Question 1

How did Bacon's rebellion lead to increased slavery in the colonies?

Accepted Answer

By 1700, black African slaves would be sent to the Americas against their will. This racial change was the result of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676, where many poor white farmers staged a violent uprising against the government and wealthy tobacco planters of Virginia. The fear of a large, poor, resentful white population led the wealthy Virginia planters to look for a new labor force in Africa.

Question 2

Describe the effects of Triangular Trade on the Americas and Africa, and describe which good were being transported where.

Accepted Answer

The Triangular Trade was a system of trade that involved the exchange of goods and people between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. It is named for the triangular shape formed by the routes of trade, which connected the three regions.

The Triangular Trade was a key part of the global economy during the era of European colonization and was a major source of wealth and power for European nations. At its core, the Triangular Trade involved the exchange of European goods, such as textiles, weapons, and alcohol, for African slaves, who were then transported to the Americas and sold to work on plantations and mines. Raw materials and goods such as sugar, tobacco, and coffee were then sent from the Americas to Europe.

The Triangular Trade had a profound impact on the history and development of the Americas, as it played a significant role in the transatlantic slave trade and the growth of slavery in the region. The Triangular Trade also had a profound impact on Africa, as it contributed to the destabilization of many African societies and the loss of millions of people to the slave trade.

Question 3

Describe slavery in Northern colonies. Describe the legality of slavery, how many slaves there were in different environments, and developments that led to increased demand for slavery.

Accepted Answer

The northern colonies of New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey had legalized slavery in the 17th and 18th centuries but their smaller farms and limited soil would make the demand for slaves less than the southern colonies. All northern colonies would free most of their slaves legally by the early 19th century.

New England’s slave population was only about 3% but this number drastically increased to 25% in port cities such as Boston. Philadelphia and New York also had a significant number of slaves. Most northern slaves were domestic servants, dockworkers, sailors, and craft workers. Some would be hired out by their owners and were declared property.

In the decades before the Civil War, many slaves were freed. However, after the 1793 invention of the cotton gin, cotton and other southern products were linked to northern banking and shipping. These important economic sectors of the North had a vested interest in the agricultural production by slaves of the South.

Question 4

Describe slavery in Southern colonies. Identify the causes of slavery and popular crops on plantations.

Accepted Answer

The large agricultural plantations of the South and their single cash crop economies led to a high demand for slaves. Tobacco in the Chesapeake and rice and indigo in the South were all labor intensive crops. Cotton would become the major crop in the Deep South only after the invention of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin in 1793.

Tobacco, a crop that exhausted the soil and caused farmers to expand westward for more land, was harvested in Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina. Rice plantations and indigo were harvested in South Carolina and Georgia. Initially, James Oglethorpe and his followers in Georgia banned slavery, but other southerners moved into the “peach state” and brought slaves with them as Georgia legalized slavery in 1750.

Question 5

Identify and describe means of slave resistance

Accepted Answer

Black slaves did resist the institution of slavery by murdering their owners, destroying machinery and other property, escaping, and committing suicide. Some escapees formed maroon groups in swamps or in the mountains and would menace plantations for food and other products. Rebellions were not frequent, but they did happen. As part of the Stono Rebellion in South Carolina in 1739, slaves seized arms, burnt houses, and killed 25 whites.

Most of the slave revolts occurred in areas where there were a large number of slaves, such as the American South. More violent revolts happened in Jamaica, Haiti, and the Caribbean because African slaves outnumbered whites in many communities. The result of most revolts were the mass executions of black slaves. These types of overt resistance were often met with harsh punishment, but they were also a way for enslaved people to assert their dignity and to resist their oppression.

Slaves also engaged in covert resistance, in which enslaved people used subtle and covert methods to resist their oppression and maintain their dignity and sense of self. This could include acts of sabotage, such as slowing down work or damaging equipment, or using their skills and knowledge to their advantage, such as using medicinal plants to heal themselves and others.

Enslaved people also used their culture and religion as a means of resistance and as a way to maintain their sense of identity and community. They used traditional music, dance, and other cultural practices as a way to express their resistance and to keep their culture alive, and they used religion as a way to find solace and to express their belief in a higher power.

Question 6

What was the Barbados Code

Accepted Answer

The Barbados Code was a major law passed in 1661 in Barbados which meant that black slaves were chattel (property) and had no basic rights that they would have been entitled to under normal English common law. This law protected the white slave owners and allowed them to kill slaves without any legal consequences. Men from Barbados would move into the American colonies and bring these codes with them.

Question 7

What was Chattel slavery?

Accepted Answer

This system of chattel slavery, in which enslaved people were treated as property and had no legal rights, became the dominant labor system in many of the southern colonies in North America. It was based on a strict racial hierarchy that was codified into law and that prohibited interracial relationships and defined the descendants of African American mothers as black and enslaved in perpetuity.

Under this system, enslaved people were owned by their masters and were forced to work long hours on plantations, mines, and other labor-intensive ventures. They had no rights or freedoms, and they were subject to harsh and inhumane treatment, including corporal punishment and sexual abuse.

The system of chattel slavery was deeply entrenched in the southern colonies, and it played a central role in the economy and society of the region. It was supported by a network of laws and institutions that enforced the racial hierarchy and maintained the system of slavery.

2.6 Slavery in the British Colonies, AP United States History Flashcards