Unit VIII Blacks in AmericaBlack Americans have had a tremendous impact on the development

of the United States

• Essential Questions:– 1. Students will study the reasons for slavery in

the new world.– 2. Students will trace the beginnings of the

slave trade in the Americas.– 3. Students will investigate the transportation

of African slave routes to the Americas• The triangular trade route and the middle passage

– 4. Students will investigate the role religion played in the culture of Black America.

Go DownMoses

StealAway

Assessments

• Essay questions available both online and in the listening guide.– What were the reasons for slavery in the new world?

Explain the role religion played in the lives of Black Americans. Trace the beginnings of the slave trade in the Americas and explain the transportation of African slave routes to the Americas i.e. the triangular trade route and the middle passage

• There will be a Multiple Choice WalkAway covering The Early Culture of Black Americans.

• Sample questions/exams are currently posted online.

Journal Write 1

• If it were legally acceptable would you own slaves? It would be your responsibility to feed, house and clothe them- they in turn would have to do what ever you wished. What would you have them do? Would you find it morally acceptable? Explain your answer

Black Americans• African Americans were among the first to

colonize the Americas. – There was at least one black man who arrived with

the first English colonist in 1607 in Jamestown.

• During a 350 year period over 11 million Africans were sold into slavery in the Americas.– 1/10 died en’route. – By 1860 appx. 500,000 of them (1/8 of the total

Black population) were free Americans– 3,500,000. of them were enslaved.

– This is their story. Part I 1 of 9

Textbook 4 Call to Freedom

• Read pages 98-100 in the Call to Freedom textbook, pay particular attention to the graphics. While reading define the following highlighted terms:– Mercantilism Balance of trade– Imports Exports– Duties Free Enterprise– Triangular Trade

Definitions

• Mercantilism-Practice of creating and maintaining wealth by carefully controlling trade.

• Balance of Trade— A Nation could be self-sufficient if it had fewer imports than exports

• Imports—Goods bought from other countries• Exports—goods sold to other countries.• Duties—import taxes• Free enterprise— economic competition with little

government control.• Triangular Trade— Trading networks in which goods

and slaves moved among England, the American colonies, the West Indies, and West Africa

• Both Africans and Europeans initially had the same status and rights in the Colonies. – They worked side by side in the fields

– They were equally punished when they broke their contract as servants.

– There was no distinction or discrimination based upon color.

Blacks in the American Colonies The evolution from indentured servitude

Part I 2 of 9

Beginnings of Slavery

• Freed indentured servants began to pose a threat to the property-owning elite.

• In response the colonial establishment placed limits on the amount of land that could be given to freed indentured servants.– This created unrest among newly freed

indentured servants. – They had often worked with the promise of a

larger amount of land. Part I 3 of 9

• Indentured Servant were an expensive long term labor source. – They moved on, forcing a need for costly

replacements.

• Slaves, especially ones you could identify by skin color, were more cost efficient. – They could not move on and become free

competitors.

Beginnings of Slavery

Black & White Indentured Servants at Jamestown

A family of Black slaves outside of their slave quarters

Part I 4 of 9

The Story of Anthony Johnsonhttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p265.html

• Traditionally, Englishmen believed they had a right to enslave a non-Christian or a captive taken in a just war. Africans and Indians might fit one or both of these definitions.

• But what if they learned English and converted to the Protestant church? Should they be released from bondage and given "freedom dues?" What if, on the other hand, status were determined not by (changeable ) religious faith but by (unchangeable) skin color?

Beginnings of Slavery

• The disorder of the indentured servant system, made racial slavery especially to Southerners who did not have enough laborers (workers), much more attractive.

• Black slaves were a permanent dependent labor force.

• They could be identified as a people racially set apart. For centuries Africa's chief export was human

captured and sold into slavery.  Long before the discovery of the Americas, Slavery was practiced in

Europe, Africa & Asia.

Part I 6 of 9

• In 1641, Massachusetts became the first colony to legally recognize slavery. Other states soon followed.

• In 1662, Virginia decided all children born in the colony to a slave mother would also be enslaved.– Slavery was not only a life-long condition; now

it could be passed, like skin color, from generation to generation.

Beginnings of Slavery

Part I 7 of 9

Triangular Trade

Africans being kidnapped and transported by neighboring tribesman Africans being sold to Portuguese traders

• The Triangular Trade Route was the name given to the trading route used by European merchants who exchanged goods with Africans for slaves.

• They bought slaves from Africa, shipped the slaves to the Americas, sold them and brought goods from the Americas back to Europe.

• Merchants who traded in this way could get very rich. American goods fetched a high price in Europe.

• It was called the triangular trade because of the triangular shape that the three legs of the journey made.

Part I 8 of 9

• The first leg was the journey from Europe to Africa where goods (metal objects, pots, pans, knives, horses & guns) were exchanged for slaves.

• The second, or middle, leg of the journey was the transportation of slaves to the Americas. It was nicknamed the 'middle passage.‘

• The third and final leg of the journey, was the transport of goods (raw products, wood, molasses, fish, sugar) from the Americas back to Europe.

The Route

Part I 9 of 9

The Middle Passage

It was the route between Africa and the New World that carried slaves to exchange for sugar and tobacco.

It was the sea that carried a human cargo, a resting place for thousands who would not survive the journey.

It was called THE MIDDLE PASSAGE.

