Question One

Contextualize the following phrases in relation to the African diaspora in the Americas:
1619
However, many consider a significant starting point to slavery in America to be 1619, when the
privateer The White Lion brought 20 enslaved African ashore in the British colony of
Jamestown, Virginia

Who belongs to the African diaspora?

 The term ‘’African Diaspora’’ has been used by various politicians, historians, writers,
and ethnographers to refer to all descendants of Africa. Some scholars have used it to
refer to the current emigration from Africa. The African Union defines the African
Diaspora as individuals of African origin living away from their home continent (Africa).
The phrase "African Diaspora’’ was coined during the 19th century, but only came into
common use during the 21st century. The largest population of the African Diaspora
resides in the following nations.
 African diaspora populations include but are not limited to: African Americans, Afro-
Caribbeans, Afro-Latin Americans, Black Canadians – descendants of enslaved West
Africans brought to the United States, the Caribbean, and South America during the
Atlantic slave trade

Countries with the Largest African Diaspora Populations

1. Brazil - 55.9 Million

Brazil has an estimated 55.9 million people of African descent, making it the country with the
largest African Diaspora population. The Portuguese started the slave trade during the 1550s, and
they managed to trade over five million enslaved people from Mozambique, Congo, Angola,
Nigeria, Benin, and Ghana. About 50% of those capturedc were brought to Brazil and forced to
work on the mines and sugar plantations in northeastern parts of the country which includes the
present day Bahia and Pernambuco states. The slave trade was the foundation of the economy of
the country, and after it ended in 1888 many enslaved people settled in Brazil.

2. The United States - 46.4 Million

Although the Trans-Atlantic slave trade brought a majority of the slaves to the United States,
many Africans also migrated to the United States voluntarily. Today, many people continue to
emigrate from various countries in Africa to the United States. The number of African-born
Americans has increased from 1,183,316 in 2000 to over 1,676,413 in 2010. The top countries of
origin for the African-born people living in the United States include Kenya, Ghana, Egypt,
Ethiopia, and Nigeria. The United States has an African Diaspora population of over 46.4 million
people which is about 13.6% of the entire country's population.

3. Haiti - 10.1 Million

Afro-Haitians refer to all the citizens of Haiti of African descent. Many are the descendants of
enslaved people who were once brought to Haiti by the French to work on plantations. The
majority of these people came from West Africa and Central Africa mainly from Ghana, Nigeria,
Cameroon, Angola, Sierra Leone, Benin and Senegal among others. Haiti has over 10.1 million
Afro-Haitians which accounts for 95% of the nation’s population.

4. Dominican Republic - 9.2 Million

Afro-Dominicans refer to all Dominicans of African ancestry. The number of Afro-Dominicans

whose ancestors were brought from Central Africa and West Africa from the 16th to the 19th
century is 9.2 million. The population also includes all the other immigrants from the French and
Anglo Caribbean nations who came to the Dominican Republic during the 20th century. The
majority of the immigrants are from Haiti. The Afro-Dominicans are the significant minority
population in the country.

5. Colombia - 4.9 Million

The Colombians of African descent are known as Afro-Colombians. With an African Diaspora
population of about 4.9 million, Colombia has the third highest population of African diaspora
members in the western hemisphere and the fifth largest globally. Africans were brought as
slaves by 1520s from various West African nations including Cameroon, Nigeria, and Ghana
among others to replace the reducing population of Native Americans. They were forced to work
on large haciendas, cattle ranches, sugar cane plantations and gold mines. Currently, people of
African descent make up over 10.6% of the population of Colombia.

The Growth of the African Diaspora

Modern mass emigration from Africa has played a significant role in the growth of current
African Diaspora population. Many Africans have migrated in search of a better life with most of
them moving to the developed countries like the United States. From 2000 to 2005 the rate of
emigration grew to 440,000 Africans annually which increased the Global African Diaspora
population. The United States alone had over 1.6 million African born people by 2010, and the
number is still growing.

Where is the African Diaspora?

Rank Country African Diaspora Population (Millions)
1 Brazil 55.9
2 United States 46.4
3 Haiti 10.1
4 Dominican Republic 9.2
5 Colombia 4.9
6 France 3.8
7 Venezuela 3.2
8 Jamaica 2.8
9 United Kingdom 2.5
10 Mexico 1.4

Question One
Contextualize the following phrases in relation to the African diaspora in the Americas:

Is servitude the same as slavery?

As nouns the difference between servitude and slavery that is that servitude is the state of being
a slave while slavery is an institution or social practice of owning human beings as property,
especially for use as forced laborers

Did America have indentured servitude?

Indentured servants first arrived in America in the decade following the settlement of Jamestown by
the Virginia Company in 1607. The idea of indentured servitude was born of a need for cheap labor. The
earliest settlers soon realized that they had lots of land to care for, but no one to care for it

In May 1607 the colonists reached Virginia and founded the Jamestown Colony at the
mouth of the James River. After some initial hardships, the colony took root, and the Virginia
Company itself was reconstituted on a broader legal basis. A new charter in 1609 reorganized its
governing structure.
Date: 1606 – 1624
What was the Virginia Company of London and why was it founded?
The Virginia Company of London was a joint-stock company chartered by King James I in 1606 to
establish a colony in North America. Such a venture allowed the Crown to reap the benefits of
colonization—natural resources, new markets for English goods, leverage against the Spanish—without
bearing the costs.

Why did the Virginia Company of London founded Jamestown?

Why did the Virginia Company of London establish the colony? The Virginia Company was in
search of economic opportunity. They expected to profit from mineral wealth such as gold and
iron ore, timber and wood products and other natural resources.
What was the goal of the Virginia Company?
The goal of the Virginia Company was clear enough: establish a permanent colony in America
that would make a profit for the Company. The company, chartered by King James I in April,
1606, was comprised of two divisions.
Who founded Virginia and why?

