almost 30 whites over the course of their march and they burned down six plantations a militia actually formed down or formed to put down their rebellion and there was an encounter in which 23 whites and 47 slaves were killed and unfortunately these slaves did lose the battle the remaining slaves that were not killed were recaptured uh the most rebellious were executed and the remainders were sold south to the caribbean uh like i said being sold to the caribbean is essentially a death sentence because the work there is so harsh and so difficult uh so the heads of those that were killed in battle were actually placed on a pike and lined the road that gemmy and his group had taken in attempting to get freedom uh this is to warn other slaves of course what would happen if they tried the same thing of course this is a common tactic use against native americans to scare them uh native americans had used it to scare whites so europeans and the english are taking this on and colonists are taking this on as a way to scare africans and african-american slaves so this rebellion terrified all the colonies it word got out in all the 13 regions that this had happened and as a result many more strict slave codes were added to the laws in various colonies to prevent another rebellion like this from happening slaves were actually encouraged to report conspiracies in return for money uh or in some cases in freedom uh but in 1741 there was supposedly a conspiracy in new york for a revolt uh the revolt never happened and over a hundred working class slaves were hanged exiled or even burned at the stake with very little evidence that there was actually a rebellion plot in existence uh the two supposed ringleaders of the plot were hanged in a public square and left to rot again this is public they want people to know what will happen to you if you attempt to revolt so paranoia is rampant among whites and and the encouragement of you know spying and reporting for other slaves also makes it very difficult because you know you don't know who you can trust you don't know who you can talk to even among the enslaved unfortunately slave rebellions were not successful uh they only worked to increase tension tighten slave codes and discourage other slaves from rebellion also by the by the more of the revolution and the early republic most slaves born in america are born into slavery um like i said gemmy and some of these earlier slaves they were free in africa but had been transported they had been captured and transported uh but by the time america is in a nation most people are born in the colonies or in america and they are born as slaves they have no knowledge of what it was like to be free no personal memory of freedom uh so it's a lot harder to rise up if that's you know in your mind that's how it's always been that's how it's always going to be i'm not going to fight back because that's just the way life is it makes it a lot harder now of course we will definitely discuss slavery a lot more it definitely has a lot of impacts on uh the revolution on the early creation of the new nation uh the plantation system and of course the civil war so slavery is one of if not the biggest and most important development in american history its impact and its ramifications are massively huge and it all starts in the colonial era it all starts with those first slaves that were sold those first indentured servants that were sold in jamestown until we have a transition to a race-based system that became commonplace by the time of the revolution