A brief overview of the history of slavery in the US as an introdution to a literature of slavery course

1. African American Slavery
A Brief Introduction

2. Global Dimensions
• Slavery was a “global . . .system that first
united five continents as Europeans traded
Asian textiles. . . for African slaves who
[were sent] to North and South America
[and] forced to produce sugar, coffee,
tobacco, rice, indigo and cotton.” David
Brion Davis, historian

3. Forms of Servitude
• Chattel Slavery- Slaves
are property to be bought
and sold at owner’s
whim—hereditary. This is
the form slavery took in
the US.
• Serfdom- Serfs are bound
to the land and sold along
with it--hereditary
• Peonage--Peons are forced
to work to pay off debts;
conditions are such that
release is impossible and it
becomes hereditary
• indentured servants must
work for a period of time
to pay debt –contractual
Many US immigrants in
17th and 18th century came
as indentured servants

4. Origins of Slavery
• Most ancient
civilizations practiced
slavery.
• Developed once
people began to form
permanent agricultural
societies.
• Rationalized once
established.
• Sources of slaves in
ancient civilizations
– Conquest
– Piracy
– Purchase from
“barbarians”
– Natural increase as
children of slaves
inherited status

5. From Slaves to Serfs
• By 4th-5th century AD serfdom had largely
replaced slavery in Europe.
• Slavery was phased out in Europe by the
10th century, yet these same countries
would in a few centuries become those that
profited by African slave trade.
• Revived in 15th century by Portuguese for
plantations on West African coastal islands

6. End of Serfdom
• Peasant Revolt in 1381 ended serfdom in
England.
• French Revolution in France ended the
practice in 1789.
• Russian serfs were not freed until 1861.

7. Atlantic Slave Trade
• Some slaves from Africa were sent to Italy,
Spain and Portugal in the 1400’s but the
biggest market emerged in the New World,
first in the Caribbean, when attempts to
enslave natives proved futile.
• In 1619 first slaves brought to Virginia.
• In 1713 England won the right to supply
black slaves to the Spanish colonies.

8. Atlantic Slave Trade
• Source of slaves for revived slave trade was
Africa, where African kings and merchants sold
captives into slavery. The captives had been
captured by kidnapping or won in conquest.
• Slaves were traded several times within Africa
before being sold to Europeans on the coast.
• They did not see themselves as selling fellow
blacks but as selling strangers. Tribe, not skin
color, was the important thing.

9. Importation of Slaves
• About 10 million
slaves were imported
from Africa during the
430 years of the
Atlantic Slave Trade
• Only about 430,000 of
them were sent to
what would become
the U.S.
Other
U.S.

10. End of slave trade
• The slave trade means buying slaves in
Africa and transporting them to the
Americas.
• Denmark abolished the slave trade in 1792.
• England followed in 1807 and the U.S. in
1808.
• A good film on the fight to end the slave
trade in England is Amazing Grace

11. End of the slave trade did not
mean the end of slavery
• Existing slaves and descendants could still
be traded within the country and between
the Caribbean and U.S.
• Law was ignored and flouted until 1842
Webster-Ashburton treaty.
• Amistad is a film about a legal case that
hinged on proving the law against the slave
trade had been violated.

12. North American Slavery
How Slavery Developed in the
United States

13. Slavery in the Colonies
• In 1619, first blacks were brought in as
indentured servants.
• Efforts to make terms of servitude
permanent began early, and chattel slavery
was legalized in Virginia by 1660.
• Most colonies made slavery of Africans
legal by 1670; Georgia was the exception,
but legalized it in 1749.

14. Slavery in the States
• After American Revolution many Northern slaves were
freed and the practice outlawed in several Northern states.
• By 1804 all states above Pennsylvania had abolished
slavery. However the abolition was gradual. Existing
slaves were not freed outright and their children born after
a certain date had to serve as apprentices for periods
varying from 18-28 years. In PA slaves brought into the
state were freed after six months but had to serve 4 years
as an indentured servants if adults, and unit age 28 if under
age 21.

15. Slavery in the States continued.
• Constitution of 1788 helped to entrench
slavery in the South
– Recognized it by counting slaves as 3/5 of a
person for taxation and representation
– Guaranteed slave trade for 20 more years
– Provided for return of fugitive slaves making it
difficult to escape slavery just by going to a
free state.

16. Slavery in the States
• Many Southern states abolished the slave trade, and made
it easier to emancipate slaves in the late 18th and early 19th
century.
• The American Colonization Society formed in 1816
advocated for the use of white immigrant labor and the
transportation of slaves back to Africa
• But by mid 1830’s the tide turned in the South away from
belief in gradual abolition to defense of slavery as
permanent feature of the economy and a positive good
rather than a necessary evil.

