EMERGENCE OF A SLAVE SOCIETY IN EARLY AMERICA

1
EMERGENCE OF A SLAVE SOCIETY IN EARLY AMERICA

• HST 111

2
NEW ENGLAND THE CHESAPEAKE

• NEW ENGLAND
• Religious Motives
• Family Settlers
• Covenanted Society
• Settlement in Towns
• Family Farmers
• Protestant Ethic
• Traditional English Society thru 1776

• CHESAPEAKE
• Economic Motives
• Single Male Settlers
• Look out for No. 1
• Scattered Setlement
• Large Plantations
• Unfree Labor
• Full-Blown Slave Society by 1700

3
WHAT ARE SLAVERYS CHARACTERISTICS?

• Unfreedom
• Violent in Its Very Nature
• Master Holds Total Control
• Unrestricted Access to Slaves Sexuality
• Slave in Complete, Lifelong Dependence
• Social Death
• Slave a Living Tool

4
WHAT IS A SLAVE SOCIETY?

• A Society Based on Slavery
• You know youre in a slave society when
• Labor System is Primarily Slaves
• Social Structure is Determined by the Presence of
  Slaves
• TAKE AWAY SLAVERY AND EVERYTHING ELSE IS
  DIFFERENT

5
PRECONDITIONS OF SLAVE SOCIETY

• Well-developed Commodity Market
• Unequal Land Distribution
• No Alternative Labor Supply

6
WELL-DEVELOPED COMMODITY MARKET

• Tobacco--Introduced by John Rolfe, 1610
• Indigo--South Carolina
• Rice--South Carolina
• Cotton--Not Strong until Early 19th Century

7
UNEQUAL LAND DISTRIBUTION

• Original Land Grants
• Headright System
• Designed to Encourage Immigration
• 50 acres for every passage paid

8
NO ALTERNATIVE LABOR SUPPLY

• Decline of Indentured Servant Supply
• Difficulty of Enserfing or Enslaving Native
  Americans
• Well-developed African Slave Trade
• NEXT