The first permanent English settlement, backed by the London Company, was founded in 1607 by John
Smith and other colonists, including John Rolfe who later became the husband of Pocahontas. The
main reason for establishing a colony so far from the English homeland was purely economic.

The Virginia Company was formed both to bring profit to its shareholders and to establish an English
colony in the New World. The Company, under the direction of its treasurer Sir Thomas Smith, was
instructed to colonize land between the 34th and 41st northern parallel.
In 1607, 104 English men and boys arrived in North America to start a settlement. On May 13 they
picked Jamestown, Virginia for their settlement, which was named after their King, James I. The
settlement became the first permanent English settlement in North America.

When did indentured servitude end in America?

Indentured servitude reappeared in the Americas in the mid-nineteenth century as a means of
transporting Asians to the Caribbean sugar islands and South America following the abolition of
slavery. Servitude then remained in legal use until its abolition in 1917

Who are the indentured servants that came to America?

Indentured servants were men and women who signed a contract (also known as an indenture or
a covenant) by which they agreed to work for a certain number of years in exchange for
transportation to Virginia and, once they arrived, food, clothing, and shelter.
Who brought indentured labourers to Trinidad?
An indenture system was established which brought East Indian immigrants to Trinidad from
1845 to 1917. In India agents went about the country, making contracts with recruits, and then
sending these recruits to depots at the ports of embarkation.
Why did the indentured labourers came to the Caribbean?
Indentured labourers were brought into the Caribbean to provide a work force that would
replace the African slaves. These labourers were Chinese, Africans again, Whites, Portuguese,
Syrians, Lebanese and East Indians, in chronological order

a) Chattel slavery (15 Marks)

When was chattel slavery first used?

Some were even considered indentured servants; others could own slaves themselves. However,
by the middle of the 17th century Africans who entered the Caribbean and the Americas were
firmly established as chattel property.

What is chattel slavery US history?

The colonial system of slavery—which was practiced in all of the original 13 British
colonies—is referred to as chattel slavery. In this system, enslaved people were the personal
property of their owners for life, a source of labor or a commodity that could be willed, traded or
sold like livestock or furniture
Over the next century, the English established 13 colonies. They were Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland,
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. By 1750 nearly 2 million Europeans lived in the American
colonies.

 Such chattel slaves are used for their labor, sex, and breeding, and they are
exchanged for camels, trucks, guns and money. Children of chattel slaves remain the
property of their master.
 Chattel slavery is a specific servitude relationship where the slave is treated as the
property of the owner. As such, the owner is free to sell, trade, or treat the slave as he
would other pieces of property, and the children of the slave often are retained as the
property of the master.
 What does chattel slavery mean?
 Chattel slavery means that one person has total ownership of another. There are two
basic forms of chattel, domestic chattel, with menial household duties and productive
chattel, working in the fields or mines.
 The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of
Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America from
its founding in 1776 until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment on
December 6, 1865.
  The breeding of enslaved people in the United States was the practice in slave states of
the United States of slave owners to systematically force the reproduction of enslaved
people to increase their profits.
 It included coerced sexual relations between enslaved men and women or girls, forced
pregnancies of enslaved people, and favoring women or young girls who could produce a
relatively large number of children. The objective was to increase the number of slaves
without incurring the cost of purchase and to fill labor shortages caused by the abolition
of the Atlantic slave trade.
 Chattel slavery was supported and legalized by all other white European governments
and monarchs. This type of enslavement was practiced in European colonies, from the
sixteenth century to the 19th century. 

b) Indian slavery (10 Marks)

 What happened to Native American slaves?
English communities objected to letting natives who surrendered simply go free, and housing
and feeding them was complicated, so often captured and surrendered Native Americans were
simply sold into slavery, both overseas and within New England, or forced into servitude
for limited terms within English households

 American Indians were forced to labor as slaves and in various other forms of unfree
servitude.
 How were Native American slaves treated?
 During times of famine, some Native Americans would also temporarily sell their
children to obtain food. The ways in which captives were treated differed widely among
Native American groups. Captives could be enslaved for life, killed, or adopted. In
some cases, captives were only adopted after a period of slavery.
 What did the Native American slaves do?
 Both before and during African enslavement in the Americas, American Indians were
forced to labor as slaves and in various other forms of unfree servitude. They worked in
mines, on plantations, as apprentices for artisans, and as domestics—just like
African slaves and European indentured servants.
 What Native American tribes were cannibals?

 The Mohawk, and the Attacapa, Tonkawa, and other Texas tribes were known to
their neighbours as 'man-eaters. '" The forms of cannibalism described included both
resorting to human flesh during famines and ritual cannibalism, the latter usually
consisting of eating a small portion of an enemy warrior.
  Why was there an Indian Removal Act?

 The Indian Removal Act was put in place to give to the Southern states the land that
belonged to the Native Americans. The act was passed in 1830, although dialogue had
been ongoing since 1802 between Georgia and the federal government concerning the
possibility of such an act.
 Did Native American tribes fight?
 Native Americans definitely waged war long before Europeans showed up. The
evidence is especially strong in the American Southwest, where archaeologists have
found numerous skeletons with projectile points embedded in them and other marks of
violence; war seems to have surged during periods of drought

c) Indentured labour (10) Marks)

 What were indentured servants in colonial America?

Indentured servants were men and women who signed a contract (also known as an indenture or
a covenant) by which they agreed to work for a certain number of years in exchange for
transportation to Virginia and, once they arrived, food, clothing, and shelter.

 Who were the first indentured servants in America?

Image result
In 1619 the first black Africans came to Virginia. With no slave laws in place, they were initially
treated as indentured servants, and given the same opportunities for freedom dues as whites.

 Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without

salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered
voluntarily for eventual compensation or debt repayment, or it may be imposed as a
judicial punishment.
 How were indentured servants treated in Colonial America?
Indentured servants were frequently overworked, especially on the Southern plantations during
planting and harvesting season. Corporal punishment of indentured servants was expected for
rule infractions but some servants were beaten so severely they later died. Many servants were
disfigured or disabled.

 What did indentured servants do in America?

Some indentured servants served as cooks, gardeners, housekeepers, field workers, or general
laborers; others learned specific trades such as blacksmithing, plastering, and bricklaying, which
they could choose to turn into careers later
  What race were most indentured servants?
Many indentured servants in the British colonies were working-class white immigrants from
the British Isles, including thousands of Irish people. Indentured servants were often treated
horribly by their masters, many dying before they were set free. “During their period of
servitude, their treatment varied widely.
What were indentured servants in colonial America?

 Indentured servants were men and women who signed a contract (also known as an
indenture or a covenant) by which they agreed to work for a certain number of years in
exchange for transportation to Virginia and, once they arrived, food, clothing, and shelter

Question Two

a) Discuss the nexus between the discovery of the Americas and the Trans-Atlantic
Slave Trade (20 Marks)

 How was the Americas discovered?

The explorer Christopher Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in
1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. He was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to
Asia, but he never did. Instead, he stumbled upon the Americas

 Where was America's first discovered?

In 1492 Columbus reached land in the Bahamas. Almost 500 years after the Norse, John Cabot
explored the east coast of what would become Canada in 1497. Giovanni da Verrazzano
explored the East Coast of North America from Florida to presumably Newfoundland in 1524.

 Why was the discovery of the Americas important?

Columbus's journeys to the Americas opened the way for European countries to colonize
and exploit those lands and their peoples. Trade was soon established between Europe and the
Americas. Plants native to the Americas (such as potatoes, tomatoes, and tobacco) were imported
to Europe.

 What did the discovery of America do?

The discovery of new land meant the discovery of new commodities, such as tobacco, coffee
and cacao bean. An elaborate trading system coined the 'Columbian Exchange' was developed,
representing the trading of goods to and from America. These new commodities greatly
influenced European culture

 How did discovering the Americas changed the world?

Christopher Columbus' discovery undoubtedly changed history by opening up new lands for
the European imperial powers to colonize and conquer, signaling the end of western
hemisphere civilizations that were pushed to extinction or collapse, introducing products such as
corn, potatoes, tobacco and chocolate to the rest

 Transatlantic slave trade, segment of the global slave trade that transported between 10
million and 12 million enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas
from the 16th to the 19th century.
 What are the 3 routes of the Atlantic slave trade?
 On the first leg of their three-part journey, often called the Triangular Trade, European
ships brought manufactured goods, weapons, even liquor to Africa in exchange for
slaves; on the second, they transported African men, women, and children to the
Americas to serve as slaves; and on the third leg, they exported to
 Why did the transatlantic slave trade start?
 Ivory, gold and other trade resources attracted Europeans to West Africa. As demand for
cheap labour to work on plantations in the Americas grew, people enslaved in West
Africa became the most valuable 'commodity' for European traders.
 What were the 3 legs of the triangular trade?
 three stages of the so-called triangular trade, in which arms, textiles, and wine were
shipped from Europe to Africa, enslaved people from Africa to the Americas, and
sugar and coffee from the Americas to Europe.
 What were the slave ports in Africa?



 Enslaved Africans were transported to the Americas to work on cash crop plantations in
European colonies. Ports that exported these enslaved people from Africa include
Ouidah, Lagos, Aného (Little Popo), Grand-Popo, Agoué, Jakin, Porto-Novo, and
Badagry
 Who captured slaves in Africa?
 For three and a half centuries, European slavers carried African captives across the
Atlantic in slave ships originating from ports belonging to all major European maritime
powers—Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Britain, France, and
Brandenburg-Prussia.


b) Evaluate the role of Nat Turner in early Slave resistance (10 Marks)
Died: November 11, 1831 (aged 31) Virginia
Born: October 2, 1800 Virginia

1. Turner was an educated minister.

Turner reportedly told Thomas Ruffin Gray in a jailhouse interview published in The
Confessions of Nat Turner that when he was three or four years old, he could provide details of
events that occurred before his birth. His astonished mother and others took the comments as
signs that he was a prophet and “intended for some great purpose.” The young Turner showed
“uncommon intelligence” and was taught to read and write. His deeply religious grandmother
nurtured his spiritual development. “To a mind like mine, restless, inquisitive and observant of
every thing that was passing, it is easy to suppose that religion was the subject to which it would
be directed,” said Turner, who regularly read the Bible and preached to his fellow enslaved
people.
2. He once ran away from his master—and returned a month later.
When Turner was 21, he followed in his father’s footsteps and escaped from his owner. To the
astonishment of his fellow enslaved people, however, the future rebel leader came back to the
plantation after spending 30 days in the woods because, as Turner reportedly told Gray, “the
Spirit appeared to me and said I had my wishes directed to the things of this world, and not to the
kingdom of heaven, and that I should return to the service of my earthly master.”
3. Turner claimed to have been divinely chosen to lead the rebellion.
The divine message to return to his master wasn’t the last that Turner would claim to have
received from God. He reportedly confessed to Gray that he received divine visions to avenge
slavery and lead his fellow enslaved people from bondage. The most vivid of these visions came
on May 12, 1828, when Turner “heard a loud noise in the heavens, and the Spirit instantly
appeared to me and said the serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke he had
borne for the sins of men, and that I should take it on and fight against the serpent, for the time
was fast approaching when the first should be last and the last should be first.”
4. An eruption of Mount St. Helens may have triggered the launch of the rebellion.
When the daytime sky went dark on February 12, 1831, during a solar eclipse, Turner believed it
a sign from God to begin the planning for his uprising. After meeting secretly for months with
fellow plotters, the daylight sky once again took on an odd appearance on August 13, 1831. As
Patrick H. Breen details in his book The Land Shall Be Deluged in Blood: A New History of the
Nat Turner Revolt, newspapers from Georgia to New York printed accounts of the the sun
“shorn of its beams” and shedding “a grayish-blue light on the earth.” Through the hazy light, a
sunspot was also visible to the naked eye. While Turner took the sun’s strange appearance as a
sign to proceed with the insurrection, its true cause was an atmospheric disturbance that could
have been tied to an event nearly 3,000 miles away—that year’s eruption of Mount St. Helens in
the state of Washington.
5. The rebellion may have killed as many as 60 men, women and children.
The rebellion began when Turner’s small band of hatchet-wielding enslaved people killed his
master, Joseph Travis, along with his wife, nine-year-old son and a hired hand as they slept in
their beds. Realizing they had left one family member alive in the house, two of Turner's men
returned to the Travis home and killed “a little infant sleeping in a cradle” before dumping its
body in the fireplace. As they swept through the countryside, Turner’s men freed enslaved
people as they continued the killings. Upwards of 75 of them joined the uprising over the
ensuing two days and killed dozens of whites.

