Chapter 3 Section 3 • 83

Section 3African Americans

in the Colonies

Setting the Scene Not counting Native Americans, about one out ofevery five people living in British North America by the middle of the 1700swas of African descent. As in the case of all immigrants, the experiences ofAfrican Americans in the colonies varied depending on where they lived. Yet thestories of Africans, uprooted from their homeland and sold into slavery, hadmany elements in common.

One African who later told his story was Olaudah Equiano. Equiano wasborn around 1745 in the country of Benin. He wrote in his autobiographydecades later that the land of his youth was “uncommonly rich and fruitful” and“a nation of dancers, musicians and poets.” As a child, he learned “the art ofwar” and proudly wore “the emblems of a warrior” made by his mother.

When Equiano was 10 years old, his world was shattered. Two men and awoman kidnapped him and one of his sisters while their parents were working.Separated from his sister, Equiano was enslaved to a series of African masters.About six months after he was kidnapped, Equiano was sold and put aboard aBritish slave ship bound for the Americas. In his autobiography, he wrote:

“ The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast wasthe sea, and a slave ship which was then riding at anchor and wait-ing for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, which was soonconverted into terror when I was carried on board.”

—Equiano’s Travels, 1789

African Americans in the Colonies3

MAIN IDEA

Africans, brought across the Atlantic Ocean as slaves,helped build England’s American colonies while enduringharsh and brutal treatment.

READING FOCUS

• What was the Middle Passage?

• How did the experience of slavery differfrom colony to colony?

• What restrictions did free blacks face?

• How did laws attempt to control slavesand prevent revolts?

KEY TERMS

Middle PassagemutinyStono Rebellion

TARGET READING SKILL

Identify Supporting Details As you read, fillin the chart below with details about thelives of slaves in each region of thecolonies.

RegionSouth Carolinaand Georgia

Virginia andMaryland

Middle Coloniesand New England

Experiences of African Americans• Harvested rice and indigo• Worked in brutal conditions•

Chapter 3 • Section 3 83

Europeans built slave forts likeCape Coast Castle (below) inmodern-day Ghana all along thecoast of West Africa. EnslavedAfricans were imprisoned herebefore boarding ships for theMiddle Passage to the Americas.

SECTION OBJECTIVES

1. Learn about the Middle Passage.2. Find out how the experience of slav-

ery differed from colony to colony.3. See the restrictions faced by free

blacks.4. Discover how laws attempted to

control slaves and prevent revolts.

BELLRINGER

Warm-Up Activity Ask studentswhat makes up a family. What needsdo families fill in people’s lives?

Activating Prior Knowledge Askstudents to state what they know aboutthe policies of the various Englishcolonies towards slave-holding inthe 1700s.

TARGET READING SKILL

Ask students to complete the graphicorganizer on this page as they read thesection. See the Section ReadingSupport Transparencies for a completedversion of this graphic organizer.

ACTIVITY

Connecting withCulture

Tell students to research some aspectof the experience of Africans forcedinto slavery. Students might focus onwhat life had been like in Africa in theeighteenth century. They might readabout how the African culture differedfrom American culture. Or studentsmight look into the conditions on theboats that brought Africans to NorthAmerica. Once students have com-pleted their reading, have them write a short report on their findings. (Verbal/Linguistic)

RESOURCE DIRECTORYTeaching ResourcesLearning Styles Lesson Plans booklet, p. 8Guided Reading and Review booklet, p. 13

TechnologySection Reading Support TransparenciesGuided Reading Audiotapes (English/Spanish),

Ch. 3Student Edition on Audio CD, Ch. 3Prentice Hall Presentation Pro CD-ROM, Ch. 3

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84 • Chapter 3 Section 3

LESSON PLAN

Focus Point out that about 20 percentof the colonists were Africans or ofAfrican descent. Ask students whattheir lives were like. What contribu-tions did they make to colonial society?

