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Slavery and Free Blacks in the 18th Century
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Triangular Trades in the 18th Century
A series of traingular trading routes crisscrossed the Atlantic that carried slaves and other goods from Africa to the New World to Europe. Atlantic commerce consisted mainly of slaves, crops produced by slaves, and goods destined for slave societies. The Middle Passage (one of the rotues in the triangular trade) was the voyage for many slaves to the New World: Diseases spread rapidly and many slaves died before reaching their destinations. -
Slave uprising in New York City - 1712
The 18th Century's first slave uprising was in New York City in 1712. It was when a group of slaves sen houses on the outskirts of the city on fire and killed the first nince whites that came to the scene.The eighteen conspirators were executed. Some were tortured and burned alive in a public spectacle meant to intimidate the slaves. -
Chesapeake - Free Blacks in the mid-eighteenth century
Free blacks lost the right to employ white servantsa and to have weapons, were subjected to special taxes, and could be punished for striking a white person, regardless of the caus. Virginia revoked the voting privileges of property-owning free blacks. -
Chesapeake Tobacco Plantation Slavery - mid-eighteenth century
The economies followed the mercantilist policy: they supplied the mother country with a valuable raw material, imported large amounts of British goods, and were closely linked in culture and political values to the metropolis. Most Chesapeake slaves worked in the fields, but thousands also worked as boatmen, teamsters, and in skilled crafts. Female slaves became cooks, seamstresses, dairy maids, and personal servants. They worked under constant supervision in groups. -
South Carolina Rice Plantation Slavery - mid-eighteenth century
South Carolina used the task system for slaves: Individual slaves were assigned daily jobs and when completed they had free time for leisure or to cultivate their own crops. It had many more slaves than Virginia did. -
Louisiana Slave Rebellion - 1731
In 1731, a slave rebellionin Louisiana temporarily halted efforts to introduce the plantation system in the region. -
Stono Rebellion - September 1739
A group of South Carolina slaves seized a store containing numerous weapons at the town of Stono. They beated drums to attract followers and marched toward Florida, burning houses and barns, killing whites they encoutered, and shouting "Liberty." -
Georgia Rice Plantation Slavery - mid-eighteenth century
When Georgia was founded in 1733, the proprietors banned slaves. In 1751, the proprietors surrendered the colony to the crown. The coloniests then won the right to an elected assembly. It repealed the ban on slavery and Georgia became a mini South Carolina. -
New England and the Middle Colonie Nonplantation Slavery - mid-eighteenth century
Slaves worked as farm hands, artisans, unloaded and loaded ships, and as personal servants. Slave marriages were recognized in law, the severe physical punishment of slaves was prohibited, and slaves could bring suits in court, testify against whites, and own property and pass it on to generations. There weren't as many slaves because there were family farms instead of plantations. -
Lord Dunmore's Proclamation - 1775
It offered freedom to slaves who joined the British cause. -
Free Black Communities
Free communities, with their own churches, schools, and leaders, came into existence. -
Vermont state constitution bans slavery
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Emancipation 1777-1804
Every state north of Maryland took steps toward emancipation, the first time in recorded history that legislative power had been invoked to eradicate slavery. Abolition laws provided for the liberty of any child born in the future, but only after he or she served the master until adulthood. In all the states except Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia, free black men who met taxpaying or property qualifications enjoyed the right to vote under new state constitutions. -
Rhode Island forms a black regiment
Rhode Island formed a black regiment and promised freedom to slaves who enlisted in the army, while compensating the owners for their loss of property. -
Virginia Legislature - 1783
In 1783, the Virginia legislature emancipated slaves who had "contributed towards the establishment of American liberty and independence" by serving in the army. -
Fugitive Slave Clause
The condition of bondage remained attached to a person even if he or she escaped to a state where slavery had been abolished. -
Constitutional Convention
The Constitution prohibited Congress from abolishing the African salve trade for twenty years. It required states to return to their owners fugitives from bondage. And it provided that three-fifths of the slave population would be counted in determining each state's representation in the House of Representatives and its electoral votes for president. -
The Three-Fifths Compromise
States with large slave populations wanted slaves to count as people in order to have more representatives in the House of Representatives. States with smaller populations wanted to exclude slaves. The Three-Fifths Compromise counted slaves as three-fifhts of a person for both taxation and representation. -
Free Blacks - Eighteenth Century
By the era of the Revolution, free blacks enjoyed some legal rights, such as the right to vote.The large majority of blacks however were still slaves. -
Abolition of Slave Trade
On January 1st, 1808, Congress abolished the slave trade and the first day they were allowed to. They abolished the importation of slaves.
