HIUS 510 American Colonial History
Module 4 Video Notes:
America’s Journey Through Slavery the Terrible Transformation
● Slavery - not just a southern institution
● Slavery + freedom - existed side-by-side “An American Institution”
● Thomas Jefferson - owned slaves
● VA - corn crop divided between Mr. Taylor + Anthony
● Lots of idealism in the new world - didn't stand much to the test of experience
● George Perry Quote - Primary source - most died of famine
● 1609-500/ 1610-60 left alive - people -
● Point comfort
- dutch arrived
- Captain Joke
- Brought 20 negroes / food exchange
● 1619
- ship
- mystery ship
- arrived on VA coast
- John Rolfe
- Robbed Spanish ship of Africans
- Traded the Africans for food
● Slaves/Africans
- baptized + given christian names
- could not be enslaved for life by English Law (would work for a certain # of years)
● Tobacco crop
- creating plantations
- profits
● Indentured Servitude
- 4 to 7 years of service, contract, freedom dues (corn, clothes, 100 acres of land)
● William Tucker
- 1st negro child born in VA.
● March (1622)
- Powhatan Confederacy attacked without warning
● Antonio (negro)
- survived the attack on the Bennett plantation (North Hampton County, CA)
● Anthony Johnson
- he changed his name (owned land + workers)
● John Punch
- assigned to life service for attempting to flee/run away
● 1641
- Massachusetts
- recognized slavery as a legal institution
- Followed by CT (1650), MD (1663), NY&NJ (1664)
● 1661
- VA legally recognized slavery
- VA slavery defined by race; perpetuated through heredity
● 1676
- unrest in VA
- exploded into Civil War (restrictions on available lands)
● 1672
- Royal African Company
- chartered by the King (RAC)
● African = means separation
● Angela
- Johnny, Anthony’s grandson named his farm Angela (after his homeland), Anthony
moved his family from VA to MD. (Tony’s Vineyard)
● 1705
- VA assembly passed laws distinguishing between slave and a servant;
- slaves = real estate
● 1698 - parliament ended the monopoly of the (RAC) on the slave trade
● England - became the largest trafficker of slaves in the Western World
● Olavdah Equiano - kidnapped and sold to Europeans (Age 11)
● Africans
- for centuries were removed from their homes, mostly men (18-25)
- Many moved to the interior/ war waged against each other
- West Africa
- 20 million + kidnapped into slavery; about ½ would survive the journey to the coast
● What caught his attention? The sea and a slave ship
● Portuguese
- 1482 built a fort on African coast
- el Mina
- guard against fellow Europeans
- DUtch > British (it changed hands) Gold to human beings
● 60 forts + houses = factories (west coast)
● Underground quarters in captivity (sometimes up to a year)
● Surgeons examine them + marked on the breast by each company (Slave co.)
● 54,000 voyages for slaves/ more than 11 million
● Most headed to South America, counted in remaining records + the Caribbean
● ½ million to mainland North America/ transported in fear (System)
● “Middle Passage” part of the triangular system that began + ended in Europe
- 60 to 90 days
- 4 to 6 months (some)
- Cramped quarters
- Lack of air, poor sanitation
● Equiano’s Passage ended on the island of Barbados - belief there work slaves to death was
cheaper than treating them humanly, 1 out of 3 slaves would die within the first 3 years
● South Carolina started as a “colony of a colony” (Carolina Coast)
● Fully conceived the idea of slavery
● Middleton Family example 1678 land grant, among the first families to arrive from Barbados
● Charleston - slave trading center of South Carolina
● Rice - became the important cash crop
● 1706 - land donated for church
- Anglican Francis Lizzo (lucia) all men had immortal souls, inhumane treatment
addressed
● 1710 = africans began to outnumber Europeans, laws passed to more strict higher control,
physical violence used
● Angolan Slaves
- Thought to be the most rebellious Africans
- 1739 - “Jimmy” stono bridge
- uprising
● Negro Act
- passed in response to the stono rebellion
- No assembling, no learning how to read, restricted most
● NY = high slave density / charleston as well!
● Fire
- Fire - Fire NY = Cosmopolitan center
● 1741 FT George + over next 3 weeks
- fires raged (prelude to rebellion?)
● Blacks
- formed gangs and held meetings
- public threat (mindset)
● Mary Burton
- servant told the story of black men (accused them)
● Heightens racial attitudes/ paranoia
● Cesar + Prince educated robbery during the fire
● 160 slaves accused of conspiring against NY
● 1750 - GA last free colony, decided to allow slavery
