Chapter 3, Lesson 1African American History

By 1700, the colonies were divided into three different regions:◦ The southern colonies◦ The middle colonies◦ The New England colonies

The first African servants were brought in the early 1600s.

By the end of that century, nearly all African who arrived in the colonies were enslaved.

Slavery took hold most firmly in the southern colonies:◦ North Carolina◦ South Carolina◦ Maryland◦ Virginia ◦ Georgia

Why were there so many slaves in the South?◦ Economics

Because of its rich land, the South became the site of many large, profitable called plantations.

Slaves provided the often backbreaking labor needed to grow these crops.

Slaves were the backbone of the entire southern colonial economy.

Without slaves, the South’s entire economy would have collapsed.

As the demand for their crops grew, planters hurried to buy more land, which required more slaves to work. This cycle prevented the freeing of slaves and kept the institution of slavery strong in the South for many years.

A single large plantation in one of the southern colonies might have hundred of slaves working on it.

Slaves were whipped mercilessly to make them work in the fields from sunrise to sunset, with only one short break for lunch, six days a week.

Many slaves died from exhaustion and malnutrition.

The slaves slept in tiny cabins that were crammed to capacity with people.

Slaves working in the fields were supervised by overseers who had strict rules governed the behavior of slaves on plantations.

Slaves who broke the rules could be whipped, branded, or punished in some other terrible way.

Some southern planters saw themselves as father figures for their slaves.◦ Slave owners viewed their slaves almost as children,

incapable of living on their own.◦ Slaves were not beaten and they were still forced to

work long hours every day in the fields and had no personal freedom.

The majority of farms in the South were small family operations.

Some southern farms had slaves. Most farmers owned only a few slaves, one

or two. The farm owners often worked side by side

in the fields with their slaves, sharing their labor.

These farms owners did not usually treat their slaves as poorly as large plantation owners did.

Slaves sometimes took action against their masters.

As a result of these revolts, southern planters began to fear being outnumbered by slaves.

Some tried to restrict or ban the entry of new slaves into their colonies.

British officials refused to stop importing slave, however, because the slave trade was too profitable for them.

The middle colonies were those that lay between the southern colonies and the New England colonies farther north.◦ Delaware◦ Pennsylvania◦ New Jersey◦ New York

Slavery was permitted in all of the middle colonies, but it was never as central to the economy there as it was in the South.

The economies of the middle colonies were based more on trade and manufacturing than on agriculture.◦ There were no plantations for slaves to work on.

Many slaves worked in construction. Others worked in factories, lumber camps, or in similar places.

A skilled slave in the big city could find a job as a:◦ Mason – a person who shaped and placed stone for

building.◦ Shipwright – a person who builds ships.◦ Goldsmith – a person who shaped and worked gold for

jewelry.◦ Glazier – a person who shaped and placed glass in

windows.

Rather than buy slaves, business owners used other sources of labor.◦ For example, indentured servants – a person who agreed

to work for a certain period of time in exchange for passage to a colony and a place to stay when he or she arrived. After that period was over, the servant was freed.

One reason that indentured servants were used as laborers more often than slaves was that many people in the middle colonies objected to the idea of slavery. ◦ Quakers, a religious group in Pennsylvania, viewed

slavery as an evil institution and tried to persuade other settlers in Pennsylvania that owning other people, regardless of their skin color, was against God’s laws.

Slaves in the middle colonies were subject to terrible treatment as well.

Highly skilled slaves might avoid this rough treatment, but those who worked in construction and in factories were not spared.

Many of the slaves had literally been worked to death.

Years of brutal labor had left them with deformed muscles and broken bones.

Slaves that lived in terrible conditions resulted in short lives.

The northernmost English colonies were called the New England colonies.◦ Connecticut ◦ Rhode Island◦ Massachusetts◦ New Hampshire

Slavery was less common in the North.

Slaves in New England were sometimes put to work building houses and other structures.

Slaves had more rights and were treated better than other regions.

Many New Englanders considered slavery to be immoral and protested against it.

However, some slaveholders still worked their slaves harshly and limited to their rights.

Many northern business owners were active participants in the slave trade, helping to transport and sell captured Africans to planters in the southern and middle colonies.