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Slavery in the United States began soon after English colonists first settled Virginia and lasted until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Before the widespread establishment of chattel slavery, much labor was organized under a system of bonded labor known as indentured servitude. This typically lasted for several years for white and black alike, and it was a means of using labor to pay the costs of transporting people to the colonies.^[1] By the 18th century, court rulings established the racial basis of the American incarnation of slavery to apply chiefly to Africans and people of African descent, and occasionally to Native Americans.^[2] In part because of the Southern colonies' devotion of resources to tobacco culture, which was labor intensive, by the end of the 17th century they had a higher number and proportion of slaves than in the north.^[3] Image File history File links AmericaAfrica. ... An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black) is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... African American history is the portion of American history that specifically discusses the African American or Black American ethnic group in the United States. ... The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the transatlantic slave trade, was the trade of African people supplied to the colonies of the New World that occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean. ... The word Maafa (also known as the African Holocaust or Holocaust of Enslavement) is derived from a Kiswahili word meaning disaster, terrible occurrence or great tragedy. ... Military history of African Americans is that of African Americans in the United States since the arrival of the first black slaves in 1619 to the present day. ... Manifestations Slavery Racial profiling Lynching Hate speech Hate crime Genocide (examples) Ethnocide Ethnic cleansing Pogrom Race war Religious persecution Gay bashing Blood libel Paternalism Police brutality Movements Policies Discriminatory Race / Religion / Sex segregation Apartheid Redlining Internment Anti-discriminatory Emancipation Civil rights Desegregation Integration Equal opportunity Counter-discriminatory Affirmative action Racial... For the automotive term, see redline. ... American Civil Rights Movement redirects here. ... see African studies for the study of African culture and history in Africa. ... Reparations for slavery is a movement in the United States, which suggests that the government apologize to slave descendants for their hardships, and bestow on them reparations, whether it be in the form of money, land, or other goods. ... In the United States, African American culture or Black culture includes the various cultural traditions of African American communities. ... African American studies, or Black studies, is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to the study of the history, culture, and politics of African Americans. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... African American neighborhoods or black neighborhoods are types of ethnic enclaves found in many cities in the United States. ... In the United States, Historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) are colleges or universities that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the African American community. ... Kwanzaa (or Kwaanza) is a week-long Pan-African festival primarily honoring African-American heritage. ... African American art is a broad term describing the visual arts of the American black community. ... This is a list of museums about, or otherwise focused on African Americans. ... African American dances in the vernacular tradition (academically known as African American vernacular dance) are those dances which have developed within African American communities in everyday spaces, rather than in dance studios, schools or companies. ... The Color Purple by Alice Walker African American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. ... An African American man gives a piano lesson to a young African American woman, in 1899 or 1900, in Georgia, USA. Photograph from a collection of W.E.B. DuBois. ... The term black church or African American church refers to predominantly African American Christian churches that minister to black communities in the United States. ... Black theology is theology from the perspective of the African diaspora - any people or ethnic population forced or induced to leave their traditional homelands. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a religious and social/political organization founded in the United States by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930 with the self-proclaimed goal of resurrecting the spiritual, mental, social, economic condition of the black man and woman of America and belief that God will bring... Black Hebrew Israelites (also Black Hebrews, African Hebrew Israelites, and Hebrew Israelites) are groups of people of African ancestry situated mostly in the United States who claim to be descendants of the ancient Israelites. ... Hoodoo is a form of predominantly African American, Christian, traditional folk magic. ... For other uses, see Santeria (disambiguation). ... Pan-Africanism is a term which can have two separate, but related meanings. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... ‹ The template below is being considered for deletion. ... Black Capitalism is a name for a movement among African Americans to build wealth through the ownership and development of businesses. ... For the Nas song called Black Republican, see Hip Hop Is Dead. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... The Black Panther Party (originally called the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was an African American organization founded to promote civil rights and self-defense. