USA AREA STUDIES OUTLINE:             Chapter 9                     pages 38-44

 

1A. BLACK AMERICA

B. Jamestown Beginning

History of Blacks                  <- Began in August 1619, when a small  Dutch warship came to Jamestown, Virginia.

Indentured Service              <- the ownership of a person’s labor for a period of time by another person or group of people. A lot of Englishmen came to America this way to work off the debt of passage to the New World.

20 Blacks                              <- and other white people were on the ship but none were slaves, they were “indentured service”

workers.

Period of Service                                 <- at the end of their time of service, they were free men, able to marry, own property and exercise all

rights and responsibilities of citizenship

C. Slavery

Slavery                                   <- the complete ownership of one person by another person;

Slave labor                            <- was a system used between 1640-1680 in Virginia and other southern colonies. White  indentured servants that had a contract of their time for labor and day of freedom. Black indentured had no such contract. They were indentured for life and so were their children, from birth to death.

Slave ships                           <- special ships were built to carry slaves from Africa by the hundreds and thousands to the colonies.

Wealthy Slave Trade-          <- Slave owners and slave traders of Britain and America became very wealth in slave trading.

 D. Conflicts Of Conscience

Slavery existed                     <- in all the North American colonies. Most black slaves lived on large farms and plantations, small

farmers also owned one or two slaves.

The Idea                                <-  a revolutionary idea that all men are created equal, started the change to do something about

slavery.

Not profitable                        <- slavery wasn’t always profitable, they had to be fed all year round, some found it cheaper to hire

day laborers when needed. Some sold off their slaves to plantation owners in West Indies, Virginia

and the Carolinas.

Advocates                             <- including Patrick Henry, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson has slaves but were against

the mistreatments in slavery. Washington wrote a provision in his will to free his slaves.

Pseudoism                           <- in some religious and science groups deemed the blacks to be inferior race of people. This is very

sad.

 E. Achievement and Struggle

Double Trouble    <- one part of the struggle was “personal achievement”- a chance to use one’s talents and abilities to

gain a secure, respected place in society. The second part, was to “cast off” the yoke  of slavery that

oppressed all blacks- free and captive.

Campaigns          <- for freedom and dignity for all blacks. 1.) Benjamin Banneker, a famous astronomer, mathematician, author an inventor, Also design the city of Washington D.C.; 2.) Paul Cuffe,  became wealthy through farming and shipping. He freed blacks and even organized the “Friendly Society” to help former slaves go back to Africa as free people to set up a new nation, the Republic of Liberia. About 11,000 American blacks moved to Liberia. 3.) Frederick Douglas, an escaped slave at 21 became an “abolitionists”- people trying to end slavery. He was a great writer and public speaker, demanded freedom and complete equality for all blacks. He and other white abolitionists helped blacks to escape slavery and also had the idea to start the Union’s first “all black” regiment called the 54th Massachusetts that fought in the Civil War.

F. Escape to the North

1ST Fugitive Slave Law        <- 1780, required the authorities of all states and territories to arrest and return fugitive slaves.

Underground Railroad       <- a system for slaves to escape to the North. “Depots” were hiding places for slaves. “Stockholders”

were people that provided the money. “Conductors” were guides who led fugitives along the escape

routes to the North.

2nd Fugitive Slave Law        <- 1850, passed by Congress. Severe penalties to anyone assisting fugitive slaves.

Harriet Tubman                   <- an escaped slave; over 10 years she made 19 trips into slave states and guided 300 men, women and children to freedom, even at far North to Canada for them not to be touched by the law.

G. The End of Slavery

The Civil War                        <- broke out in April, 1861. A war between the (blues) Union states of the North against the

Confederacy (the grays) of the states of the South. A ½ million slaves escaped to the North at this

time.

Abraham Lincoln                 <- issued the “Emancipation Proclamation”, declaring that slaves in states at war against the United States (the North) were free.

Freedom                               <- came to the slaves in 1865 at the end of the Civil War, when Congress passed the 13th

Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery. Also passed was the 14th Amendment, that

gave blacks full citizenship rights.

Racial Segregation             <- whites were totally against the rights for blacks. In the South, blacks had to use separate schools,

churches, hospitals, parks, swimming pools, lunchrooms, washrooms, bus sections and theater

section. Lynching”, the illegal killing (by hanging) of people for real or imagined crimes, greatly

increased. A lot of blacks moved from the South to cities up North.

Breakthroughs                     <- for blacks in education, science, sports, entertainment, business, engineering, music and the arts.

1.) Dr. Charles Drew, advanced medical science, saved millions of live in WWII by his discovery of a way to preserve blood.

2.) Dr. Ralph Bunche, Undersecretary General of the United Nations, save countless lives by promoting peace in the Middle East. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950.