History

In 1845, Frederick Douglass, a free black man published  "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass"  where he gave a detailed, well-written account of his life as a slave. The book was hugely popular and influential. It forced many people to put themselves in the shoes of a slave and as a result empathize with them. Frederick Douglas was a living counterexample to slaveholders' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Likewise, Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great speaker and writer had once been a slave.

1831- Nat Turners rebellion  Watch birth of a nation? 1839 - La Armistad Rebellion  A slave ship called La Amistad set sail from Havana, Cuba. The Spanish crew were taking the 53 slaves (49 adults and 3 children) to be delivered to the town of Camaguey, Cuba. They had originally been captured in Sierra Leone and sold to the Spanish. At the time, Britain and the United States had outlawed Atlantic Slave trading but Spain still allowed it. They got out to sea the ship’s cook jokingly told the slaves that they were going to be “Killed, salted and cooked.” Whether or not the slaves thought he was serious, it made them want to escape all the more. One slave was able to file through his chains. He freed the other men and they picked up cane cutting machete’s and went onto the top deck. A fight broke out and the slaves outnumbered the crew and killed everyone except for two men. Three slaves were killed in the fight. The slaves didn’t know how to sail a ship and demanded that the

Sojourner Truth - 1828 Sojourner Truth was born in a dutch part of New York. Her first language was Dutch, and she continued to speak with a Dutch accent for the rest of her life. When her owner died in 1806, nine-year-old Truth (known as Belle), was sold at an auction with a flock of sheep for $100. (About $2,500 today) Her new owners wife didn't speak Dutch but English and when Sojourner was given orders she often didn't understand them. This lead to many punishments. Sojourner was again sold two more times before she was 13. When sojourner was 18 she fell in love with a slave on a neighboring farm which had a different owner. When a slave had a child, that child belonged to the man's owner, not the women's. So sojourners owner told her she couldn't marry someone else's slave but had to marry one of his. One night the man she was in love snuck over to see Sojourner. He was discovered and beaten severely. So she married an older slave who was

First slave ship arrives in Virginia, British North America (1619) Slavery had exsisted in Africa since prehistoric times. It's often thought that the Europeans captured Africans themselves, which occasionally happened but most slaves were already captives of rival tribes captured during war.  Europeans showed up looking to trade goods. The African kings offered them slaves in exchange for weapons. The African tribes would then use the weapons to fight their rivals and capture more slaves.  With European influence, they made some African tribes very powerful and rich. Instructions for loading slave ship Different tribes and languages, chained up with rival tribesman and unable to communicate. https://youtu.be/gWjJ4NM1KFA https://youtu.be/3NXC4Q_4JVg https://youtu.be/g00elRjygRQ https://youtu.be/S72vvfBTQws 200 years of slavery pass by, 10 generations of slavery I'm Irish. I'm British. I'm italian. No African counter part until