PRESENTATION OUTLINE
American Slavery: 1600-1800s
Slaves were first brought to America 1619 by a Dutch ship. It carried 20 slaves and delivered them to Jamestown, Virginia.
Bacon's Rebellion in 1676 symbolized the class divide in Virginia. The upperclass, instead of fighting the lowerclass, created a social divide according to race.
From 1680 to 1730, slavery became an increasingly popular system, as the pool of indentured servants declined and the profitability of slaves rose.
With America and Britain both in periods of economic prosperity, less British people wanted to be indentured servants and more American farmers could purchase slaves.
By the late 1700's, the southern colonies started to pass laws designed to separate people by race, validate slavery and reinforce it.
It was legal for slave owners to kill their slaves. On the other hand slaves were sentenced to death for resisting a white person.
In 1831, Nat Turner led the largest American slave rebellion in history, which killed 60 white people before being defeated by federal troops.
Despite, occasional rebellions, slaves more commonly responded to their circumstances by neglecting their duties or banding with other slaves to make their own culture.
Many slaves turned to religion (typically Christianity), which they used as a way to express hope for freedom from bondage.
Slaves also developed their own type of music to communicate with each other by using a combination of English and African words.
The slave family was very frequently broken up due to slave trading; however, it still strongly emphasized the values of kinship.
