4b American Slavery American Freedom Slavery in the British American Colonies

0:01 okay welcome back this is the second of our lectures on Africa and the Atlantic slave trade and in this lecture we really move into focusing on the history of slavery in the colonies in the British American colonies okay so we're gonna begin by thunk talking about this idea of American slavery and American freedom and how those are a fundamental paradox of American history American history is generally focused on the rise of Liberty democracy and freedom and the rise of the common man over elites this is a view that of course has been challenged and discredited this focus on freedom liberty and equality by an

0:46 examination of the uglier aspects of American history the history of oppression the history of class tension and exploitation and racism slavery is a critical part of this at the time of the American Revolution supposedly about freedom and democracy 150 of the American population word non-citizens slaves so today we're gonna think about how in American history the notion of slavery and freedom went hand in hand without the slavery of some and the idea of the slave as the quote/unquote other without the slavery of some the freedom of others could have never existed

1:31 particularly lower-class whites who aren franchised and empowered by drawing the color line and disenfranchised of just disenfranchising others so the Howard Zinn reading talks about drawing the color line and how slavery became racialized and what we're considering is that the freedom of some came at the price price of the unfreedom of others the rise of liberty and equality in this country was accompanied by a distinct rise in slavery and this development the simultaneous development of slavery and freedom and how one that Hannah how each other fed into each other on how slavery and freedom were

2:18 necessary preconditions for each other this development that the simultaneous development of slavery and freedom together side-by-side is one of the fundamental paradoxes of American history as you would know the founding fathers at the time of the American Revolution were slaveholders and many came from the colony in which slavery had its start in the British colonies Virginia slavery first came to Virginia George Washington James Madison Thomas Jefferson many of the most eloquent spokesmen for freedom and equality for all Virginia slaveholders and remained slaveholders all of their life so how did they reconcile this were they merely hypocrites were they merely hypocrites

3:04 let's look at this question of American slavery and American freedom another way to put the question another way how did England which a which was a country that prided itself on the liberty of its citizens on the relatively liberal nature of its government how did England produce colonies where most of its colonists enjoyed even more liberty and self-government than men in England in the mother country how did this England do this while the remainder of the population of the American colonies 150 the population were totally deprived of all Liberty all opportunity all self-government and self-control and were slaves how could this Liberty and slavery slavery and freedom exist

3:50 side-by-side so um just to give you an overview of the lecture itself what we're going to do is sort of do a case study of how slavery begins in the British American colonies we'll look at Virginia because it first comes to Virginia and then we'll move into a more general survey of slavery in the southern colonies the middle colonies etc so the turn to slavery as you would read in your readings indentured servitude in Virginia is gradually phased out in the 17th century now in spite it's a seeming superiority in an economic sense slave labor was not actually as advantageous or profitable as indentured labor labor in Virginia up

4:38 until about 1650 or so why well basically indentured servants were cheaper than slaves and it wasn't particularly advantageous to own slaves we'll talk about why we tend to think of janestown starving time the cannibalism it's early mortality rates but we tend to forget that Virginia was basically a death trap until about 1650 or so bridging Virginia did rise in population but swallowed thousands of settlers to death each year and only you know rosanne populate population because of the continual way that new settlers were pumped in so because of the high mortality rates among immigrants that remained so until mid-century in terms

5:25 of slave labor there was no great advantage of owning a man for a lifetime then for a period of five to seven years like indentured servitude because you know the life expectancy was low to begin with so there was no advantage in owning a slave for a lifetime then owning a worker for seventy five to seven years if both were gonna die relatively young and early and soon this is especially so because slaves cost double the price of indentured servants so basically an indentured servants were a better spot for the planters so in fact in this early period of slavery in the British Atlantic world there were

