CA 223CA 223
Five Fact cards produced in 1993 by Atlas Editions about US slavery. They cover the issues of the African slave trade, the economics of slavery, slave life, slave uprisings and the biblical defense of slavery. With slavery within Africa adult males were generally killed. This changed with the advent of slavery in the New World. The slaves picked up along 300 points along the African coast between Senegal an Mozambique were from different nationalities, languages and customs. Slave traders and their customers perceived certain ethnic traits and origins as more valuable. For instance, slaves from Gambia and the Gold Coast were always in demand, Coromantes and Whydahs were especially desirable as field hands, whereas Ibos, Congos and Angolas, allegedly weaker, were said to be more effective as house servants. In 1781 a slave ship captain threw 132 of his African captives overboard. His ship was short on water, and his insurance did not cover starvation, CA 223CA 223but it did cover death by drowning. Virginia, with a large number of unneeded slaves because of the exhaustion of the soil was a major supplier of slaves to the states south, to the point that it became known as the “breeder state” for the Deep South. Between 1790 and 1860 about 1 million slaves – more than twice as many as were imported from Africa – departed Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas for new homes. Slave children were sometimes sold by weight or height, at an agree-upon rate per pound or inch. The most common punishment for slaves was whipping; however many endured branding, nose slitting, amputation of toes, fingers or ears, and castration. Virginia law decreed that no more than 39 lashes could be administered at one time, so over days several hundred lashes might be inflicted on a single slave. Some owners, too squeamish to discipline their slaves, would turn their job over to professional slave whippers. These people were generally shunned by society and lived alone. The lacerated backs of punished slaves were usually treated with “Negro plaster”, a concoction of grease, salt, mustard, pepper, and vinegar that was rubbed into the wounds and was reported to heal without leaving scars. Many slaves reported that the concoction was more painful than the whipping. It is interesting to note that for much of the 17th century, the blacks that trickled into the colonies were treated as indentured servants and in 1668 at least 29% of American blacks were free and 13% were landowners. CA 223Initially it was the indentured servitude of white Europeans that provided the vast majority of the labor force required to tame the eastern wilderness, but the flow of indentured servants decreased with better political and economic conditions in England. Even though slaves cost more than indentured servants and were harder to train, slavery was economical (the price of a slave was equal to the cost of a white indentured servant for 7 years) – no only did the master receive a lifetime of servitude, but the resource was renewable through the inherited slave status of the children of female slave. That colonial America, even in the South, had a high proportion of non-slaveholding whites was significant in two ways. First, slave owners may have dominated Southern politics, but they owed their position to, and were thereby controlled by, non-slaveholders. Further, the large number of non-slaveholders jealously guarded their various skilled jobs from slave competition, relegating slaves to hard labor and helping to harden racial lines. Much more detail. B
Price: $150.00
CA 226
CA 226
CA 226
CA 226“The principle is not that a human cannot justly own another, but that he cannot own him unless he is loyal to the United States.”. While the majority of slaves hailed the Emancipation Proclamation, not all hailed liberation as a blessing. Many remained faithful to their masters and mistresses without a thought of facing the world without the security they had found in slavery. There are several specific instances quoted. Much detail on reverse. B 
