Slavery, Historical Questions and Answers
Slavery, Historical
In the Middle Passage, what kind of food did the slaves eat?
The Middle Passage refers to one leg of a triangular trade route between Europe, Africa, and North America from the beginning of the 16th century to the beginning of the 19th. Specifically, the...
Slavery, Historical
What role did the issue of slavery play in the Constitutional Convention?
The issue of slavey was a major cause for debate at the Constitutional Convention. The convention was held because the previous attempt to organize American government, the Articles of...
Slavery, Historical
Which southern slave states had a black majority population?
After slavery became a significant part of Colonial American culture and economy, the southern states -- which had longer growing seasons and could support themselves on summer crops like cotton --...
Slavery, Historical
How did the evolution of the institution of slavery in the British colonies in the seventeenth century occur?
By the time the first English settlers established Jamestown in what would become the Commonwealth of Virginia, slavery was already well-established as a mechanism of providing cheap labor [See the...
Slavery, Historical
What was the triangular slave trade?
The Triangular Trade system was a pattern of trade set up between Europe, Africa's 'gold coast,' and the 'West Indies' (the New World). If you draw lines connecting these three locations, the...
Slavery, Historical
What are some key points and common themes of Stanley Elkins’ Slavery (1959) and John Blassingame’s The Slave...
These two works represent an important, but now largely settled, debate in the historiography of slavery. They have almost no common themes, except that they are both interested in how slavery...
Slavery, Historical
Identify a significant way that Southern slaves resisted their owners.
In the midst of the horror intrinsic to slavery, it is natural to forget that there were significant examples of resistance to it. In the action of resistance to slavery, Nat Turner becomes a...
Slavery, Historical
How does/did slavery affect whites and the predominantly white society?
During most of human history, slavery of some sort has been an accepted part of society. Only after the Age of Exploration and the slow development of the North American British Colonies as a place...
Slavery, Historical
What were some concerns of the southern states where African-American slaves were the majority?
When slavery became a common thing among the Colonies, and then in the established United States, many landowners had slaves imported in quantities that overwhelmed the number of white citizens. It...