JUMP TO FREEDOMBy Julie Hart

JUMP TO FREEDOM

The story of Molly Jackson is an example of a part of the bigger HISTORY of the United States of America:

HOW SLAVES BECAME FREE.

THE PLANTATION

It’s 1848, Molly Jackson lives on a plantation in Virginia, USA.

She and her family are slaves.

Life is not easy for a slave.

SLAVES IN THE USA

Slaves were property of their masters.

They worked long hours.

They were not allowed to learn how to read and write.

They were not allowed to associate in groups.

Slaves were punished by whipping, shackling, hanging, beating, burning, mutilation, branding and imprisonment.

HISTORY OF SLAVERY IN THE USA

THE SLAVE TRADE

This trade took place between the 15th and the 19th centuries:

The Europeans brought goods to Africa and bought slaves from African kings and merchants.

Then, they took them to America and sold them.

They bought rum and iron and brought it to Europe.

THEY SOLD THEM IN AMERICA

SLAVERY IN USA 1789

SLAVERY IN USA 1860

THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY

The northern states started to abolish slavery.

The southern states needed cheep workers for their cotton fields and didn’t want slaves to emancipate.

So, the southern states wanted to separate (secede) from the Union and form a new country.

On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and all slaves became free.

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROD

It was a network of secret routes and safe houses used by slaves in the USA to escape to the northern free states and to Canada with the aid (help) of the abolitionists (people who wanted the end of slavery)

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

It took place between 1861 and 1865.

In it, the northern states fought against the southern states.

The northern states finally won the war, the USA didn’t separate and the slaves were finally free in the whole country.