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP, generally pronounced as EN Double AY SEE PEE) is one of the oldest and most influential civil rights organizations in the United States. ... The Southern Christian Leadership Conference Logo. ... “CORE” redirects here. ... The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (or SNCC, pronounced snick) was one of the principle organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. ... National Urban League Logo The National Urban League (NUL) is a nonpartisan civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of African Americans and against racial discrimination in the United States. ... The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) is a non-profit organization founded in Chicago, Illinois, in 1915 as The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History by Carter G. Woodson and Jesse E. Moorland. ... United Negro College Fund logo The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) is a Fairfax, Virginia-based American philanthropic organization that fundraises college tuition money for African-American students and general scholarship funds for 39 historically black colleges and universities. ... National Black Chamber of Commerce The National Black Chamber of Commerce, (NBCC), was “incorporated in March of 1993, in Washington D.C.” The organizations mission is “To economically empower and sustain African American communities, through the process of entrepreneurship and capitalistic activity within the United States and via interaction with... Not to be confused with National Panhellenic Conference. ... The Links, Incorporated is an exclusive non-profit organization based upon the ideals of combining friendship and community service and was was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 9, 1946, from a group of ladies known as the Philadelphia Club to have focuses on civic, cultural, and educational endeavors[1... The National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) was founded in 1935 by Mary McLeod Bethune, child of slave parents, distinguished educator and government consultant. ... Part of the History of baseball in the United States series. ... The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) is a college athletic conference made up of historically black colleges in the southeastern United States. ... logo of Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) is a College athletic conference consisting of historically black colleges located in the southern United States. ... The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) is a collegiate athletic conference which consists of historically black colleges in the southeastern United States. ... The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a college athletic conference made up of historically black universities in the southern United States. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The Gullah language (Sea Island Creole English, Geechee) is a creole language spoken by the Gullah people (also called Geechees), an African American population living on the Sea Islands and the coastal region of the U.S. states of South Carolina and Georgia. ... Louisiana Creole (Créole Louisiane and Kourí-Viní, as it is known in and near St. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Notable African-Americans or Black Americans // List of African American writers List of African American nonfiction writers List of composers of African descent African Americans in the United States Congress (includes a long list) List of African American Republicans List of civil rights leaders List of African American abolitionists List... African-Americans are a demographic minority in the United States. ... This is a list of landmark legislation, court decisions, executive orders, and proclamations in the United States significantly affecting African Americans. ... This is an alphabetical list of African-American-related topics: Contents: Top - 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A African American African American contemporary issues African American culture... British colonization of the Americas (including colonization under the Kingdom of England before the 1707 Acts of Union created the Kingdom of Great Britain) began in the late 16th century, before reaching its peak after colonies were established throughout the Americas, and a protectorate was established in Hawaii. ... A map of the Colony of Virginia. ... Amendment XIII in the National Archives The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution officially abolished, and continues to prohibit slavery and, with limited exceptions (those convicted of a crime), prohibits involuntary servitude. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into slavery. ... An Indentured servant is an unfree labourer under contract to work (for a specified amount of time) for another person, often without any pay, but in exchange for accommodation, food, other essentials and/or free passage to a new country. ... Whites redirects here. ... Though most indigenous Africans possess relatively dark skin, they exhibit much variation in physical appearance. ... Slave redirects here. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. ... This article is about the people indigenous to the United States. ... The Southern Colonies of British North America were the North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, and Virginia, where the first permanent settlement among them was at Jamestown. ... Shredded tobacco leaf for pipe smoking Tobacco can also be pressed into plugs and sliced into flakes Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the fresh leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. ... In 1775, the British claimed authority over the red and pink areas on this map and Spain ruled the orange. ...