6:11 many many more slaves going to other British colonies the sugar producing colonies of Barbados and Jamaica not tobacco producing Virginia the point at which it became more advantageous to four Virginians to buy slaves rather than add entered servitude came around 1650 or so we will discuss the political and economic and social reasons why and this as howard zinn puts it is is when the color line is drawn so here are some key things that I will go over sixteen nineteen sixteen nineteen the first Africans arrived in Jamestown by 1650 there were about three hundred Africans

6:58 in Jamestown and Virginia what were the conditions of these early Africans the status of these early African workers varied greatly many of the early one min of the early ones were indentured servants they received land at the end of the term some even became free one of the original twenty black slaves I'm sorry one of the original twenty Africans to arrive in Virginia in 1619 was named Anthony Johnson he became an indentured servant and after his time of service he became free and came to own

7:45 indentured servants of his own so what I'm trying to tell you the conditions of early Africans in Virginia varied widely a substantial number of early Virginia Africans were free or became free or were indentured servants at least before seven 1675 or so Virginia blacks whether they were servant or slave or free actually enjoyed most of the same rights and duties as Englishmen somewhat surprising before 1660 Africans were not subject to more harsh punishment discipline than any other servant type of servant in the colony they had certain rights they could sue and be

8:32 sued in court they did penance in the parish church they could earn money they could buy cattle they could sell cattle or other property they could own property some slaves were able to buy their freedom in the early period some Africans worked as in it as indentured servants some masters bequeath them not only freedom but land cattle and houses and some Virginia counties recorded about ten or more free black households around 1650 or so so suffice it to say the conditions of early Africans in Virginia vary there were some slaves there were a good deal of indentured

9:18 servants and the harsh legal treatment of blacks what what were called slave codes only came later we'll talk about those so what it brought about the turn to slavery around 1650 1660 or so very complex reasons so I'm going to list those now around 1650 the mortality rates in Virginia finally began to decline and the population exploded huge population explosion there were about 25 thousand people in Virginia by 1660 so that's a good thing people start dying stopped dying and the population goes up but the rapid rise in population in Virginia brought problems it created a land

10:05 shortage the rapid population growth created a land shortage speculators bought up land in hopes of selling it to a new class of poor freedmen so we need to talk about this group the poor freedmen the poor Freeman were the former indentured servants so in greater number these men are actually now out living the terms of their service they're you know not dying before they're five or seven to seven to seven-year term of service is over they're out living their terms of service they're becoming free the were they well socially in the eyes of the upper class they were sort of riffraff they were lower-class down-and-outs they were single men they were known as troublemakers and they were the types

10:51 shipped from England in the first place to clear England of its social problems the vaguer the vagrants the beggars the criminals so these this new class of lower-class poor freedom created a lot of social problems first of all it created a labor shortage there were efforts by the planters to prolong the terms of white servants above seven years but it never really came to anything and while the white planter class could surely could surely have an enslaved Freeborn English whites this was not a risk they were willing to take although it was something they could

11:38 have done so talking about the Freeman the appearance of a new class of freemen X indentured servants created social problems that were very much like the social problems of 17th century England that had motivated colonization in the first place remember partially Virginia was to be a haven for all of the down-and-outs of seventh in 17th century England and solve the problems of England England was stricken by crime vagrancy poverty etc the single men the Freeman were free they were typically single they had served their terms of service but usually they were too poor to afford their own land and they couldn't usually set up tobacco plantations of their own some couldn't

12:24 afford land but others couldn't and because there suddenly this huge burst of Freeman there's a lot of competition competition for wage jobs and competition for land that was being bought up some worked for wages and some settled on the frontier western part of Virginia because the land was cheaper there but then they tended to face trouble with the Indians the elite planners who dominated the colony and its politics were alarmed by the growth of this class of poor rebellious Freeman and of these Freeman only a quarter of them could afford land of their own so the elite classes of Virginia were

13:12 caught in it dilled dilemma on the one hand they faced a labor shortage they needed new immigrants for labor but as more and more men became free the colony basically inherited the same social problems that she was supposedly helping England to solve as one colonial leader put it Virginia was draining England of her quote filth and scum so these men were poor and really without good prospects furthermore these young men were not only poor but they were armed living in Virginia necessitating guns and the ruling elite rightly feared a lower-class uprising because they didn't have a lot of social economic

