SlaveryJosh Powers & Kristen Helinski

How the English Preceded the Africans

Mainly by their color In their mind the color black was freighted

with an array of negative images “Deeply stained dirt, foul, dark or deadly,

malignant, sinister and wicked”

White was seen as pure, innocent or good.

Shakespeare’s Portrayal

Shakespeare’s play introduced a character, Prospero, a common English man and Caliban, a man who was “driven by the passions of the body”, or in other words and African

The play described much of how the English felt in the colonial settlement of Virginia They wanted to destroy anything with primitive

aggressions which they considered the “Negros”

Colonial Virginia

The Africans were assumed to be captured from war or raids on enemy tribes before being sold

Africans were sold as indentured servants, people who were to repay their freedom with work

There weren’t many Africans in colonial Virginia at first because to the negative image given by African Americans

Indentured Servants

Outcasts of society Convicts, vagabonds, whores, cheats, and rogues

Endured horrible conditions and expect to perform strenuous work

Black and White Workers

Hostility between workers of different colors but sometimes small unions formed

Some black and white workers would run away together Blacks were singled out for harsher conditions

Longer working periods and harsher punishments for wrong doing

Blacks were highly valued compared to English indentured servants Especially Negro women because of their ability to reproduce

and esenitally create more slaves

Found it difficult to find work and places to live after being let go

Bacon’s Rebellion

Struggling freed slaves were finding it increasingly hard to obtain a job or place to live Seen as a threat to society because of potential

revolt

Led by Nathaniel Bacon Troops were made up of whites and blacks

Who was considered slave worthy?

In 1662, Legislation declared that children born in Virginia should be slave or free according to the condition of their mothers Smaller Laws issued prevented interracial unions

and punishment for anyone who violated them

The Anti-miscegenation Law- a white mother of a racially mixed child would be subject to banishment and the child would be enslaved Mulattoes became slaves because they were

classified as black

Thomas Jefferson

Active in the selling and buying of slaves Considered the wealthiest man because of his

ownership of properties and slaves Believed in “breeding woman”

Had devoted women for childbearing

Viewed children as more profit then a crop

Didn’t agree with freeing slaves because felt whites and blacks could never co-exsist

Didn’t agree with interracial relationships but was rumored to have bore children with a former slave, Betty Hemmings

Intro

Southern slavery was obvious – they were property

Northern – slavery was abolished, but African Americans were still degraded

More subtle

Black man would be cleaning white man’s shoes

North of Slavery

1860: 225,000 African Americans lived in north and were “free”

Blacks: “north of slavery”

“Although they are allowed to worship the same God as whites, it must be at a different altar and in their own churches with their own clergy” – Alexis DeTocqueville

“city of brotherly love” the scene of bloody anti-black riots

Law was there – practice was not

Was “Sambo” Real

South – 4 million African Americans were slaves

35% of population in 1860

Grueling work for hours upon hours

“Sambo” – “childlike, irresponsible, lazy, affectionate, and happy”

Slavemasters ENJOYED bonds between them and their childlike slaves

Fredrick Douglas: Son of His Master

Douglas was slave in the Auld home

Mrs. Auld treated him as her own child

She would educate him, teach him to read, etc.

Mr. Auld found out and scolded her “to never educate a nigger”

Douglas realized he could be free in North

This encouraged him to find ways to get education

Mr. Auld wanted to make him a better slave

Fredrick Douglas: Son of His Master

He had Mr. Covey take him as a slave until he was “broken” and knew nothing but how to be a slave

Douglas still dreamed of escape

“I would rather get killed running than die standing”

He snapped and grabbed slavemaster by neck

He realized he wasn’t afraid to die at this moment

Eventually escaped

Become big advocate for the abolition of slavery in north

Martin Delany: Father of Black Nationalism

Douglas thanked God for making him a man – Delany thanked God for making him a black man

Son of slave father and a free mother

Even being free he felt extreme pressures of racism (even in north)

Delany accepted at Harvard Med

Other students claimed their admittance would lower reputation and lower value of diploma

Caste, not Class – not rich vs. poor, but black vs. white

Martin Delany: Father of Black Nationalism

Delany believed as long as black and whites were in America, racism would exist

Blacks could not escape white suppression