Homework Help

[Zafarium]

De-lurking for a moment here, I'm doing a project in school, specifically a timeline of slavery, and I was just wondering of the likes of Doc could help me. I'm just looking for a couple of important dates on the topic of slavery, and maybe some interesting ones that might catch someones attention.

*Slips on ninja shirt*

:shuriken:

[Doc]

Hrm.

The history of slavery in America actually begins back in 1525-26 or there abouts. The first slaves in America were not black, but white. My memory is a tad bit hazy, but I believe the first black slaves happened around 1560ish mark. It was the first real permanant settlement in America, the rest had been failures or had died to attacks or diseases. Saint Augustine in Florida I think was the first.

By 1630 or 40ish, slavery was a means of criminal punishment. John Punch, a paid black servant, was ordered to serve his master until the time of his (John Punch's) death. His crime was running away to escape brutal working conditions. Two whites also ran away, and they got 30 lashes each.

1662 a milestone law was passed. Children would be determined who was slave or freeborn by the status of the mother. If the mother was a slave, the children were chattel. This meant that the master of the house could do with as he pleased with them, including tying them in a sack and throwing them in to the river if it so pleased him. They were not considered human beings in the courts, but property. Because of this law, women slaves were frequently raped. Over and over again by the master of the house and his hired hands, as resulting pregnancies provided more free labour. By 1700ish, I think 1705 slavery laws became so well defined and organised and the real horrors had begun. It was not just blacks, but white, Eastern Indians, Native Americans, Chinese, pretty much anybody of any race was subject to the Brits dropping them off in the American colonies as cheap labour. There was no hope for these people. Crimes as simple as the accusation of sloth were enough to warrant a sentance of a lifetime of servatude. Petty criminals were rounded up, branded, and sold in slave markets. The slave codes were in full effect by now. Plantations depended on slave labour.

Rhode Island outlawed slavery, but I forget when. It was just a few years before the American Revolution, and the courts of Rhode Island found slavery to be "A most unchristian act, an abomination in the eyes of God" and with that, was outlawed.

And with that, my brain goes fuzzy and blank. This stuff comes and goes for me. Gimme a few days and I might remember a different time period. Maybe.

I do know that congress eventually banned the importation of new slaves, but allowed overland slave trading. Since it was a master's right to rape female slaves, or have them bred much in the same way one does a cow, thriving businesses were made of specialty bred slaves for the overland trade. Lighter skin slaves "specially bred for manners and servitude" were sold for indoor use, and through selective breeding larger stronger physically capable slaves were bred for the out of doors. Slaves gained something like a pedigree. A registry of bloodlines were created for certain slaves, like those that seemed to have a knack for certain things like blacksmithing or equestrian care.

The Confederacy kept a staggering number of white slaves in its ranks.

[Jester]

De-lurking for a moment here, I'm doing a project in school, specifically a timeline of slavery, and I was just wondering of the likes of Doc could help me.  I'm just looking for a couple of important dates on the topic of slavery, and maybe some interesting ones that might catch someones attention.

*Slips on ninja shirt*

:shuriken:
[right][snapback]107689[/snapback][/right]

Does this pertain only to slavery in the USA? The Americas generally? The world?

-Jester

[Crusader]

wikipedia is your friend!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sl...e_United_States

other topics also available.

[Occhidiangela]

De-lurking for a moment here, I'm doing a project in school, specifically a timeline of slavery, and I was just wondering of the likes of Doc could help me.  I'm just looking for a couple of important dates on the topic of slavery, and maybe some interesting ones that might catch someones attention.

*Slips on ninja shirt*

:shuriken:
[right][snapback]107689[/snapback][/right]

I recommend you start in the Old Testament, and the guidelines in Mosaic law on how slaves should be treated.

Move to Roman and Caliphate slavery norms, then, if you want to impress your teacher, cover how the Asians and South Asians (Chinese and Indians) treated the institution of slavery.

