African American

Studies
Chapter Three:
BLACK PEOPLE IN COLONIAL
NORTH AMERICA, 1526-1763
 The Peoples of Eastern North
America: Eastern Woodland Indians
 Original inhabitants of eastern North America
 Variety of languages, diverse environments,
distinct tribes
 Migration across bridge connecting Siberia and
Alaska 12,000 years ago
 Mistaken assumptions
 Civilizations with: hereditary monarchies, formal
religions, armies, social classes, stone temples,
great cities, official records, astronomy,
mathematics, held land communally, women’s
rights,
 Weakened by disease
 A refuge for escaping slaves
 The Peoples of Eastern North
America: The British and Jamestown
 The British: English, Welsh, Scots, and Irish
 Comparatively poor
 1497: Voyage of John Cabot
– Too poor to fund colonization
– Protestant Reformation
 1607: Jamestown
– Virginia Company of London
– Gold, rice, sugar
 Tobacco
– Native Americans
– England’s undesirables (until 1700)
 Africans Arrive in the Chesapeake
 Spanish Colonization
– 1526: Luis Vasquez de Allyon
 Spanish Colony
 Georgetown, South Carolina
– Hernado de Soto
 Florida to Mississippi
 1565: St. Augustine, Florida
 English Colony at Jamestown
– 1619:Portuguese slaver from Angola
– Dutch warship and English ship attack slaver
– Angolans arrive in Jamestown
– “Unfree” but not slaves
 No English law for slavery
 English custom and morality: Christians could not be enslaved
 Work off purchase price
– Antoney and Isabella marry
– 1624: William
Black Servitude in the Chesapeake
 Indentured servitude
– Apprenticeship
– Passage to North America
– 1620s-1670s: unfree indentured servants
 Death: overworked, disease
 Hope of freedom

– Anthony Johnson
 1621: arrives in colony

 1651: 250 acres

– Owned land, farmed, lent money, sued in courts,

served as jurors and as minor officials, voted
Race and the Origins of Black Slavery
 1640-1700: British tobacco-producing
colonies (Delaware to northern Carolina)
– 1671: less than 5%
– 1700: at least 20%
 Fewer white indentured servants
 Britain gains lead in Atlantic Slave Trade
 Changes the character of slavery
– “Us and them” mentality
– No surnames, listed separately on census
– 1640s: cannot bear arms, cannot become Christian
– 1662: Legislature doubles fine for sexual contact
between races
– Three escapees: Dutch, Scot, African
– Prices raise: set time to life
The Emergence of Chattel Slavery
 During the 1600s characteristics of chattel
slavery begin to emerge
– Bills of Sales: children immediately enslaved for life
 English Common Law
– Children determined by mother rather than father
– Allows for sexual exploitation
 Mid-1600s: statutes assume servitude to be the natural
condition of black people
 1660-1710: Slave Codes
– Cannot testify against a white person in court
– Own property
– Leave master’s estate without a pass
– Congregate in groups of 3 or 4
– Enter into contracts
– Marry
– Bear arms
– Christianity no longer protects against slavery
– 1669: House of the Burgesses exempt from felony charges
masters who kill a slave while administering punishment
 By 1700: reduced legally to the status of domestic animals
 Bacon’s Rebellion and American
Slavery
 1676: Rebellion led by Nathaniel
Bacon
– English aristocrat moves to Virginia
– Disagrees with William Berkley over
Indian policy
 Followers include white indentured servants
 Appeals to black slaves to join rebellion
 Dies before progress could be made
– Convinces English that relying on white
indentured servants could ultimately become a
mistake
 Plantation Slavery, 1700-1750
 Reliance on slavery
– Racial prejudice
– Declining availability of white indentured
servants
– Increasing availability of Africans
– Fear of white class conflict
– Demand for tobacco in Europe
 Plantation Slavery, 1700-1750
 1700-1770
– 80,000 Africans arrive in the tobacco colonies
– 1750: 144,872 slaves live in Virginia
– Variations of conditions
 Small plots of land
 Vast acres of tobacco fields