6. After eluding the militia for two months, Turner was captured by a farmer.
Hundreds of federal troops and thousands of militiamen quelled the uprising after 48 hours and
captured most of its participants—except for Turner himself. In spite of an intense manhunt, the
ringleader remained hidden in the woods just miles away from the Travis farm, where the
rebellion began, for two months. On October 30, 1831, Benjamin Phipps was walking across a
nearby farm and noticed “some brushwood collected in a manner to excite suspicion,” according
to a Richmond newspaper, below an overturned pine tree. When Phipps raised his gun, a weak,
emaciated Turner emerged from the foxhole and surrendered.
7. More than 50 were executed in the rebellion’s aftermath.
Dozens stood trial for their participation in the rebellion. While some were acquitted, more than
50 were convicted and sentenced to death by a collection of 20 judges—all slaveholders. In
addition, revenge-minded white mobs lynched blacks who played no part in the uprising. While
some historians have estimated that the mobs killed between 100 and 200 enslaved people, Breen
estimates the death toll closer to 40. He points out that slaveholders wished “to protect their
enslaved property” and a week after the revolt the Virginia militia issued an order prohibiting the
killing of enslaved in an attempt to reign in the vigilantes.
8. The divinely inspired Turner met his end in a town named Jerusalem.
After his arrest, Turner was taken to the seat of Southampton County, a small town called
Jerusalem (present-day Courtland, Virginia). Six days after his capture, he stood trial and was
convicted of “conspiring to rebel and making insurrection.” Sentenced to death, Turner was
hanged from a tree on November 11, 1831.
9. Turner may have been skinned after his execution.
Turner’s body did not receive a formal burial, but details about what did happen to the body are
not known. As Tony Horwitz reported in the New Yorker, according to several reports, the rebel
leader’s corpse was given to doctors for dissection and his body parts distributed among white
families. As recounted by John W. Cromwell in a 1920 article in the Journal of Negro History,
“Turner was skinned to supply such souvenirs as purses, his flesh made into grease, and his
bones divided as trophies to be handed down as heirlooms.”
10. In the wake of the rebellion, states passed laws making it illegal to teach African-Americans
how to read or write.
“Nat Turner’s revolt contributed to the radicalization of American politics that helped set the
United States on its course toward the Civil War,” writes Breen. In Virginia, the rebellion
marked the end of a nascent abolitionist movement. Months after the insurrection, the Virginia
legislature narrowly rejected a measure for gradual emancipation that would have followed the
lead of the North. Instead, pointing to Turner’s intelligence and education as a major cause of the
revolt, measures were passed in Virginia and other states in the South that made it unlawful to
teach enslaved people and free African Americans how to read or write.

 How did Nat Turner show resistance to slavery?

Nat Turner destroyed the white Southern myth that slaves were actually happy with their
lives or too docile to undertake a violent rebellion. His revolt hardened proslavery attitudes
among Southern whites and led to new oppressive legislation prohibiting the education,
movement, and assembly of slaves.

 Why did Nat Turner lead a revolt against slavery?

On this date in 1831, Nat Turner and 70 Black slaves began a two-day uprising in Southampton
County, Virginia. Nat Turner, a slave preacher, believed that God had chosen him to lead
Blacks to freedom. During the rebellion, Turner's master was killed, along with about 60 other
whites.

 What was the purpose of Nat Turner's rebellion?

It was this brutal, demeaning, system of slavery that Nat Turner sought to overthrow. He sought
not only his own freedom, but to dismantle the entire system of slavery and liberate African
Americans from white tyranny.

 Impact and Legacy of Nat Turner's Rebellion

The paranoia that resulted from his rebellion encouraged the widespread persecution
of slaves and freed Black citizens and eventually resulted in the death of nearly two
hundred Black Americans by the hands of erratic white mobs.
 Was Nat Turner's revolt a success Why or why not?



  For about eighteen hours, the rebels were unchecked. They killed at least fifty-five
whites, making Nat Turner's Rebellion the deadliest slave revolt in the history of the
United States. But they were notably less successful in another task: recruiting fellow
slaves.


Nat Turner destroyed the white Southern myth that slaves were actually happy with their lives or
too docile to undertake a violent rebellion. His revolt hardened proslavery attitudes among
Southern whites and led to new oppressive legislation prohibiting the education, movement, and
assembly of slaves.

Why was the slave revolt Nat Turner led quizlet?

What was the most significant result of Nat Turner's Rebellion? It scared the Southern slave
holders and made them restrict the slaves freedoms even less than the amount they already had
Why do we celebrate Nat Turner?
Nat Turner's Rebellion, also known as the Southampton Insurrection, was a rebellion of enslaved
Virginians that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831, led by Nat Turner.