From 1654 until 1865, slavery for life was legal within the boundaries of the present United States.^[4] Most slaves were black and were held by whites, although some Native Americans and free blacks also held slaves. The majority of slaveholding was in the southern United States where most slaves were engaged in an efficient machine-like gang system of agriculture. According to the 1860 U.S. census, nearly four million slaves were held in a total population of just over 12 million in the 15 states in which slavery was legal.^[5] Of all 1,515,605 families in the 15 slave states, 393,967 held slaves (roughly one in four),^[6] amounting to 8% of all American families.^[7] Most households, however, had only a few slaves. The majority of slaves was held by planters, defined by historians as those who held 20 or more slaves.^[8] The planters achieved wealth and social and political power. Ninety-five percent of black people lived in the South, comprising one-third of the population there, as opposed to 2% of the population of the North.^[9] Historic Southern United States. ... The free and slave states as of 1861, with free states in blue and slave states in red. ... Regional definitions vary from source to source. ...

The wealth of the United States in the first half of the 19th century was greatly enhanced by the labor of African Americans.^[10][11] But with the Union victory in the American Civil War, the slave-labor system was abolished in the South.^[12] This led to the decline of the antebellum Southern economy. The large southern cotton plantations became much less profitable because of the loss of the efficiencies in the gang system of agriculture.^[13] Northern industry, which had expanded rapidly before and during the war, surged even further ahead of the South's agricultural economy. Industrialists from northeastern states came to dominate many aspects of the nation's life, including social and some aspects of political affairs. The planter class of the South lost power temporarily. The rapid economic development following the Civil War laid the groundwork for the modern U.S. industrial economy. Animated map of secession, Civil War and re-admission:  States of the Union  Territories of the Union (including occupied territory)  States of the Confederacy  Territories claimed by Confederacy During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the twenty-three states of the United States... Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America (Confederacy) Commanders Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee Strength 2,200,000 1,064,000 Casualties 110,000 killed in action, 360,000 total dead, 275,200 wounded 93,000 killed in action, 258,000 total... For other uses, see Cotton (disambiguation). ... Agriculture is a major industry in the United States and the country is a net exporter of food. ... Map of the US northeast. ... Politics of the United States takes place in a framework of a presidential republic, whereby the President of the United States is head of state, head of government, and of a two-party legislative and electoral system. ... The economy of the United States has been the worlds largest national economy since the late 1890s;[1] its gross domestic product (GDP) was estimated as $13. ...

Twelve million black Africans were shipped to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th centuries.^[14][15] Of these, an estimated 645,000 (5.4% of the total) were brought to what is now the United States. The overwhelming majority were shipped to Brazil^[16] The slave population in the United States had grown to four million by the 1860 Census.^[17] World map showing the Americas CIA political map of the Americas in an equal-area projection The Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World, consisting of the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. ...

Colonial America

Main article: Slavery in Colonial America

The first record of African slavery in Colonial America occurred in 1619. A Dutch ship, the White Lion, had captured 20 enslaved Africans in a battle with a Spanish ship bound for Mexico. The Dutch ship had been damaged first by the battle and then more severely in a great storm during the late summer when it came ashore at Old Point Comfort, site of present day Fort Monroe in Virginia. Though the colony was in the middle of a period later known as "The Great Migration" (1618-1623), during which its population grew from 450 to 4,000 residents, extremely high mortality rates from disease, malnutrition, and war with Indians kept the population of able-bodied laborers low [4]. With the Dutch ship being in severe need of repairs and supplies and the colonists being in need of able-bodied workers, the human cargo was traded for food and services. The origins of slavery in Colonial America are complex and there are several theories that have been proposed to explain the trade. ... The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the transatlantic slave trade, was the trade of African people supplied to the colonies of the New World that occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean. ... Satellite Photo of Fort Monroe Fort Monroe, Virginia (also known as Fortress Monroe) is a military installation located at Old Point Comfort on the tip of the Virginia Peninsula at the mouth of Hampton Roads on the Chesapeake Bay in eastern Virginia in the United States. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... In medicine, infectious disease or communicable disease is disease caused by a biological agent (e. ... Percentage of population affected by malnutrition by country, according to United Nations statistics. ... This article is about the people indigenous to the United States. ...

In addition to African slaves, Europeans, mostly Irish,^[18] Scottish,^[19] English, and Germans, were brought over in substantial numbers as indentured servants,^[20] particularly in the British Thirteen Colonies.^[21] Over half of all white immigrants to the English colonies of North America during the 17th and 18th centuries consisted of indentured servants.^[22] The white citizens of Virginia, who had arrived from Britain, decided to treat the first Africans in Virginia as indentured servants. As with European indentured servants, the Africans were freed after a stated period and given the use of land and supplies by their former owners, and at least one African American, Anthony Johnson, eventually became a landowner on the Eastern Shore and a slave-owner.^[23] The major problem with indentured servants was that in time they would be freed, but they were unlikely to become prosperous. The best lands in the tidewater regions were already in the hands of wealthy plantation families by 1650, and the former servants became an underclass. Bacon's Rebellion showed that the poor laborers and farmers could prove a dangerous element to the wealthy landowners. By switching to pure chattel slavery, new white laborers and small farmers were mostly limited to those who could afford to immigrate and support themselves. This article is about the Scottish people as an ethnic group. ... This article is about the English as an ethnic group and nation. ... An indentured servant (also called a bonded laborer) is a labourer unde from the employer in exchange for an extension to the period of their indenture, which could thereby continue indefinitely. ... In 1775, the British claimed authority over the red and pink areas on this map and Spain ruled the orange. ... Anthony Johnson was a black man in the Virginia Colony in the 17th century. ... The Eastern Shore of Virginia is on the Atlantic Coast of the Commonwealth of Virginia. ... The Tidewater region of Virginia is the southeastern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia, centered on Hampton Roads. ... Bacons Rebellion or the Virginia Rebellion was an uprising in 1676 in the Virginia Colony, led by Nathaniel Bacon. ...

Slaves on a Virginia plantation (The Old Plantation, c. 1790)

The transformation from indentured servitude to racial slavery happened gradually. There were no laws regarding slavery early in Virginia's history. However, by 1640 the Virginia courts had sentenced at least one black servant to slavery. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 510 pixelsFull resolution (1149 × 732 pixel, file size: 497 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Plantation Dance, Virginia (?), ca. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 510 pixelsFull resolution (1149 × 732 pixel, file size: 497 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Plantation Dance, Virginia (?), ca. ...

