Slavery in America

Slavery was the corner stone of the southern economy until

the Civil War. The First slave ship came in 1619 and was
followed by hundreds of ships that brought slaves from
Africa in horrible conditions:

The Journey took 2 months. Very hard to say how many

died. Of the 20 million captured, 10 million never made it to
the boats and 2 million died on ships leaving only 8 million
slaves. Once they reached the US they were cleaned, fed
and auctioned off. Most large towns had auction centres
(see next picture) . Slaves cost between $1500 & $2000.
They lived in shacks and clothes were given 2X a year.
They worked from Kin to KAINT
(______________________________________________)

Although the slave trade was outlawed in the

US in 1808, slavery continued to flourish:
%
free
blacks

Total US
population

% black
of total

757,208

7.9%

3,929,214

19%

108,435

1,002,03
7

10.8%

5,308,483

19%

1,191,36
2

186,446

1,377,80
8

13.5%

7,239,881

19%

1820

1,538,02
2

233,634

1,771,65
6

13.2%

9,638,453

18%

1830

2,009,04
3

319,599

2,328,64
2

13.7% 12,860,702

18%

1840

2,487,35

386,293

2,873,64

13.4% 17,063,353

17%

Census
Year

# Slaves

# Free
blacks

1790

697,681

59,527

1800

893,602

1810

Total
black

1850

3,204,31
3

434,495

3,638,80
8

11.9% 23,191,876

16%

1860

3,953,76
0

488,070

4,441,83
0

11.0% 31,443,321

14%

1870

4,880,00
9

4,880,00
9

100% 38,558,371

13%

Taken From Wikipedia

What was life like for the slave?

Fear. Every slave lived in fear. Children were afraid of
being sold off. Men did not like to live with their spouse as
they could not bare witnessing the master raping their wives.
They were whipped by overseerers. They were forbidden to
read or write.