What is the legacy of Nat Turner?

Nat Turner's rebellion was one of the bloodiest and most effective in American history. It ignited
a culture of fear in Virginia that eventually spread to the rest of the South, and is said to have
expedited the coming of the Civil War.
How did the Nat Turner rebellion lead to the Civil War?
Although Turner's plan to eliminate slavery proved unsuccessful in the short term, his
insurrection served to increase tensions between both the northern and southern United States;
leading to an outpouring of discontent over the issue of slavery that eventually culminated into
the Civil War
What effect did Nat Turner's rebellion of 1831 have on Southern society quizlet?
What was one result of Nat Turner's rebellion in which Turner organized a group of fellow
slaves and killed 60 white people?
What was one result of Nat Turner's rebellion, in which Turner organized a group of fellow
slaves and killed 60 white people? White Southerners created stricter laws to police slaves'
behavior.
Question Three

Examine the role of African-American men in the American Revolutionary War (20
Marks)

Date 19 Apr 1775 – 3 Sept 1783

Revolutionary War or American War of Independence
secured a United States of America independent from Great Britain
Fighting began on April 19, 1775, followed by the Declaration of Independence on July 4,
1776.

imposition of unpopular taxes,

 Taxes and Duties. ...

 Boston Massacre (1770) ...
 Boston Tea Party (1773) ...
 Intolerable Acts (1774) ...
 King George III's Speech to Parliament (1775)

The Revolution opened new markets and new trade relationships. The Americans' victory also opened
the western territories for invasion and settlement, which created new domestic markets. Americans
began to create their own manufacturers, no longer content to reply on those in Britain.

Republican Governments
Independence of the United States
Native Americans Losing Their Territory
Loyalist Expatriation
Abolition of Slavery In The Northern States
Republican Motherhood
Economic Impact
Separation of Church and State
Impact on the British Empire
The Atlantic Revolutions
What did the American Revolution do for blacks?

In Virginia alone, as many as 150 black men, many of them slaves, served in the state navy. After the
war, the legislature granted several of these men their freedom as a reward for faithful service. African
Americans also served as gunners, sailors on privateers and in the Continental Navy during the
Revolution

What was the impact of the American Revolution on the African American community?
In the South, the Revolution severely disrupted slavery, but ultimately white Southerners
succeeded in strengthening the institution. The Revolution also inspired African-American
resistance against slavery. During the Revolution, thousands of slaves obtained their freedom
by running away

 Were there any black soldiers in the Revolutionary War?

Historians estimate that between 5,000 and 8,000 African-descended people participated in
the Revolution on the Patriot side, and that upward of 20,000 served the crown. Many fought
with extraordinary bravery and skill, their exploits lost to our collective memory.

 What role did the African American play in the Revolutionary War?
African-Americans fought for both sides, providing manpower to both the British and the
revolutionaries. Their actions during the war were often decided by what they believed would
best help them throw off the shackles of slavery. Most believed that victory by the British would
lead to the end of slavery

 Who were some of the most outstanding African Americans in the Revolutionary era?

 William Lee. A valet who endured seven years of war alongside George Washington.
The man in the background of this 1780 portrait likely represents William Lee. ...
 James Lafayette. A spy who helped secure American victory. ...
 Harry Washington. One of 100,000 “Black Loyalists” who joined the British.

Question Four
Write short notes on the following:

a) The war of 1812 and the expansion of slavery in the Unites States of America ( 10
Marks)

The War of 1812 and American Slavery

War of 1812, (June 18, 1812–February 17, 1815), conflict fought between the United States and Great
Britain over British violations of U.S. maritime rights. It ended with the exchange of ratifications of the
Treaty of Ghent.

What was the reason for the War of 1812?

In the War of 1812, caused by British restrictions on U.S. trade and America's desire to
expand its territory, the United States took on the greatest naval power in the world, Great
Britain.
  Causes of the war included British attempts to restrict U.S. trade, the Royal Navy's
impressment of American seamen and America's desire to expand its territory.
 What were the 3 major causes of the War of 1812?
Trade, Impressment and Native American Involvement. One of the 3 main causes of war because
Britain and France both wanted to cut the other off from trading with the United States of
America, This caused the United States economy to suffer greatly

 What was a direct cause of the War of 1812?

The immediate causes of the War of 1812 were a series of economic sanctions taken by the
British and French against the US as part of the Napoleonic Wars and American outrage at the
British practice of impressment, especially after the Chesapeake incident of 1807

How was slavery affected by the War of 1812?

Ultimately, the escape of so many slaves to the British during the War of 1812 increased
suspicion and resentment among Southern slaveholders toward enslaved and free African
Americans.

How did the War of 1812 increase slavery?

To slaves in the South, the War of 1812 provided numerous opportunities to escape and those
who could, did. So, where did the slaves go? Many fled south into Florida, then still part of the
Spanish Empire. Spain offered freedom to any slaves who made it into Florida, provided that
they adopt Catholicism

How many black people fought in the War of 1812?

Modern scholars estimate blacks made up between 15 and 20%, of the American naval forces in
the War of 1812.
For free blacks, the War of 1812 provided the chance to broker their participation in ways that enhanced
their individual and collective status within society. Yet for free blacks, the war did not advance their
march toward equality but rather initiated a new era of prejudice and racial discrimination

How did the War of 1812 affect the slaves?

What happened to African Americans after the War of 1812?

