Overview of Slavery in America

Slave cabin at Boon Hall Plantation in Charleston, SC. Image courtesy of flickr user mosesxan.

• Slavery Timeline
  See key events in the history of slavery in America.
• A Year in the Life
  Read the entries from a plantation account book to learn more about the life on a plantation.
• Slavery and the Making of America
  Find out how the slaves labored to create America. Hear voices of slavery, explore slave life, and read personal narratives of former slaves.
• Sarah Grimke
  Sarah Grimke and her sister Angelina became ardent supporters of the Abolitionist movement.

Slavery in South Carolina

• Slaves in South Carolina: 1525-1865
  Read more about the selling of slaves, the life of a slave, and black revolts in South Carolina.
• African Passages
  See images, maps, and artifacts and hear music of the slave life in Charleston and along the Ashley River.
• Slavery in Charleston
  Find out how slaves, from domestic servants to skilled tradesmen, lived in Charleston.
• The African American Experience
  Learn about slave life and see the inside of a slave cabin on the Latta Plantation in North Carolina.
• Priscilla’s Homecoming
  Read about an African-American woman from Charleston who can trace her ancestry to Priscilla, a 10 year old girl brought to South Carolina from Sierra Leone in 1756.

Slavery in the Colonies

• Contract of Indenture
  This contract specified a three year period of indenture for labor in exchange for transportation and a sum of money.
• Slave Bill Of Sale For One Boy Named Limrick, 1742
  This document shows a sale of a slave boy to John Nealson in Charleston.
• The Stono Rebellion
  The Stono Rebellion was the largest slave uprising in the British Colonies until the American Revolution.

Gullah Culture

• What is Gullah?
  Learn about the rich Gullah culture that continues in Charleston and the Lowcountry.
  • Geechee and Gullah Culture
  • Gullah Heritage
• The Gullah Creole Language
  The Gullah language has influences in African dialects, West Indian languages, and English.
• Family Across the Sea
  Watch this movie on the connections between the Gullah people of South Carolina and the people of Sierra Leone in Africa.

Culture

• Slave Subsistence
  What did slaves eat on the slave cargo ships and when they arrived in America?
• Slave Work Songs
  Slave work gangs sang call-and-response songs to regulate their movements, talk about their feelings, and make comments about their masters and overseers.
  • Music in Slave Life
• Slave Quarters
  Click and drag on the image to explore a slave dwelling at the McLeod Plantation on James Island.

Images & Artifacts

Advertisements for slaves, Charleston Mercury, 1864.

• Slaves, J.J. Smith’s Plantation, South Carolina
  This photograph of a large group of slaves in Beaufort shows the dress and living quarters of the slaves.
• Slave Artifacts
  Take a look at several artifacts made and worn by slaves, including shackles, servant tags, and a slave-made chair.
• Images of Slave Life
  Explore images of slave life along the African coast, America, and the Caribbean islands.
• Church on John’s Island
  This 1797 watercolor shows an independent black congregation on John’s Island near Charleston.
• Stop the Runaways, 1819 Aug. 3
  See a newspaper ad from 1819 offering a reward for two runaway slaves from a plantation on Little Lynches Creek.
• Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives
  Read the first-person accounts of slavery from former slaves in South Carolina.

Explore with DISCUS*

* Requires access to the DISCUS databases. Learn more here.

• Slavery and Serfdom
  Read about slavery in America and around the world.
• Slavery and the Slave Trade
  Find out how African nations were affected by the slave trade.
• Colonial America: African-American Slavery
  Slaves existed in every colony at the time of the American Revolution.