In 1654, John Casor, a black man, became the first legally-recognized slave in the area to become the United States. A court in Northampton County ruled against Casor, declaring him property for life, "owned" by the black colonist Anthony Johnson. Since persons with African origins were not English citizens by birth, they were not necessarily covered by English Common Law. In 1654, John Casor of Northampton County in the Virginia Colony, became the first person now known from the legal records of the Thirteen Colonies to be declared a slave for life. ... Northampton County is a county located in the state of Virginia. ... Personal property is a type of property. ... This article concerns the common-law legal system, as contrasted with the civil law legal system; for other meanings of the term, within the field of law, see common law (disambiguation). ...

The Virginia Slave codes of 1705 made clear the status of slaves. During the British colonial period, every colony had slavery. Those in the north were primarily house servants. Early on, slaves in the South worked on farms and plantations growing indigo, rice, and tobacco; cotton became a major crop after the 1790s.^[24] In South Carolina in 1720 about 65% of the population consisted of slaves.^[25] Slaves were used by rich farmers and plantation owners with commercial export operations. Backwoods subsistence farmers seldom owned slaves. Slave codes were laws passed in colonial North America to regulate any state of subjection to a force, and were abolished after the U.S. Civil War. ... This article is about crop plantations. ... There is no single indigo plant. A variety of plants have been used to produce indigo dye. ... For other uses, see Rice (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Cotton (disambiguation). ... A map of the Province of Carolina. ...

Some of the British colonies attempted to abolish the international slave trade, fearing that the importation of new Africans would be disruptive. Virginia bills to that effect were vetoed by the British Privy Council; Rhode Island forbade the import of slaves in 1774. All of the colonies except Georgia had banned or limited the African slave trade by 1786; Georgia did so in 1798 - although some of these laws were later repealed.^[26]
The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the transatlantic slave trade, was the trade of African people supplied to the colonies of the New World that occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean. ... Her Majestys Most Honourable Privy Council is a body of advisors to the British Sovereign. ... Providence Plantation was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Baptist minister fleeing from religious persecution in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. ...

The West Africa Squadron was assisted by forces from the United States Navy, starting in 1820 with the USS Cyane. Initially this consisted of a few ships but was eventually formalised by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 into the Africa Squadron.^[27] The West Africa Squadron, established in 1808 after the passing of the Slave Trade Act in 1807, was a unit of the Royal Navy that was involved in the suppression of the slave trade in West Africa. ... USN redirects here. ... Cyane was a sailing frigate built in 1796 at Frinsbury, England, for the Royal Navy. ... The Webster-Ashburton Treaty, signed August 9, 1842, settled the dispute over the location of the Maine-New Brunswick border between the United States and Great Britain and the shared use of the Great Lakes. ... The Africa Squadron was a unit of the United States Navy that operated from 1843 to 1859 to suppress the slave trade along the coast of West Africa. ...

1776 to 1850

Second Middle Passage

As the nation expanded west, so did the cultivation of cotton^[28] and the institution of slavery. Historian Peter Kolchin wrote, "By breaking up existing families and forcing slaves to relocate far from everyone and everything they knew" this migration "replicated (if on a reduced level) many of [the] horrors" of the Atlantic slave trade.^[29] Historian Ira Berlin called this movement the Second Middle Passage. Characterizing it as the "central event” in the life of a slave between the American Revolution and the Civil War, Berlin wrote that whether they were uprooted themselves or simply lived in fear that they or their families would be involuntarily moved, "the massive deportation traumatized black people, both slave and free."^[30] A government map, probably created in the mid-20th century, that depicts a simplified history of territorial acquisitions within the continental United States. ... This article is about the slave trade route. ... John Trumbulls Declaration of Independence, showing the five-man committee in charge of drafting the Declaration in 1776 as it presents its work to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia The American Revolution refers to the period during the last half of the 18th century in which the Thirteen...

