1. Slavery in the New World

2. An Old Institution
African Slavery existed prior to “New World” Slavery
More like serfdom
Bondage wasn’t racist
Didn’t follow generations

3. Why Slavery? Byproduct of Agriculture System
Economic Rationale drove increase
Decline in indentured servants and slaves become cheaper

6. Procession with Women Warriors, Dahomey, 1790s
King of Dahomey, 1790s

7. Middle Passage: Inland

8. Why did Africans “enslave other Africans”?
Identity
protection
Wooden Yokes Used in Coffles, Senegal, ca. 1789

9. Middle Passage: Quarters
Interior of a Slave Ship, a woodcut illustration from the publication, A History of the Amistad Captives
Body Positions of Slaves
on the Slave Ship Aurore, 1784

11. Plan of the British Slave Ship "Brookes," 1789
This illustration features 454 slaves but this ship was known to carry up to 740 at once
A 1782 voyage carried 609 enslaved Africans, there were 351 men, 127 women, 90 boys, and 41 girls crammed into its decks

12. Middle Passage: Techniques of Control
Slave with Iron Muzzle is an illustration from the 1839 publication, Souvenirs d'un aveugle, by Jacques Etienne Victor Arago. Image Credit: The Hill Collection of Pacific Voyages, Mandeville Special Colections Library, University of California, San Diego

14. Slave Auction, Martinique, 1826
Slave Auction, New Orleans, 1839

15. Progressive Institution
No early references to Slave
Indentured servants outnumber slaves
Bacon’s Rebellion
End of Royal African Company monopoly

16. Slavery Timeline
Virginia, 1639: The first law to exclude "Negroes" from normal protections by the government was enacted.
Virginia, 1662: lineage of slaves follows the mother
Maryland, 1664: The first colonial "anti-amalgamation" law is enacted Virginia, 1667: Christian baptisms would no longer affect the bondage of blacks or Indians
Virginia, 1682: A law establishing the racial distinction between servants and slaves was enacted
Source

17. Virginia Slave Code 1705
"All servants imported and brought into the Country...who were not Christians in their native Country...shall be accounted and be slaves. All Negro, mulatto and Indian slaves within this dominion...shall be held to be real estate. If any slave resist his master...correcting such slave, and shall happen to be killed in such correction...the master shall be free of all punishment...as if such accident never happened."

18. Slavery in America Skin defined status Property rather than person
chattel
Second generation institutionalization
A Negro Hung Alive by the Ribs to a Gallows John Gabriel Stedman

19. Differing regions N. America vs. Caribbean and S. America
Virginia vs. Deep South

21. Impact of Stono
In 1740 the white minority revised the slave code, curtailing African importations, and challenging the neighboring Spanish
Solidified slavery
Showed that slaves had a sense of freedom
Developed the concept that the black population had to be utterly controlled