Understanding American Slavery

1. Understanding American Slavery Pre 1830’s: A Necessary Evil

2. Slavery in the Colonies • Jamestown: 1619: 20 Captive Africans sold into “servant hood” • 1641 – Massachusetts first to legalize Slavery • 1643 – The New England Confederation of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven adopts a fugitive slave law. • 1652 – Rhode Island passes laws restricting slavery and forbidding enslavement for more than 10 years. • 1652 – Massachusetts requires all black and Indian servants to receive military training. • 1660 - Charles II, King of England, orders the Council of Foreign Plantations to devise strategies for converting slaves and servants to Christianity.

3. From Indentured Servants to Slaves

4. A “Necessary Evil” • Southerners were mainly for slavery and many southerners believed that slavery was an evil, but it was necessary. • Before 1800’s mostly house servants and field hands. • Founding Fathers objected to slavery in “principle” but not in practice. • After early1800’s Cotton became king thanks to Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin.

5. Effects of the Gin • With the gin raw cotton could be quickly cleaned • Cotton becomes profitable crop • This transformed the southern economy and changed the dynamics of slavery. • The first federal census of 1790 counted 697,897 slaves; • By 1810, there were 1.2 million slaves, a 70 percent increase.

6. Religion & Slavery • Early English Abolitionist Movements • The Anglicans • John Newton/Thomas Clarkson/William Wilberforce • 1787 – Formed Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade • “Amazing Grace” movie clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbpg3qtN0xw • 1806 The British Close Slave Trade in England • 1833 Slavery Abolition Act 1833

7. American Religious Ideals & Slavery • The Quakers • Asserted the love of God for every human being regardless of color, sex, or station in life. • Early Anti-Slavery Leaders • John Woolman & Benjamin Lay • Mostly unsuccessful in their efforts but continued to fight. • The Methodist • Began as Anti-Slavery agents under John Wesley. • Pressure in the south, attitude changes… • Slavery seen as a blessing. • In reality, only about 25% of people in the south owned slaves at this time.

8. Beginnings of the Abolition Movement • 1824 – Elizabeth ColtmanHeyrick • Called for “Immediate, not gradual abolition.” • Contributed to the World Abolitionist Movement • Emancipation Act of 1833 • 1830’s – The Liberator Newspaper • Written by William Lloyd Garrison and funded by Lewis Tappan • Mostly read by black freeman in the north • Called for: • Immediate emancipation with out compensation to owners • Full rights of American Citizenship to those enslaved. • Should not have to leave the country for freedom.

9. The Rise of African American Churches • Revivalism also spread to the African American community • The Second Great Awakening has been called the "central and defining event in the development of Afro-Christianity“ • During these revivals Baptists and Methodists converted large numbers of blacks

10. The Rise of African American Churches • This led to the formation of all-black Methodist and Baptist churches, primarily in the North • African Methodist Episcopal (A. M. E.) had over 17,000 members by 1846