African American History
Between the sixteenth century and the nineteenth century, when the slave trade was finally abolished, at least how many captives left Africa for the New World as slaves?
12 Million
Rulers of African kingdoms derived their power from ...?
A network of kinship ties that bound individuals to communities.
Why did Virginia authorities stop executing slaves who had participated in Gabriel's rebellion?
A state law required Virginia to compensate the owners of executed slaves
Why did General George Washington reverse his decision to ban black enlistment in the Continental army?
African Americans enlisted in British forces in exchange for the promise of freedom
Who were the "Bozales" in Spain's New World colonies?
African slaves born in America
In one way, the Northwest Ordinance limited the expansion of slavery because it
Banned slavery Northwest of the Ohio River
Why did Great Britain's southern strategy fail to defeat the colonists in the American Revolution?
Britain never had the manpower to defend the vast areas it conquered.
In addition to manumission, what was another way slaves achieved free status in African societies?
By marrying into their owners families
Who was the first person killed by British soldiers at what became known as the Boston Massacre?
Crispus Attucks.
From what region of Africa did the ancient ancestors of all human beings originate more than one million years ago?
East Africa
What did the constitutional delegates decide about counting slaves toward the states' federal representation?
Federal funding should be used for gradual compensated emancipation
What could free blacks in the North do after the Revolution that they could not do while enslaved?
Form autonomous families and communities.
What did British forces offer to African Americans to convince them to join their side in the Revolution?
Freedom to any slave who was owned by a rebel.
How did black northerners help the patriot cause during the Revolution?
Fugitive slaves fought alongside patriot forces.
What evidence suggests there was controversy among Quakers over the use of slave labor?
German-town Quakers wrote the first American antislavery petition in 1718
How did some New England colonists acquire black slaves?
In exchange for Native American prisoners-of-war
What impact did tobacco have on England's Chesapeake colonies after 1611?
It created a new market for labor due to the length and difficulty of its cultivation
How did the Northwest Ordinance allow slavery to expand? Page 4
It lend tacit approval to slavery south of the Ohio River
Why did many white colonists in the Chesapeake not oppose black participation in revivals during the Great Awakening?
It was not seen as a threat because white colonists outnumbered black slaves.
1. With whom did English explorers such as Sir Francis Drake ally to raid Spanish colonies in New Spain in the late sixteenth century?
Maroon communities of escaped slaves
What were the consequences of laws passed in Virginia in 1691 outlawing interracial marriage?
Marriages between slaves became a crime
Why were black converts attracted to New Light ministers during the Great Awakening in the eighteenth century?
Ministers stressed that the liberating effects of faith were open to all.
Who made up most of Virginia's free black population?
Mixed-race descendants of unions between slaves and whites called mulattoes
Why did the number of slaves imported into North America jump from approximately 20,000 a decade in the early eighteenth century to 50,000 per decade by the mid-eighteenth century?
More slaves were imported as the number of indentured servants from Europe decreased.
Why did slavery rebound quickly in Georgia and South Carolina after the Revolutionary War?
Planters developed lucrative cash crops.
Why was dysentery, also known as the "bloody flux," the single biggest killer among captives on slave ships?
Poor food and water caused this infection to spread rapidly in the packed hulls
Why was Phillis Wheatley freed by her owner?
Pressure from British antislavery activist who admired her poetry.
Why did southern congressional representation increase over the antebellum period?
Slave population grew in the south and were counted towards each state's population.
Why was there no permanent class of slaves and slave owners in West Africa despite a slave trading network that spanned the continent?
Slave status in Africa was rarely inherited
Why did many colonists resist the enlistment of black soldiers in the Continental army during the American Revolution?
Slaveholding colonists feared arming Africans American would lead to slave insurrections.
Why did blacks across the North begin to develop a self-consciously African identity by the middle of the eighteenth century? Page 3
Slaves imported directly from Africa provided a cultural link to their African roots.
Why did slavery initially expand in southern cities after the American Revolution?
Slaves were cheaper to maintain in cities than the countryside.
Why did African Americans believe slavery might collapse as a result of the American Revolution?
Slaves who served in the Revolution were often manumitted afterwards.
Why did African Americans support protests against Great Britain even though most were unaffected by British taxes?
Some patriots compared Britain's new policies as a struggle for freedom over slavery.
What kind of labor system was used only in rice-growing regions, where a driver was chosen to oversee the work of other slaves?
Task System
Why was trade between Europe and West Africa limited before the fifteenth century?
The Sahara Desert made it difficult for European traders to reach civilizations further south
From 1720 until the 1780s, where did most of the slaves imported from Africa end up among Britain's North American colonies?
The Southern Colonies.
What act of Parliament in 1765 led to protests and chants of "Liberty!" from blacks and whites across the colonies?
The Stamp Act.
What document stated that the United States would withdraw from the international slave trade in 1808?
The U.S Constitution.
Why did the number of English immigrants coming to Virginia decline by the middle part of the seventeenth century?
The colony's reputation for abusing and exploiting servants made it unappealing
What did a law passed in Virginia in 1662 change about the legal status of slaves? Page 2
The enslaved status of black women became inheritable
Why was the burial at sea of those captives who had died during the Middle Passage additionally painful and traumatic for the slaves who survived these horrors?
They believed that hell was at the bottom of the ocean
How did slaves who came from different parts of Africa communicate with one another on plantations in America?
They created Americanized, or creole form of communication
How did female slaves aid insurrections on slave ships?
They passed messages and weapons to male slaves
What role did fortifications such as the Elmina Castle on the southern coast of Ghana play for European traders?
They served as trading centers for the transatlantic slave trade
Why were slaves frequently brought on deck for what the slave traders called "dancing the slaves"?
They were forced to exercise to maintain their health
After the plot was revealed, the leaders of Gabriel's rebellion were ...?
Tired and executed
Why did black northerners rally against the British during the American Revolution?
To encourage the white colonists to rejected slavery.
In what new occupational sector did the New England colonies start to use slave labor in the mid-eighteenth century?
Urban Artisans.
Rice was cultivated successfully in South Carolina despite the colonists' lack of knowledge of how to grow it because slaves ....?
Used the same equipment and techniques they used to cultivate it in Africa
Why did the number of blacks in Virginia increase from approximately 7 percent of the colony's population in 1680 to 44 percent by 1750?
Virginia built a plantation economy that revolved around black slavery
Why did landless freemen, servants, and slaves join Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia in 1676?
Virginia planters unfairly controlled the price of tobacco
The Constitution's framers left the question of slavery to the jurisdiction of the state legislatures because they ....?
Were willing to compromise in order to form a federal union
In the fifteenth century, why did Portuguese slave traders make commercial treaties with African rulers on the West African coast rather than invade their kingdoms and take war captives?
West African kingdom organized a successful defense of their coastlines
Which category of slaves did slave owners prefer to bring with them when they migrated to new cotton frontiers?
Young Adults
South Carolina passed the 1740 Negro Act giving all whites the power to kill any slave who resisted interrogation or punishment because ....?
slave owners hoped it would prevent future slave rebellions.