From the beginning to

chapter 5 46:39 min. When finished

follow the instructions in your listening

guide and complete a Two voice poem or a analogy poem.

I am….Two Voice Poem or Analogy Poem

I am blackI am white

We are human.I am from Africa, I lived on a farm.

I am from the West Indies, I lived on a plantation.

We were farmersI am on a slave ship- I am a slave.

I am on a slave ship- I am a slaver We hate our life!

I fear the slaversI fear the slavesWe fear them!

I want to go homeI want to go home

We want to go home!I am black I am white

We are human.

See instructions in listening guide

I am like a muleA mule eats others leftovers, a mule is

like a work horse.

A work horse does other peoples work, a work horse is like a slave.

A slave is like dirt, it gets stepped on by others, Dirt is like waste.

Waste is what we throw away when we have used up all that is good, waste

is like garbage.

Garbage rots or burns, garbage gets destroyed. Garbage is like a mule.

I am a mule.

See instructions in listening guide

Textbook 5: Call to Freedom

• Read pages 101-102 in the Call to Freedom textbook. When finished answer the following question:– List at least three factors that caused the

slave trade to grow and three ways this affected conditions on the Middle Passage

– Three factors that caused the slave trade to grow» 1 2. 3.

– Three ways this affected the Middle Passage» 1. 2. 3.

Answers

• What factors caused the slave trade to grow? -- Slave labor and slave trade were important parts of the colonial economy—indentured servants turned into competitors—lost money trying to replace them—slave labor was cheap.

• How did this affect conditions on the Middle Passage? -- Slave trader’s desire for profits led to horrible conditions on slave ships—they could cram more onto a ship—no food or little food—if a few died, at least some would make it alive.

• African-American religion is a tale of variety and creative fusion (mixing).

• Enslaved Africans brought many local religious beliefs and practices. They reflected the many cultures and linguistic groups from which they had come.

• The majority came from the West Coast of Africa, but even within this area religious traditions varied greatly. Islam had exerted a powerful presence in Africa for several centuries before the start of the slave trade: – An estimated twenty percent of African Slaves were

practicing Muslims.

Religion in African American Culture

Part II 1 of 7

• Catholicism had established a presence in areas of Africa by the sixteenth century. – A number of African Slaves were Catholics.

Religion in African American Culture

African traditional women and male priests, West Africa, 2006.

Part II 1 of 7

• The wide majority practiced animism… ie. they believed that everything has a "soul", an "anima" including animals, plants, rocks, mountains, etc… each “soul" is powerful, and can help or hurt you, including the souls of the dead, the "ancestors". . Common in their worship was the use of music and dance.

Religion in African American Culture

Part II 1 of 7

Religion in African American Culture

• Preserving African religions in North America was difficult. – The harsh circumstances under which most slaves

lived—high death rates, the separation of families and tribal groups, and the effort of white owners to get rid of non-Christian customs—made keeping religious traditions difficult.

Funeral in Guinea, west Africa, drawn by a French painter, ca. 1789

"Heathen practices in funerals," drawn by a Baptist missionary in

Jamaica, ca. 1840

Part II 2 of 7

Religion in African American Culture

This rare African American memorial quilt from the 1800’s mixes Christian symbols with

religious symbols found in nature.

Part II 2 of 7

• Songs, rhythms, movements, art, belief in the healing powers of roots and the reality of a world of spirits and ancestors did survive into the 1900’s. – Many were combined in

creative ways with Christianity to which Europeans and Americans introduced African slaves.

Religion in African American Culture

• In Latin America & the West Indies where Catholicism was most dominant, Slaves mixed African beliefs and practices with Catholic rituals and theology, resulting in the formation of entirely new religions such as voodoo in Haiti.

Notice the similarities between these Catholic Iconic cards and the Voodoo tarot cards in the following slide.

Part II 3 of 7

Religion in African American Culture.

• During the 2nd Great Awakening Evangelicalism took root among African-Americans. Large numbers underwent conversion, baptism, instruction & worship.

• In some ways, church life proved to be more important than family life, (evidence of the instability of the family under slavery).

Part II 4 of 7

Religion in African American Culture

• The spiritual music composed and sung by African-Americans was as direct, heartfelt, and expressive as preaching. – Such African-American hymns as "Swing low,

Sweet Chariot" conveys a message that few whites heard: a equality of persons. God welcomes both whites and blacks to heaven.

Part II 5 of 7

• As Black Christians had the opportunity to develop their own styles of preaching and singing they did so. Slaves were highly critical--in these settings--of white preaching that tried to keep them in their place. It was alright to steal a ham--they reasoned--if it was needed to feed one's family. This theology is reflected in a song sung by the slaves

We raise de wheat,Dey gib us de corn;We bake de bread,De gib us de crust;

We sif de meal,Dey gib us de huss;

We peal de meat,Dey gib us de skin;And dat's de wayDey take us in;We skim de pot,

Dey gib us de liguor,And say dat's good enough for

nigger."

Religion in African American Culture

Part II 6 of 7

Music & Culture

• Are there parallels in your life?

• How has/ does music impact you? Do you express yourself through music? How? Why or why not? Explain

Black America: Religion & The Early Civil Rights Movement

• As early as the 1820’s the Black American church led the movement for black equality.

• In the 1940’s, 50’s & 60’s it was black preachers that led the civil rights movement.

Part II 7 of 7