U.S. History / Unit 1: Colonial America
1.5 Slavery in the Colonies
Notes
Over the colonial era, enslaved Africans became the main labor force in the South, and slavery existed in every colony.
- The transatlantic slave trade forcibly carried millions of Africans to the Americas.
- The Middle Passage was the brutal ocean voyage from Africa; many captives died from disease and abuse.
- Triangular trade linked Europe, Africa and the Americas: goods to Africa, enslaved people to the Americas, crops back to Europe.
- Bacon's Rebellion (1676) in Virginia showed planters the risk of relying on poor indentured servants, pushing them toward enslaved labor.
- Slave codes made slavery a lifelong, inherited status based on race.
- Enslaved people resisted by working slowly, running away, keeping cultural traditions and revolting, as in the Stono Rebellion (1739) in South Carolina.
Practice
The Middle Passage refers to:
It was the "middle" leg of the triangular trade.
How did Bacon's Rebellion affect labor in colonial Virginia?
After the uprising of poor whites and servants, planters turned increasingly to enslaved labor.
Which is an example of resistance by enslaved people in the colonies?
In 1739 enslaved people near Charleston revolted and tried to reach Spanish Florida.
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