Unit 3 Notes

African Americans and a New Nation

The Big Picture• Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry,

Thomas Paine pushed for abolition.

• Most colonists were divided: 1/3 for independence, 1/3 loyal to Great Britain, 1/3 indifferent. Some free African Americans became patriots.

Patriots Loyalists

Indifferent

• Laws prohibited African Americans from owning guns.

• African Americans fought side by side with white soldiers.

• British offered freedom to all slaves that joined the British Army but most chose to fight for the colonists because they believed in the Declaration of Independence that “All men are created equal.”

• In the first draft of the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson wrote a clause against slavery but Southern delegates forced Congress to drop the clause.

• Northern states eventually ended slavery out of respect for the bravery and valor of the African American soldiers.

• By 1800 - 100,000 African Americans were free while 700,000 were slaves.

Free Slave0

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

700,000

800,000African Americans in 1800

• The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 prohibited slavery north of the Ohio river and east of the Mississippi.

• The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 forced the issue of whether a democratic nation could exist part free and part slave.

Chapter 7 NotesThe American Revolution:

Liberty for All?

• Boston Massacre - March 1770 - Five people died including Crispus Attucks an African/Native American.

• Phillis Wheatley - poet and first African American to be published.

• Prince Whipple - African American who fought in the battle of Trenton. Other notable African American soldiers were Colone Middleton, Caesar Tarrant, George Latchton, Quaco, John Peterson, Saul Mathews, and James Armistead.

• About 5000 African Americans served in the Continental Army and about 2,000 in the Navy. Those who were slaves before the war were granted their freedom.

• About 20,000 African Americans served in the British army. After the war they were transported to England, Jamaica, or Nova Scotia. Some were freed and others were forced back into a life of slavery.

•Vermont 1777 - Became the first state to end slavery.

•New Jersey 1804 - Became the last Northern state to end slavery.

Chapter 8 Notes

Forging a new Constitution

• Benjamin Banneker - Born free in 1731 near Baltimore Maryland. He went to a private school to learn to read and write but taught himself mathematics and astronomy.

• Richard Allen and Absalom Jones - Founded the Free African Society in Philadelphia in 1787. Philadelphia became a stronghold for the Anti-slavery movement.

Richard Allen Absalom Jones

At the Constitutional Convention on the issue of slavery it was decided that:

1. The slave trade would be allowed to continue until 18082. Slaves were to be counted as 3/5 of the states population for representation in Congress.3. Escaped slaves must be returned.

Chapter 9 Notes

Expanding the Nation

• Jean Baptiste Point DuSable - Captain from Haiti who was shipwrecked in Louisiana and made his way up the Mississippi. He built a trading post near Lake Michegan that grew into the city of Chicago.

• Toussaint L’Ouverture 1791 - Leader of 100,000 slaves who revolted in Haiti but was betrayed, captured, and died in prison. Haiti became independent in 1804.

• York - An African American slave who went on the Lewis and Clark expedition of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

•1in 6 sailors were African Americans

The Battle of New Orleans - January 8 1815Joseph Savory - Formed a African

American unit under General Andrew Jackson. There were 1,500 British dead and only 13 U.S. dead.

•Many African Americans slaves escaped to Florida ( A Spanish territory) to live with the Seminole tribe of Native Americans.

• 1816-1843 Seminole Wars - A series of battles between U.S. and Seminole tribe.

• 1819 - The U.S. bought Florida from Spain in the Adams-Onis Treaty for five million dollars.

• 1843 - Freed slaves and Seminoles were forced to leave Florida.