History > Key Stage 3

Black People of the Americas
Course Notes and Worksheets

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Unit 1

In 1492 Christopher Columbus set off from Spain to sail around the world. He landed in what he thought was Asia three months later. It wasn't until 30 years later that people realised a new continent had been found. From a historical point of view, this discovery was to have important consequences for peoples of the new continent of America, Europe and especially Africa. It is ironic that one of the three ships in Columbus's expedition was captained by the Pinzon brothers, who were known as the 'Negro Pinzons'.

Within 200 years of the 'arrival' ( some people argue that this should be seen as an 'invasion' rather than as the 'discovery' that it has been described as in the past) of Europeans in America, millions of Africans had been transported there to work as slaves. We will examine the causes of this in a later unit, but now we need to concentrate on Africa.

Africa

At first, Africans were not taken as slaves because of the colour of their skin, but simply because there were large numbers of them who could be obtained quite easily. Once they were captured they became a stereotype whereby other people saw Africans as a weak and inferior race of people. The reality was that the many peoples who made up the population of Africa were highly intelligent and organised.

Because there was plenty of land in most of Africa, people who chose to do so were able to move from place to place (these were nomadic people). Others preferred a settled life. The West Coast of Africa, where many people were enslaved, was well known to European visitors. A Dutch visitor to Benin City noted:

"The town seemeth to be very great. When you enter into it, you go into a broad street, not paved, which seems to be seven or eight times broader than the Warnoes Street in Amsterdam. The houses in this town stand in good order as the houses of Holland stand."

The peoples of Africa had a rich and varied history before European slavers arrived. There were similarities with European countries, such as political systems. The Empire of Songhai and the Kingdoms of Mali, Benin and Kongo were large and powerful, with monarchs governing hundreds of thousands of people. There were, like Europe, the strong and the weak.

In the 15th Century, Portuguese traders began sailing down the West African coast, followed later by the British, Dutch, French and Scandinavians. All in all, many countries in Africa had developed into 'modern' countries and were not 'savage' or 'poor' as white Europeans would suggest.

Art, learning and technology flourished and Africans were especially skilled in subjects like medicine, mathematics and astronomy. Luxury items in bronze, ivory, gold and terracotta were made for local use and for trade.

Homework

Using either the LRB, computer programs such as 'Encarta', or books to which you may have access, write up examples showing African history before white slavers arrived.

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Unit 2: European Slavery

Slavery had been part of both European and African societies by 1500. There was, though, a difference. In Africa slavery only involved a small number of people. Also, slaves could gain their freedom by working hard. The European attitude was a belief in chattel slavery.

A chattel slave is a person owned simply as a piece of property. S/he can be bought or sold and forced to work in any conditions, without payment. A chattel slave has no legal rights and can be punished or abused by the owner at will. Any child born to a chattel slave also becomes a slave.

By the mid 15th Century, European countries had become rulers of empires overseas. England, France, Spain, Portugal and Holland had competed against each other to rule the countries of Asia to control the rich trade in spices, tea and other good unavailable in Europe. The discovery of the Americas (what we call today the continents of North and South America) had meant there was a need for people to work the large plantations (farms) there. Before the use of African people, Europeans had tried several ways of working the plantations:

(i) The use of Native Americans (Red Indians). This failed for many reasons. 'Indians' knew the land and could escape; also many Indians caught European diseases (to which they had no resistance) and their population was reduced dramatically.

(ii) The use of prisoners from the mother country. English convicts were sent to places such as Georgia, but these were nowhere near enough to fill the thousands of 'vacancies' needed to farm the plantations.

(iii) Believe it or not, some people chose to become slaves. As you will remember from Year 8 Britain, many people were poor and got themselves into debt. Being in debt was a crime and punishable at least by imprisonment. You could not get out of prison unless you paid your debt. The answer was to pay your debt by agreeing to become somebody's 'slave' for a period of time. A contract was drawn up between the two parties and signed. This system was known as indentured slavery (the indenture was the written contract). The indenture available has been paraphrased into language you will better understand.

