By the 1600s (17 th Century) many Southern Planters relied on labor from enslaved Africans Royal African Company: had a monopoly (only company) on the slave trade in Virginia

Chesapeake Bay Colony (Maryland): –This Colony is named Maryland –Toleration Act (1649) granted religious freedom in Maryland

Chesapeake Society: –Population: white colonists who were indentured servants-they were attracted by pamphlets such as George Alsop’s “Character of the Providence of Maryland”

George Alsop’s Character of the Providence in Maryland –Presented a favorable account, but it was misleading, of life in the Colonies Alsop tried to recruit women because more that 3x as many white males as white women were living in Maryland – Most men never married –Half of all marriages in the late 1600s ended within 7 years because of death of a partner

Chesapeake Society was a rural society –Most lived on scattered farms and plantations (grew tobacco) Exported Tobacco Towns were stagnant because the farmers did not bring crops to a central market-place –The slow growth of towns hindered the development of schools-not enough children to have a school

1660 tobacco prices fell-which made it difficult for people to earn money to start their own farms – landless laborers become angry –So, the poor farmers and laborers want to settle in an area in Western Virginia, but this land is guaranteed to the Powhatan Indian Tribe in a 1646 Treaty

White settlers began to move onto Indian Land (Western Virginia) ignoring the Treaty of –Settlers killed a group of friendly, Susquehannock (suhs-KWUH-HA-nuhk) so Indians attack white settlers farms

Colonists now want war against the Indians –Chesapeake Governor, William Berkeley refused to allow the Colonists to do this –Nathaniel Bacon: raised an army of western settlers and attacked the Native Americans –The House of Burgesses – Virginia’s Representative Assembly – limited the Governor’s power over the land and opened American Indians land to the Colonists

Bacon’s Rebellion strengthened the move already underway from among the planters to switch from indentured servants, who would eventually be released, to use African Slaves

Virginia court records, for 1640, included the first reference to LIFELONG servitude

SLAVE TRADE: –Expansion of slavery in North America increased the Slave Trade in Africa –Once captured, Africans were inspected, branded, and held in prisons until there were enough slave to fill a ship “…not so much room as a man in his coffin.”

Middle Passage: –Voyage from Africa across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas –MIDDLE PASSAGE Disease Suffocation Violence Jump into sea and drown

The Experience of Slavery: –Olaudah Equiano (oh-LOW-duh ek-wee-AHN- oh) Member of the Ibo people in Nigeria He was terrified that he and the other captives were “to be eaten by those white men with horrible looks, red faces, and long hair.” –Bough freedom and accompanied an expedition to the Artic –Moved To ENGLAND and wrote about the evils of the slave trade

Reactions to Slavery: –QUAKERS: members of the Protestant religion that rejected wealth and clergy The Quakers took a public stand against slavery – they were abolitionists – want slavery to end

Slave Codes (prevent escape and discourage revolt) –Forbade the Slaves to meet together in large numbers, could not leave plantation without permission, did not want the Slaves to learn to read or write, and could not own weapons. –If owner killed Slave because it was Slave’s fault that person would not be tried for murder

There were slave uprisings –Largest Slave uprising occurred in 1739 in Stono, South Carolina, where the Slaves killed more than 30 white colonists before the uprising was suppressed –The slaves who survived the rebellion were “put to the most cruel DEATH”