Social 10 Mr. Tulk

Let’s look at page 151. I will read the Section “What Equiano Had to Say” Then you will answer questions 1 and 2 on an index card. Then we will talk about your answers.

Slavery had been an American institution for two centuries. Enslaved African Americans were held in every colony, northern and southern. In the North, slavery continued to exist in some form until the 1840s. By 1860 millions of African Americans lived in slavery in the South.

Enslaved men, women, and children worked every day of their lives, from the time they were old enough to perform chores until they were too old to be of any more use to the slaveholder. Other jobs included the many other tasks needed to maintain a farm or plantation, such as constructing and repairing buildings. Other plantation slaves worked as servants in the slaveholder’s house. Most enslaved people lived on farms or plantations in the South, where cotton was a leading crop. They worked planting, tending, picking, processing, and loading cotton.

A life of want Enslaved African Americans were provided with inadequate food, clothing, and shelter. They seldom received medical care; sickness rarely stopped their work. They had no rights under the law because it viewed them as property.

Some slaveholders used a wide variety of punishments, such as beating, whipping, starving, and threatening a person’s family members, to ensure obedience. Many slaveholders treated their slaves relatively well. But they generally did so in order to secure loyal service, not out of any great sense of humanity. African Americans developed ways to survive and bring some light into their lives through religion, storytelling, and music. Children were routinely separated from their parents, brothers from their sisters, and husbands from their wives.

In 1860, about 215,000 African Americans in the South were free blacks. –Former slaves who had been emancipated, or freed, by slaveholders –More typically, some were free because their ancestors had been freed. Slave revolts An uprising led by Nat Turner in 1830 became the deadliest slave revolt in American history. New laws were enacted to strictly limit the movements and meetings of slaves. They still faced harsh legal and social discrimination. Free blacks aided people escaping slavery and spoke out for freedom.

The abolition movement was a campaign to abolish, or end, slavery. The abolition movement had deep roots in religion. Many religious people in the North saw slavery as a clear moral wrong that went directly against their beliefs. By 1836 more than 500 antislavery societies existed.

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, closer to free territory.

Leading Escaping Slaves Along the Underground Railroad

Between 1840 and 1860, more than 30,000 American slaves came secretly to Canada and freedom The escape network was solely "underground" in the sense of being a secret The network was known as a "railroad" by way of the use of rail terminology in the code. The Underground Railroad consisted of meeting points, secret routes, transportation, and safe houses, and assistance provided by abolitionist sympathizers.

The Underground Railroad e“Conductor” ==== leader of the escape e“Passengers” ==== escaping slaves e“Tracks” ==== routes e“Trains” ==== farm wagons transporting the escaping slaves e“Depots” ==== safe houses to rest/sleep

The Underground Railroad

They used the secret terminology as well as folk songs to lead people along the way to Freedom in Canada. Two of the more famous songs are “Wade in the Water” and “Follow the Drinking Gourd” They could be sang in public and around slave owners who would see them as work songs. Even people who did not get away gained hope from the unity of the songs.

Follow the drinking gourd! Follow the drinking gourd. For the old man is waiting to carry you to freedom If you follow the drinking gourd. The Drinking Gourd is the familiar Big Dipper. The Old Man was a one legged man that would teach slaves the route.

When the sun comes back and the first quail calls, Follow the drinking gourd, For the old man is waiting to carry you to freedom If you follow the drinking gourd. When the Quails come back in Spring. When the sun sets head north. The old man will teach you how to escape.

The riverbank makes a very good road, The dead trees will show you the way, Left foot, peg foot traveling on, Following the drinking gourd. The water would hide you tracks. Follow the holes of the Pegged man. Head North.

The river ends between two hills, Follow the drinking gourd, There's another river on the other side, Follow the drinking gourd. When the Tombigbee ended, the slaves were told to continue north, over the hills, until they met the river Tennessee.

Where the great big river meets the little river, Follow the drinking gourd, The old man is waiting to carry you to freedom If you follow the drinking gourd. When the big river reaches the Ohio River the salves had reached Northern States. They could then get to Canada.

Harriet Tubman ( ) eCalled the black Moses. eOne of the most important abolitionist. eHelped over 300 slaves to freedom. e$40,000 bounty on her head. eServed as a Union spy during the Civil War. “Moses”

Do you have any? This is a lot to take in. Tomorrow we will begin talking about the American Civil War.