Instruct Discuss why slave traderstreated Africans so poorly. Comparethe lives of enslaved Africans and theirdescendants in the southern coastalcolonies with the lives of those in theNew England and Middle colonies. Askwhether plantation owners consciouslyallowed enslaved Africans to maintainsome of their traditions. What factorsenabled them to maintain a languagewith roots in Africa, for example? Whywere their lives more varied in the NewEngland and Middle colonies? Whywere the revolts of enslaved AfricanAmericans unsuccessful?

Assess/Reteach Have students listthe ways in which slaves helped buildand strengthen the colonies, despitethe cruel way in which they weretreated, and the injustice to which theywere subjected.

For Equiano, and millions of other Africans captured and sold into slavery, muchworse was to come.

The Middle PassageThe British ship carried Equiano across the Atlantic on a route known as theMiddle Passage. The Middle Passage was one leg of the triangular tradebetween the Americas, Europe, and Africa. The term is also used to refer to theforced transport of slaves from Africa to the Americas. Although historians

differ on the actual figures, from 10 to 40 percent of the Africans on aslave ship typically died in the crossing. Sick and frightened by whatmight lay ahead, they were forced to endure chains, heat, disease, andthe overpowering odor caused by the lack of sanitation and theircramped, stuffy quarters.

During the Middle Passage, Equiano witnessed many scenes of bru-tality. He wrote, “Many a time we were near suffocation from the want[absence] of fresh air, which we were often without for whole daystogether.” Conditions were so grim on Equiano’s voyage that twopeople committed suicide. A third was prevented from doing so and wasthen whipped.

Occasionally, enslaved Africans physically resisted during the MiddlePassage by staging a mutiny, or revolt. The slave traders lived in contin-ual fear of mutinies, and crews were heavily armed. Statistics about theBritish slave trade show that a rebellion occurred every two years on theaverage. Many of these were successful.

Equiano’s ship finally arrived at a port on the island of Barbados inthe West Indies, where the Africans were sold at a public auction. Mostwent to work and die on the sugar plantations of the West Indies.Equiano noted that the sale separated families, leaving people grief-stricken and alone.

“ In this manner, without scruple [concern], are relations and friendsseparated, most of them never to see each other again. I remem-ber in the vessel in which I was brought over, in the men’s

VIEWING HISTORY “No eyepities; no hand helps,” said aslave trader describing the condi-tion of his human cargo. An eyewit-ness painted this scene aboard aslave ship in 1846. DrawingConclusions What were conditionsaboard slave ships like forenslaved Africans?

As a young man,Olaudah Equiano wascaptured and brought tothe West Indies from theAfrican country of Benin.Unlike most enslavedAfricans, he received aneducation and traveledwidely with his Britishmaster. He was sold to

an American in 1763 and later pur-chased his freedom in Virginia. Migrat-ing to Great Britain, he found work as abarber and a personal servant andbecame active in the antislavery move-ment. His vivid account of his enslave-ment, The Interesting Narrative of theLife of Olaudah Equiano, was widelyread in Britain and published forAmerican, Dutch, German, and Russianaudiences.

Olaudah Equiano 1745?–1797

84 Chapter 3 • Growth of the American Colonies

RESOURCE DIRECTORYOther Print ResourcesNystrom Atlas of Our Country Unwilling

Immigrants and Native Americans, pp. 16–17

TechnologySounds of an Era Audio CD Gullah Storyteller

Janie Hunter (time: 30 seconds)

Viewing History Conditions wereappalling. Chained below decks, slavessuffered from terrible crowding, heat,disease, and poor sanitation.

CAPTION ANSWERS

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Chapter 3 Section 3 • 85

ACTIVITY

Connecting withHistory and Conflict

Tell students to create an artisticexpression in response to the quotationby Olaudah Equiano. Students maychoose to write a poem, make a col-lage, a drawing, or painting. Encouragestudents to think about how it musthave felt to be separated from their sib-lings, against their will. After studentscomplete their artistic responses, havethem share them with the class. Invitevolunteers to explain how their creationreflects Equiano’s experience.(Visual/Spatial)

