African American History, Test 2

Front 1

American Paradox” defined…

Back 1

“The rise of liberty and equality in this country was accompanied by the rise of slavery. That two such contradictory developments were taking place simultaneously over a long period of our history…is the central paradox of American history” (99)

Front 2

American Paradox

Back 2

Liberty and slavery were conflicting ideals

Front 3

Liberty and slavery were conflicting ideals

Back 3

“Liberty” demanding the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

“Slavery” reducing a human being to a price

Front 4

Societies with Slaves

Back 4

Colony is not dependent on slavery economically, politically, or culturally

Master/slave relation does not provide the basis for social hierarchy

Slavery and race were not intertwined

Front 5

Slave Societies

Back 5

Entire society—economy, politics, culture—dependent on slavery

Master/slave relation is the heart of the social hierarchy

Race and slavery are intertwined—mutually constitutive

Front 6

Transitions to Slave Societies

Back 6

Occurred in some states but not others

Geography and commodity were the main determinants

Front 7

Agricultural based societies relied on

Back 7

bonded labor

Front 8

Mixed economies

Back 8

agriculture and industry—did not become slave societies

E.g., Virginia became a slave society after 1640

Rapid population growth, 1640-1660

Rise of freemen who could not afford land of their own

Freemen and Africans collaborated in Bacon’s Rebellion (1676)

Consolidated plantation slavery to replace indentured servitude

Front 9

Slavery and Independence

Back 9

Liberty meant “free trade”:

Liberty meant alliances forged in slavery:

Front 10

Liberty meant “free trade”:

Back 10

Free ships make free goods,” but the “free goods” usually cash crops, were produced by slaves

Front 11

Liberty meant alliances forged in slavery:

Back 11

uPatriots used slave-grown tobacco to lure France into an alliance

Front 12

The social reproduction of slavery showed in

Back 12

law, economy, and demographics

Front 13

Laws reproduced slave status:

Back 13

lifetime servitude for blacks, passed through the mother’s line

Front 14

Demographics:

Back 14

Slaves started to reproduce themselves in colonial America, making them more valuable

Front 15

Economy- Southern economies depended on slavery – the production

Back 15

the production and exportation of tobacco, indigo, and rice; as well as the domestic slave trade to other slaveholders

Front 16

Dunmore and the Ethiopian Regiment

Back 16

Lord Dunmore was the royal governor of Virginia during the War of Independence

Dunmore proclaimed that all slaves who quit their masters and joined the British army against the patriots would receive freedom

More than 1000 runaway slaves joined the Loyalists

The British organized the Ethiopian Regiment, a squadron of black soldiers whose banner read “Liberty for slaves”—a true symbol of revolutionary spirit (?)

Front 17

The Declaration of Independence for African Americans was as conservative as it was radical.

Back 17

Conservative - Patriots believed Britain had been “inciting domestic insurrections among us” (i.e., slave rebellions)

Radical - Patriots challenged an old system of governance—monarchy

Front 18

Black Freedom Fighters

Back 18

Thousands of African Americans fought valiantly on both sides of the war.

For African Americans, the radical notion of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” took a life of its own (e.g., Ethiopian Regiment).

Front 19

Four Purposes of Constitution:

Back 19

Taxation

Representation

Supremacy

Legitimacy

Front 20

Significances of the Constitution

Back 20

Established the offices, functions, and duties of the federal government

Four additional purposes of the Constitution:

Taxation

Representation

Supremacy

Legitimacy

Front 21

Three-fifths clause:

Back 21

Slave states could add “to the whole Number of free persons…three fifths of all other Persons.”

Front 22

Fugitive slave clause:

Back 22

Required state officials to return fugitives who fled to their territories

Front 23

Non-importation clause:

Back 23

Specified that the United States would prohibit the importation of slaves after 1808.

Front 24

Other Constitutional Support for Slavery

Back 24

Prohibition on taxing exports

Creation of electoral college

National census

Second Amendment

Front 25

Cotton Revolution, 1794-1830

Back 25

New technology: Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin

“King Cotton” dominated U.S. economy

Complicity between the “lords of the lash” and “lords of the loom”

“Mississippi fever” brought migrants and slavery into the Black Belt and Southwest

Impacts

Brutal cotton plantations

Domestic slave trade

Front 26

Five Core Abolitionist Arguments

Back 26

Slavery contradicted the teachings of Christianity

Slavery violated American value of freedom

Slavery was economically problematic – forced labor was inefficient and wasteful

Slavery debased slaveholders: “Arbitrary power is to the mind what alcohol is to the body; it intoxicates” (Theodore Dwight Weld)

Slavery prevented peace and order – South as police state