SLAVERY, ANTISLAVERY AND THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

Peter A. Bunten

Mid-Hudson Antislavery History Project

INTRODUCTION

•400th Anniversary

•Continuing Legacy

Subject Popularity – Barnes & Noble Current Titles

Slavery + A-A History 3,392

Underground Railroad 464

Vietnam War 2,357

George Washington 2,198

Abraham Lincoln 1,819

Thomas Jefferson 1,193

WWII 27,782

“WHAT INTERESTS US?”

Where do you fit in

Family history?

Civil War?

Underground Railroad?

Research?

MID-HUDSON ANTISLAVERY HISTORY PROJECT

Research

Interpretation

Programs

CLASS SCHEDULE

• I –April 2 Background and Introduction

• II –April 9 Mid-Hudson Valley Focus

• III –April 16 Resistance and Runaways

• IV –April 23 Legacy and Learning: Antislavery Songs

From Olaudoh Equiano

To

John Bolding

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

THE IMPORTANCE OF AGENCY

- Enslavedmen and women

- Resistance

IN THE BEGINNING …

AFRICA AND THE AMERICAS

FROM AFRICA TO THE AMERICAS

THE SLAVE TRADE IN TWO MINUTES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra6Bs_VpsBw

THE MIDDLE PASSAGE

The Most Dangerous Part of the Journey

CONDITIONS OF TRAVEL

CONDITIONS OF TRAVEL- 2

RESISTANCE FROMTHE START

SLAVE SOCIETIES AND SOCIETIES WITH SLAVES

• Southern Colonies and Slavery

• Slavery in the North

•Customs and Laws

SLAVE MARKET PLAQUE

BOUND BY SLAVERY

New England and the West Indies

FROM CUSTOM TO CODE: THE HARDENING OF BLACK ENSLAVEMENT

Growing demand for labor

Ready supply from West Indies and Africa

Resistance

White fear

Free blacks and mulattoes

Custom Becomes Law: The Virginia Example (i)

1630s - It was "customary practice to hold some Negroes in a form of life service."

1639 - All persons except Negroes are to be with Arms and Ammunition.

1640 - John Punch, a runaway indentured Servant, first documented slave for life.

1662 - Slavery was recognized in the statutory law of the colony.

1662 - Children considered the same status as the mother.

1667 - Baptism does not bring freedom.

1670 - Blacks or Indians could no longer own white indentured servants.

Custom Becomes Law: The Virginia Example (ii)

1680 - Act to prevent slave insurrections. Blacks could not congregate in large numbers. Must obtain written authorization to leave a plantation -could not remain at another plantation longer than 4 hours.

1691 – Intermarriage between blacks and whites prohibited.

1691 - No Negro or Mulatto may be set free unless the owner pays for the transportation out of the colony.

1692 - Negroes must give up ownership of horses, cattle or hogs.

1692 - Separate courts for the trial of slaves charged with a capital crime, thus depriving them of the right of a trial by jury.

THE REVOLUTIONARY GENERATION

Choosing

- Slaveholding Founders- Ideal of Freedom, limited government- Colonial economies tied to slavery- Anti-Black prejudice

INTO NEW YORK