Download Power Point - Finished Product

Mapping the Pathway
from Property to Person
An interactive map
11. The Compromise
of 1850 and the
Fugitive Slave Laws
13. 13th Amendment
10. Amistad
2. John Punch
12. The Emancipation Proclamation
5. Bacon’s Rebellion
4. Elizabeth Keys 1. First
3. Fernando Africans Arrive
7. The Zong
6. Barbados Slave Resistance
9. Slave Trade Outlawed
8. William Wilberforce
Africans Arrive
in Jamestown
The Dutch sailed into Jamestown,
bringing with them about 20 Africans
after they had stolen them from a
Spanish ship.
This was the first time any Africans
were brought or traded for goods in
Virginia.
Records of 1623 and 1624 were not
clear about the status of these
Africans. Unlike white indentured
servants, there were no years of
servitude listed in the documentation.
While some of these Africans were
allowed to have land, it is unclear how
many may have been kept as slaves.
Return to map
John Punch
1640 – Jamestown, Virginia
Colony
John ran away with two white
servants.
The two white servants got years
added to their indentures.
John got a life sentence of slavery.
This strongly implies that being
African was being used in
determining the sentence, since
his was different for the same
crime.
Return to map
Fernando
1667 – Norfolk, Virginia Colony
While Fernando was a Christian, and
had been while in England.
He sued for his freedom, in England,
Christians were used as servants,
but not enslaved.
His case was dismissed, and it is
assumed that Fernando lost his
case.
1667 – Virginia Slave Code –
Baptism does not bring freedom.
Return to map
Elizabeth Keys
1655-56 – Northumberland, Virginia
Colony Elizabeth sues for her freedom.
Her father was a free white, her
mother a slave.
According to English common law,
children follow their father’s condition
(free or slave).
First Elizabeth won (with a jury), then
lost on appeal, finally they gave up and
she gained her freedom – marrying her
lawyer!
After several legal efforts, she gained
her freedom, but in 1667 the Virginia
General Assembly said, "conferring of
baptisme doth not alter the condition
of the person as to his bondage or
Freedome.”
Return to Map
Bacon’s
Rebellion
In 1675, Nathaniel Bacon led a group
of poor whites and blacks to protest
the presence of Indians in his area of
Virginia. He believed all Indians were
the enemy of the new settlers, and
went to Jamestown with the help of
500 armed men, both black and white.
Bacon died soon after the rebellion, ending the
debate, however, the General Assembly made a law
limiting the rights of blacks.
1680 – Virginia Slave Code – Blacks could not
get together in large groups, must have written
permission to leave the plantation, and could only
be gone for four hours.
This law moved the new colonies toward racial
slavery.
Return to map
Slave Resistance
in Barbados and
Virginia
The fear of slave insurrections had
white land owners in the colonies and
the islands very worried.
1663 – Gloucester, Virginia. A slave
uprising. Several slaves killed for
involvement in the plan.
1675 – Word of slave resistance in
Barbados.
35 Negroes were executed.
1680 – Virginia Slave Code - Blacks
could not get together in large groups,
must have written permission to leave
the plantation, and could only be gone
for four hours.
Return to map
The Story of the
Slave Ship Zong
1781 – Left Africa with 442 slaves –
too many for the ship.
Many slaves died during the voyage,
and knowing he would not get a good
price on many of the remaining sick
slaves, he threw 133 overboard.
The insurance company would pay for lost
cargo, jettisoned to save the other cargo and
crew, but not for dead slaves.
The Lord Chief Justice said, “… the case of
slaves was the same as if horses had been
thrown overboard.’”
Granville Sharp, a famous English abolitionist
at the time, took this story and used it to
further the cause of abolition.
Many people agreed with Granville, that for
133 slaves to be thrown overboard and it not
be considered murder, but simply ridding the
ship of excess cargo, was beyond the scope of
normal conscience.
Return to map
Wilberforce’s
Abolition
Speech
Mr. Wilberforce spoke to the House of
Commons on his thoughts on the
conditions of the slave trade.
The speech was covered by the press,
and described to the public in very
different ways.
His description was vivid and negative
in one report, yet not even mentioning
slavery in another.
A local Liverpool delegate was
chastised in one paper, but not
mentioned in others.
This shows how stories were reported
quite differently and used to support
the agendas of various groups in
society.
Return to map
1807-1808 Great
Britain Outlaws
the African Slave
Trade
May 1, 1807 – The Houses of
Parliament outlaw the purchase, sale,
barter, transfer, or dealing in the
African Slave Trade.
This covered all parts of Africa, as the
ports of obtaining slaves, and all
domains owned by the United
Kingdom where slaves had been taken
and sold.
Return to map
Amistad
February, 1839 – Portuguese slave
hunters kidnapped Africans from Sierra
Leone and took them to Cuba.
From Cuba, 53 were sold to Spanish
plantation owners and put on the
Amistad to go to the Caribbean
plantations.
July 1839, the slaved took control of the
ship, killed the captain, and turned
toward Africa.
In August 1839, the Africans were taken
to prison in New York and charged with
murder.
It went to the Supreme Court of the
United States, and former president John
Quincy Adams represented the Africans.
35 Africans regained their freedom and
returned to Africa after the Court found
in their favor.
They had never been sold into slavery,
and had been transported illegally.
The remaining Africans died while
awaiting trial, or at sea.
Return to map
The Compromise
of 1850 and the
Fugitive Slave
Laws
Slave trade abolished in Washington
D.C., although not slavery.
California added to the Union as a free
state.
Fugitive Slave Act required citizens to
help find and return runaway slaves.
Fugitive slaves were denied jury trials.
Abolitionists were more determined
than ever to put an end to slavery.
Return to map
The
Emancipation
Proclamation
January 1, 1863
Any slaves being held in states that were
still in rebellion against the United States,
would be free.
While an important step, it
did not free slaves in loyal
border states, or in states
which were already under
Union control.
It allowed black men to join
the Union Army and Navy,
and by the end of the war,
almost 200,000 had fought for
the north.
Return to map
13th
Amendment
AMENDMENT XIII
Section 1.
Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as a punishment for
crime whereof the party shall have
been duly convicted, shall exist within
the United States, or any place subject
to their jurisdiction.
Section 2.
Congress shall have power to enforce
this article by appropriate legislation.
Passed by Congress January 31, 1865.
Ratified December 6, 1865.
Return to map