Intro to Nat Turner

Nat Turner was an African American slave who was born in Southampton County, Virginia on October 2, 1800. He started working on southern plantations 1831. When he was younger, everyone thought of him as being very smart. They saw that he was smart when he was about 3 or 4 years old. While young Nat Turner was playing with some of his friends, his mother heard him tell the children about something that had happened to him when he was born. She later had asked him about what he told the children. She asked him details about the incident, and it confirmed that he knew about this past event. From that time on, other slaves believed that in addition to his unique view, his physical markings were a sign that he would be a prophet.

African slavery existed within its own continent and countries long before European interference. It wasn't until the mid-fifteenth century that the Portuguese sailed the Eastern Africa coast in search of a trade route to the East that they inherited an alternative discovery. The Portugal trade with Africans along the coast led to colonization and eventual trade of African slaves. This was the eventual segue of slaves into extend European culture (p.39-40 Roark). Slaves reached the New World in the early sixteenth century in Caribbean region discovered by Christopher Columbus, most imported from Europe, while some came directly from Africa (par. 1 Etlis). By the time African slaves made their way to the Jamestown settlement in 1619, African slavery had already been a large part of European and New World culture for well over a century. Slaves had been imported to help work on the production of America's first founded cash crop: tobacco (Slavery in America). From the tips of American roots, we see the reliance of slavery to aid with work. This European practice that

Before Europeans joined the African slave trade, slavery was widespread throughout Africa, and slaves served to pay off debts, sold by their kin in exchange for goods during famine, or as war captives. The slaves were central to the trans-Saharan trade, and on occasion the slaves would be freed from servitude. Once the Europeans began to exploit the slave trade, they created a forced migration of African slaves into the

In the African continent, they developed an economic relationship with the European nation. There was clear signs that European needed connections. Prior to their relationship, african rulers had established trade links with the Mediterranean world, Western Asia, and Indian Ocean region. The expansion provided Europeans goods that included, cloth, iron, copper, jewelry, beads, and more. In exchange, Europeans return with textiles, carving, spices. The main trade however was

When Europeans arrived along the West African coast, slavery already existed on the continent, however slavery in Africa and the brutal form of slavery that would develop in the Americas were completely different. African slavery was more like European serfdom. For example, in the Ashanti Kingdom of West Africa, slaves could marry, own property and even own slaves. And slavery ended after a certain number of years of servitude. Most importantly, African slavery was never passed from one generation to another, and it lacked the racist element that whites were masters and blacks were slaves.

The changing from indentured servants to racial slavery gradually happened. Only a percentage of the African slavery brought to the New World ended up in British North America about 5%. Most of the slaves went by ships across the Atlantic were sent to Caribbean sugar colonies, Brazil or maybe Spanish America. In the 1680s, slaves of African were imported to English colonies with considerable numbers. Also in that time, British farmers in the northern colonies were buying slavery with great numbers too. Slavery in North America was changing. Even though there were blacks, half if black and white people and America were born slave owners in some colonies in the Americas, and many white did not own slaves. In the Americas, chattel slavery was basically different from other parts of the world because of the original dimension. Like somewhere in the world, slaves often have a same or similar culture as the slave owners. An old slave could spread freely into society. A generation later, their former slave status would be forgotten.

Gray was filling in the empty spots he did so in his own words, and

Europeans began to export slaves out of Africa and eventually into the Americas through Triangular trade. This put Africa on the map economically, but this economy began to disrupt their society. Different tribes began to start wars over obtaining slaves to trade for European goods. Eventually slave trade also led to a decrease in population in Africa, which caused a loss in potential for growth and as a result weakened African civilizations. Many regions were left dominated by females because of the demand for male slaves. This disrupted the previous traditional African family structure. The Europeans also took it upon themselves to impose Christianity on the Africans, who formerly practiced many different religions based on their

