Slavery in America. Slavery started in America around the 1600’s in Jamestown, VA where a Dutch slave trader exchanged his cargo of Africans for food.

Slavery in AmericaSlavery in America

Slavery in AmericaSlavery in America

•Slavery started in America around the 1600’s in Jamestown, VA where a Dutch slave trader exchanged his cargo of Africans for food in 1619.

•Slavery spread to areas where there was good quality soil for large plantations of high value cash crops, such as tobacco, cotton, sugar, and coffee.

A PlantationA Plantation

Is a farm that grows only one crop – such as tobacco, sugar or cotton.

Most slaves were given tasks to perform according to their physical capability.

A work day consisted of 15-16 hours a day during harvest time. During milling, slaves would work 16-18 hours everyday.

Their was little sex differentiation in the field work. Women who were well- along in their pregnancies, were still sent to work at plowing and hoeing.

In the South there was no rest season, the climate was always considered good enough to work in and everyone was economically active all year round.

Children between the ages of six and ten might be active as water carriers. Children between the ages of ten and twelve were organized into gangs and put to weeding the crops.

Working on a Working on a PlantationPlantation

•Slaves were responsible for clearing land, planting, and harvesting crops.

•Slaves did all the field work and their white owners collected the profits.

•"Hard driving" was quite common, and consisted of working slaves past their physical capabilities.

Slave HomesSlave Homes On some plantations the

owners would provide the slaves with housing, on others plantations the slaves had to build their own homes. Living conditions were cramped with sometimes as many as ten people sharing a house.

Slaves had little furniture and their beds usually made of straw or old rags. 

Slaves who worked in the plantation house generally had slightly better housing nearer to the house and were given better food and clothing than those slaves that worked in the fields

Underground RailroadUnderground Railroad

•The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states.

•The Railroad itself was often known as the "freedom train" or "Gospel train," which headed towards "Heaven" or "the Promised Land,"

The Underground Railroad stretched from Kentucky and Virginia across Ohio & Indiana.

In the Northerly direction, it stretched from Maryland, across Pennsylvania & into New York & through New England

The Underground Railroad helped over ~ 100,000 slaves escape.

Harriet Tubman andHarriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad the Underground Railroad

Harriet Tubman was a runaway slave who lead over 300 slaves to freedom.

Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in 1821 in Dorchester County, Maryland

Harriet was one of 11 children. All of Harriet’s brothers and sisters, as well as their parents, were slaves on the Maryland Plantation.

To avoid capture, Harriet used many tricks. She dressed as an old woman or a man

Harriet used songs as with secret codes to communicate

Harriet used the North Star to guide her

Significant People during SlaverySignificant People during Slavery

Harriet Tubman was an African American abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy during the American Civil War. James Fairfield—pretended to be a slave trader.

Thomas Garrett - A Quaker business man who helped over 2700 slaves.

William Still-former slave who purchase his own freedom & then became an abolitionists

Frederick Douglass -was a peaceful abolitionist.  He gave lectures and wrote books to convince others to help him fight against slavery. . 

John Parker-Son of a white businessman and a slave; helped over 400 slaves.

Sojourner Truth also helped end slavery by teaching others about the evils of slavery.  She also fought for equal treatment for free Blacks and women.

Ending SlaveryEnding Slavery

The Emancipation Proclamation

In September 1862, President Lincoln declared that " . . . all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State . . . shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free," as of January 1, 1863.

The legal ending of Slavery was in December of

1865 when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified.