Slavery Final

Jean-Baptiste Debret

French painter working in Brazil in the early 1800s that came to paint portraits. He became interested and painted enslaved Africans and Indians. This was significant because it helped draw attention to the subject of slavery both in Brazil and Europe and additionally helped show that Brazil is a slave society.

Capoeira

This martial art that was disguised as a dance was created by descendants of African slaves in the 16th century. It involved singers and instrument players who encircled fighters. This was strongly tied to Angola. This is significant because dance and drums were a cultural bridge allowing Africans from different ethnicities to be brought together.

Indigo

Indigo was developed throughout West Africa during the trans-Atlatnic slave trade era in the late 1700s. Eliza Pinckney brought indigo production to the US and required more imports of West African slaves because they had knowledge of how to grow indigo. It was introduced to diversify agricultural production because cycles of rice and indigo grew well together. Indigo was extremely labor intensive and had many steps which increased demand for slaves.

Haitian Revolution

Occurred in Haiti in 1791. 100,000 slaves on many different plantations rebelled, killing 4000 whites and burning 180 sugar, coffee, and indigo plantations. This was one of the only successful rebellions and it led to the end of slavery in Haiti and therefor founded the republic of Haiti. The fear of this happening in the US states led to hardened laws and suspended slave trade in Lousiana until 1801.

Grimke sisters

Sarah and Angelina lived in the 1800s born into a slave holding family in South Carolina. They became active in the anti-slavery movement by lecturing in the north although they were ridiculed publicly. They open doors for women who wanted to get involved with the abolitionist movement because they were the first to speak publicly against slavery.

Mary Prince

She was born into slavery in Bermuda and her story was published in 1831. She was sold several times and some masters treated her well, some masters treated her terribly. Her story included her running away, leaving her family forever, and moving to England to eventually become a free woman. Quaker women helped her to become inolved with the Anti-Slavery Society and enlighten people who were pro-slavery about the horrors and unpredictability of slavery and vulnerability of enslaved women. She helped further the abolitionist movement.

Slave Societies

Slavery was at the center for economic production, meaning the economy relied on the practice of slavery to produce goods and sold these goods to distant markets. These societies were paternalistic and this ideology was used to justify slavery. Slaves were viewed as metaphorical children that needed protection and guidance of the slave owner. Many regions of the southern British colonies, such as South Carolina, became slave societies especially in the 1700-1800s. At the same time there was the opposite: societies with slaves. Slavery was one form of labor among many and it was not seen as necessary in places such as northern British colonies in North America, such as Virginia.

Sugarcane

Sugarcane grew well in the Caribbean islands, and by the mid 1600s the amount of African slaves being brought to these islands increased dramatically. British and French led the way of the shift to sugar production. It was characterized by work organized in closely supervised gangs and women and men both working with in sugarcane production. This severe increase in demand for African slaves to the Caribbean during the 17th century perpetuated the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Slave Trade Act

The Slave Trade Act happened in 1807 and it was done by parliament in the United Kingdom which abolished slave trade in the British Empire and particularly the Atlantic slave trade. It encouraged other European nations to abolish their slave trade, but did not abolish slavery itself. Olaudah Equiano influenced lawmakers to abolish the slave trade and William Wilberforce, a British politician actually passed this act.

Gullah people

These people settled in South Carolina and Georgia by the coastal plane in the 17th century. Their ancestors were from West African rice growing regions. Their preservation of African linguistic and cultural heritage was better than any other ethnic group that was transported to the US. This led to the development of an English-based creole language with African loanwords. These people were an example of the beginning of the African American identity.

UN Working Group on Slavery

This group was established in 1975 and worked on broadening what the definition of slavery is because modern slavery is a lot different than the slavery we have been studying during the 16th-18th century. There has been many new forms of slavery that have been redefined as a lack of control, not ownership. Some of these modern forms of slavery include exploitation of children, prostitution, forced marriage, forced labor, etc. They ended in 2006. This helps us acknowledge that there is still a problem slavery that has a new face and this group has successfully raised awareness to this issue so that lawmakers can help end slavery.

Somerset decision

This happened in 1772 based on the case of an enslaved man named James Somersett, who was born in Africa and sold into the slave trade. His master brought him to England from North America. James escaped and was imprisoned, but abolitionists funded his defense. The judge ruled that slavery did not exist in England, and he was no longer a slave. This however, did not affect slaves in British colonies like Bermuda. This event allowed enslaved people such as Mary Prince to be free while she was living in England. It helped launch abolition in the US.

Cloves

This was established with slave labor in the late 1700s and most plantations were located in Zanzibar. These were commonly used as a spice. This required skilled labor where slaves picked cloves for up to 9 hours a day, 7 days a week. Slaves that worked on these plantations also had to grow their own provisions which made their life significantly tough and this was not usually the case on other types of plantations.

Iberian slave codes

This was prevalent in 17th - 18th century Latin America. It gave slaves basic certain human rights. It guaranteed personal security so that masters could not murder or sexually abuse them. It guaranteed their right to own personal property. It also guaranteed their right to purchase their own freedom if they could obtain the money by selling extra food and labor. This helped balance the idea that slaves are property and humans. These rights were a stepping stone to the abolition of slavery because it clearly established the fact that these people should have rights and were not seen as animals like they used to be.

.5 mill out of estimated 12 mill

This was the number of slaves transported on the middle passage across the Atlantic who were taken to North America as opposed to the total number of slaves. This began in the 1600s and ended in 1808. North America was colonized with both slave societies and societies with slaves. These slaves helped build what we know as the plantation complex with products such as rice, cotton, and tobacco. This is very significant because it started an African American identity and culture.

Berlin Conference

This was the scramble for control of what areas were left in Africa when almost all of Africa was under European colonial control in 1884-85. Countries claimed some parts of land by invasion, occupation, colonization, and by placing economic hardships on African people. Africa was left out of this with no representatives so they had no say in the matter. This showed that Europe was superior to Africa and did not value African lives. This resulted in colonialism and also resulted in a public justification to end slavery.