17. Not all southern whites owned
slaves
• 16% owned more than 2
slaves
• 9% owned 1-2 slaves
• 75% no slaves
• Approx. 2300 large
plantations with 100+
slaves
• 44,000 small plantations
20-100 slaves
No slaves
1-2 slaves
3+ slaves

18. Most southern whites supported
slavery
• Plantation owners let small farmers without
slaves use their machinery or ship produce
with their larger lots.
• They might hire part time workers from
slaves who were hired out by their masters.
• They feared competition from freed blacks.
• They feared revolts against white
supremacy if slaves were freed.

19. Slavery and the territories
• Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery in those
territories.
• Missouri Compromise of 1820 provided for
admission of equal numbers of slave and free
states from new territories (maintain status quo).
• Compromise of 1850 and Kansas Nebraska Act of
1854 had the effect of making all territories open
to slavery and forcing northern states to cooperate
in returning runaways.

20. End of Slavery in U.S.
• Abolitionist movements existed throughout
American history—esp. in 19th century
• By the late 1830’s some radical abolitionists were
arguing that the North should break away from the
slaveholding south on moral grounds.
• Tensions increased over expansion of slavery.
• In late 1850’s Lincoln and other Northern
opponents of slavery generally expected gradual
emancipation of slaves with some compensation
of owners.

21. End of Slavery cont.
• However, once Southern states succeeded
and war began, Lincoln freed the slaves in
the Confederacy with Emancipation
Proclamation of 1862 (effective 1863)
• After the war, the 13th amendment of 1865
abolished slavery and all forms of
involuntary servitude except as punishment
for a crime.

22. Slavery and the Civil War

23. Slavery and the War
• “Of the American Civil War it may be
safely asserted that there was a single cause:
slavery.” James Ford Rhodes, historian
• “To strengthen, perpetuate and extend this
interest [slavery] was the [motive of the
secession]” Abraham Lincoln
• “Slavery is the heart of the matter in any
explanation.” Don Fehrenbacher, historian

24. Secession vs. War
• Slavery was the cause of the secession.
• Secession was the cause of the war.
• “The question is no longer about African
slavery, but whether we have a government
capable of maintaining itself.” Sen. Lyman
Trumbull in March 1861.

25. Slavery vs. States’ Rights
• The South fought for the right “to withdraw from
a Union into which they as sovereign communities
had voluntarily entered. The existence of African
servitude was in no wise the cause of the conflict,
but only an incident.” Jefferson Davis, President
of the Confederacy, speaking in 1881
• This is a revisionist view. They wanted to
withdraw in order to hold onto their slaves as we
can see by comments at the time.

26. Conflicting comments made at
the time
• Secession is justified by the exclusion of
slavery from the territories which would
make “property in slaves so insecure as to
be comparatively worthless” Davis in 1861
• Slavery is “the immediate cause of the late
rupture and present revolution.” Stephens,
VP of the Confederacy in 1861

27. A Noble Cause?
• “It is not hard to understand the reluctance
of Southern whites to believe that the noble
cause for which their ancestors fought
might have included the defense of slavery.
That is why they have embraced other
interpretations of the origins of sectional
conflict.” James McPherson, historian

28. Alternative Explanations
• A favorite revisionist view was to depict the war
as a conflict between the agrarian South and the
industrial north.
• The southern way of life was depicted as gracious,
chivalrous, and honorable.
• Slavery was depicted as a mostly benign
institution necessary to an agricultural society and
in which slaves prospered under paternal care of
their masters. Next slide gives an example.

29. Agrarian South vs. Industrial
North
• “Slavery was part of the agrarian system,
but only one element and not an essential
one. . . .The fundamental and passionate
ideal for which the South stood and fell was
the ideal of an Agrarian Society, the old an
accepted manner of life for which Egypt,
Greece, Rome, England and France had
stood.” Frank Owsley, Historian 1930

30. Gone With the Wind
• “It is no coincidence that this interpretation
flourished during the same years that the
novel and movie Gone With the Wind were
becoming the greatest popular successes of
all time. History and popular culture . . .
marched hand in hand.” James McPherson

31. On Gone with the Wind
• “Lip service is paid to [slavery] having been
a horrible institution, but our cultural reality
belies such protestations as we renovate . . .
Slave plantations [and] turn an apologia like
Gone with the Wind into a cultural icon.”
Gloria Naylor, novelist

32. Representations of Slavery
• The nostalgic view in “Gone with the
Wind” is one representation of slavery in
American culture, but American literature
of the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st century is full
of many more valuable and honest
representations. Exploring these is the focus
of this course.