Resources
- Before 1619, there was 1526: The mystery of the first enslaved Africans in what became the United StatesSpanish explorers brought 100 slaves to a doomed settlement in South Carolina or Georgia. Within weeks, the subjugated revolted, then vanished.
- Slavery in AmericaThroughout the 17th and 18th centuries people were kidnapped from the continent of Africa, forced into slavery in the American colonies and exploited to work as indentured servants and labor in the production of crops such as tobacco and cotton.
- Slavery in Colonial AmericaMany cultures practiced some version of the institution of slavery in the ancient and modern world, most commonly involving enemy captives or prisoners of war. Slavery and forced labor began in colonial America almost as soon as the English arrived and established a permanent settlement at Jamestown in 1607.
- African Slavery in Colonial British North AmericaDirectly or indirectly, the economies of all 13 British colonies in North America depended on slavery. By the 1620s, the labor-intensive cultivation of tobacco for European markets was established in Virginia, with white indentured servants performing most of the heavy labor. Before 1660 only a fraction of Virginia planters held slaves. By 1675 slavery was well established, and by 1700 slaves had almost entirely replaced indentured servants. With plentiful land and slave labor available to grow a lucrative crop, southern planters prospered, and family-based tobacco plantations became the economic and social norm.
Slavery in the American Colonies
In the 17th century, as the British colonies in the Americas were getting established in places like Jamestown, VA, the system of chattel slavery was also developing. Today, we'll learn about the role that slavery played in early American economy and how slavery became a legally accepted practice in the first place, and how it contributed to the colony’s early economic success. We'll look at the experiences of Anthony Johnson and John Punch to see how legal precedents that greatly influenced the development of slavery were set.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4syEkyOzmY&t=2s
Enslaved Women in Colonial America | God, King, and Power in Colonial America
As we see American women coming into positions of unprecedented economic and political power, we start to wonder: why now? The Women Have Always Worked MOOC, offered in two parts, explores the history of women in America and introduces students to historians’ work to uncover the place of women and gender in America’s past.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQW8-kPtX80
Streaming Media
- Slavery in the British ColoniesIn all of the British colonies in North America and the Caribbean, slavery was a staple of the economy during the period from 1607-1754. In this video, Kim Kutz Elliott discusses the ties between the environment and slavery, the rise of increasingly restrictive slave codes, and the overt and covert methods by which enslaved people resisted the dehumanizing nature of slavery.
- An Economy of SlavesThe transition of settlements to stable commercial success would not have been possible without a source of cheap labor. America's immensity of land and lack of labor to develop it required forced migration of laborers: convicts, indentured servants, beggars. But a less expensive and more permanent source of labor was the 11 million Africans who were torn from their homes to be slaves.
Perspectives
Indian Slavery in Colonial America
European enslavement of American Indians began with Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World. The slave trade expanded with European colonies, and though African slave labor filled many needs, huge numbers of America's indigenous peoples continued to be captured and forced to work as slaves. Although central to the process of colony building in what became the United States, this phenomena has received scant attention from historians. Indian Slavery in Colonial America, edited by Alan Gallay, examines the complicated dynamics of Indian enslavement. How and why Indians became both slaves of the Europeans and suppliers of slavery's victims is the subject of this book. The essays in this collection use Indian slavery as a lens through which to explore both Indian and European societies and their interactions, as well as relations between and among Native groups.
Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia
A comprehensive, contextual presentation of all aspects—social, political, and economic—of slavery in the United States, from the first colonization through Reconstruction.
Slaves and Englishmen
Michael Guasco traces the broad spectrum of ways slavery shaped the way Englishmen and Anglo-Americans thought about and interacted with the world even before the rise of plantation-based economies.
From Slavery to Freedom
This is the dramatic, exciting, authoritative story of the experiences of African Americans from the time they left Africa to their continued struggle for equality at the end of the twentieth century. Since its original publication in 1947,From Slavery to Freedomhas stood as the definitive his-tory of African Americans. Coauthors John Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr., give us a vividly detailed account of the journey of African Americans from their origins in the civilizations of Africa, through their years of slavery in the New World, to the successful struggle for freedom and its aftermath in the West Indies, Latin America, and the United States. This eighth edition has been revised to include expanded coverage of Africa; additional material in every chapter on the history and current situation of African Americans in the United States; new charts, maps, and black-and-white illustrations; and a third four-page color insert. The authors incorporate recent scholarship to examine slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the period between World War I and World War II (including the Harlem Renaissance). From Slavery to Freedomdescribes the rise of slavery, the interaction of European and African cultures in the New World, and the emergence of a distinct culture and way of life among slaves and free blacks. The authors examine the role of blacks in the nation's wars, the rise of an articulate, restless free black community by the end of the eighteenth century, and the growing resistance to slavery among an expanding segment of the black population. The book deals in considerable detail with the period after slavery, including the arduous struggle for first-class citizenship that has extended into the twentieth century. Many developments in recent African American history are examined, including demographic change; educational efforts; literary and cultural changes; problems in housing, health, juvenile matters, and poverty; the expansion of the black middle class; and the persistence of discrimination in the administration of justice. All who are interested in African Americans' continuing quest for equality will find a wealth of information based on the recent findings of many scholars. Professors Franklin and Moss have captured the tragedies and triumphs, the hurts and joys, the failures and successes, of blacks in a lively and readable volume that remains the most authoritative and comprehensive book of its kind.
The Atlantic slave trade: What too few textbooks told you - Anthony Hazard
Slavery has occurred in many forms throughout the world, but the Atlantic slave trade -- which forcibly brought more than 10 million Africans to the Americas -- stands out for both its global scale and its lasting legacy. Anthony Hazard discusses the historical, economic and personal impact of this massive historical injustice.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NXC4Q_4JVg