Although complete statistics are lacking, it is estimated that 1,000,000 slaves moved west between 1790 and 1860. Most of the slaves were moved from Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas. Originally the points of destination were Kentucky and Tennessee, but after 1810 Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas received the most. In the 1830s, almost 300,000 were transported, with Alabama and Mississippi receiving 100,000 each. Every decade between 1810 and 1860 had at least 100,000 slaves moved from their state of origin. In the final decade before the Civil War, 250,000 were moved. Michael Tadman, in a 1989 book Speculators and Slaves: Masters, Traders, and Slaves in the Old South, indicates that 60-70% of interregional migrations were the result of the sale of slaves. In 1820 a child in the Upper South had a 30% chance to be sold south by 1860.^[31] Official language(s) None (English, de facto) Capital Annapolis Largest city Baltimore Largest metro area Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area Area  Ranked 42nd  - Total 12,407 sq mi (32,133 km²)  - Width 101 miles (145 km)  - Length 249 miles (400 km)  - % water 21  - Latitude 37° 53′ N to 39° 43′ N... This article is about the U.S. state. ... The Carolinas is a collective term used in the United States to refer to the states of North and South Carolina together. ... Official language(s) English[1] Capital Frankfort Largest city Louisville Area  Ranked 37th  - Total 40,444 sq mi (104,749 km²)  - Width 140 miles (225 km)  - Length 379 miles (610 km)  - % water 1. ... This article is about the U.S. state of Tennessee. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... For other uses, see Texas (disambiguation). ...

Slave traders were responsible for the majority of the slaves that moved west. Only a minority moved with their families and existing owner. Slave traders had little interest in purchasing or transporting intact slave families, although in the interest of creating a "self-reproducing labor force" equal numbers of men and women were transported. Berlin wrote, "The internal slave trade became the largest enterprise in the South outside the plantation itself, and probably the most advanced in its employment of modern transportation, finance, and publicity." The slave trade industry developed its own unique language with terms such as "prime hands, bucks, breeding wenches, and fancy girls" coming into common use.^[32] The expansion of the interstate slave trade contributed to the "economic revival of once depressed seaboard states" as demand accelerated the value of the slaves that were subject to sale.^[33]

Some traders moved their "chattels" by sea, with Norfolk to New Orleans being the most common route, but most slaves were forced to walk. Regular migration routes were established and were served by a network of slave pens, yards, and warehouses needed as temporary housing for the slaves. As the trek advanced, some slaves were sold and new ones purchased. Berlin concluded, "In all, the slave trade, with its hubs and regional centers, its spurs and circuits, reached into every cranny of southern society. Few southerners, black or white, were untouched."^[34] Motto: Crescas (Latin for, Thou shalt grow. ... NOLA redirects here. ...

The death rate for the slaves on their way to their new destination across the American South was much less than that of the captives on their way across the Atlantic Ocean, but they were still higher than the normal death rate. Berlin summarizes the experience:

... the Second Middle Passage was extraordinarily lonely, debilitating, and dispiriting. Capturing the mournful character of one southward marching coffle, an observer characterized it as "a procession of men, women, and children resembling that of a funeral." Indeed, with men and women dying on the march or being sold and resold, slaves became not merely commodified but cut off from nearly every human attachment....

Murder and mayhem made the Second Middle Passage almost as dangerous for traders as it was for slaves, which was why the men were chained tightly and guarded closely. ... The coffles that marched slaves southward – like the slave ships that carried their ancestors westward – became mobile fortresses, and under such circumstances, flight was more common than revolt. Slaves found it easier – and far less perilous – to slip into the night and follow the North Star to the fabled land of freedom than to confront their heavily armed overlords.^[35]

Once the trip was ended, slaves faced a life on the frontier significantly different from their experiences back east. Clearing trees and starting crops on virgin fields was harsh and backbreaking work. A combination of inadequate nutrition, bad water, and exhaustion from both the journey and the work weakened the newly arrived slaves and produced casualties. The preferred locations of the new plantations in river bottoms with mosquitoes and other environmental challenges threatened the survival of slaves, who had acquired only limited immunities in their previous homes. The death rate was such that, in the first few years of hewing a plantation out of the wilderness, some planters preferred whenever possible to use rented slaves rather than their own.^[36] For other uses, see Mosquito (disambiguation). ...

The harsh conditions on the frontier increased slave resistance and led to much more reliance on violence by the owners and overseers. Many of the slaves were new to cotton fields and unaccustomed to the "sunrise-to-sunset gang labor" required by their new life. Slaves were driven much harder than when they were involved in growing tobacco or wheat back east. Slaves also had less time and opportunity to boost the quality of their lifestyle by raising their own livestock or tending vegetable gardens, for either their own consumption or trade, as they could in the eastern south.^[37] Species T. aestivum T. boeoticum T. dicoccoides T. dicoccon T. durum T. monococcum T. spelta T. sphaerococcum T. timopheevii References:   ITIS 42236 2002-09-22 Wheat Wheat For the indie rock group, see Wheat (band). ... Sheep are commonly bred as livestock. ...