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Unit 3: Transatlantic Slavery

Capture

During the 17th and 18th Centuries, more and more people in Europe began to use tropical goods such as sugar, tea, coffee, tobacco, cotton and indigo (a plant used to make blue dye). In America these crops were grown on plantations worked by many slaves. As the plantations grew, so did the numbers of slaves brought from Africa. When the Portuguese found they couldn't buy enough slaves, they took them by force.

The slave traders travelled to villages far inland to capture slaves. As the inland tribes did not have guns, it was easy to capture them and march them to the coast to sell as slaves. The African traders chose only the strongest captives to take with them. The captive Africans were chained in a line and had to wear heavy neckbands. A group such as this was called a coffle.

The captives were treated very cruelly. They had to march all day and were given hardly any food or water. Any who became ill were killed or left to die alone in the forests. The journey took several weeks. More captives were added to the coffle as it passed through other villages on the way.

Read the following extract written by William Bosman, a slave trader, describing in a letter to his uncle, the buying of slaves at Whydah in West Africa:

"When these slaves come to Whydah they are put in Prison all together, and when we treat concerning buying them they are all brought out together where by our surgeons they are all thoroughly examined even to the smallest member and that naked too both men and women, without the least distinction or modesty. Those which are approved as good are set on side, and the lame or faulty are set by as invalids. The remainder are numbered and it is entered who delivered them. In the meantime, a burning iron, with the arms or name of the companies, lies in the fire, with which ours are marked on the breast.

I doubt not but this trade seems very barbarous to you, but since it is followed by mere necessity it must go on; but we take all possible care that they are not burned too hard.

They are returned to their prison where they subsist like our criminals on bread and water."

The Middle Passage

The slaves were carried in fast sailing ships about 80-90 feet long, 25 feet wide and weighing between 120-250 tons. Such ships would take about two to three months to reach Africa and would remain on the coast for about 3-4 months collecting slaves. After filling up with slaves and checking the water supply, the captain would set off across the Atlantic. This middle passage would last about five weeks unless the ship became becalmed.

The slavers knew that within reason the slaves could not be treated too cruelly. Most slaves were fettered in pairs, left leg of one to right leg of partner. Slaves were brought out on deck each morning. The slaves' leg irons were linked to a chain running down the centre of the ship to prevent them jumping overboard. The slaves were made to perform a gloomy dance on deck, the whips of the crew encouraging them to show plenty of vigour.

Food consisted of a kind of porridge made from maize (sweetcorn) or millet (bird seed). Coarse beans, the kind fed to horses, made a change and occasionally there was a little salted meat. While the slaves were out on deck, a good captain had the slave decks washed down with warm vinegar and scrubbed. Some did not bother, and if the weather was rough the slaves were never allowed out at all. So foul was the smell of the slave ships that other vessels took care to steer windward of them.

Alexander Falconbridge, a ship's surgeon, later wrote a book about his experiences, leaving a grim record of conditions. He noted that:

• Each slave had less room that he would have had in his own coffin;
• It was almost pitch black below deck, where in bad weather a slave might be forced to stay for days on end;
• Toilet facilities – two or three buckets for perhaps a hundred people. Of course, when going to the toilet, your partner went with you;
• As captives often suffered from dysentery (an infectious and often fatal disease like an acute form of diarrhoea), the state of their prison became foul.

Many slaves could not take this type of existence and looked to death as a way out. Some jumped overboard, others refused to eat. Others died as a result of misery.

At this point it must be said that mortality amongst the crew was as high as it was amongst the slaves.

"I was soon put down under the decks and there I received such a smell in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life; so that with the horrible smell and crying I became sick and was not able to eat. I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me."

Orlandoh Equiano, 1789

It is believed that any number between 12,000,000 and 20,000,000 made the journey across the Atlantic.

