slavery vocabulary

Compensated emancipation

Compensated emancipation had the government, in essence, buying slaves from slaveholders.

Emancipation

Emancipation referred to the act of freeing slaves by a third party, a legal entity other than the owner.

Gradual emancipation

Gradual emancipation was a wide-ranging term, but most commonly applied as current slaves would continue in servitude, but children born after a certain date would be free. * Instead, gradual emancipation laws set deadlines by which all slaves would be freed, releasing individuals as they reached a certain age or the end of a certain work period. This situation left some African Americans lingering in bonded servitude. Pennsylvania passed its Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery in 1780. Yet, as late as 1850, the federal census recorded that there were still hundreds of young blacks in Pennsylvania, who would remain enslaved until their 28th birthdays. * gradual emancipation acts such as that passed by Pennsylvania in 1780, whereby all children born to slaves in the future would be freed at age 28.

task system (compare with those who work under an overseer or a slave driver)

Some, however, especially in the coastal region of South Carolina and Georgia, labored under the "task" system: assigned a certain amount of work to complete in a day, they received less supervision than gang laborers and were free to use their time as they wished once they had completed their daily assignments.

immediate emancipation

The concept of immediate emancipation was set forth by William Lloyd Garrison in the Liberator. This called for the immediate freeing of the slaves with no compensation.

slave driver

The driver was generally charged with maintaining the work pace, schedule, and discipline among the slaves and enforcing the rules of the plantation. The master supplied him with the trappings of status and power, including high boots, a better coat than other slaves, and a whip. The driver often administered whippings, so that slaves might direct their anger for such punishment toward him, and not the master. The slave driver worked directly under the authority of the overseer who served as the master's plantation manager.

Manifest Destiny

The idea of Manifest Destiny held that America had the right and even the duty to extend its civilization

hiring out

The practice of "hiring out" was one feature of urban slavery that gave the enslaved a route to independence in their daily lives. Through this process, slave owners rented slaves to others. Enslaved people could, by arrangement with their owners, also hire themselves out. They then resided in or near the renter, who was officially, if not in practice, required to refrain from mistreating his leased property. Money earned from hiring out went into the owners' pockets, but oftentimes the laborer got to keep some himself. In this way, a slave might save enough not only to live on his own, but also to buy his freedom.

The transatlantic slave trade

The transatlantic slave trade, commonly known as the triangular slave trade, was composed of three parts: European goods were traded for African slaves; African slaves were sold in the Americas for plantation crops; plantation crops were transported for sale and consumption in Europe.

manumission

When an owner set free his own slave, the act was known as manumission.

overseer

a person who directed the work of field slaves on a plantation

indentured servant

a person who is legally bound to work for another person for a predetermined amount of time. In the eighteenth century, this period was often, but not always, seven years. Most indentured servants consisted of poor Europeans who, desiring to escape harsh conditions and take advantage of fabled opportunities in America, traded three to seven years of their labor in exchange for the transatlantic passage. At first predominantly English but later increasingly Irish, Welsh, and German, servants consisted primarily (although not exclusively) of young males. Once in the colonies, they were essentially temporary slaves; most served as agricultural workers although some, especially in the North, were taught skilled trades. During the 17th century, they performed most of heavy labor in the Southern colonies and also provided the bulk of immigrants to those colonies.

conductor

a person who provided shelter for runaways and directed them where to go next. ref to the Underground Railroad

activist (noun)

a person who works to achieve political or social change, especially as a member of an organization with particular aims: gay activists

mulatto

a person with one black parent and one white parent

safe house

a place where runaway slaves could find food and shelter. ref to the Underground Railroad

insurrection

a revolt against political or civil authority.

negro

a term used in the eighteenth century to describe an enslaved person of African descent.

idiom "sold down the river"

idiom meaning "to be betrayed" in today's speech, has its roots in American slave tradition where the life of a slave was harsher if he was sold down the Mississippi River

Emancipation and abolition are not interchangeable words. Why?

many northern states abolished slavery but did not emancipate existing slaves. In 1777 the state of Vermont banned slavery within the state, but allowed for gradual emancipation of slaves. When the constitutional ban on the importation of slaves began on January 1, 1808, most of the northern states outlawed new slaves but existing slaves could be held. In fact, by the start of the Civil War, slaves still existed in every state of the Union.

inalienable rights

rights not given to you by the state but given to you by God, so they can't be taken away. And the purpose of the state is to secure these rights, not to give them to you or to tell you what you're supposed to do with them, but to secure those rights for you. What are those rights? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. "We hold these truths to be self-evident." In other words, you don't have to prove them. It's self-evident. Why is it self-evident? Came from God. They're inalienable. Government secures them.

Abolition (noun U)

the ending of a law, a system or an institution: the abolition of slavery

activism (noun [U])

the use of direct and noticeable action to achieve a result, usually a political or social one : black/student activism. The levels of trade union and political activism in this country have greatly declined in the past fifteen years.