BACKGROUND

Recent ScholarshipIn The Many-Headed Hydra, authorsPeter Linebaugh and Marcus Redikeridentify Olaudah Equiano as the“African sailor.” However, one critic,David Brion Davis, refutes their claim,arguing that Equiano named Carolinaas his birthplace when he was bap-tized in England in 1759. In a separatedocument, Equiano was listed as “anable seaman, aged 28, and born inSouth Carolina.” Apparently, the claimthat Equiano was born in Africa origi-nated in oral tradition. Davis says that Catherine Obianju Acholonu isresponsible for claiming Equiano’sAfrican descent. Scholars reject theauthenticity of her claim.

apartment there were several brothers who, in the sale, were soldin different lots; and it was very moving on this occasion to seeand hear their cries at parting. O, ye nominal Christians [Christiansin name only]! might not an African ask you, Learned you this fromyour God, who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would menshould do unto you?”

—Olaudah Equiano

Slavery in the ColoniesThe experiences of Africans varied greatly in colonial times. Slavery waslegal everywhere, but the number of slaves and the kind of labor theyperformed differed widely from region to region. In the northeast,where the population of blacks was small and mainly urban, blacksworked and talked regularly with whites. In Virginia and Maryland,blacks and whites lived close to each other on plantations and farms. Butin South Carolina and Georgia, blacks enjoyed more freedom over theirdaily existence than elsewhere, although working conditions wereextremely difficult.

South Carolina and Georgia Much of the seaboard region of SouthCarolina and Georgia is formed by a coastal plain called the low country.Planters found the low country ideal for growing rice and indigo. Slavesthere labored under especially brutal conditions. High temperatures anddiseases made life particularly difficult. Charles Ball, an African Americanwhose account was published in 1837, described the situation as it hadexisted for well over a century:

“ The general features of slavery are the same every where; but theutmost rigor [strictness] of the system, is only to be met with on thecotton plantations of Carolina and Georgia, or in the rice fields whichskirt the deep swamps and morasses of the southern rivers. ”

—Charles Ball

African Americans made up the majority of the population in SouthCarolina and more than one third of the population in Georgia. Becauserice was grown most efficiently on large tracts of land, this region had agreater number of plantations with more than 100 slaves than anywhereelse in the colonies. Since wealthy planters often chose to spend most oftheir time away from their isolated estates, slaves generally had regular contactwith only a handful of white colonists.

The lack of interaction allowed slaves in South Carolina and Georgia topreserve some of their cultural traditions. Many had come to the region directlyfrom Africa. They continued to make the crafts of their homeland, such as bas-kets and pottery. They played the music they loved and told the stories theirparents and grandparents had passed down to them. In some cases, they kepttheir culture alive in their speech. The most well-known example of this is theGullah language, a combination of English and African languages. As late as the1940s, speakers of Gullah were using 4,000 words from the languages of morethan 21 separate groups in West Africa.

The skills that African Americans brought with them to South Carolinaand Georgia also deeply affected the lives of their masters. African Americansoften had superior knowledge of cattle herding and fishing. Because many had

Chapter 3 • Section 3 85

The Gullah Language In the 1700s,owners of rice plantations in the SeaIslands off the South Carolina andGeorgia coasts imported slaves fromWest African rice-growing regions,including present-day Sierra Leone. TheSea Islands could be reached only byboat, and white planters did not wantto live there. Thus, these isolatedenslaved Africans were able to pre-serve their distinctive culture.

The Gullah language that developedamong these slaves and their descend-ants is a mixture of English and WestAfrican languages. For example, theGullah “Dey fa go shum,” translates to“They went to see her” in English.

When new roads linked the islandsto the mainland in the 1960s, it wasfeared that the Gullah culture would dieout. Today, however, there is renewedinterest in preserving the Gullah lan-guage, and festivals celebrate Gullahstorytelling, crafts (below), and cuisine.

CUSTOMIZE FOR ...Less Proficient Writers

Have students restate the quotation fromOlaudah Equiano on these pages in their own words.

TEST PREPARATIONHave students review the quote by OlaudahEquiano on these pages and then complete thesentence below.The main idea of Olaudah Equiano’s quotation is that—

A people in the American colonies were notvery religious.