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Unit4: Slavery in the New World

Arrival in the Americas

When a slave ship from West Africa neared an island in the West Indies, a gun was fired as a signal that a sale would take place within a few days. In later years, a notice of the sale would be printed in the local newspapers (see Source A).

The traders had to make the slaves look their best. They washed, shaved and rubbed them with palm oil to disguise sores and wounds caused by conditions on board. Extra food may have been given to help them look stronger and fatter. They would then fetch higher prices. Not all slaves who survived the journey could be sold: some were ill and could not attract buyers. These were left to die or were thrown overboard. (At times this was done deliberately as insurance claims could then be made.)

It is worth noting here that even after three months of captivity, some family groups remained intact, but generally these groups would be split when the slaves were sold. At the auction, the Africans were forced to stand while the planters – those who owned the plantations – examined them like cattle or horses. The planters then made bids against each other for the slaves they wanted. Sometimes the slaves were sold singly, sometimes in batches of from twenty to fifty people. In this way a husband could be parted from his wife and a mother from her children.

Some planters chose their slaves from different tribes. This meant slaves could not easily talk to each other and when they did, they had to use the one language they had in common – that of the planters. This lessened the risk of revolt.

The Bishop of Virginia greeted slaves arriving there with the following words:

"Almighty God is pleased to make you slaves and give you hard work. Your bodies now belong to those who have bought you."

Everyday Life

Throughout the West Indies and Southern USA, plantations needed hundreds of thousands of workers. Cotton, sugar and tobacco plantations were the most common work and life was hard.

Source A

"With twenty hours of unremitting toil,
Twelve in the field and eight indoors to boil,
Or grind the cane, believe me, few grow old,
But life is cheap and sugar, sir, is gold."

Juan Manzana, Cuban Slave

Source B

"I had a brother, Jim, who wuz sold ter dress young missus for her wedding"

Ben Johnson, North Carolina

Source C

"Negroes are the backbone of the plantation and it is as impossible for a man to make sugar without the assistance of Negroes."

John Pinnoy, Plantation Owner

Source D

"An hour before daylight the horn is blown. Then the slave gets up, makes breakfast, gets some water and puts their lunch of bacon and corn cake into a tin. They get to the field where if they are late they will be flogged.

There is a rest period of between 10 or 15 minutes to swallow their dinner, otherwise it is work. Returning early from the fields will mean a flogging. On clear nights you can be expected to work until the middle of the night."

Solomon Northrup, in his book 'Twelve Years a Slave'

As well as the plantations, large numbers worked in mines, towns and the countryside. As has been explained, many Africans had been skilled craft workers and they were now exploited. They were using their skills and receiving nothing. Some women were brought in from the fields and given domestic duties in the large plantation houses.

Africans and/or their descendants changed the landscape. They cleared bush and jungle, shaped fields, constructed roads, dug canals. They made the environment which created the wealth which supported the slave owners.

What about the needs of the slaves themselves? Rest, cooking, making and mending clothes, tending the sick, the young and the old had to be done in the short hours at the end of the working day, or sometimes on Sunday. For those on plantations, time away from the fields depended on the season and the crop.

Slaves worked their own land to give them more food. Any extra would be sold at Sunday Market, vital meeting places to exchange news. All other gatherings, for instance to celebrate a birth or a marriage, were done strictly with the permission of the planter.

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Unit 5: Slave Resistance and Revolt

Protests and Punishments

Without doubt the men and women remembered for fighting to bring a end to slavery are white abolitionists, but in this unit we need to understand that the slaves themselves were the first to struggle against slavery, making great sacrifices (see Source 1).

There had been revolts on slave ships. Many Africans threw themselves overboard thinking that death by drowning was better than allowing themselves to be kept as slaves.

Individuals who protested and survived were severely punished. Crucifixion, burning and starvation were all legal penalties which the white planters could use against their slaves. Riots by slaves against planters were reported as early as 1734.