13:58 opportunity so the fears of the elite were justified the governor the leading planter families who owned the best plantation sparked by sparked by fears of an Indian attack in 1675 rebellion swept through Virginia particularly the western counties this rebellion which came to be called Bacon's Rebellion we'll also talk about it later again this rebellion in 1675 began when a group of volunteer Indian fighters in the western frontier counties led an expedition against western Virginia Indians with whom they had not friendly relations so they led in an Indian

14:45 expedition it was fruitless it was unsuccessful and they were angry frustrated and defeated this volun these volunteer forces these men who were perceived as rabble rabble rousers by the colonial elite they turned not against the Indians but against the ruling class they attacked led an attack on the colonial government and basically demanded a greater share in government a greater share in self-rule led by Nathaniel bacon 1675 is called baby Bacon's uprising and was the largest popular uprising before the American Revolution it was definitely about class tensions and it was

15:31 definitely populist in nature populism is a type of politics that sort of for the common man Joe Sixpack meanwhile the ruling class tries to clamp down on these class tension they they put into effect laws clamping down on white indentured Services on white indentured servants they are at this point able to attend extend the terms of service in some cases they impose severe penalties for running away they restricted indentured servants freedom of movement I'm not going to list all the specific measures because they're sort of tedious but there's clamping down on the freedom

16:16 of white indentured servant so the lower classes see less freedom nevertheless the ruling elite could not keep themselves supplied with enough workers the ranks of Freeman continued to grow and so did poverty and discontent because these freedmen couldn't really afford land and couldn't really fit into the system meanwhile the leaders of Virginia actually voted to limit voting for the House of Burgesses to land holders and house holders and to exclude the poor so the solution that the ruling elite did came up with was not further clamping

17:02 down on the rights of poor whites Virginia's ruling elite had another solution to deal with these social problems and it would allow the ruling elites to keep their land and power but of course stop the discontent and stop the outright repression of other linked-in Englishman's the solution of course was slavery and drawling the color line between white and black and stopping the process of turning Africans into Englishmen as I mentioned early on Africans enjoyed many of the rights and privileges as Englishmen the rights of poor white colonists were

17:48 increased by destroying the rights of African slaves this is the process that begins to happen about 1650 or so slowly but surely poor whites were invited to join the ruling class the planters by vicariously I'm sorry let me say that again slowly but surely poor whites were invited to join in the ruling classes the planters and share in their scariest that means like indirect overlordship against slaves white was defined against black and even if White's weren't rich at least they weren't unfree perhaps the freeman might grow rich enough to own land by land or even own a slave or two

18:33 but even if they weren't a slave holder they enjoyed the dignity of being free being defined as a citizen rather than a slave the increased importation of slaves in Virginia after 1660 was definitely matched by a decreased importation of indentured servants finally after a few years the increased number of slaves and the cutting down on the number of indentured servants led to a decrease in the number of new Freeman that is to say the number of Freeman leveled out they just sort of even out so therefore the social tensions lessened by leveling out this dangerous new class of young rebellious Freeman

19:19 there were less of them so it was now easier for them to buy land or perhaps find a job at the same time around 1650 after Virginia's heavy mortality rate ceased investing in slave labor was now much more profitable than free labor right now people lived a lifetime so now it made sense to pay for a slave rather than indentured servants Virginia planters now bought slaves just as fast as traders would bring them and slaves now found a better market in Virginia than Barbados or Jamaica so here's the big trend the turn to slavery come around 1650 or 1660 or so life service

20:06 became common for Africans around 1650 and many that began as indentured servants were converted into slaves this occurred gradually gradually Africans began began serving longer and longer terms of indentured servitude than white and were discriminated against legally we'll talk about all of these changes even if they were free blacks Africans were no longer allowed to bear arms and different laws were made for blacks and whites blacks were not allowed to have sexual relations with whites and formal laws were passed against interracial marriage in Virginia in 1690 so these new laws drew a color

