Chapter 8, Section 4

  In the North, slavery continued to exist until the 1840s  By 1860, nearly 4 million African Americans lived in slavery in the south  The majority of southerners were not slave holders  Southern economy depended on the labor of slaves The Lives of Enslaved African Americans

  Work was the dominant fact in the lives of slaves  Men, women, and children were expected and forced to work whenever the slaveholder demanded it  For most enslaved people, this meant every day of their lives  Those who could not perform the tasks needed were of little use to slave holders A Life of Work

  Most enslaved people lived on farms or plantations in the south  Cotton was the leading crop and was labor intensive  Many slaves worked as: field hands, planting, tending, picking, processing, and loading cotton  Other plantation slaves worked in the slaveholder’s house: cooking and cleaning  Some were skilled artisans and worked as blacksmiths, bricklayers, and carpenters A Life of Work

  Some slaves worked in cities  They worked in factories and mills, in offices, and in homes  Some worked in mines or in the forest as lumberjacks A Life of Work

  Enslaved people lived, for the most part, in barely tolerable conditions  Food, clothing, and shelter were typically inadequate  Medical care was non existent  Enslaved African Americans had no right under the law, which viewed them as property A Life of Want

  Many slaveholders treated their slaves relatively well  Did so to make sure their slaves were loyal  Did not make up for the fact they were holding another human as property  Other slaveholders treated their slaves much harsher  Punishments such as beating, whipping, starving and threatening family members to keep slaves obedient  Many slaves were separated from their families  Sold to different slaveholders A Life of Fear

  African Americans developed ways to survive and bring some light into their lives  Religion: Combination of African and Christian beliefs provided hope for a better life after death  Story telling  Songs: provided inspiration and a brief respite from their hard lives A Life of Hope

  There were free blacks who lived in the South  They had either been freed by their slaveholders or were free because their ancestors had been emancipated  These men and women faced harsh legal and social discrimination  Aided people in escaping slavery and spoke out for freedom Anti Slavery Movements in the South

  – 200 slave revolts and plots occurred in the US  Nat Turner Rebellion in 1830 was the deadliest slave revolt  Turner and 5 accomplices killed Turner’s slaveholder and his family  Got 75 more followers and killed dozens more white people  Local militia captured rebels and killed 20  Other white people killed about 100 other slaves suspected of sympathizing Slave Revolts

  Some slaves escaped  Tried to reach the free states of the North or Canada or Mexico  No one knows exactly how many escaped: possibly 40, ,000  Most that escaped were soon captured, but some made it to freedom Escape

  Underground Railroad: an informal, constantly changing network of escape routes  Sympathetic white people and free blacks provided escapees with food, hiding places, and directions to their next destination  Harriet Tubman was one of the famous workers on the Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad

  A campaign to abolish, or end, slavery  Supporters were called abolitionists  One of the largest reform movements of the Reform Era of the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s The Abolition Movement

  Abolition movement was rooted in religion  Quakers condemned slavery since colonial times  Second Great Awakening contributed to the rise of the abolitionist movement  Religious people saw slavery as morally wrong Religious Roots

  One of the most outspoken abolitionists from Philadelphia  Wanted slavery to be abolished immediately  Published an abolitionist newspaper called The Liberator  Founded the American Anti-Slavery Society William Lloyd Garrison

  Women played a leading role in the campaign  Sarah and Angelina Grimke – daughters of a South Carolina plantation owner  Fought for the rights of slaves and the rights of women  Frederick Douglass – fought for abolition and women’s rights.  Escaped slavery at 20.  Published the North Star  Powerful speaker, intelligent and educated Leading Abolitionists

  To slaveholders, abolition was an outrage  Seen as an attack on their livelihood, their way of life, and their religion  Southern ministers attempted to justify slavery through the Bible  Slaveholders and politicians said that slavery was essential to production of cotton and health of the economy (counted for 55% of the country’s exports)  Support and tolerance of slavery in the north so free blacks do not take factory jobs Opposition to Abolition