In Louisiana it was sugar, rather than cotton, that was the main crop. Between 1810 and 1830 the number of slaves increased from under 10,000 to over 42,000. New Orleans became nationally important as a slave port and by the 1840s had the largest slave market in the country. Dealing with sugar cane was even more physically demanding than growing cotton, and the preference was for young males, who represented two-thirds of the slave purchases. The largely young, unmarried male slave force made the reliance on violence by the owners “especially savage.”^[38] This article is about sugar as food and as an important and widely-traded commodity. ...

Treatment of slaves

Slave market, built in 1762, in Newport, Rhode Island, now home to the Museum of Newport History

Historian Kenneth M. Stampp describes the role of coercion in slavery, “Without the power to punish, which the state conferred upon the master, bondage could not have existed. By comparison, all other techniques of control were of secondary importance.” Stampp further notes that while rewards sometimes led slaves to perform adequately, most agreed with an Arkansas slaveholder, who wrote: Newport, Rhode Island Newport is a city in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about 30 miles (48 km) south of Providence. ... // Kenneth Milton Stampp (July 12, 1912 - ), Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of History Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley (1946-1983), is a celebrated historian of slavery, the American Civil War, and Reconstruction. ... Unfree labour is a generic or collective term for those work relations, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will by the threat of destitution, detention, violence (including death), or other extreme hardship to themselves, or to members of their families. ...

Now, I speak what I know, when I say it is like ‘casting pearls before swine' to try to persuade a negro to work. He must be made to work, and should always be given to understand that if he fails to perform his duty he will be punished for it.^[39]

According to both the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Brion Davis and Marxist historian Eugene Genovese, treatment of slaves was both harsh and inhumane. Whether laboring or walking about in public, people living as slaves were regulated by legally authorized violence. Davis makes the point that, while some aspects of slavery took on a "welfare capitalist" look,: The Pulitzer Prize is an American award regarded as the highest national honor in print journalism, literary achievements, and musical composition. ... David Brion Davis is Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University. ... Marxism is both the theory and the political practice (that is, the praxis) derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ... Eugence Dominic Genosvese (May 19, 1930-) was formally a Marxist and historian of the American South. ...

Yet we must never forget that these same "welfare capitalist" plantations in the Deep South were essentially ruled by terror. Even the most kindly and humane masters knew that only the threat of violence could force gangs of field hands to work from dawn to dusk "with the discipline," as one contemporary observer put it, "of a regular trained army." Frequent public floggings reminded every slave of the penalty for inefficient labor, disorderly conduct, or refusal to accept the authority of a superior.^[40]

On large plantations, slave overseers were authorized to whip and brutalize non-compliant slaves. Slave codes authorized, indemnified or even required the use of violence, and were denounced by abolitionists for their brutality. Both slaves and free blacks were regulated by the Black Codes and had their movements monitored by slave patrols conscripted from the white population which were allowed to use summary punishment against escapees, sometimes maiming or killing them. In addition to physical abuse and murder, slaves were at constant risk of losing members of their families if their owners decided to trade them for profit, punishment, or to pay debts. A few slaves retaliated by murdering owners and overseers, burning barns, killing horses, or staging work slowdowns.^[41] Stampp, without contesting Genovese's assertions concerning the violence and sexual exploitation faced by slaves, does question the appropriateness of a Marxian approach in analyzing the owner-slave relationship.^[42] A bullwhip is a single-tailed whip, usually made of braided leather, which was originally used as a farmers tool for working with livestock. ... Look up Indemnity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about slavery. ... The Black Codes were laws passed on the state and local level in the United States to restrict the civil rights and civil liberties of Black People, particularly former slaves. ... Slave patrols (called patrollers or pattyrollers by the slaves) were gangs of poor white people who enforced discipline upon black slaves in groups of 3 to 6 men during the antebellum U.S. southern states. ... Sexual slavery is a special case of slavery which includes various different practices: forced prostitution single-owner sexual slavery ritual slavery, sometimes associated with traditional religious practices slavery for primarily non-sexual purposes where sex is common or permissible In general, the nature of slavery means that the slave is...

Genovese claims that because the slaves were the legal property of their owners, it was not unusual for enslaved black women to be raped by their owners, members of their owner's families, or their owner's friends. Children who resulted from such rapes were slaves as well because they took the status of their mothers, unless freed by the slaveholder. Nell Irwin Painter and other historians have also documented that Southern history went "across the color line". Contemporary accounts by Mary Chesnut and Fanny Kemble, both married in the planter class, as well as accounts by former slaves gathered under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), all attested to the abuse of women slaves by white men of the owning and overseer class. Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut (March 31, 1823 – November 22, 1886) was a South Carolina woman famous for keeping an extremely detailed diary describing the American Civil War. ... Fanny Kemble as a young girl Frances Anne Kemble (Fanny Kemble) (1809 - 1893), the actress and author, was Charles Kembles elder daughter; she was born in London, and educated chiefly in France. ... WPA Graphic The Works Progress Administration (later Work Projects Administration, abbreviated WPA), was created on May 6, 1935 by Presidential order (Congress funded it annually but did not set it up). ...

However, the Nobel economist Robert Fogel controversially describes the belief that slave-breeding and sexual exploitation destroyed the black family as a myth. The family was the basic unit of social organization under slavery; it was to the economic interest of planters to encourage the stability of slave families, and most of them did so. Most slave sales were either of whole families or of individuals who were at an age when it would have been normal for them to have left the family.^[43] Robert William Fogel (born July 1, 1926) is an American economic historian and scientist, and winner (with Douglass North) of the 1993 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. ...

According to Genovese, slaves were fed, clothed, housed and provided medical care in the most minimal manner. It was common to pay small bonuses during the Christmas season, and some slave owners permitted their slaves to keep earnings and gambling profits. (One slave, Denmark Vesey, is known to have won a lottery and bought his freedom.) In many households, treatment of slaves varied with the slave's skin color. Darker-skinned slaves worked in the fields, while lighter-skinned house servants had comparatively better clothing, food and housing.^[44] For other uses, see Christmas (disambiguation). ... Denmark Vesey (originally Telemaque, 1767? — July 2, 1822) was an African American slave, and later a freeman, who planned what would have been one of the largest slave rebellions in the United States had word of the plans not been leaked. ...

As in President Thomas Jefferson's household, this was not merely an issue of skin color. Sometimes planters used light-skinned slaves as house servants because they were relatives. Several of Jefferson's household slaves were children of his father-in-law and an enslaved woman, who were brought to the marriage by Jefferson's wife. Thomas Jefferson (13 April 1743 N.S.–4 July 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–09), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in the United States. ...

However, Fogel argues that the material conditions of the lives of slaves compared favorably with those of free industrial workers. They were not good by modern standards, but this fact emphasizes the hard lot of all workers, free or slave, during the first half of the 19th century. Over the course of his lifetime, the typical slave field hand received about 90% of the income he produced.^[43]

In a survey, 58% of historians and 42% of economists disagreed with the proposition that the material condition of slaves compared favorably with those of free industrial workers.^[43]

Slaves were considered legal non-persons except if they committed crimes. An Alabama court asserted that slaves "are rational beings, they are capable of committing crimes; and in reference to acts which are crimes, are regarded as persons. Because they are slaves, they are incapable of performing civil acts, and, in reference to all such, they are things, not persons."^[45]

In 1811, Arthur William Hodge was the first slave owner executed for the murder of a slave in the British West Indies.^[46] He though was not, as some have claimed, the first white person to have been lawfully executed for the killing of a slave.^[47] Records indicate at least two earlier incidents. On November 23, 1739, in Williamsburg, Virginia, two white men, Charles Quin and David White, were hanged for the murder of another white man's black slave; and on April 21, 1775, the Fredericksburg newspaper, the Virginia Gazette reported that a white man William Pitman had been hanged for the murder of his own black slave.^[48] Roadtown, Tortola The term British West Indies refers to territories in and around the Caribbean which were colonised by Great Britain. ... Death penalty, death sentence, and execution redirect here. ... is the 327th day of the year (328th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... // About the number 1739 1739 is the smallest integer that can be written as sum of three perfect cubes, in two ways. ... Location in the Commonwealth of Virginia. ... is the 111th day of the year (112th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1775 (MDCCLXXV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar). ... Location in Virginia Coordinates: Country United States State Virginia County Independent City* Founded 1728 Incorporated 1781 Government  - Mayor Thomas Tomzak Area  - City  10. ... The Virginia Gazette (also called simply Virginia Gazette) is the local newspaper of the City of Williamsburg and James City County, Virginia. ...

Women's rights

While working on plantations and farms, women and men had equal labor-intensive work. However, much of the hard labor was taken care of by men or by women who were past the child-bearing stage. Some of the labor-intensive jobs given to women were: cooking for the owner's household as well as the slaves themselves, sewing, midwifery, pruning fields, and many other laborious occupations.