20:55 line between black and white and they're passed in the late 17th century and I tried to suggest you it was related to class tensions especially this presence of poor whites the new laws for blacks were based on actually the severe labor laws that had applied to any servant black or white indentured servants in the early history of the continent colony early on any servant was subject to these laws but the new laws late seventeenth-century now specifically applied to blacks the laws would exonerate the master who quote-unquote accidently beat his lay to death but placed new limitations on the punishment of white servants now slaves would be

21:42 deprived of opportunities of Association and rebellion they would be subject to savage punishments by their owners without fear of legal reprisal and basically the entire society would be able to keep watch on them as this new enslaved class because their color disclosed their status as a slave their skin color okay so how did this shift um oh let me let me mention one other things early on in the colony in the early 17th century the earliest definition of slave was defined by their

22:29 status as heathens as savages and the colonists believes that if people were Christian they weren't savages or heathens so the early definition of slave was based on the idea that the slave was a heathen or savage meaning that they were pagan they were not Christian probably one of the reasons why the earliest African settlers in Jamestown and Virginia were not enslaved is because many were Christian many came from Congo and were Catholic however around 1675 colonial legislators legislatures led by Virginia in 1675 decreed made formal a law that

23:17 the conferring of baptism does not alter slaves condition of bondage so we can say in a nutshell that being Christian was no longer a status that exempted someone from slavery after 1675 slavery was now based on race how did this turn to slavery relate to Virginia's social problems well slavery reduced the number of freedmen who had been competing with each other for scarce land and jobs the number of freedmen was gradually reduced because there's there's many many many less indentured servants coming in who would eventually become Freeman number

24:03 of Freeman is gradually reduced so that those who remain could more easily find an independent place in society now they could more easily acquire land and even own a slave or two importantly they join with their social superiors the elites in enjoying freedom and the English liberties that distinguish them from the black laboring in other words in early Virginia slavery and freedom went hand in hand the slavery of some was a necessary precondition for the freedom of others and I'm referring to poor whites they're the presence of slaves in other words it helped reduce class tensions the presence of African slaves tended to

24:49 draw white settlers rich or poor closer together and the presence of slaves as other helped to paper over the class differences between poor white farmers and wealthy plantation owners I think it's also interesting and important to mention in this relationship between slavery and freedom at the same time the Virginia government actually becomes more democratic for the common man the poor whites as the slave system becomes entrench now this these developments take place between 1675 and 1725 or so at a time when slavery becomes really big and

25:36 here's what happened they're sort of moving in the direction that bacon had wanted in the 17th century the most powerful body in the Virginia government was actually the royally appointed governor's council the council which was composed of large landowners this council was appointed by the king and because at the pointed it's not popularly elected it's not democratic the House of Burgesses that we discussed before was only secondary its laws were subject to approval by the council however in the 18th century between 1675 and 1725 as slavery becomes big this relationship was diverse the power of the council declined and now the popularly elected House of Burgesses

26:22 became dominant so perhaps these there was a relationship between slavery and freedom and as the slave system became more entrenched and bigger the system did become more democratic for poor whites in the common man okay so that was a look at how slavery came about and white indentured servitude was phased out in early Virginia and from there we're going to do a more a more general look at slavery in all of the colonies in general beginning with the southern colonies where it was biggest so the 18th century was the peak of slavery in

27:08 the British colonies the price of a slave tripled from about 25 pounds in 1700 to seventeen 75 pounds in 1775 in 18th century slaves were about a little over half a million about 600,000 which amounted to 21 percent of the population in the British mainland colonies of these slaves half were imported from Africa and had been born in Africa and half the population were native-born any history of slavery in the Americas much must discuss seasoning when slaves