Throughout the colonial period and the time leading up to the American civil war, one of the most important and controversial topics facing Americans was the idea of slavery. The notion of slavery is an odd and incredibly horrifying concept, that one man can own another man, or two men, or an entire family, just because of the color of their skin. No doubt the idea was racist and repulsive, but to many Men and Women in history, across the country and across the world, slavery was just a part of everyday life: they knew no different. So when those people who were being stripped from their homeland and brought over on ships to be sold at auction to the highest white bidder, began to question the sacredness of this terrible

” For many, the economic structure of slavery still held strong and it established status in British America. Slavery had begun in the later half of the 17th century and in many ways, it had made Atlantic commerce and overseas settlement possible. Thousands of Africans had been shipped overseas to work in the fields of staple crops. In the years leading up to the American Revolution, high concentrations of slaves remained in the southern colonies where they continued to labour on cotton and tobacco plantations. Of the thirteen colonies, Georgia, Virginia and the Carolinas held the highest concentrations of slaves. In 1775, it is estimated that of the 2.5 million people living in the thirteen colonies, 500,000 were blacks. The vast majority of these blacks were slaves, with many labouring for their masters under harsh conditions. Although their experiences were difficult, blacks rarely revolted or staged rebellions against their masters. This has often been associated with the plantation system, and the role it played in severing blacks’ ties to one another. As highlighted by historian Silvia Frey, “The North American plantation organization, with the dominating presence of the master, inhibited the development of the tribal cohesiveness that characterized the islands’ plantation organization and produced widespread violence against whites by black guerrilla bands.” However, despite the absence of any significant

The reason that the number of slaves has risen was because the number of indentured slaves that had immigrated. In 1700 the population was 20,000 and by the time that 1770 came around the population was at 400,000. That’s because the population of “black” people or know as African American population grew faster. One of the big reason why population has grown was the Atlantic Slave Trade. The reason that the Atlantic Slave Trade had boosted the population it was because slave ships had ended up bring over 300,000 slaves to British America, the other 95% of the other slaves ended up going to the south. Even though the 300,00 slaves came over on the ship they did not get to work of the debt, the didn’t really even have a debt, they were pretty much kidnapped to have them work for the colonist. On these slave ships the people as in slaves were miss treated while being on the ship, they were all crammed into the ship, and put into non heathy situations. Where they would get sick or getting something like small

The Atlantic Slave Trade lasted between 1450 and 1750 and drastically impacted the lives of both European and African people. During this time, the Europeans, such as the British, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Dutch, traveled to Africa in search of labor workers. In total, over twelve million slaves were taken, mainly because they workers to make money, but it also had to do with their race, religion – as they were not Christian – and to civilize them because the Europeans did not believe that they were humans. Due to these European beliefs, the Europeans saw themselves as the most powerful group and viewed slave trade as a business. The Africans, on the other hand, had a harder time transitioning into slavery. Many of them were taken from their homes and forced to accept a new life working as a slave. These events did not come without many sacrifices from the African people. One of the major reasons the slave trade was so expansive is due to the low life expectancy of the slaves after their capture. While the Europeans believed that they were helping the African culture, as well as themselves, the African society as a whole suffered the most.

During the 1800 – 1860 period the US experienced a considerable expansion not only of states, but also of people under slavery from half a million to roughly four million. Interestingly, from 1800 to 1860 slavery shifted from northern states to mostly south ones.

for something bigger. Some people might say that Turner was crazy when he says that he could hear voices and could see visions, and these would help him to lead this great rebellion.

     Early in the morning of August 22,1831, a band of black slaves, led by a lay preacher named Nat Turner, entered the Travis house in Southampton County, Virginia and killed five members of the Travis family. This was the beginning of a slave uprising that was to become known as Nat Turner’s rebellion. Over a thirty-six hour period, this band of slaves grew sixty or seventy in number and slew fifty-eight white persons in and around Jerusalem, Virginia (seventy miles east of Richmond) before the local community could act to stop them. This rebellion raised southern fears of a general slave uprising and had a profound influence on the attitude of Southerners towards slavery.