B slavery is wrong.C families were cruelly separated by slavery.D those who would be slave-holders should

treat others as they themselves would wishto be treated.

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86 • Chapter 3 Section 3

grown rice in their homelands, they had practical know-how aboutits cultivation.

Strong African kinship networks also helped people surviveslavery and preserve their traditions. Africans highly valued thebonds between family members. When separated from their bloodrelatives, slaves created new relationships with one another by actingas substitute kin. In these relationships, people filled the roles ofeach other’s brothers or sisters or aunts or uncles, though in factthey were not related.

In these and many other ways, the slaves in South Carolina andGeorgia made the best of a horrible situation. Forced to come toNorth America, they found strength in each other’s company and inthe memory of their African origins.

Virginia and Maryland Colonists from England had begun tosettle Virginia and Maryland in the early 1600s, decades before South Carolinaand Georgia were founded. The longer history of European and African settle-ment in these colonies was one of several reasons why the lives of slaves in Virginiaand Maryland differed from those of African Americans in South Carolina andparts of Georgia: 1. Slaves in Virginia and Maryland made up a minority rather than a majority of

the population. 2. Relatively few slaves came to Virginia and Maryland directly from Africa. Slaves

in Virginia were more likely to have been born in the American colonies.3. Slaves performed different work. Cultivating tobacco, the major crop, did

not take as much time as growing rice, so slave owners put enslaved AfricanAmericans to work at a variety of other tasks.

4. African Americans in Virginia and Maryland had more regular contact withEuropean Americans. The result was greater integration of European Americanand African American cultures than in South Carolina and Georgia. In the

86 Chapter 3 • Growth of the American Colonies

1690170017101720173017401750

9501,6802,5853,9566,1188,541

10,982

2,4723,6616,218

10,82511,68316,45220,736

13,30722,47636,06354,05873,220

125,031204,702

Year New EnglandColonies

MiddleColonies

SouthernColonies

SOURCE: Historical Statistics of the United States,Colonial Times to 1970

Estimated African AmericanPopulation, 1690–1750

INTERPRETING TABLES Thegrowth in the number of AfricanAmericans, although relativelysmall in the 1600s, jumped con-siderably in the early 1700s.Analyzing Information In whichgroup of colonies did the numberof African Americans increase mostsharply?

This watercolor painted on a SouthCarolina plantation in the late1700s documents a dance formand musical instruments that havebeen linked to the Yoruba peopleof West Africa.

Interpreting Tables The SouthernColonies.

CAPTION ANSWERS

ACTIVITY

Connecting withEconomics

Engage students in a discussion aboutthe economics of slavery. Why didlandowners want slaves? How didowning slaves work to their advan-tage? Could colonial landowners havemanaged their farms without the helpof slaves? (Verbal/Linguistic)

BACKGROUND

A Diverse NationDuring the eighteenth century, slavescame in increasing numbers from Ibo,Ashanti, and Yoruba societies on theAfrican west coast. Most African cul-tural and religious practices died outbecause Europeans felt threatened bythe prospect of a cohesive African com-munity. While much of the African cul-ture was lost, certain traditions survived,such as those involving magic, healing,and burial. Despite many obstacles,Africans managed to forge relationships,raise families, and create a culture thatbridged Old World traditions with NewWorld experiences.

RESOURCE DIRECTORYTechnology

Visual Learning ActivityEducation as a Step Toward Freedom, foundon TeacherExpress™, explores differing viewson slavery in the colonies.