27:54 arrived they were subject to the process of seasoning this basically refers to the process of dehumanization that they faced you can read this in a lot of a lot of equiano's autobiography it was there getting used to slavery and their conditions of servitude it was a dehumanizing process used to produce docile but hard-working slaves so slaves were worked very hard and seasoning referred to how they were sort of broken as humans and made to conform with the system we will discuss rebellion one of the primary ways in

28:44 which slaves rebelled was not necessarily through military insurrection or one running away but by working slowly not necessarily working hard put it this way leaves were worked hard but pro in protest sometimes they tended to be not hard workers slave sometimes worked slowly sabotage their work as a form of rebellion protest so rebellions from slavery could take many forms it could take the form of running away it could take the form of injuring themselves deliberately hurting themselves seriously it could take the form of infanticide killing ones own infant rather than seeing them grow up in this

29:32 system it must have took a lot of a lot of courage either way so infanticide suicide was a form of rebellion slaves sometimes poison themselves or their overseers they broke tools they pilfered supplies they took supplies they burned barns and of course running away and staging slave revolts we will discuss a couple of examples of slave revolts later in any case in the south the predominant system of labour was the plantation model growing tobacco indigo rice in the Carolinas so basically there

30:20 were three types of laborers the skilled workers the skilled workers were the best educated the skilled workers skilled artisans were the best educated best treated slaves who had the most freedom they often ran errands for the master they had the most opportunities to run they had the best opportunities to run away or purchase their freedom and if they did become free it was easiest for them to practice a trade why because they were skilled workers they were blacksmiths carpenters tailors bricklayers they were very valuable their price and they were better treated and they were allowed off of the plantation for supplies these slaves

31:07 often were involved in rebellions because they were allowed off of the masters premises they often seized supplies for rebellions House sermons house sermons were also another relatively privileged class of slaves including people who worked as Cook's maids nurses Butler's coachman they were also relatively well fed well clothed and housed and of the slaves it was this class of slaves the house servants who were the most servile Mert most servile the most the ones who submitted the most because they were under direct supervision they did not have the relative freedom that the

31:55 artisans did the house servants were most likely to identify with their owners in others than other slaves because they lived and served them in close proximity and psychologically if you read slave narratives from this type of slave the these house servants are in between two worlds it was a very difficult position they are isolated from fellow slaves they are in close proximity to their masters a part of the household but not unlike African domestic slavery and sometimes there were serious problems among house servants sometimes they were associated with alcoholism and drunkenness and

32:40 sometimes rapport resorted to stealing finally the largest group of slaves in the house and in the South were field laborers who were charged with large agricultural tasks clearing fields planting fields harvesting fields whatever crop tobacco rice or indigo the main system used was the gang labor system all of the slaves would work together on a common assignment from sunrise to sunset and of these slaves it was the field hand who were the most they were the most poorly treated they were the most ContentID group of slaves as a class the

33:31 slaves lived in separate quarters cabins with dirt floors no windows here is a 17th century image of a slave slave dance at the quarters and the cabins typically had dirt floors no windows and the diet of slaves and the South consisted of cornmeal bread salted pork and fish sometimes game that they were able to hunt rabbits and opossum and typically slaves had a small plot of land near their own quarters so whatever vegetables they could garden from their own plot of land okay the next thing I want to talk about our slave codes this is really critical to

34:17 like legalizing the difference between white and black slave codes slave codes will explain them first originated in the British West Indies where slavery had always been more predominant and then they spread to the mainland British colonies basically the slave codes wrote into law the difference between white and black and allowed massive exploitation and oppression of blacks so according to slave codes slaves were not allowed to leave the plantation without a pass it restricted their freedom of movement they were not allowed to possess weapons not allowed to engage in trade they were not allowed free

35:02 association they were not allowed to meet in groups the legal penalties for striking whites even in self-defense were basically extremely severe capital punishment they were not allowed to drink alcohol learn to read and write and penalties were very severe and cruel whipping branding with a hot iron cropping the ears or slitting the nose breaking the bones cutting the hamstring muscle even castration slave codes were first passed by the legislature in colonial Virginia in 1682 the other southern