After the War of 1812 ended, the British Navy relocated Black soldiers from the recent war – and some
waiting in Canada since the Revolutionary War – to Trinidad. They first took a detour to Bermuda,
where formerly enslaved people organized to demand what was promised: freedom and 16 acres of
land in Trinidad.
 b) The Abolitionist movement and the American civil war (10 Marks)

 Abolitionist Movement

Contents
1. What Is an Abolitionist?
2. How Did Abolitionism Start?
3. Missouri Compromise
4. Laws Inflame Tensions
5. Famous Abolitionists
6. Rift Widens Between North and South
7. Elijah Lovejoy 
8. The Civil War and Its Aftermath
9. Abolitionist Movement Ends
10. Sources

The abolitionist movement was an organized effort to end the practice of slavery in the United
States. The first leaders of the campaign, which took place from about 1830 to 1870, mimicked
some of the same tactics British abolitionists had used to end slavery in Great Britain in the
1830s. Though it started as a movement with religious underpinnings, abolitionism became a
controversial political issue that divided much of the country. Supporters and critics often
engaged in heated debates and violent— even deadly—confrontations. The divisiveness and
animosity fueled by the movement, along with other factors, led to the Civil War and ultimately
the end of slavery in America.

What Is an Abolitionist?
An abolitionist, as the name implies, is a person who sought to abolish slavery during the 19th
century. More specifically, these individuals sought the immediate and full emancipation of all
enslaved people.

Most early abolitionists were white, religious Americans, but some of the most prominent
leaders of the movement were also Black men and women who had escaped from bondage.

The abolitionists saw slavery as an abomination and an affliction on the United States, making it
their goal to eradicate slave ownership. They sent petitions to Congress, ran for political office
and inundated people of the South with anti-slavery literature.
These staunch activists wanted to abolish slavery completely, which differed from the ideas of
other groups like the Free Soil Party, which opposed the expansion of slavery into U.S. territories
and newly formed states such as Kansas.

Did you know? Female abolitionists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott went on to
become prominent figures in the women's rights movement.

How Did Abolitionism Start?

Opposition to slavery wasn’t a new concept when abolitionism started. Since the inception of the
Atlantic slave trade, which began in the 16th century, critics voiced their disapproval of the
system.

In an early effort to stop slavery, the American Colonization Society, founded in 1816, proposed
the idea of freeing slaves and sending them back to Africa. This solution was thought to be a
compromise between antislavery activists and slavery supporters.

By 1860, nearly 12,000 African Americans had returned to Africa.

Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise of 1820, which allowed Missouri to become a slave state, further
provoked anti-slave sentiment in the North.

The abolitionist movement began as a more organized, radical and immediate effort to end
slavery than earlier campaigns. It officially emerged around 1830.

Historians believe ideas set forth during the religious movement known as the Second Great
Awakening inspired abolitionists to rise up against slavery. This Protestant revival encouraged
the concept of adopting renewed morals, which centered around the idea that all men are created
equal in the eyes of God.

Abolitionism started in states like New York and Massachusetts and quickly spread to other
Northern states.

Laws Inflame Tensions

In 1850, Congress passed the controversial Fugitive Slave Act, which required all escaped
enslaved people to be returned to their owners and American citizens to cooperate with the
captures.

Seven years later, the Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott decision that Black people—free or
enslaved—didn’t have legal citizenship rights. Owners of enslaved people were also granted the
right to take their enslaved workers to Western territories. These legal actions and court
decisions sparked outrage among abolitionists.
Famous Abolitionists
Many Americans, including free and formerly enslaved people, worked tirelessly to support the
abolitionist movement. Some of the most famous abolitionists included:

 William Lloyd Garrison: A very influential early abolitionist, Garrison started a publication called
The Liberator, which supported the immediate freeing of all enslaved men and women.
 Frederick Douglass: Douglass escaped slavery himself and published a memoir titled Narrative
of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. An instrumental figure in the abolitionist
movement, he also supported women’s suffrage.
 Harriet Beecher Stowe: Stowe was an author and abolitionist who was best known for her novel
Uncle Tom's Cabin.
 Susan B. Anthony: Anthony was an author, speaker and women’s rights activist who also
supported the abolitionist movement. She is revered for her diligent efforts in fighting for
women’s rights to vote.
 John Brown: Brown was a radical abolitionist who organized various raids and uprisings,
including an infamous raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
 Harriet Tubman: Tubman was a fugitive enslaved person and abolitionist who was known for
helping escaped enslaved people reach the North via the Underground Railroad network.
 Sojourner Truth: Best known for her speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?,” Truth was both an abolitionist
and a women’s rights advocate.

Rift Widens Between North and South

As it gained momentum, the abolitionist movement caused increasing friction between states in
the North and the slave-owning South. Critics of abolition argued that it contradicted the U.S.
Constitution, which left the option of slavery up to individual states.

Abolitionism was illegal in the South, and President Andrew Jackson banned the U.S. Postal
Service from delivering any publications that supported the movement.

In 1833, a white student at Lane Theological Seminary named Amos Dresser was publicly
whipped in Nashville, Tennessee, for possessing abolitionist literature while traveling through
the city.  

Elijah Lovejoy 
In 1837, a pro-slavery mob attacked a warehouse in Alton, Illinois, in an attempt to destroy
abolitionist press materials. During the raid, they shot and killed newspaper editor and
abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy.

After the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was passed, both pro- and anti-slavery groups inhabited
the Kansas Territory. In 1856, a pro-slavery group attacked the town of Lawrence, which was
founded by abolitionists from Massachusetts. In retaliation, abolitionist John Brown organized a
raid that killed five pro-slavery settlers.
Then, in 1859, Brown led 21 men to capture the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. He and
his followers were seized by a group of Marines and convicted of treason. Brown was hanged for
the crime.

The Civil War and Its Aftermath

President Abraham Lincoln opposed slavery but was cautious about fully supporting the more
radical ideas of the abolitionists. As the power struggle between the North and the South reached
its peak, the Civil War broke out in 1861.

As the bloody war waged on, Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, calling for
the freeing of enslaved people in areas of the rebellion. And in 1865, the Constitution was
ratified to include the Thirteenth Amendment, which officially abolished all forms of slavery in
the United States.