– Before the mid-18th century

 Nearly all slaves- men and women-work the fields
 After 1750: carpenters, blacksmiths, carters, millers,
tanners, shoemakers, etc
 Women: fieldwork, domestic service
 Voices
 Read the passage entitled “A Description
of an 18th Century Virginia Plantation” on
page 57 of your text
 Respond to the two discussion questions
which follow
– What does this passage indicate about
plantation life in mid-18th century Virginia?
– How does the description of black people
presented here compare to the passage from
the South Carolina statute book that begins
this chapter?
 Referto page 47 to respond to this question
 Passage appears at the start of the page in blue ink
– “From the introduction to the original South Carolina
Slave Code of 1696”
 Low-Country Slavery
 South of the tobacco colonies
– Coastal plain or low country of Carolina and
Georgia
 West Indian plantation system
 Cultivation of rice

– British settlers from Barbados

 Brought slaves from island
 Chattel slavery system from start
– Mostly African males (90%)
– ¼ Native Americans
– 1706-1776: 94,000 Africans at Charleston
– High mortality rates
 Begin trading beef and lumber
– Move to rice plantations
– Large acreage
Low-Country Slavery Continued
 1732: King George II of England
– Georgia acts as buffer (S. Carolina and Spanish Florida)
– James Oglethorpe
 Refuge for England’s poor
 Bans slavery
 Economic difficulties combine with land huger
 1698: Carolina has the strictest slave code in North
America
– 1721: Charleston organizes a “Negro Watch” Curfew
– Shot on sight
 1704: authorize arming of male slaves
 Class systems and plantation models
– Creoles
– Preservation of African heritage
– Task system vs. gangs
 Slave Life in Early America
 18th Century Housing
– Minimal, temporary
– Chesapeake: Small log cabins, dirt floors, few windows
– S. Carolina/Georgia: African styles of architecture, mud
or tabby (lime, oyster shells, sand) walls, thatched roofs
– Few material possessions
 Wooden boxes and planks
 Eventually tables, pots, and lamps
 Dress
– Men: breechcloths/ shirts, trousers, hats
– Women: skirts/ shifts, handkerchiefs
– Children: naked until puberty
– Cloth: England/ Handspun
Miscegenation and Creolization
 Miscegenation: interracial sexual contact
– British define those of mixed race as black
– Some advantages but no enhanced legal status
– Colonial assemblies ban interracial marriages
 Fear of having free, white mothers which might allow
children of mixed race to sue and gain their freedom
 Fear that legally recognized mixed-race would
weaken white supremacy
 Creolizations: cultural exchanges
 The Origins of African American
Culture
 African Heritage
– Family structure
 Extended families
 Sex ratios balance with decline of Atlantic Slave Trade in 1750s
– Notions of kinship
 Middle Passage
 Sale of Slaves
 Shelter escapees
 Naming practices
– Religious concepts and practices
 Refusal to convert to Christianity
 Indigenous and Islamic faiths
– African words and modes of expression
– Musical style and instruments
– Cooking methods and food
– Folk literature
– Folk art
 The Great Awakening
 Mid to late 18th century: religious revival
– Jonathan Edwards
– George Whitefield and John Wesley
– Converting to Christianity
 Fear Christianity would lead toward freedom and
equality
 Satisfaction with ancestral religions
 Great Awakening brings conversion
– Ancestral gods, nature gods, and an almighty
creator/Holy Trinity
– “Spirit Possession”/Preaching
 Personal rebirth, singing, movement, emotion