35:48 colonies adapt them after this and without being too specific the slave codes the laws become increasingly harsh during the 18th century South Carolina tended to have the harshest slave codes although Virginia's was also very harsh I want to mention a few examples of slave revolts slave revolts were as old as slavery itself in 1663 in Virginia a group of Virginia slaves I'm sorry in 1663 in Virginia

36:33 there was a to be slave revolt there wasn't a revolt that was planned but it was discovered by whites it was put down it never actually occurred what we're going to look at as an example of a very large slave rebellion rebellion is the Stono rebellion so the Stono rebellion was one of the biggest slave revolts in the history of the colonies okay it took place in South Carolina in South Carolina filled filled labor tend to be more difficult more arduous than elsewhere due to the cultivation of rice and

37:20 indigo other labor-intensive cloth crops the slave codes in South Carolina were extremely harsh and slaves in South Carolina tended to be more discontented than in any other colony there the Stono rebellion was preceded by a number of smaller rebellions for instance there was a major slave rebellion in 1720 several slaves several right White's were killed in 1730 there were many lots for rebellions discovered in Charleston that were that never actually happened so in any case the Stono rebellion that happened in 1730 1739 in it forty-four slaves and twenty-one

38:07 whites were killed the so what happened the Stono rebellion was due to tensions and basically a group of slaves from Charleston tried to reach the border of Florida where the Spanish had promised them refuse and freedom they tried to reach the border of Florida but failed early in 1739 later the same year about 100 black slaves under a leader named Cato made the same attempt however they were turned back after fighting battles with the South Carolina militia in this

38:53 attempt for their freedom forty-four slaves and twenty-one whites were killed so basically this donal was Stono rebellion was a relatively large rebellion of South Carolina slaves who attempt to steal away to Spanish Florida in hopes of their freedom one important thing about the Stono rebellion was that it definitely had African roots leaders of the rebellion were Catholic slaves and had a Catholic component to it leaders of the rebellion were Catholic slaves from an independent sport Portuguese speaking at African state and the the thing is that the leaders of the rebellion had a strong connection to

39:40 military culture they had been soldiers warriors in their native lands and used various African fighting tactics in the rebellion so I may have mentioned this before slaves who came from strong military cultures tend to be those who were most likely to repel the Stono rebellion was followed by another plan revolt of 200 slaves in 1740 but it was crushed in the planning stages so in the history of slave revolts the history of rumours rumoured rebellion is as history is as important as actual rebellion what was the white response to the Stono

40:25 rebellion and other rebellions well many colonies made laws discouraging new slaves southern colonies passed laws forbidding slaves from being imported from other colonies the upshot of the law of these laws was that the southern colonies discouraged the importation of new slaves and tended to prefer those who had been born into slavery already for instance I mentioned the African roots the rebellions slave codes also definitely were tightened in response to these sort of rebellions and that's one

41:13 reason why slave codes become increasingly harsh during the 18th century another option for black slaves was to try to seek refuge among Indians significant numbers of slaves form maroon societies they escaped and seek refuge with various southern Indian tribes that Tuscarora the creeks of Cherokees etc in the British colonies slaves were regarded as chattel they were regarded as property chattel means property it was very difficult difficult is an understatement the idea of Africans retaining culture

42:01 and connections to family was very difficult English slave codes did not recognize the validity of slave marriages a slave could be separated from his or her mate at any time at the owners discretion and at Basques one could only hope that a mother and her young children would be kept together so many things made family life difficult in the colonies the non-recognition of slave marriage the male surplus there was definitely a surplus of male slaves they're typically preferred for the labor tasks asked

42:47 female slaves anywhere from sixty forty to seventy thirty and the idea of patriarchy the husband being the authority figure in slave marriage is is difficult the idea of the husband and as protector and provider was difficult if not impossible in slave marriages very destructive to black African family life was the realization that the husband could not protect his family his wife or children from physical abuse or sexual assault from right from whites and nor could he provide for his family in a normal way slave women of course slave wives worked alongside their husband and

