The Role Of African American Slavery In The 18th Century

Slavery in the Eighteenth Century United States History to 1865

29 October 2012

The demand for slavery was steadily growing into the eighteen-century. European colonist in North America imported African slaves as an inexpensive source of physical labor, cheaper and more numerous they were than hiring indentured servants at the time. After the Dutch ships brought African slaves ashore the British colony of Jamestown in Virginia; slavery would spread throughout the British American colonies. By the mid eighteen-century, three- fourths of all slaves lived on large plantations and small ranches. While the African population increased so did their society, cultures and religions. Eventually at one point African Americans would outnumber the white settlers of American.
Moreover, there were many African Americas who had converted to Christianity in the eighteenth century. Some slaves converted willingly while others were forced by their owners and Protestant missionaries. However, slaves would still practice their own religion and customs secretly. They sometimes practiced voodoo or the belief of many other deities. The African Americans religion primarily emphasized the rights of freedom and of deliverance. (Brinkley 282-283) Black Christians used sermons and prayers to give hope of freedom and to express their own dreams
in the New World.
Furthermore, music was also a very significant part of the slave society.
Their African heritage and traditions were incorporated within many of their beliefs and music. They used music in important cultural tradition such as storytelling’s and sacred rituals. Slaves often sung spiritual songs in the fields while working to pass the hard times. The songs of slaves were hardly ever written down they were usually past down from generation to generations.( Brinkley 283-284) African Americans often created musical instruments out of left over materials they could acquire. The banjo was then created and became an important part of slave
music.
Nonetheless, the high demand of slavery in North America would help develop the Trans- Atlantic slave trade. In the eighteenth century British ships traveled back in forth from Africa to the New World. There they would exchange manufactured goods and bring back slaves. Many European nations like Spanish, Portuguese, and English were involved in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. However, European countries were not allowed to journey inland into Africa to find and capture their own slaves. Instead, native Africans captured their own slaves, prisoners of war, and sold many of their criminals into slavery. Africa’s tribal leaders would bring their slaves to the coastline to be sold and traded to white traders. As slavery expanded and became more common, so was their appalling treatment. Slaves were jam-packed into the dirty holds of ships were many would die, because of disease, lack of food, and harsh treatments. Slave traders would try to fit as many people as possible to guarantee them hefty profits when they reached the New World. Once in the New World, traders would auction off slaves to white landowners with the highest bids. (Brinkley 64-76)
The living and working conditions slaves faced greatly depended on their masters or owners and were they worked. Many slaves who worked with their masters and families on private farms were treated fairly healthier. Than the slaves on plantations who worked under foremen’s or drivers who treated them harsher and crueler, because they had no gain or personnel interest in keeping healthy slaves alive, they just wanted to maximize the harvests for their masters. Punishments were usually given by the slaves driver and owners if a job was done disappointingly or incomplete and if property or equipment was damaged or lost. Though sometimes good work was also rewarded with extra food, passes to go see family or friends, and the privilege of working on other plantations. (Slave Society and Culture) Many African slaves such as men, women, and children worked in the harsh fields of colonial America, for as long as sixteen hours a day during harvesting season and ten to twelve hours in the winter. On the successful larger plantations some slaves were allowed to practice crafts and traits such as carpentry, shoemaking, weaving, spinning, sowing, blacksmithing and many other important skills. Sometimes the skilled slaves were hired by other plantation owners to work on their estates and paid low wages. A few of the slaves eventually were able to buy their way to freedom. (Brinkley 75-76)
While in the New World slaves would regularly resisted their owners and masters in many cunning ways. One of the most historical examples of their resistance was during the colonial period. The Stono Rebellion was in South Carolina and consisted of approximately a one- hundred black slaves resisting their white owners. A group of slaves marched down the roads heading south proclaiming liberty and freedom. As they continued walking more and more slaves joined the rebellion. The slaves acquired deadly weapons and killed numerous white slave owners in an attempt to flee to Florida. Where they could be in free territory and could buy their own land. The slaveries resistance was promptly controlled; many slaves were punished and some were put to death. After, the Stono Rebellion many white colonists felt uncomfortable about the increasing numbers of blacks in society. The whites began working on the Negro Act which would limit the slave’s privileges and rights. After the Negro Act was passed the slaves were no longer allowed to grow their own crops, gather in groups, learn to read, write, and earn money. Though many of these restrictions had already been imposed the Negro Act would now become firmly enforced and monitored closely by white society. (Brinkley 75-76)
By the end of the eighteenth century the opposition to slavery had grew. The United States Constitution abolished slavery through the thirteenth amendment shortly after the Civil War. Though the effort to end slavery did not end completely in North America, the ideas of the Enlightenment period would bring influence to the new concepts of individual equality and freedom. The African American slaves helped built the economic foundation and political governments of the New World. The ideas of human natural rights would spread throughout the continents liberating the slaves gradually. The descendants of all slaves are now free, men and women. The United States has abolished slavery for over a century. All the owners and supporters of slavery were morally and religiously corrupt. Nothing will ever hide America’s ghost of slavery. It is a pall part of our nation’s history.

Works Cited
Brinkley, Alan. The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of The American People. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2010. Print.

Cliffs Notes: Slave Society and Culture.
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