How did Slavery Develop in the American Colonies?

A uniquely “American” social feature

Making sense of slavery:

• Comparing:• Development in:

– The Chesapeake– The North– The “low country”

• Why all the detail?• Not monolithic . . . A human relationship that changes

over time• -Yet, by 1700 all British American colonies rely on slavery

Making sense of slavery:• Societies with slaves

– Slavery one form of labor among many– Thus:

• Holdings smaller• Status more fluid• Not any less brutal

• Slave societiesslavery is central mode of productionmaster-slave relationship is model for all human relationships

How does the transition to a slave society happen?

Creating Societies with Slaves: The North

First slaves in North:were Atlantic creolesAn economically marginal region

Creating a Slave Society: New Netherlands as a case study

“agricultural workers, who are brought here at great expense, sooner or later apply themselves to trade, and neglect agriculture altogether.”

Slaves filled the gap –by 1638, 30% of New Amsterdam’s population.

Slavery in New Netherlands

Social implications of demand for labor:

Negotiate right to live and work on their own

Create assimilated community

The rest of the North:

• Overwhelmingly rural life– Especially Hudson River Valley, New Jersey and PA

• Social circumstances:– Live and work alongside whites– Work at wide range of tasks– Disproportionately urban

• Impact on Black culture – assimilation (and negotiation potential), yet alienation

Societies with Slaves: The Lowcountry

• First settlers include former Barbadians who hope to transplant sugar plantations and slavery

• Foiled by Amerindian neighbors – relations not stable; perpetual warfare

• Creates a frontier economy

Societies with Slaves: The Lowcountry

• Implications for enslaved people?– Most are Atlantic creoles, with a lot of knowledge

about slavery and Europeans– Lots of room for negotiation:• Economy means work independence• Can end up with time for their own use: develop own

economies• External military threats – are armed, and potentially

can earn freedom• Frontier presents an opportunity to escape

Maroon communities

Conclusions about 17th Century American Societies with Slaves:

• slaves a small part of population• harder to create an African-based culture• economy dependent upon slaves – creates

opportunities for autonomy• slavery just one form of non-freedom among

many types

Creating Slave Societies

• The transition in the Chesapeake:• Shift from indentured servant labor to slaves

after Bacon’s Rebellion, 1676:• Causes:– Supply issues – cheaper slaves; fewer indentured

servants after 1680s– Social issues – fear of social disorder based on

class antagonism

Shift to slavery in the ChesapeakeConsequences for African-American life:

• Slavery Africanized– To whites, seem beyond the pale of civilization

• Sharp deterioration in quality of life– Skewed sex ratios from importation of more males– Shifts in work conditions: patriarchal masters seek

social control; create gang labor– Slaves treated with new control and cruelty

• Brute force used to sustain new economic regime• Laws distinguish whites from Blacks, both free and

enslaved

Creating a Slave Society: The Low-Country

• Discovering a staple crop: rice

• Degradation of Black quality of life– New demand for slave labor;

Africanization of slavery• Slaves now dominate population: by

1760, 60% of the population of region

• Transformation of work– Rice plantation conditions deadly– Population cannot reproduce itself

until 1760s

Creating a Slave Society: The Low Country – Changes in 18th century

• Whites leave plantations: patriarchy-at-a-distance

• New work system evolves: task labor– Self-policing of work

translates into autonomy– Becomes a recognized right:

restrictions and the Stono rebellion, 1739

• Relative cultural isolation, and freedom

What about the North?

• Growing significance of slavery after 1700:– In shipping ports; commercial

grain plantations in NY, NJ and PA

• Growing imports of slaves from Africa directly– Skewed sex ratios; family life

deteriorates

• Restrictions on manumission; repression and anxiety– 1741 slave conspiracy hysteria

Conclusions: Why the transformation?

• 1. Key is shift to staple crop production• 2. Drives demand for importations of slave laborers,

and Africanization of slavery• 3. Slaveholders solidify legal degradation and control

– (Feel control of human property essential to political voice by 1787, 3/5 Compromise ensures extra representation for slave-owning whites)

• Yet, process pretty different depending on local circumstances:– No one African-American culture . . .