Slavery in English Colonies

Slavery and Society

• Traders brought millions of Africans to North America, South America, and the Caribbean for over 300 years.
• These Africans were taken from their homes, chained in ships, and then sold into slavery.

Treatment of Enslaved People

• The first Africans likely arrived in the English colonies in Virginia in 1619.
• Initially, English colonies used indentured servants as workers before transitioning to slavery.
• As more workers were needed, colonial governments legalized slavery.
• By the mid-1700s, slavery was legal in every colony.
• Laws declared that children born to enslaved people were also enslaved.
• Families were often separated and sold to different owners.
• In the Southern Colonies, most enslaved Africans worked on plantations.
• Treatment varied by owner; enslaved people were often beaten and abused.
• Escape was difficult but attempted.
• Speaking out against slavery was prohibited, but enslaved people resisted through rebellion, sabotage, feigning illness, or working slowly.
• Punishment for resistance was harsh.
• Enslaved people preserved their culture through storytelling and song.
• By the late 1700s, Christianity became a source of strength for some.
• Music was an important part of enslaved people's culture, involving songs, drums, and banjos.
• Some played the kalimba, or thumb piano.

A Farming Economy

• The Southern Colonies' economy was based on plantations, relying on enslaved labor.
• Cash crops produced by enslaved workers made plantation owners wealthy.
• Plantations were initially built along the Coastal Plain, with westward expansion by 1750.
• Plantation size grew with the planters' wealth.
• Some plantations resembled small villages.
• Plantations included workshops where enslaved people made nails, bricks, barrels, and other essential items.
• Plantation owners employed an overseer to supervise enslaved people.
• The overseer's house was usually near the fields, while enslaved workers' houses were farther from the planter's.
• Enslaved people maintained small gardens near their homes.
• Planters managed the plantations but did not perform the manual labor.
• Planters sometimes served as community judges or colonial assembly members.
• Many hired teachers to educate their children at home.
• Enslaved children were not allowed to attend school.
• It as illegal for enslaved people to learn to read or write with punishment if they were caught.

Life on Small Farms

• The Southern Colonies' economy relied mostly on crops from large plantations.
• Most colonists lived and worked on small farms.
• Former indentured servants often became small farm owners, but most did not become rich.
• Most small farm owners did not own enslaved people.
• Some did own enslaved people and worked alongside them but did not treat them as equals.
• Church services were major events because small farms were far apart.
• Families traveled for hours to attend church, where they socialized.

Free Africans

• Some Africans bought their freedom and started farms.
• Most did not want to participate in slavery.
• Some free Africans bought relatives to free them.
• Many enslaved people ran away to escape slavery and were often caught and returned.
• Some found refuge in Spanish Florida or were helped by Native American tribes.

The Black Seminoles

• The Seminole tribe provided runaway enslaved people with food and shelter.
• They gave runaways land in exchange for one-third of the crops.
• Many runaways adopted Seminole dress and language, becoming known as Black Seminoles.

Cash Crops

• Seaports like Charles Town were crucial to the Southern Colonies' economy.
• Plantations produced large quantities of cash crops that needed to be shipped to England and the West Indies.
• Different colonies grew different crops based on climate.
• The main cash crop in Maryland, Virginia, and northern North Carolina was tobacco.
• Tobacco cultivation required many workers and extensive land.
• Tobacco plants depleted soil nutrients after about seven years.
• In southern North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, the climate was too warm and wet for tobacco, so farmers grew rice.
• Rice became a major cash crop in South Carolina, known as "Carolina gold".
• Indigo plants, which produce a blue dye, were grown on drier land.
• Indigo became an important cash crop after Eliza Lucas Pinckney's experiments with the plant.
• By the 1740s, indigo was a major cash crop throughout South Carolina.
• Eliza Lucas Pinckney moved to South Carolina with her parents in 1738.
• Her father returned to the West Indies when she was sixteen years old.
• Eliza started experimenting with indigo seeds sent by her father, working very hard.
• After three years, she successfully grew an indigo plant that produced excellent dye.
• Eliza gave seeds to neighbors and friends who began to grow it too.
• Within a few years, South Carolina planters were selling one million pounds of the dye to clothmakers throughout Europe.

The Economy Grows

• Plantations were self-sufficient but relied on merchants for some goods and services.
• Traders and merchants depended on plantations for cash crops and raw materials.
• Interdependence: depending on one another for economic resources
• As plantations expanded, more cash crops were exported by the owners of large plantations, often sold through a broker.
• Brokers are paid to buy and sell crops and bought the goods the planters wanted.
• Location affected plantation success; the most successful were near rivers or ports.
• Location also influenced city growth; by the mid-1700s, southern Atlantic coastal towns like Norfolk and Savannah became large cities.
• Baltimore, Maryland, was founded in 1729 on the Patapsco River, which flows into Chesapeake Bay.
• Baltimore exported grain and tobacco.
• Baltimore became a major shipbuilding center and developed the Baltimore clipper, one of the fastest sailing ships.
• Although farming predominated, the Southern economy also included other industries.
• Forests were vital natural resources, aiding Wilmington, North Carolina.

Explore the history of enslaved people in the English colonies, from their initial arrival to the various forms of resistance they employed. Learn about the cultural preservation and the systems in place to oversee their forced labor. The traders brought millions of Africans to Americas.