Case Studies

1. In Jamaica there is a school called Tacky Comprehensive. One of our students went there before coming to Trinity. In 1769, a slave called Tacky led Jamaica's most serious slave rebellion. The rebels broke into a store to get weapons and attacked many plantations. Over 400 slaves and 600 whites were killed. Presumably the people of Jamaica today see Tacky as a hero for his efforts.

2. On 23rd February 1763 there was a slave revolt in Guyana. The leader, Koti, and the rebels were able to defy the authorities for nine months. Today 23rd February is a day of celebration in Guyana.

3. Another revolt, considered by some as the most dangerous of all to white society, was that of Nat Turner in Southampton County, Virginia, in 1831. Turner was knowledgeable, religious and an avid reader. He believed that God had chosen him to destroy the plantation owners. He inspired the same belief in other slaves. Here is a list of the events of his rebellion.

February 1831

• Turner is convinced that 'he should arise and slay his enemies with their own weapons.'
• Turner told his plan to a small group of followers.

20th August 1831

• Turner and his followers roasted a pig, drank a bottle of brandy and attacked Turner's master, Joseph Travis.
• Turner and his followers killed Travis and his family with axes.
• More white families in the area were killed.
• More slaves joined the rebels.
• Mrs. Waller and her ten children were killed.
• Mr. William Williams and his family were killed.

Four Days After The First Killings

• White hunters attack and defeat the rebels
• For a few weeks, Turner hid in woods and then was captured.

30th October 1831

• While in prison, Turner told Dr. Thomas Gray what had happened.

11th November 1831

• Turner was hanged and his body melted down for grease.

As a Result of the Rebellion

• Fifty-five slaves were executed. Sixty whites had been killed and about 200 other blacks were murdered by white mobs.
• South Carolina and Virginia passed laws further limiting black freedoms.

In the USA, many slaves tried to run away. Slaves fled from the plantations in the South to the Northern States and Canada where there was no slavery. The journey to freedom, which became known as the 'Underground Railway' was difficult and dangerous. Harriet Tubman escaped on the Underground Railway from a Maryland cotton plantation in 1849. She then made 19 trips back to the Southern States to help hundreds of slaves to freedom. In 1850 the government passed the Fugitive Slave Act. This meant that people in the free Northern States could be forced to return runaway slaves to their owners in the South.

Some States passed their own laws to make the possibility of revolt or escape more difficult.

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Unit 6: Struggles for Freedom

On 4th July 1776, the English Colonies of America declared independence from England after a series of wars. The new 'rules' of the United States of America stated that:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident (obvious) – that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain rights, amongst which are life, liberty (freedom) and the pursuit of happiness."

Strangely, four of the first five Presidents of the USA were slave-owners. James Madison boasted that a slave cost him about $12 a year to keep, but could earn him $257 a year.

There was a long way to go. White abolitionists worked to end slavery and it was abolished in the Northern States soon after American Independence was declared. The Methodist Church campaigned strongly against slavery, as they protested against the evils of the Factory System in England. The Southern States continued to practise slavery.

British Abolition

The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was set up in Britain in 1787. In 1807 the Transatlantic Trade was abolished. It was now illegal to send people from Africa to America as slaves. It did not stop slavery. Free black people were kidnapped and sold back into slavery. Abolitionists in the USA now had a job on their hands.

American Abolition

Black Americans played a very important part in abolishing slavery. William Lloyd Garrison formed the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. It published its own newsletter to carry the message of freedom to the whole of America. He was joined by ex-slaves, those who had escaped. Newspapers appeared helping the campaign against slavery. The Freedom Journal was one such paper:

"Americans, I say to you that while you keep us and our children in slavery and treat us like brutes we cannot be your friends."

The Freedom Journal

Individuals such as Sojourner Truth spoke out at all sorts of meetings, including those where she was not welcome. She had a very strong message:

"We'll have our rights – see if we don't and you can't stop us from them – see if you can. You may hiss as much as you like but it is coming. I am sitting amongst you to watch and every once in a while I'll come out and tell you what time of night it is."

