Varieties+of+Slavery

__ Varieties of Slavery __ __ Life Under Slavery __ __ Slavery in the Cities __ __ Free African Americans __ __ The Slave Trade __ __ Slave Resistance __ __ Language and Music __ __ African-American Religion __ __ TheSlave Family __
 * Slave codes
 * Forbad slaves from owning land, leaving their masters, be out after dark, congregate with other slaves, carry firearms, or strike a white person (in any instance)
 * Whites couldn’t teach slave how to read or write
 * Slaves couldn’t testify against whites in court
 * Any one that had an ounce of African blood was considered black
 * These laws were often unenforced
 * Some slaves lived in tough and rough environments while other lived in more flexible conditions
 * Most white farmers had few slaves and often worked side by side with them (a better relationship amongst farmers and slaves on small farms than on big farms)
 * Warm and affectionate relations
 * Cruel relations
 * Most African slaves preferred to live on larger plantations because there was more privacy
 * Most slaves lived on large plantations
 * Task system
 * A system in which a slave was assigned a particular task in the morning and then free for the rest of the day (after task completed)
 * Gang system
 * Slaves divided up into groups and being forced to work as long as the overseers wanted them to
 * Slaves were given adequate food, cheap clothing, and crude cabins
 * Some medical care
 * Slave women often worked in the fields and did chores reserved for women
 * Africans-Americans began to hace a higher mortality rate in the 1820's to 1840's (decreased the amount of slaves to the amount of white people)
 * According to experts, slaves conditions may have been better at times than conditions in northern industrial cities
 * Slavery in the west indies was much harsher than in the Southern states
 * They were still participating in the slave trade (plentiful amount of slave in comparison to the south)
 * Southerners wanted to keep their slaves healthy
 * Slavery population in U.S grew through reproduction
 * Most southerners were more likely to use a cheap immigrant to do dangerous work than they were to use a valuable slave
 * House slaves had often an easier time than did slaves working in the fields
 * House servants didn’t like the isolation they received from working inside
 * House servants received the worst punishments because they were seen more
 * Black women that worked in the house were victims of reap and abuse from white women
 * There was a greater flexibility for slaves in city areas
 * These slaves were able to mingle with free blacks and whites
 * Slaves especially in the north were contracted out to do jobs on docks, farms, or mining
 * There were more women slaves in the city than men (men were often sold to the countryside)
 * Mulattoes
 * Increase in segregation in cities
 * There were about 250,000 free slaves before the Civil War
 * Slaves who had earned money to buy their freedom
 * Slaves who were set free in their master's will
 * Laws began to be set up to limit the amount of slaves set free
 * The growing number of free slaves began to surprise white southerners
 * White southerners were scared of rebellions
 * There were some free black slave communities that survived in the south
 * Even though these slaves were free, it was still hard for freed slaves to have any right in society
 * Slaves were often moved throughout the south to be sold (on foot, or some other type of transportation)
 * Families were often separated
 * Illegal foreign trade also occurred
 * It is believed that most blacks didn’t like slavery and yearned fro freedom
 * White southerners believed that blacks were content
 * One extreme of slavery was the Sambo
 * A slave that acted the way white civilization saw slaves (non intelligent, simple)
 * The other extreme was the slave rebel
 * White southerners were afraid of the possiblity of slave revolts
 * Nat Turner Rebellion (1831)
 * Only successful slave rebellion
 * Killed 60 whites
 * Runways became more common (rebel slave)
 * Hard from areas in the deep south
 * Some slaves often resisted the idea of slavery by just not working hard
 * Stealing from their masters
 * Losing or breaking tools
 * Pidgin (simple and common language amongst first generation slaves)
 * Some English and African words
 * The banjo was important to African music
 * Voices and song (field workers)
 * Their spiritual voice was often through songs
 * Hope for freedom
 * It was common for slaves to be Christian (converted) or have the same religion as their masters
 * Were expected to worship under white ministers
 * Blacks began to set up their type of religion in the south
 * Emotional
 * African customs
 * Chanting and spontaneous exclamations
 * Emphasized the dream of freedom
 * These ideas were important especially when it came down to slave rebellions
 * Slaves often went to the same church as their masters, but worshiped later on in secret
 * Suffered from the lack of legal marriage
 * Couples lived with each other often before marrying
 * Marriages often happened between slaves from neighboring plantations (masters would often permit married slaves to see each other)
 * The only reason some marriages didn’t work out was because things black slaves couldn’t control
 * Slave trade
 * This created fictional kinship between slaves (the fact that they weren't with their real family)
 * Slaves often ran away in a desire to find distant family members
 * Because of white masters, black women slaves often bore children for them (masters or white men didn’t acknowledge the child)
 * Most slaves depended entirely on their masters for food, clothing, shelter, and security
 * Paternal relationship