The systematic

exploitation of
labor without
consent, and/or
to the possession
of human beings
as property.

Slavery is a system under which people are treated
as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to
work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of
their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right
to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation.
Historically, slavery was institutionally recognized by most
societies; in more recent times, slavery has been outlawed
in all countries, but it continues through the practices
of debt bondage, serfdom, domestic servants kept in
captivity, certain adoptions in which children are forced to
work as slaves, child soldiers, and forced marriage. Slavery
is officially illegal in all countries, but there are still an
estimated 20 million to 30 million slaves worldwide.
The Atlantic slave traders, ordered by trade
volume, were: the Portuguese, the British,
the French, the Spanish, the Dutch Empire, and
the United States.
They had established outposts on the African
coast where they purchased slaves from local
African tribal leaders. Current estimates are that
about 12 million Africans were shipped across the
Atlantic, although the number purchased by the
traders is considerably higher.
Began in 1619 only 12 years
after the first white men arrived

Was common in the South, but
also prevalent in the North

Not only were the slaves
expected to serve for life, but so
were their children, and their
childrens children

There were no laws that
protected them
What really started
the push toward
importing slaves to the
America was the
growing of tobacco. It
generated a huge
profit, but required a
lot of work.

Slaves also helped
produce rice and sugar
that were also sold for
a huge profit.

Prior to the 1790s there was
not a lot of cotton production
since it was very labor
intensive

In 1793 cotton gin was
created ,which separated the
seeds from the cotton
made it much faster

Slaves were needed,
however, to grow and pick
the cotton
Led to a huge increase in the
number of slaves
The Native American population quickly fell by 90%
due to the bad treatment and disease leaving
many Europeans settlers concerned that there
would be no one left to help with the work

The Europeans, in consultation with the Pope,
thought it was important to focus on converting the
Native Americans who remained to Christianity
rather than forced labor

They were also good at escaping, and coming back
with friends to punish those who enslaved them
People were captured along
the West Coast of Africa

Kings and merchants in the
area would help in exchange
for beads, guns, and alcohol

Families would be torn apart
people would go to the
field for the day and when
they returned their families
would be gone
Taken For the Slave Market
To maximize profits as many slaves as possible
were put onto a ship

It is believed that an African could be captured
and brought to America for about $25 and sold
for $150

The journey would take about 2 months - -
where there was almost no space, sanitation,
food, or water

12M are believed to have made the journey
and 1.5 M are believed to have died on the
way (about 12%)

One captain wrote to our
great Amazement about 100
men slaves jumped over
board. His sailors rescued
two-thirds of the, , but the
others would not endeavor
to save themselves, but
resolvd to die and sunk
directly down.

Another captain, John
Newton, later wrote the
hymn Amazing Grace in
response to his experience.

Diagram of a slave ship from the Atlantic slave trade. From an
Abstract of Evidence delivered before a select committee of
the House of Commons of Great Britain in 1790 and 1791.
Once arrived,
Slaves would
be sold in an
auction

This is another
point where
families would
be separated
from each other
Poor conditions for the slave. Historian
Patrick Manning noted that by 1820 about
10 million Africans had made the journey
to American and only 2 million Europeans.
The treatment and conditions, however,
made it so that there were actually 12M
people of European decent living in
America and 6M of African.

People who were slaves were owned
and there children were owned and
there childrens children were owned.
They could be abused, sold, and worked
to death and no one would protect
them.
"Am I Not A Man And A Brother?" 1787
medallion designed for the British
anti-slavery campaign
The daughter of enslaved Africans born
around 1799 in New York

When she was just nine years old she was sold
to a new owner without her family

They were very cruel to her, and she
remembers saying that she was beaten with a
bundle of rods

She fell in love with a slave from a
neighboring farm, but her master was so
concerned that she would have children with a
slave he did not own that he beat him to death

She was later forced to marry another slave
who she did not love
Born into slavery in 1820 in Maryland

When she was six years old her
master hit her in the head so hard
that she suffered seizures and other
neurological issues for the rest of
her life

In 1849 her master died and she was
worried she would be separated
from her family. She escaped and
made 13 more missions to rescue 70
more slaves

The route she took, filled with lots of
hiding places and people who were
willing to risk their lives to take
them in, is known as the
underground railroad.

