Slavery

Slave Life and Culture

Chapter 9.1

​Talk with a partner quietly about the following questions.

What do you see happening in this painting?

What feelings are shown?

What are your thoughts on the scene shown?

​

Think About It

American Life under Slavery

​A Race-Based System

Two things shaped American Slavery as unique

1. Few whites owned slaves, but many claimed superiority justified slavery.

2. Economic demand for cotton drove slavery for profit.

Slavery on Plantations

• Most slaves were on farms focused on large-scale production of cotton

• Cash crops (cotton, rice, tobacco) needed special knowledge

• Everyone worked: children, pregnant women, old, disabled

• No rights; punished for disobeying or trying to escape; most poorly fed and not given quality medical care

​​Field Work

​​House Work

​​Skilled Labor

​​Housing

Slave Codes and Fugitive Slave Laws

• States passed laws protecting owners and restricting slave rights - known as Slave Codes

  • Couldn't be taught to read to write

  • Couldn't meet in a group without a white person present

  • Couldn't own a firearm

  • Couldn't give testimony against a white person

  • Treated as posessions (sold/traded, given as gifts, passed down to heirs)

• It was against the law to severly injury or kill a slave, but not really enforced

Frederick Douglass

former slave, author and abolitionist

Exit Ticket:

What are your thoughts about the following quote?

"I didn't know I was a slave until I couldn't do the things I wanted."