– West African Water Rites/Baptism

 The Great Awakening Continued
 Evangelical Anglican, Baptist, Methodist,
and Presbyterian welcome black members
– Address one another as “brother” and “sister”
 Sit apart from one another
– Take communion together
 Black after white
– Serve as church officers
 Meekness, humility, obedience
– By the late 18th century, black men were being
ordained as priests and ministers
 Preach to whites as well as blacks ultimately
influencing religious practices in America
 Open churches of their own
Language, Music, and Folk Literature
 Language
– Gullah and Geechee dialects of South Carolina and
Georgia
 Music
– Call and response
– Complex rhythms
– Strong beats
– Masters ban drums and horns
– Banjo, guitar, violin
 Folk Literature
– Tales
– Proverbs
– riddles
 The African American Impact on
Colonial Culture
 Music
– English Ballads
 Language
– Phraseology and diction
 Medicine
– Herb doctors
– Folk remedies
 Food
– West African culinary traditions
 Work
– “gang system”
– Work songs
 Architecture
– Employed as builders
 High peaked roofs
 Front porches
 Wood carvings
 Elaborate ironwork
 Slavery in the Northern Colonies
 Religion
– Puritanism in 1630
– Religious utopianism
– English Pietist Society of Friends
– 1682: Pennsylvania
 Non violence, divine spirit within all
 Climate
 Demographics
– More white laborers than south
– 1770s: 50,000 (4.5%)-400,000 (40%)
 Staple crop
 Economy
 Slave life
– Small farms
– Live with masters, work with masters
– Religious principles-less oppressive
– Slave codes (New England vs. NJ, NY, Penn)
– Property ownership
– Preservation of African heritage
 Slavery in Spanish Florida and
French Louisiana
 Language
– Spanish/French
 Religion
– Roman Catholic
 Work
– Soldiers vs. agricultural works
 Social status
– Members of the Catholic Church
 British takeover of Florida
– Flee to Cuba
– Plantation slavery
 Louisiana
– 1720: Few black people
– 1731: outnumber white people
– New Orleans
 Black Women in Colonial America
 Region influences opportunities
– Mass. Lucy Terry Prince
3 to 2 until mid-18th century
 Birthing complications

 House servants

 Sexual exploitation
Black Resistance and Rebellion
 “Slavery in America was always a system that relied
ultimately on physical force to deny freedom to African
Americans” (67).
 Resistance
 Escape
– maroons, from Spanish cimarron
– Bounty hunters
– 1693: Spanish colony of Florida
 South Carolina, Georgia, Great Dismal Swamp of southern Virginia
 Rebellion and revolt
– Demographics
– Creoles
– 1712: New York
– 1739: Stono Bridge near Charleston, SC
 African American Folk Tales
 Mules and Men
– Zora Neale Hurston
 How Jack O’Lanterns Came to Be
 How the Snake Got Poison
 How the Possum Lost the Hair off His Tale
 How the ‘Gator Got Black
 Spirituals
– Go Down, Moses
– Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
– Steal Away
– I Got a Home in Dat Rock
– I Thank God I’m Free at Las’
 Unit Review
– The Loophole of Retreat from Incidents in the Life of a
Slave Girl
 Harriet A Jacobs
 Review Questions
1. Based on your reading of this chapter, do you believe that
racial prejudice among British settlers in the Chesapeake led
them to enslave Africans? Or, did the unfree conditions of the 1 st
Africans to arrive at Jamestown lead to racial prejudice among the
settlers?

2. Why did vestiges of African culture survive in British North

America? Did these vestiges help or hinder African Americans in
dealing with enslavement?

3. Compare and contrast 18th century slavery as it existed in the

Chesapeake, in the low country of South Carolina and Georgia and in
the northern colonies.

4. What were the strengths and weaknesses of the black family in

the 18th century?