In 1837, an Antislavery Convention of American Women met in New York City with both black and white women participating. Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had first met at the convention and realized the need for a separate women's rights movement. At the London gathering Stanton also met other women delegates such as Emily Winslow, Abby Southwick, Elizabeth Neal, Mary Grew, Abby Kimber, as well as many other women. However, during the Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society meetings, which Stanton and Winslow attended, the hosts refused to seat the women delegates. This resulted in a convention of their own to form a "society to advocate the rights of women". In 1848 at Seneca Falls, New York, Stanton and Winslow launched the women's rights movement, becoming one of the most diverse and social forces in American life.^[49] New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Lucretia Coffin Mott (January 3, 1793 – November 11, 1880) was an American Quaker minister, abolitionist, social reformer and proponent of womens rights. ... Elizabeth Cady Stanton (November 12, 1815 – October 26, 1902) was an American social activist and leading figure of the early womans movement. ... The term women’s rights typically refers to freedoms inherently possessed by women and girls of all ages, which may be institutionalized or ignored and/or illegitimately suppressed by law or custom in a particular society. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... Seneca Falls refers to a town and a village in Seneca County, New York: Seneca Falls (town) Seneca Falls (village) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Abolitionist movement

Beginning in the 1750s, there was widespread sentiment during the American Revolution that slavery was a social evil (for the country as a whole and for the whites) and should eventually be abolished. All the Northern states passed emancipation acts between 1780 and 1804; most of these arranged for gradual emancipation and a special status for freedmen, so there were still a dozen "permanent apprentices" in New Jersey in 1860.^[50] John Trumbulls Declaration of Independence, showing the five-man committee in charge of drafting the Declaration in 1776 as it presents its work to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia The American Revolution refers to the period during the last half of the 18th century in which the Thirteen... This article is about the U.S. state. ...

The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 declared all men "born free and equal"; the slave Quork Walker sued for his freedom on this basis and won his freedom, thus abolishing slavery in Massachusetts. The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the fundamental governing document of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. ... Walker Lewis was an early African American abolitionist, Freemason, and Mormon Elder from Massachusetts. ...

Throughout the first half of the 19th century, a movement to end slavery grew in strength throughout the United States. This struggle took place amid strong support for slavery among white Southerners, who profited greatly from the system of enslaved labor. These slave owners began to refer to slavery as the "peculiar institution" in a defensive attempt to differentiate it from other examples of forced labor. The peculiar institution was an euphemism for slavery and the economic ramifications of it in the American South. ...

The large, well-funded American Colonization Society had an active program of shipping ex-slaves and free blacks who volunteered back to Africa to the American colony of Liberia. The American Colonization Society (in full, The Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America) was an organization that helped in founding Liberia, a colony on the coast of West Africa, in 1821 and transported free blacks there from the United States. ...

After 1830, a religious movement led by William Lloyd Garrison declared slavery to be a personal sin and demanded the owners repent immediately and start the process of emancipation. The movement was highly controversial and was a factor in causing the American Civil War. William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December 12, 1805–May 24, 1879) was a prominent United States abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer. ... For other uses, see Sin (disambiguation). ... The battle of Fort Sumter was the first stage in a conflict that had been brewing for decades. ...

Very few abolitionists, such as John Brown, favored the use of armed force to foment uprisings among the slaves; others tried to use the legal system. John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859) was a white American abolitionist who advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish all slavery. ...

Peter, a slave from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1863. The scars are a result of a whipping by his overseer, who was subsequently discharged. It took two months to recover from the beating. This man's name is also given as "Gordon". See [http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/detailsKeyword.php?keyword=results%20of%20severe%20whipping&recordCount=1&theRecord=0

Influential leaders of the abolition movement (1810-60) included: Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1558x2581, 685 KB) Description : Cicatrices de flagellation sur un esclave (2 avril 1863, Baton Rouge, États-Unis) Source : Archive national des États-Unis - National Archives and Records Administration Baton Rouge, La. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1558x2581, 685 KB) Description : Cicatrices de flagellation sur un esclave (2 avril 1863, Baton Rouge, États-Unis) Source : Archive national des États-Unis - National Archives and Records Administration Baton Rouge, La. ... For the Canadian restaurant, see Baton Rouge (restaurant). ...

• William Lloyd Garrison - published The Liberator newspaper
• Harriet Beecher Stowe - author of Uncle Tom's Cabin
• Frederick Douglass - nation's most powerful anti-slavery speaker, a former slave. Most famous for his book Narrative in the Life of Frederick Douglass.
• Harriet Tubman - helped 350 slaves escape from the South, became known as a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad.

Slave uprisings that used armed force (1700 - 1859) include: William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December 12, 1805–May 24, 1879) was a prominent United States abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer. ... This article is about the abolitionist newspaper. ... Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe (June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American author and abolitionist, whose novel Uncle Toms Cabin (1852) attacked the cruelty of slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential, even in Britain. ... Uncle Toms Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, is American author Harrie