The United States was highly divided
about whether slavery should be legal
11 states that wanted to keep slavery
tried to secede from the Union.
After the American Revolutionary War
established the United States, northern
states began to pass legislation
abolishing slavery
The first was Pennsylvania in 1780
Massachusetts wrote its own constitution
that declared all men are equal
In 1862 Abraham Lincoln used special powers the
president is allowed in war to free the slaves

African Americans were allowed to fight for the
Union Army

He urged everyone to gain freedom in peace

The proclamation went into effect on January 1,
1863
It was not clear whether their freedom would
continue after the war

Abraham Lincoln's
position on slavery was
one of the central issues
in American history.



In just 3 minutes, President Lincoln delivered
one of the most famous speeches in the world

It was delivered on November 19, 1863 on the
battlefield of Gettysburg where the North won
a big victory in July of that year

Defined the war as an effort to continue what
America had set out to do in the revolution
create a government of the people, by the
people, for the people.
General Lee (of the South)
surrender to General Grant
(of the North)

The war produced
1,030,000 casualties
620,000 soldier death
50,000 civilian deaths
60,000 lost limbs
On April 14, 1865 Abraham Lincoln
became the first US president to be
assassinated


The assassination was carried out by
John Wilkes Booth, who wanted to
revive the Confederate fight.
To ensure that the slaves remained free
after the war, three amendments were
made to the constitution
The thirteenth amendment, ratified in 1865,
abolished slavery
The fourteenth amendment, ratified in 1868,
ensured the equal protection of the law to all
The fifteenth amendment, ratified in 1870, gives
all men the right to vote
Women dont get the right to vote until the 19
th

amendment is passed in 1920

State and Local laws in the United
States enacted between 1876 and 1965 in
the Southern States

Tried to argue that it created a
separate but equal status for the
African Americans


Racism
Racism
In 1955 Rosa Parks, tired from a
long day of work, refused to give
up her seat on the bus to a white
man

She was arrested, and her act
turned into a famous protest called
the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

After 381 days the city passed an
ordinance (by order of the
Supreme Court) that allowed
blacks to sit in any seat on the bus.

Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman,
activist, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights
Movement. He is best known for his role in the
advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil
disobedience.
Martin Luther King was
instrumental in
organizing the
Montgomery Bus Protest


When he was physically
attacked for supporting
the protest, he gave the
following speech to 300
angry black men who
gathered outside his
home to fight back.
King was later
arrested for his
involvement with the
boycott. He
commented on the
arrest by saying I
was proud of my
crime. It was the
crime of joining my
people in a nonviolent
protest against
injustice.
It is the Montgomery Bus
Protest that made MLK a
national player

In 1963 he made his famous
I have a dream speech in
front of the Lincoln
memorial

In 1964 he won the Nobel
Peace Prize for combating
racial inequality through
nonviolence

The civil rights movement was a
series of worldwide political
movements for equality before the
law that peaked in the 1960s. In
many situations it took the form of
campaigns of civil resistance aimed
at achieving change by nonviolent
forms of resistance. In some
situations it was accompanied, or
followed, by civil unrest and armed
rebellion. The process was long and
tenuous in many countries, and
many of these movements did not
fully achieve their goals although,
the efforts of these movements did
lead to improvements in the legal
rights of previously oppressed
groups of people.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Outlawed major forms of discrimination
(including women) in accessing public
facilities (including schools)

Voting Rights Act 1965
Ensures fair voting practices

He was assassinated on
April 4, 1968 in Memphis
Tennessee

After his death he was
awarded the Presidential
Medal of Freedom and
the Congressional Gold
Medal

In 1986 Martin Luther King
Day was declared a
national holiday in the
US
Still racism in America
One of the biggest problems with the
criminal justice system
According to the NYT Texas has carried out 470
executions since 1976 . Only ONE was for the
death of a black person
In 2011 Illinois abolished the death penalty out of
fear that it was too racially biased to be fair

In 2002, the U.S. Department of State repeated an
earlier CIA estimate that each year, about 50,000
women and children are brought against their will to
the United States for sexual exploitation.
There are twenty-seven million humans in slavery
today, which is a greater number than at any other
point in the world's history. Slavery exists in the
forms of sex trafficking, domestic servitude,
factory and farm slavery, and child soldier slavery,
but is not limited to these forms