5. How did enslaved Africans and African Americans preserve a sense

of their own humanity?
 Review Guide

Questions
&
Answers
 Marc & Evan
 1. Describe the lives and civilizations of
the Eastern Woodland Indians.
 They developed civilizations with
religions and social classes, and built
cities.
 2. How did the Eastern Woodland Indians
influence the lives of Europeans and
Africans?
– Europe was not a single nation like the
Eastern Woodlands.
 Alejandro & Anthony
 3.Why were the English slow to
establish colonies in the Americas?
They had economic concerns with establishing in the new
world
 4.How did investors hope to make a
profit at Jamestown? How were they
actually able to turn a profit?
They hoped to a make a profit off of gold, trading with Indians,
cutting lumber or raising crops. They actually made a profit off of growing
a certain strain or tobacco.
 Mike & Matt
 5.Why are the first Africans that
arrive in the Chesapeake regarded as
“unfree” rather than “slaves”?
– The English had no law for slavery or
Christianity.
 6.
Describe black servitude in the
Chesapeake.
They were brought from Haiti and the Dominican. They were
some of the first Africans in North America. They served as
servants to Jamestown officials.
 Lee & Jon
 7.How does Anthony Johnson figure
into the discussion of slavery in
Colonial America?
– Johnson was a black slave who attained freedom and
started a successful farm. He had servants himself,
including white ones.
 8.How does black slavery begin in
British North America?
– Fewer whites wanted to be indentured servants, but the
demand for tobacco continued to grow so they needed a
labor force. The House of Burgesses makes laws declaring
blacks servants for life.
 Kennedy & Timmy
 9. How does the emergence of
chattel slavery impact Africans and
African Americans? Almost all black people
are workers. A mother’s child would be enslaved
for life
 10. How does Bacon’s rebellion both
help and hurt the African cause?
The Bacon rebellion hurt the Africans cause. Now
only black people would be slaves.
 Jacob & Eric
 11.Why do Chesapeake planters rely
on slavery to meet their labor needs?
– Chesapeake planters relied on slavery in part due to the
dwindling number of white indentured servants and the
growing population of black slaves. Slavers also feared a
white class-conflict.
 12. Describe plantation slavery.
– Some slave owners owned a smaller number of slaves—
five or six—and developed close relationships with them.
Others owned 1000s of acres of land and never got to
know any of their slaves. Plantation work lasted for
hours and was very labor-intensive.
 Andrew & Aaron
 13. Discuss low-country slavery
(especially as it compares to the
Chesapeake area).
 They were primarily indentured servants, grew rice over crops like tobacco and there was
a high rate of mortality among slaves. However, the population had trouble reproducing
due to a surplus of males. There were also more black people due to the subtropical
climate that discouraged white settlement.

 14. Describe slave life in early America-

specifically homes, dress, and food.
 Slaves lived in wooden shacks with dirt floors in the Chesapeake. Further down south,
they lived in houses made of tabby with thatched roofs. Men wore hats, trousers and
shirts in the fields, but only wore a breechcloth in the summer. Women only wore skirts in
the summer and shifts and handkerchiefs all other times. In the winter, masters gave out
woolen or cloth clothing. They ate corn, yams, pork, beef or fish.
 MaryKate, Kara, & Jaclyn
 15. What is miscegenation?
- Interracial sexual contact
 16. What is creolization?
-Assimilating slaves into culture
 17. How were Africans and African Americans
able to preserve their African heritage?
- Family structure, kinship was passed on
 Olivia & Samantha
 18. How did the Great Awakening
influence slavery during the Colonial
Period?
 Increased black acculturation, blacks and whites regarded each other as brother and sister,
increased black conversion to Christianity

 19. How did African American language,

music, and folk literature influence
those in the colonies of European
descent?
 Black english (African phrases and grammer + english), blacks performed ballads for
whites, black folk remedies caught on, African architecture and ironwork, African foods
became colonial staples (bbq pork, black eyed peas, collard/mustard greens), the “gang
system” for labor and slave songs
 Katie & Gabby
 20. Describe slavery in the northern
colonies?
Organized religion was very important. There was a cooler climate and more
white laborers. Most slaves were agricultural workers and lived in their
master’s house and worked with their master, his family, and usually 1 or
2 slaves.

 21. Describe slavery in Spanish

Florida and French Louisiana.
Slaves spoke Spanish and French because slaves were Roman Catholic,
instead of protestants. The number of slaves was smaller. There were
more black men as soldiers than as field workers. It was easier to gain
freedom because most lived in New Orleans, away from their masters.
Many slaves became skilled artisans.
 Naysir & Kyla
 22. How did the role of black women in
Colonial America compare to the role of
black men?
 -Slave men were farmer and did hard labor. Slave women
primary role was that of a mother. The mothers gave birth to
children multiplying the work force.
 23. Describe black resistance, rebellion,
and escape efforts in the colonies.
 -Black resistance was very few since many did not speak the
same language and many of their spirits were broken due to the
seperation from their family. But some still tried to revolt and
escape.
The African American Odyssey
 Many Rivers to Cross
– with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.