Frederick Douglas was another who realised that black people had to lead the abolition movement.

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Unit 7: Civil War and Freedom

Abraham Lincoln had become President of the USA in 1860. Many of the Southern States believed the only way to protect their right to have slaves was to break away and set up their own country. Northern States had abolished slavery many years before and in 1860 eleven Southern States formed the Confederacy because they were determined to keep slavery:

"Our Confederacy is founded upon the belief that slavery is the Negro's normal condition."

War began on 12th April 1861. Abraham Lincoln is given credit for giving black slaves their freedom but in fact, although he opposed slavery, he did not see black people as equals. His main aim had been to stop the USA from breaking up, not abolishing slavery.

In 1862 Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Emancipation, promising freedom to all slaves in the Confederate States. Black soldiers fully played their part: 176,000 black soldiers fought in the war against slavery. A film was made about one of the most famous episodes of the war involving soldiers (Denzil Washington starred in the film, 'Glory'). It is worth noting that black soldiers often faced prejudice, being given lower rates of pay, had to use equipment of a poorer standard, and did not always have enough supplies of food. A taste of things to come when they were free.

A Free People

You may think that on becoming free many former slaves were happy, but let's think about it. For many black people freedom turned out to be only another kind of slavery. They had hoped to be given some land, but the reality was that only a few gained land. Many blacks were forced to return to the plantations as workers. Plantations were run for a profit and wages made up a great chunk of expenditure, therefore black workers were forced to work for low wages or kicked off the land.

The government did try to help blacks politically by giving them the vote, but there were few black politicians to vote for. Many Southern States did not like 'new America' and many were racially prejudiced towards blacks. Laws were passed, similar to the Alabama Codes we saw in an earlier unit, which made their lives very hard.

"Every Negro absent from his quarters after 10.00 p.m. shall be fined $5 or be told to work five days on a public road or suffer corporal punishment."

By the 1870s white people had won back control of the Southern States. The position of black people got worse. The Jim Crow Laws were passed. These kept black people out of white schools, restaurants, public transport, hotels and housing. This was the start of segregation which was to last well into the 1960s.

The Ku Klux Klan

The most sinister response of white racists in the South was the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. It began in Tennessee, a Southern State, in 1867. It was a brutal organisation, determined to keep white supremacy in the South. It used tactics of violence against blacks. Later on this was extended to Catholics and Jews.

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Unit 8: Black People at the Start of the 20th Century

As was mentioned in the last unit, segregation had become commonplace in many American cities. Black women found numerous problems – sometimes treated as inferiors by both white women and black men. Black women were amongst the first to set up their own organisations. They offered help to the poor and to newly-arrived migrants. They raised money for schools, orphanages, teacher training colleges and old people's homes.

One of the most active women was Ida B. Wells. Born a slave, she became a crusading journalist on a black newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee. When three young black men were lynched (hanged) in 1892, she wrote articles attacking the murderers. Threatened, she fled to Chicago and began an international campaign against lynching. "We refuse to believe that this country, so powerful to defend its citizens abroad, is unable to protect its citizens at home."

At this time (1900) many black people were not seen as equal in the eyes of the law. Voting rights had been taken away in many areas. Dr. W.E.B. Dubois, a writer and sociologist, founded the Niagara Movement in 1905 to try to get black people's legal rights restored.

In Illinois (1908) there had been a race riot and three black men were lynched. Some white people were horrified at this and invited leading black people, including Ida Wells and Dr. Dubois, to attend a meeting. A new group was formed, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP became the main organisation fighting for black people's rights in courts of law.

Many blacks felt life was not really different from the days of slavery. A few went to Liberia, a country set up with the sole intention of making life better for ex-slaves and black people. Bishop Henry Turner was a supporter of this idea and below are some of his reasons:

"I see nothing for the Negro in this country (USA). He can return to Liberia where a Negro government is already in existence and learn the elements of civilisation.

I would move to Africa as a place of refuge, because I see no other shelter from persecution and prejudice."

