Slavery in United States of America: Presentation and Handout (inklusive Powerpoint Datei mit 11 Folien)
Definition: "slave"
A slave is a person who is deprived of his personal freedom, treated as a thing and seen as the property of another.
Mostly for the purpose of economic exploitation, the person is held by force.
A slave almost never had rights.
Sometimes slaves retained some legal capacity and could, for example, call the courts or obtain property that might allow them to gain freedom by buying themselves. In some states, slavery was hereditary, meaning that the children of slaves were also unfree.
You could buy, sell, rent and inherit slaves.
Slaves were not considered humans. Thereby it was not a problem to kill a slave.
Officially, slavery is banned in all states of the world today.
How did the slaves come to America?
The first slaves were shipped from Africa to Cuba in 1526. In 1619, the Americans followed this example, in the 16./17. centuries reached over 600,000 slaves the continent. Far more died on the exhausting crossing.
Most slaves came to America via the "Atlantic Slave Market".
Where were the slaves used?
Mainly the initially almost male slaves were used on tobacco and sugar cane plantations. Later, with the discovery of cotton plantations, women were also bought as slaves, and in 1850 about 2/3 of all slaves worked on cotton plantations. Half of them were women. A few slaves were also used for housework.
A house slave was a slave who worked, and often lived, in the house of the slave-owner. House slaves had many duties such as cooking, cleaning, serving meals, and caring for children.
Gang system and task system
There were two different systems of slave work: The Gang System & Task System
Slaves who worked in the gang system were divided into smaller or larger groups and had to work a certain number of hours per day, supervised and driven by foremen.
The gang system was especially introduced by planters who wanted to maximize the profit of the working hours their slaves spent in the field. The system was most common in the cultivation of tobacco and cotton.
Compared to the task system, the gang system had a number of serious disadvantages for the slaves. Under the supervision of white overseers, women and children had to keep up with the given pace of work. On some plantations, under the gang system, they have to worked from sunrise to sunset.
Under such conditions slaves had little time to manage their own gardens and agricultural land.
That's why the slaves had no money to buy oneself free.
American slave politics
Since slaves were not considered humans, there was no protection against torture or injustice.
The slave was not subject to "public safety". The owners of the slaves could deal with them as they liked without being prosecuted in any way. Traditionally, they were free to give slaves their freedom whenever they wanted, but only in the rarest of cases. For example, unrecognized children with slaves.
The end of slavery
Already in 1807 there were first draft laws banning the slave trade. The southern states nevertheless continued the slavery. This was ultimately one of the reasons for the civil war.
Statistic
As you can see here, your guess was right/wrong.
Ther percentage of slaves in 18th century was around 90 percent.
But you can see that ther number of the black population and therefore of the slaves
raised continuously.
1820: there were 1,8 million black people in america
1840: there were 2,9 million
1860: there were 4 and a half million black people in america
Slavery in the USA
Handout
Definition: "slave"
in some states, slavery was hereditary à children of them are also unfree
officially, slavery is banned
How did the slaves come to America?
first slaves were shipped from Africa to Cuba in 1526
the Americans followed this example, in the 16th & 17th centuries
this time more than 600.000 slaves reached the continent
most slaves came to America via the “Atlantic Slave Market“
Where were the slaves used?
used on plantations
used for house work
used as a house slave
Gang system and task system
slaves had to do a particular amount of work in one day
most common in the cultivation of tobacco and cotton
American slave politics
The end of slavery
1807: first draft laws banning the slave trade
southern states nevertheless continued the slavery ïƒ one of the reasons for the civil war
18/12/1865: after the Confederacy had been defeated, slavery was finally abolished on
Sources