Back to the Levant, the East African Slave trade, then over to the White Slavery in the Ottoman Empire, and a smooth transition to the importation of African slaves into the Americas by the Spanish and Portuguese when the Aboriginals proved to hold up badly under slavery. Segue into the English and Dutch slavery network in the New World, the institution in America, and the British led effort to shut down the African slave trade (using the Royal Navy as a primary tool) that began in the early 1800's. That will tie in nicely to the compromise (3/5ths in the US Constitution) that allowed slavery to be legal as of 1789, and gets you to a root economic and social cause of the US Civil War, aided and abetted by the industrial revolution. Follow up with the formal end of Slavery in America (though not globally) in the late 19th century.

If you really want to wow your teacher, point out that under current American law, a person can be a ward of the state, essentially property of the state, but can not be property of any another person, until said other person marries him and then, of course, owns him. :lol: Or was that PWNS him? :shuriken:

Occhi

[Tal]

De-lurking for a moment here, I'm doing a project in school, specifically a timeline of slavery, and I was just wondering of the likes of Doc could help me.  I'm just looking for a couple of important dates on the topic of slavery, and maybe some interesting ones that might catch someones attention.

*Slips on ninja shirt*

:shuriken:
[right][snapback]107689[/snapback][/right]

Please tell me that you're planning on doing some research on your own. Entrusting your grade to internet research is like paying the bum on the corner in cash upfront to paint your house. Get thee to a library.

[Occhidiangela]

Please tell me that you're planning on doing some research on your own. Entrusting your grade to internet research is like paying the bum on the corner in cash upfront to paint your house. Get thee to a library.
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Bows before the almighty librarian!

Do you remember the Twilight Zone episode where Burgess Meredith played a librarian, as the protagnoist? Is that required viewing for all prospective librarians?

Occhi

[Rinnhart]

Bows before the almighty librarian!

Do you remember the Twilight Zone episode where Burgess Meredith played a librarian, as the protagnoist?  Is that required viewing for all prospective librarians?

Occhi
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Time Enough, at Last? If it's not, it should be.

But I don't think he was a librarian.

[Occhidiangela]

Time Enough, at Last? If it's not, it should be.

But I don't think he was a librarian.
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The episode was "The Obsolete Man." Thanks be to Google.

"I don't fit your formulae," Wordsworth tells him with a smile. He says the State has everything indexed and tagged, but he doesn't fit. The Chancellor disagrees, and believes that Wordsworth does fit. He has an instinct for survival, and as soon as his death nears, and he feels life slipping away, he will 'fit.' The Chancellor challenges, "We'll see which is stronger, the librarian, or the State."

[Tal]

Bows before the almighty librarian!

Do you remember the Twilight Zone episode where Burgess Meredith played a librarian, as the protagnoist?  Is that required viewing for all prospective librarians?

Occhi
[right][snapback]107725[/snapback][/right]

I do recall the episode but it hasn't, despite my efforts, made it into the required category yet ;)

[Rinnhart]

Blah, Meredith played Henry Bemis as well, guess they just stuck him with all the book-related leads.

[Zafarium]

Oh yes I'm doing research on my own. Just looking for some more INTERESTING tidbits. I liked how Doc brought up the fact that slavery wasn't just confined to black people, but to whites as well. And I am generally focusing on slavery in the USA, although it wouldn't hurt to look at slavery overall in the world. Thank you for bringing that to my attention.

[Zafarium]

*snip*

If you really want  to wow your teacher, point out that under current American law, a person can be a ward of the state, essentially property of the state, but can not be property of any another person, until said other person marries him and then, of course, owns him.  :lol:  Or was that PWNS him?  :shuriken:

*snip*

[right][snapback]107721[/snapback][/right]

Definitatly(sp?) going to be mentioning this one. Thanks a ton Occhi! :P

[GenericKen]

wikipedia is your friend!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sl...e_United_States

other topics also available.
[right][snapback]107707[/snapback][/right]

Always remember: Wikipedia is not a source. Neither are most things on the internet. Find the books that stuff on the net references.

[Jester]

Always remember: Wikipedia is not a source. Neither are most things on the internet. Find the books that stuff on the net references.
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A.M.E.N.

-Jester

[kandrathe]

Definitatly(sp?) going to be mentioning this one.  Thanks a ton Occhi!  :P
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Also, I would add that illegal slavery is still a problem all over the world.

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/slavery1.html

http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/USA.htm