Slavery in the USA version 2025

17th Century: slavery

Harriet Tubman

Oak Alley Plantation

The Civil War

CO about slavery

wooclap: let's recap

film "12 years a slave"

From Africa to America

- Slavery / the USA / 17th Century.- The first Blacks in the USA /from Africa/= called "African-Americans". -African families / captured and chained together/ packed into ships to cross the Atlantic Ocean.. (1 ship =150 - 600 captive Africans)

by Laetitia Blain Bourcier, collège Clémenceau, Essarts en Bocage

The Triangular trade

In 300 years, 12 million slaves were shipped to the USA. (2 millions didn't survive the journey: disease/ suicide)

The Middle Passage: the journey from Africa to the Americas. = betw 21 and 90 days.

Ryan's mart in Charleston: a slave trading market from 1856 to 1863.

- USA / slaves / sold at auction like cattle. - families lived together / but could be separated

2 types of slaves: - domestic slaves ( errands; dinner..) - field slaves ( sugar cane plantation, tobacco plantations)

The price of slaves varied. They were often classified : ex: Extra men = 1 600 $ Number 1 Men = 1 400$ 2d rate ordinary men = 1 100 $ Best boys = 1 000$ Extra women and girls = 1 300$ Number 1 women and girls = 1 200$ 2nd rate and ordinary women = 900$

Oak Alley Plantation, LOUISIANA - betw 1836 and 1861; over 220 people were enslaved here. - some slaves grew corn and raised chickens to supplement their rations.

A slave owner's property

Slaves' cabins on the plantation.

Examples of labor for field slaves

the grinding: sugar cane harvesting

The slaves who disobeyed were imprisoned. If they ran away, slave patrolers returned them to the slave owner. Those who rebelled were hanged or beheaded.

- South / slaves worked in sugar, tobacco or cotton plantations. - forced to work from sunrise to sunset.

- overseer/ looked after the slaves. - could whip or beat a slave if he didn't work hard enough....

own

history

ship

kidnapped

months

starvation

1619

auctions

families

bought

sold

slave

see

250

plantations

paid

hundreds

better

money

Let's watch an extract from the film : "12 years a slave"

The story, inspired from a true story, takes place in the 1840s. Solomon Northup, a free man living in the state of NY, is kidnapped and sold into slavery to work on a cotton plantation in Louisiana.

Everyday there was cotton weighing. The slaves had to pick up more and more cotton every day or they were whipped.

The film clearly denounces the cruelty of white slave owners who physically and psychologically mistreat their slaves.

What's the English for: "pesée du coton"? "ramasser"? "fouetté"? "cruauté"? "propriétaire d'esclaves" ? "maltraiter"?

Harriet Tubman

- born 1820 Maryland - slave - managed to escape alone from her plantation in 1849 - walked 145 km= Philadelphia. ( Pennsylvania) - returned to free her family. - 20 expeditions - estimated: helped three hundreds slaves to escape.

= secret network of roads and shelters to help slaves to escape at night.

Slave owners offered huge rewards for her capture!

film Harriet ( Netflix) Aug. 2022

10 th March in the USA : Harriet Tubman Day - not a holiday - a day to remember her courage.

In 2016: She was supposed to have her face on $ 20 banknotes but Donald Trump refused......

Two slave trades 1. The Transatlantic Slave Trade ( 12 million Black people kidnapped in Africa and sold into slavery in the USA). =was abolished in 1808 but it was replaced by : 2.The Domestic Slave Trade ( from 1810 to 1860: one million enslaved people in the North were trafficked to the SOuth because there was a growing demand for slave labor.

The American Civil War (1861- 1865) Why?

- America/ divided 2 groups: -Free states = North - Slave states = South...

620 000 victims: 360 000 North 260 000 South

1. Economic reasons

The North= wants to develop a local textile industry

labor supplied by waves of European immigrants

abolitionist

The South= cotton plantations - exports cotton to Europe (UK)

against the abolition of slavery

2. Cultural reasons

The South = composed of a racist agricultural society. (The Confederate states): they want to be able to decide of their laws The North = industrial development (emergence of factories) ( the Union): they want to impose their laws to the South States.

Dark blue: The Union Light blue: States of the Union where slavery was allowed Red: The Confederate states (South)

President from 1861- 1865 ( assasinated)

"I am naturally anti-slavery".

In 1863, he signed the Emancipation Proclamation

1865: Slavery was officially abolished by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. . Enslaved African-American people were freed..... but some were murdered for claiming their freedom. There were still many challenges for them because they were still considered as second-class citizens. Laws were passed in the South .... the Jim Crow laws!

Points clés La guerre de Sécession opposa les États du Nord à ceux du Sud. Elle avait deux causes principales : le problème de l'esclavage : les Nordistes souhaitaient son abolition et la libération des esclaves travaillant dans les champs de coton du Sud. le poids à accorder au gouvernement fédéral par rapport aux gouvernements propres à chaque État. Pour réagir à ces oppositions, certains États du Sud ont décidé de faire sécession, c'est-à-dire qu'ils ont quitté l'Union fédérale pour former la Confédération. S'ensuivront des combats armés, qui aboutissent, en 1863, à la Proclamation d'émancipation du président Lincoln : les esclaves sont libres. Mais la guerre civile dura encore 2 ans.

The causes of the civil war The Civil War was fought between the northern and southern states. There were two main causes to the war. – the problem of slavery; Black people had been brought from Africa and worked as slaves in cotton fields. Americans disagreed about their fate. The northerners wanted them to be freed whereas the southerners wanted them to work for them as slaves. – the problem of the states' rights. Should the US Federal Government be more powerful than the governments of individual states? The North and the South were very different in character. The economy of the South was based on agriculture. The North was more industrial, with a larger population and greater wealth. Slavery, and opposition to it, had existed since before independence (1776) but, in the 19th century, the abolitionists gradually increased in number. The South's attitude was that each state had the right to make any law it wanted, and if southern states wanted slavery, the US government could not prevent it. Many southerners became secessionists. It means they were for the partition between the northern and the southern states. Abraham Lincoln (who was elected President in 1860) and his party (the Republicans) were against slavery, but said that they would not end it. The southern States did not believe them and began to leave the Union. In 1860 there were only 34 States in the US. Eleven of them had left the Union (seceded) to form the Confederate States of America (The Confederacy).

3. The reconstruction of the country After the war, the South became part of the United States again. The new state governments in the South wanted to make laws limiting the rights of Black people, and the US government tried to stop them. Between 1865 and 1870 the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution were passed: they made Black people citizens of the United States and of the state they lived in. They were also theorically given the same rights as "White Americans". 4. The effects of the Civil War Differences between North and South are still strong. In the South, the Confederate flag is still often used. The Civil War helped to put an end to slavery but long after Black people were still being treated badly. Racism is still a problem in the United States, where Black people go on suffering from discrimination. COMMENT AS-TU TROUVÉ CE COURS ?