Exploring Primary Sources in U.S. History CD-ROM “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,”Spiritual

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Chapter 3 Section 3 • 87

ACTIVITY

Connecting withCulture

This activity may take place over sev-eral class periods. Divide the class intogroups of four students. Students willcreate a quilt based on the lives ofAfrican Americans. Each quilt shouldhave at least eight pieces of coloredpaper or fabric. On the pieces, stu-dents may represent scenes such aspassage to the colonies, life in differentregions of the colonies, and attemptsto revolt. (Visual/Spatial)

BACKGROUND

Connections to TodayEnslaved Africans brought with them tothe United States the ancient traditionof storytelling. Alex Haley, who grewup listening to his grandmother’s sto-ries about an African ancestor, KuntaKinte, journeyed to West Africa toresearch his family’s origins. The tripled Haley to write his best-selling bookRoots, which was viewed by a record130 million people when it was drama-tized for television in 1977. Roots awak-ened a popular interest in AfricanAmerican history and culture and, bythe 1980s, in fiction written by AfricanAmericans. In 1993, Toni Morrison,whose works include the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Beloved, was awardedthe Nobel Prize in Literature, becomingthe first African American to be sohonored.

latter half of the 1700s, slaves in Virginia and Maryland blended customs ofAfrican and European origin. They mingled the African and the European ineverything from food and clothes to religion.

The high costs of importing slaves from Africa led some Virginia andMaryland planters to encourage their slaves to raise families. It was in theireconomic interest to allow African Americans a fuller family and communitylife. Over time, therefore, some slaves were able to form fairly stable familylives, though they still lived in constant fear of being sold and separated fromtheir families.

New England and the Middle Colonies About 400,000 African Americanslived in the Southern Colonies by the late 1700s. In contrast, there were onlyabout 50,000 African Americans in the New England and Middle Coloniescombined. These colonies north of Maryland had a more diverse economy thanthat of the Southern Colonies. As a result, African Americans in the New Englandand Middle Colonies had more freedom to choose their occupations than didAfrican Americans in the Southern Colonies.

Throughout the 1700s, farms in the New England and Middle Colonieswere much smaller than those in the Southern Colonies and did not require asmany slaves for field work. It was more common to find slaves in this regionworking in the cities as cooks, housekeepers, or personal servants. Male slavesoften worked in manufacturing and trading or as skilled artisans. They alsoworked in the forests as lumberjacks. Because shipbuilding and shipping weremajor economic activities, some African American men worked along the sea-coast. As dockworkers, merchant sailors, fishermen, whalers, and privateers,they contributed to the growth of the Atlantic economy.

Free BlacksMost African Americans in the colonies were enslaved. It was not until after theAmerican Revolution that the free black population in theNorthern and Southern Colonies grew significantly. Someslave laws discouraged people from freeing slaves. In somecolonies, owners had to get permission from the legislaturebefore freeing any of their slaves. Other laws demanded thatfreed slaves leave a colony within six months of gaining free-dom. Despite the obstacles, those slaves who earned moneyas artisans or laborers had the possibility of saving enough topurchase their freedom.

Free African Americans did much of the same kind ofwork as enslaved African Americans. They were, however,probably worse off economically. Free blacks enduredpoorer living conditions and more severe discriminationthan slaves who were identified with specific white house-holds. Free blacks also faced limited rights compared towhites. They could not vote, testify in court against whites,or marry whites.

In Virginia and Maryland, some enslaved Africansworked in urban areas as artisans, laborers, or servants.Rather than let their slaves do very little work on their farmsduring winter or slow months, owners would encouragethem to work in cities such as Richmond, Virginia, orBaltimore, Maryland. Slaves had to send a portion of theirincome to their owners and their living conditions were often

Chapter 3 • Section 3 87

VIEWING HISTORY SomeAfrican Americans in South Carolinaand Georgia escaped to freedom inSpanish Florida. Fort Mosé, estab-lished in St. Augustine in 1738,was home to many free blacksfrom the British colonies. DrawingInferences Why did many enslavedpeople risk their lives to escape toplaces like Fort Mosé?

READING CHECKWhat were conditions like forslaves in Virginia and Maryland?

Viewing History To escape harshworking and living conditions; to winfreedom for themselves and their fami-lies. Although living conditions for freeblacks in the colonies were also verydifficult, the desire to live as an inde-pendent person rather than as theproperty of another was a very powerful motivation.

CAPTION ANSWERS

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88 • Chapter 3 Section 3

Reading Comprehension

1. Slaves were chained below deck forthe entire voyage. They experiencedintense heat, disease, and a lack offresh air and sanitation. Slave mor-tality rates on these voyages werequite high.