43:33 therefore the husband wasn't the protector and provider of the family in a normal way and wasn't the absolute ruler of the slave family typically marriages of slaves had to be approved by the owner and were usually celebrated with a ceremony of a couple jumping over a broom which supposedly determined who would be the dominant partner in the marriage another thing that held back family life was that slave owners encouraged unofficially promiscuity after marriage in order to produce more slaves however gradually as the Revolution approached

44:19 the American Revolution approached more southern slave owed slave owners supported marriage because they believed it brought stability and lest rebellious slaves okay so that was a really brief look at slavery in the southern colonies I'm sorry as for slavery in the middle and northern colonies here is some basic facts so slavery in the north and in new england and middle colonies was the exception not the norm over all slaves only accounted for 3% of the population

45:05 and it was primarily centered in cities it was an urban institution so overall slaves are only 3 percent of the population of northern colonies but their population was much higher in certain cities like like Boston Newport or New York slaves in the northern colonies tended to be skilled workers working in lumberyard shipyards on docks aboard ships servants for wealthy merchants and also working as blacksmiths cabinetmakers various skilled artisans so therefore the status of slavery in the north was a bit different because they were artisans because they were

45:51 often involved in commerce or business it was to their owners advantage for them to read and write they enjoyed relative freedom they were relatively well educated so generally speaking slave codes in the northern colonies were much more moderate slaves as I mentioned tended to be centered in cities so slaves were a very high percentage of the colony of New York however 14% of the population of New York were slaves and 20% of the population was of New York City were slaves a much lower percentage in Pennsylvania the Quakers were always

46:37 opposed to slavery I should mention that white opposition to slavery was very rare during the colonial period and the Quakers were the first to take steps against slavery in 1682 the the Quakers made a petition to abolish slavery in Pennsylvania and 17 775 they made a petition to kick out slave owners from Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in Philadelphia the Quaker reformer Anthony Ben is a operated a school for african-american children this school was to disprove their alleged inferiority and basically show

47:24 that the these beliefs in inferiority were only founded on white intolerance so suffice it to say in eighteenth-century Philadelphia there were a number of humanitarian schools that were open to free blacks free blacks were found in all colonies but it was certainly not an easy life because they faced the constant threat of reinstatement and the in the eyes of the white elites the very fact that they were free was a bad example from other slaves so free blacks were more common in the north but they faced a number of legal disabilities free blacks were

48:11 frequently accused of stealing goods frequently accused of assisting in slave revolts and many colonies actually had laws that made it difficult for owners to free their slaves so free African Americans suffered from a wide variety of legal disabilities it tended to vary by colony but I will make some generalizations now so Africans could become free in two ways either by obtaining their freedom through their master or through manumission

48:56 manumission meant purchasing their freedom on their own behalf a slave purchased their own freedom of course running away was also an option but that was of course illegal and very risky in any case free African Americans suffered from a wide variety of legal disabilities in most colonies they were definitely the south they were not allowed to testify in courts against whites they were not allowed to vote they were not allowed freedom of movement they were not allowed to own real estate in some colonies they free blacks were barred from service on juries or militia or officially barred

49:42 from certain occupations not all that I mentioned applied to the northern colonies Oh in the northern colonies blacks typically were allowed property rights freedom of movement and even were able to testify in court against whites most Africans tended to live in the middle colonies or the north in towns and in cities they worked as domestic help skilled laborers and sometimes unskilled neighbors laborers so as for free blacks they were a small percentage of the population but seven

50:28 percent of the population by the end of the colonial period um I I guess I'll end the lecture by giving a brief overview of the next lecture so the next lecture we'll deal with the autobiography of Alana aqueon oh it's one of your assigned primary sources it's really interesting and I hope to see you soon for that thank you