Abolitionist Movement Ends

Though the abolitionist movement seemed to dissolve after the addition of the Thirteenth
Amendment, many historians argue that the effort didn’t completely cease until the 1870 passage
of the Fifteenth Amendment, which extended voting rights to Black men. Meanwhile,
the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons "born or
naturalized in the United States," including former enslaved people. 

When slavery officially ended, many prominent abolitionists turned their focus to women’s
rights issues. Historians believe that the experiences and lessons learned during the abolitionist
movement paved the way for leaders who were eventually successful in the women’s suffrage
movements.

Abolitionist ideals and traditions also served as a model for the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which was formed in 1909

 Civil War

Contents
1. Causes of the Civil War
2. Outbreak of the Civil War (1861)
3. The Civil War in Virginia (1862)
 4. After the Emancipation Proclamation (1863-4)
5. Toward a Union Victory (1864-65)
6. PHOTO GALLERIES

The Civil War in the United States began in 1861, after decades of simmering tensions between
northern and southern states over slavery, states’ rights and westward expansion. The election of
Abraham Lincoln in 1860 caused seven southern states to secede and form the Confederate
States of America; four more states soon joined them. The War Between the States, as the Civil
War was also known, ended in Confederate surrender in 1865. The conflict was the costliest and
deadliest war ever fought on American soil, with some 620,000 of 2.4 million soldiers killed,
millions more injured and much of the South left in ruin.

WATCH: Civil War Journal on HISTORY Vault 

Causes of the Civil War

In the mid-19th century, while the United States was experiencing an era of tremendous growth,
a fundamental economic difference existed between the country’s northern and southern regions.

In the North, manufacturing and industry was well established, and agriculture was mostly
limited to small-scale farms, while the South’s economy was based on a system of large-scale
farming that depended on the labor of Black enslaved people to grow certain crops, especially
cotton and tobacco.

Growing abolitionist sentiment in the North after the 1830s and northern opposition to slavery’s
extension into the new western territories led many southerners to fear that the existence of
slavery in America—and thus the backbone of their economy—was in danger.

Did you know? Confederate General Thomas Jonathan Jackson earned his famous nickname,
"Stonewall," from his steadfast defensive efforts in the First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas).
At Chancellorsville, Jackson was shot by one of his own men, who mistook him for Union
cavalry. His arm was amputated, and he died from pneumonia eight days later.

In 1854, the U.S. Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which essentially opened all new
territories to slavery by asserting the rule of popular sovereignty over congressional edict. Pro-
and anti-slavery forces struggled violently in “Bleeding Kansas,” while opposition to the act in
the North led to the formation of the Republican Party, a new political entity based on the
principle of opposing slavery’s extension into the western territories. After the Supreme Court’s
ruling in the Dred Scott case (1857) confirmed the legality of slavery in the territories, the
abolitionist John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry in 1859 convinced more and more southerners
that their northern neighbors were bent on the destruction of the “peculiar institution” that
sustained them. Abraham Lincoln’s election in November 1860 was the final straw, and within
three months seven southern states–South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,
Louisiana and Texas–had seceded from the United States.

EXPLORE: Ulysses S. Grant: An Interactive Map of His Key Civil War Battles
Outbreak of the Civil War (1861)
Even as Lincoln took office in March 1861, Confederate forces threatened the federal-held Fort
Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. On April 12, after Lincoln ordered a fleet to resupply
Sumter, Confederate artillery fired the first shots of the Civil War. Sumter’s commander, Major
Robert Anderson, surrendered after less than two days of bombardment, leaving the fort in the
hands of Confederate forces under Pierre G.T. Beauregard. Four more southern states–Virginia,
Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee –joined the Confederacy after Fort Sumter. Border
slave states like Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland did not secede, but there was much
Confederate sympathy among their citizens.

Though on the surface the Civil War may have seemed a lopsided conflict, with the 23 states of
the Union enjoying an enormous advantage in population, manufacturing (including arms
production) and railroad construction, the Confederates had a strong military tradition, along
with some of the best soldiers and commanders in the nation. They also had a cause they
believed in: preserving their long-held traditions and institutions, chief among these being
slavery.

Scroll to Continue

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In the First Battle of Bull Run (known in the South as First Manassas) on July 21, 1861, 35,000
Confederate soldiers under the command of Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson forced a
greater number of Union forces (or Federals) to retreat towards Washington, D.C., dashing any
hopes of a quick Union victory and leading Lincoln to call for 500,000 more recruits. In fact,
both sides’ initial call for troops had to be widened after it became clear that the war would not
be a limited or short conflict.

The Civil War in Virginia (1862)

George B. McClellan–who replaced the aging General Winfield Scott as supreme commander of
the Union Army after the first months of the war–was beloved by his troops, but his reluctance to
advance frustrated Lincoln. In the spring of 1862, McClellan finally led his Army of the Potomac
up the peninsula between the York and James Rivers, capturing Yorktown on May 4. The
combined forces of Robert E. Lee and Jackson successfully drove back McClellan’s army in the
Seven Days’ Battles (June 25-July 1), and a cautious McClellan called for yet more
reinforcements in order to move against Richmond. Lincoln refused, and instead withdrew the
Army of the Potomac to Washington. By mid-1862, McClellan had been replaced as Union
general-in-chief by Henry W. Halleck, though he remained in command of the Army of the
Potomac.

Lee then moved his troops northwards and split his men, sending Jackson to meet Pope’s forces
near Manassas, while Lee himself moved separately with the second half of the army. On August
29, Union troops led by John Pope struck Jackson’s forces in the Second Battle of Bull Run
(Second Manassas). The next day, Lee hit the Federal left flank with a massive assault, driving
Pope’s men back towards Washington. On the heels of his victory at Manassas, Lee began the
first Confederate invasion of the North. Despite contradictory orders from Lincoln and Halleck,
McClellan was able to reorganize his army and strike at Lee on September 14 in Maryland,
driving the Confederates back to a defensive position along Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg.