2. As students have already read,these areas were almost entirelygiven over to the farming of cashcrops, which required an enormousamount of labor. Also, slaves wereoften skilled in cattle herding andfishing.

3. Laws restricting the movement ofslaves made it difficult to organizerebellions. Denied the right to movefreely, it was difficult for slaves tohave the contact with slaves fromother areas that would be necessaryin order to plan a large revolt.

Critical Thinking and Writing

4. (a) He was kidnapped and separatedfrom his family; he was forced toendure the Middle Passage; he livedthrough unspeakable hardship. (b) Hereceived an education, traveled withhis British master, and was later ableto purchase his freedom and becomeactive in the antislavery movement.

5. Sample answer: agricultural labor,cattle herding, fishing, cooking,housekeeping, manufacturing, andtrading. Some worked as skilled arti-sans, dockworkers, privateers, andmerchant sailors.

3Section Assessment

For: An activity on Olaudah Equiano

Visit: PHSchool.com

Web Code: mrd-1033

PHSchool.com

poor. They were still subject to harsh laws that controlled where they could goand what they could do. In addition, since they were not free, their childrenwere born enslaved. But many welcomed the freedom they enjoyed away fromdaily supervision.

Laws and RevoltsLaws controlling the lives of slaves varied from region to region. Every colonypassed its own slave laws, and colonies revised these laws over time. Settlers inGeorgia, for example, barred slavery from the colony in 1735 but lifted the banin 1750. Virginia enacted its first slave code in 1661. South Carolina passedfairly weak regulations in 1690 and then revised its laws in 1696, 1712, and1740, each time strengthening the restrictions placed on slaves.

Generally, slaves could not go aboard ships or ferries or leave the townlimits without a written pass. Slaves could be accused of crimes ranging

from owning hogs or carrying canes to disturbing the peace or striking awhite person. Punishments included whipping, banishment to the

West Indies, and death. Many of these laws also applied to freeAfrican Americans and to Native Americans.

Laws restricting the movement of slaves made organizing slaverebellions extremely difficult. Because slaves could not travel or meet

freely, they had only limited contact with slaves in other areas. A few early doc-umented cases of slave revolts do stand out. In 1739, several dozen slaves nearCharleston, South Carolina, killed more than 20 whites in what is known asthe Stono Rebellion. The slaves burned an armory and began to marchtoward Spanish Florida, where a small colony of runaway slaves lived. Armedplanters captured and killed the rebels. In New York City, brutal laws that hadbeen passed to control African Americans led to rebellions in 1708, 1712, and1741. After the 1741 revolt, 13 African Americans were burned alive as pun-ishment. African Americans undertook almost 50 documented revolts between1740 and 1800.

More commonly, African Americans opposed slavery through acts of indi-rect resistance, such as pretending to misunderstand orders or faking illness.While these actions could not give them freedom, they did grant the slaves asmall degree of control over their own lives.

READINGCOMPREHENSION

1. Describe the experiences of AfricanAmericans during the MiddlePassage.

2. Why was slavery so important tothe economies of South Carolinaand Georgia in the 1700s?

3. How did colonial governments andplanters try to prevent slave revoltslike the Stono Rebellion?

CRITICAL THINKINGAND WRITING

4. Making Comparisons (a) In whatways was Olaudah Equiano’s experi-ence similar to that of otherenslaved Africans? (b) In what wayswas his experience different?

5. Writing a List Use your reading inthis section to prepare a list of jobsheld by African Americans, enslavedand free, in the colonies.

3 Assessment

88 Chapter 3 • Growth of the American Colonies

Treating humans as property led tounspeakable cruelties. This brand-ing iron was used to mark anowner’s initials on enslavedAfricans.

RESOURCE DIRECTORYTeaching ResourcesUnits 1/2 booklet

• Section 3 Quiz, p. 28Guide to the Essentials

• Section 3 Summary, p. 17

Typing the Web Code when promptedwill bring students directly to detailedinstructions for this activity.

PHSchool.com

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