Life for African Americans
Slavery in the colonies began in Virginia, with tobacco planters. From there, it spread both north and south. By the early 1700s, enslaved Africans were living in every colony. Even Benjamin Franklin owned slaves for a time, but like most people in the New England and Middle Colonies, Franklin found that hiring workers when he needed them cost less than owning slaves.
In the Southern Colonies slavery expanded rapidly. From Virginia to Georgia, slaves helped raise tobacco, rice, indigo, and other cash crops. The Atlantic Slave Trade Most of the slaves who were brought to the colonies came from West Africa. Each year, ships from Europe filled with guns, cloth, and other goods sailed to West Africa, where they were traded for Africans. The ships then returned to the Americas carrying their human cargo, who would work to produce goods that would then be sent back to Europe. This exchange of goods and people between Europe, West Africa, and the Americas became known as the triangular trade. For the Africans packed onto slave ships, the ocean crossing—known as the Middle Passage—was a nightmare. According to his autobiography, Olaudah Equiano (oh-LAU-duh ek-wee-AH-noh) was just eleven years old when he was put onto a slave ship bound for the colonies. He never forgot “the closeness of the place . . . which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself.” Nor did he forget “the shrieks of the women, and groans of the dying.” The terrified boy refused to eat, hoping “for the last friend, Death, to relieve me.” Although Equiano survived the voyage, many Africans died of illness or despair. Work Without Hope The slaves' masters in America demanded that the Africans work hard. Most enslaved Africans were put to work in the fields raising crops, though others worked as nurses, carpenters, blacksmiths, drivers, servants, gardeners, and midwives (people who assist women giving birth). Unlike other colonists, slaves had little hope of making a better life because their position was fixed at the bottom of colonial society. Some slaves rebelled by refusing to work or running away, but most adapted to their unhappy condition as best they could. |