On September 17, the Army of the Potomac hit Lee’s forces (reinforced by Jackson’s) in what
became the war’s bloodiest single day of fighting. Total casualties at the Battle of Antietam (also
known as the Battle of Sharpsburg) numbered 12,410 of some 69,000 troops on the Union side,
and 13,724 of around 52,000 for the Confederates. The Union victory at Antietam would prove
decisive, as it halted the Confederate advance in Maryland and forced Lee to retreat into
Virginia. Still, McClellan’s failure to pursue his advantage earned him the scorn of Lincoln and
Halleck, who removed him from command in favor of Ambrose E. Burnside. Burnside’s assault
on Lee’s troops near Fredericksburg on December 13 ended in heavy Union casualties and a
Confederate victory; he was promptly replaced by Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker, and both
armies settled into winter quarters across the Rappahannock River from each other.

After the Emancipation Proclamation (1863-4)

Lincoln had used the occasion of the Union victory at Antietam to issue a preliminary
Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all enslaved people in the rebellious states after January
1, 1863. He justified his decision as a wartime measure, and did not go so far as to free the
enslaved people in the border states loyal to the Union. Still, the Emancipation Proclamation
deprived the Confederacy of the bulk of its labor forces and put international public opinion
strongly on the Union side. Some 186,000 Black Civil War soldiers would join the Union Army
by the time the war ended in 1865, and 38,000 lost their lives.

In the spring of 1863, Hooker’s plans for a Union offensive were thwarted by a surprise attack by
the bulk of Lee’s forces on May 1, whereupon Hooker pulled his men back to Chancellorsville.
The Confederates gained a costly victory in the Battle of Chancellorsville, suffering 13,000
casualties (around 22 percent of their troops); the Union lost 17,000 men (15 percent). Lee
launched another invasion of the North in June, attacking Union forces commanded by General
George Meade on July 1 near Gettysburg, in southern Pennsylvania. Over three days of fierce
fighting, the Confederates were unable to push through the Union center, and suffered casualties
of close to 60 percent.

Meade failed to counterattack, however, and Lee’s remaining forces were able to escape into
Virginia, ending the last Confederate invasion of the North. Also in July 1863, Union forces
under Ulysses S. Grant took Vicksburg (Mississippi) in the Siege of Vicksburg, a victory that
would prove to be the turning point of the war in the western theater. After a Confederate victory
at Chickamauga Creek, Georgia, just south of Chattanooga, Tennessee, in September, Lincoln
expanded Grant’s command, and he led a reinforced Federal army (including two corps from the
Army of the Potomac) to victory in the Battle of Chattanooga in late November.

Toward a Union Victory (1864-65)

In March 1864, Lincoln put Grant in supreme command of the Union armies, replacing Halleck.
Leaving William Tecumseh Sherman in control in the West, Grant headed to Washington, where
he led the Army of the Potomac towards Lee’s troops in northern Virginia. Despite heavy Union
casualties in the Battle of the Wilderness and at Spotsylvania (both May 1864), at Cold Harbor
(early June) and the key rail center of Petersburg (June), Grant pursued a strategy of attrition,
putting Petersburg under siege for the next nine months.

Sherman outmaneuvered Confederate forces to take Atlanta by September, after which he and
some 60,000 Union troops began the famous “March to the Sea,” devastating Georgia on the
way to capturing Savannah on December 21. Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina, fell to
Sherman’s men by mid-February, and Jefferson Davis belatedly handed over the supreme
command to Lee, with the Confederate war effort on its last legs. Sherman pressed on through
North Carolina, capturing Fayetteville, Bentonville, Goldsboro and Raleigh by mid-April.

Meanwhile, exhausted by the Union siege of Petersburg and Richmond, Lee’s forces made a last
attempt at resistance, attacking and captured the Federal-controlled Fort Stedman on March 25.
An immediate counterattack reversed the victory, however, and on the night of April 2-3 Lee’s
forces evacuated Richmond. For most of the next week, Grant and Meade pursued the
Confederates along the Appomattox River, finally exhausting their possibilities for escape. Grant
accepted Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9. On the eve of victory, the
Union lost its great leader: The actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth
assassinated President Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington on April 14. Sherman received
Johnston’s surrender at Durham Station, North Carolina on April 26, effectively ending the Civil
War

 What was the effect of the abolition movement?

In 1807 the importation of African slaves was banned in the United States and the British
colonies. By 1833 all enslaved people in the British colonies in the Western Hemisphere were
freed. Slavery was abolished in the French colonial possessions 15 years later

 How did the abolitionist movement contribute to the Civil War?

Supporters and critics often engaged in heated debates and violent— even deadly—
confrontations. The divisiveness and animosity fueled by the movement, along with other
factors, led to the Civil War and ultimately the end of slavery in America

 How the abolition movement led to the Civil War and the end of slavery in the United
States?
After the Civil War began in 1861, abolitionists rallied to the Union cause. They rejoiced when
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, declaring
the slaves free in many parts of the South. In 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
abolished slavery in the country

 What does abolitionist mean in the Civil War?

noun. (especially prior to the Civil War) a person who advocated or supported the abolition of
slavery in the U.S. a person who favors the abolition of any law or practice deemed harmful to
society: the abolitionists who are opposed to capital punishment.

 How did abolitionists use the political system to fight slavery?

What are three ways abolitionists tried to end slavery? These groups sent petitions with
thousands of signatures to Congress, held abolition meetings and conferences, boycotted
products made with slave labor, printed mountains of literature, and gave innumerable
speeches for their cause.

Question Five
Explicate on the careers of the following black Americans:
a) Booker T.Washington (10 Marks