20th Century America: The Black Protest

By 1950, life was still an unpleasant experience for the majority of blacks. Few had escaped the realities of what Bishop Turner had called the "horrors of American prejudice." Blacks had protested, but only a few.

For various reasons, though, black people were becoming increasingly angry. Black people had fought and died for their country in two world wars and in Korea and Vietnam. They had been told they were fighting to defend democracy (basic freedom). However blacks did not feel they were free in their own country. They were still paid low wages, did the most menial jobs, found it difficult to better themselves. This was not just the case in the Southern states, but also the Northern states.

In 1910, the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) was formed. The slowness of legal victories, the snail pace of de-segregation made it too slow for many blacks. They began to look for progress in other ways.

There are numerous ways to protest. Some chose to heckle politicians, others to strike or march. If these work, then they are seen to be effective. If they do not, then protesters can choose to give up, continue and hope that they will work eventually, or thirdly to look for more extreme measures.

Black Americans had such a choice. The NAACP continued its work, but many blacks felt it was not really effective. Two other movements were formed to try more effective ways of improving black people's position in society.

Martin Luther King – The Civil Rights Movement

In 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested. She was a black woman who had refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person. This was against the law. The black people of Montgomery in Alabama (a Southern state) were angry. They protested by calling a boycott of the city buses. Six months later the law was changed. Black people had won a great victory. The victory had been a triumph for the policy of Martin Luther King. "We have no alternative but to protest," said King. Over the next few years, King led the blacks in their fight for Civil Rights.

He said Negroes were "tired of three hundred years of humiliation, abuse and deprivation."

"The Negro wants absolute and immediate freedom and equality, not in Africa or in some imaginary state, but right here in this land today."

How were blacks to make their demands? King believed that physical violence was not the answer. He chose non-violent direct action.

This meant a mass turnout of blacks in public places. It meant the turnout of the lame, the crippled and the blind as well as those of sound mind and body. It meant that the blacks would stand up before the white person, look him straight in the eye and dare them to do what they would. It meant listening to insults and jeers, getting soaked by water hoses and badly handled by police, being thrown into jail without due course and not retaliating with anger and violence but with moderate language and courtesy. It meant that blacks would fight with their hearts, their consciences, their courage and their sense of justice. Non-violent direct action gave blacks confidence and pride in themselves as people.

Black Power

Until his assassination in 1968, King continued his campaign for civil rights. Not all blacks, though, supported him. To such people this protest movement was still too slow. They wanted reform now. If necessary this reform must be won by revolution, with violence on the streets. Stokely Carmichael was such a believer and with others he preached violence. Scores of race riots took place in American cities in the 1960s.

Supporters of the Black Power movement believed in the teaching and Carmichael said that the basis of Black Power is black pride, black consciousness. He said that blacks must learn to believe in themselves as individuals and as a people with a history and culture of their own. They are not "lazy, dumb, shiftless or good-timers" – as the whites say they are – but "energetic, determined, intelligent, beautiful and peace-loving." He said they are not 'Negroes' (a white persons' word) – but black people.

There are still arguments today about which policies have made black people far more respected in American society. Many black people have proved Carmichael's words to be true – they hold numerous important jobs today. But still there is a long way to go before in the words of King, "we will be Free, we will be Free."

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An Indenture

This indenture made the day of in the Year of our Lord between ____________________ and ____________________ who agrees to serve the above-named faithfully and showing care for the work s/he is given for the next ________ years.

In return for working ____________________shall receive food, drink, clothing and accommodation for that period.

____________________ will obey all instructions given to him/her. S/he will not take time off without permission. S/he will not waste, take for his/her own use or give away any property which doesn't belong to him/her. S/he will behave well at all times, showing respect to his/her employer and his relations.

You will be fined for breaking any of the above rules if your master so wishes.

You have no right of complaint or appeal.

Signed: ________________________________________ (Employee)

Signed: ________________________________________ (Employer)

Signed: ________________________________________ (Witness)