Topic 2.6

📍Topic 2.6 Slavery in the British Colonies

📖 AMSCO p.59 - p.62

Main Idea

Key Timeline

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Things to Know

Demand for Labor

• The new demand for tobacco and the high-intensity labor needs of plantations came with a need for cheap labor.
• Efforts to use Native Americans for labor failed as they would escape and frequently fought with the colonists.
• Plantation owners tried to use indentured servants, but due to their limited working period, they were impractical.

The Institution of Slavery

• The beginning of slavery in the colonies started with indentured African laborers who were eventually freed.
• Laws were eventually created to impose greater restrictions on African laborers and keep them under life bondages.
• Most slaves were employed in Southern plantations. They made up a most of the population in the South.
• Many Northerners profited from slavery by participating in the Middle Passage and the slave trade as a whole.

Increased Demand for Enslaved Africans

• Several factors explained the rise of slavery:
  • Reduced migration to the colonies
  • A lack of a dependable workforce
  • Plantation owners were skeptical of indentured servant labor (Ex: Bacon’s Rebellion)
  • To keep plantations profitable, labor had to be cheap

Slave Laws

• Due to fears of a slave uprising and losing cheap labor, lawmakers designed laws to enslave African laborers for life.
• Slaves now inherited their enslaved status at birth, and interracial marriage was banned.
• Many Whites began to view African-Americans as inferior to themselves.

Resistance to Slavery

• Some slaves tried to keep their families together despite the reality of separation.
• Even under the threat of punishment, slaves protested through hunger strikes, fleeing, or refusal to work.
• Many slaves integrated African religious practices such as songs and storytelling into Christianity.

Terms to Remember