APUSH AMSCO Topic 2.6 Study NotesAPUSH AMSCO Topic 2.6 Study Notes

A P U S H I S T O R Y · UNIT2

Slavery in the British Colonies

AMSCO Topic 2.6

Learning Objective: (1) Explain the causes and effects of slavery in the various British colonial regions. (2) Explain how enslaved people responded to slavery.

Study notes built from the AMSCO text only. No outside sources are added.

Big Picture

Colonial agriculture created a demand for labor. American Indians could escape too easily and indentured servants were too few, so landowners, especially in the South, turned to enslaved Africans. The transatlantic slave trade was important to the economy, and much of it was financed or run by people in the northern colonies. Demand for Labor

In Maryland and Virginia, European demand for tobacco meant great profit, and land could be taken or traded from American Indians. But not enough laborers would work for low wages. Disease, food shortages, and battles with Indians kept the population growing slowly.

Indentured servants: the early Virginia Company colonists were too poor to buy enslaved Africans as West Indian sugar planters did. Under contract, people (including those from the British Isles) worked a set period, usually four to seven years, in return for passage, room, and board. They were under the master's absolute rule, then gained freedom and could work for wages or get land. For landowners this was labor, but only temporary.

Headright system: Virginia offered 50 acres to each immigrant who paid their own passage and to any plantation owner who paid for an immigrant's passage.

The Institution of Slavery

1619: an English ship serving the Dutch sold about 25 Black Africans as indentured servants in Virginia. At first they were not in life bondage and their children were free. By the end of the 1660s the House of Burgesses passed laws keeping Africans and their children in permanent bondage.

By the early 18th century all British colonies had some enslaved laborers. New England: fewest (small farms). Middle Colonies: more, especially in port cities, working on docks and as sailors. South: most, on plantations. By 1750, half of Virginia's population and two-thirds of South Carolina's were enslaved.

The highest numbers of enslaved people were in the West Indian sugar islands. About 95 percent of enslaved Africans went to the West Indies or Brazil; under 5 percent went to British North America. Why demand for enslaved Africans rose, especially in the South

Reduced migration: higher wages in England reduced the supply of immigrants.

Dependable workforce: planters were disturbed by the demands of small farmers and indentured servants and the disorder of Bacon's Rebellion; slavery promised a stable labor force under their control. Low-cost labor: as tobacco prices fell, rice and indigo became most profitable, needing large land areas and many unskilled field hands.

Slave laws

1641: Massachusetts became the first colony to recognize enslavement of "lawful" captives. 1661: Virginia enacted that children inherit their mother's enslaved status for life.

1664: English law that baptized Christians could not be enslaved was being overturned; Maryland declared baptism did not affect status and that White women could not marry African American men.

As slavery spread, Whites came to regard all Blacks as inferior: racism and slavery became integral parts of colonial society.

Resistance to Slavery

Kept family ties despite owners' power to sell a spouse or child at any time.

Kept elements of African religious practices even while adopting Christianity; used songs and storytelling to preserve traditions and customs.

Direct action: hunger strikes, breaking tools, refusing to work, or fleeing, even when likely to be caught and punished harshly.

Owners' fear of resistance led over the years to new laws to control enslaved people. Labor Systems Compared

Indentured servitude Slavery

Length Fixed term, usually 4-7 years Lifetime; inherited by children through the mother (Virginia, 1661)

Who Mostly Europeans (British Isles) who contracted for

passage

Africans forcibly transported via the Middle Passage

End

result

Freedom; wages or land of their own No freedom; laws strengthened to keep people in bondage Why

used

Early colonists were too poor to buy enslaved people;

headright encouraged it

Reduced migration, dependable workforce, low-cost labor

for rice and indigo

Key Terms and Actors

Term / Actor What it is and why it matters

Indentured servants Workers under contract for four to seven years in exchange for passage, room, and board. Headright system Virginia land policy of 50 acres per immigrant (or per passage paid). Slavery Lifelong, inherited bondage; legally established in the colonies through laws in the 1600s. Middle Passage The crossing that carried captive Africans from West Africa to the Americas. 1619 First Africans arrive in Virginia, initially as indentured servants.

Slave laws (1641, 1661,

1664)

Massachusetts recognizes enslavement; Virginia makes status hereditary through the mother; Maryland says baptism does not free.

Making This Essay-Ready

Causation: Cash crops plus labor shortage, reduced English migration, planter fear after Bacon's Rebellion, and the shift to rice and indigo explain why slavery grew and why it was concentrated in the South. Comparison: New England had the fewest enslaved people, the Middle Colonies used them in ports and trades, and the South relied on them for plantation labor. The West Indies held most enslaved Africans by far. Continuity and change: Early Africans in Virginia (1619) were indentured and children were free; by the 1660s law created permanent, hereditary slavery. Resistance (family, religion, strikes, flight) continued throughout. AMSCO Topic 2.6 · Student-written study notes summarizing AMSCO