Historical Background

     From early colonial days to the formation of the U.S. Constitution, slavery and all it entailed affected the lives of all Americans.

      The first blacks in the American Colonies were brought in as indentured servants. Most indentured servants had a contract to work without wages for a master for four to seven years, after which they became free. Blacks brought in as slaves, however, had no right to eventual freedom. The first black African slaves in the American Colonies also arrived during the early 1600's. The slave population increased rapidly during the 1700's as newly established colonies in the South created a great demand for plantation workers. By 1750, about 200,000 slaves lived in the colonies. The majority lived in the South, where the warm climate and fertile soil encouraged the development of plantations that grew rice, tobacco, sugar cane, and later cotton. Most plantation slaves worked in the field. The others were craft workers, messengers, and servants. (World Book Encyclopedia, 1996)

     Through the course of time, the question of the morality and the importance of slavery as an economic institution created moral and political questions and problems for the citizens of both the North and the South. The African slave became an integral part of the livelihood of both the North and the South. Because slavery was accepted, it gradually influenced everything we did as a nation. The numbers of slaves in the North, while not as great as those in the South, were no less notable for the struggles and sorrows that were to follow the African slave.

    As a seventh grade class, we are going to investigate the role slavery played in creating a division in the United States so great that it became one of the major contributing forces to the American Civil War of 1860. As students you will research and understand the role slavery played in causing divisions within the United States.

    Through the process of a WebQuest, you will explore the meaning and the morality of the slavery question as viewed in American history up to 1860. A WebQuest is a guided research activity that you can access via the web. You will become an active learner in this process, using resources selected by your teachers and librarian. You will also begin to look at and understand the economic benefits of slavery to the Southern plantation owner. You will also understand that slavery by its very term denies the individual the social and human justice that he is entitled to because he is a person.

    “There are two ways in which a man can be enslaved. One is through force. He can be penned behind fences, guarded constantly, punished severely for breaking the slightest rule, and me to live in constant fear. The second is to teach him to think that his own best interests will be served by doing what his master wishes him to do. He can be taught that he is inferior and that only through slavery will he eventually rise to the ‘level’ of his master.” (Julius Lester, To Be A Slave)