Objective

0(3c) Critique the development

and impact of slavery in North America, including the causes, conditions, and effects on enslaved Africans in North America. (DOK 3)

Common Core State Standard

0CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.2

Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text.

Vocabulary
0Emancipation: The freeing of

slaves 0Resist: To act against 0Code: Set of laws 0Fugitive: A person who is running away from something

Vocabulary
0Underground: Something done

in secret. 0Abolitionist: People who wanted to abolish slavery 0Equality: Equal rights

Introduction
0 By 1860 there were nearly 4 million slaves in

the United States, an increase from 900,000 in 1800. 0 This growth in slavery was due chiefly to the growing importance of cotton as a cash crop in the South. 0 Cotton became such an important part of the Southern economy that it was called King Cotton.

The Slave Economy

0 In the South slavery continued because

owners had come to depend on the work of enslaved people. Slaves were made to work as miners, carpenters, factory workers, and house servants. 0 While wealthy planters owned more than half the slaves in the South, most white Southerners owned no slaves at all.

Slavery and the Law

0 Until the 1820s most people in the South

thought slavery was wrong but necessary. 0 A slave named Nat Turner led an attack that killed more than 50 people, among them his owner. 0 To prevent future uprising, Virginia joined with other slave states who had passed laws that put more controls on slaves. 0 These laws were called slave codes.

0Under the Fugitive Slave Act,

anyone caught helping a slave escape could be punished. People who found runaway slaves had to return them to the South.

The Underground Railroad

0 Over the years thousands of slaves tried to gain their

freedom by running away. Some ran away alone. Others tried to escape with their families or friends. 0 Many runaway slaves continued moving for months until they reached Canada or Mexico or free states in the North. 0 The Underground Railroad was a system of secret escape routes leading to free lands. Most routes led from the South to free states in the North or to Canada.

0 Working mostly at night, conductors, or helpers along

the Underground Railroad, led runaway slaves from one hiding place to the next along the routes. 0 Most conductors were free African Americans and white Northerners who opposed slavery. 0 Harriet Tubman, an African American who escaped slavery herself, was one of the best known conductors of the Underground Railroad.

Women Work for Change

0 In 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe worked for change by

publishing a novel that turned many people against slavery. The book, Uncle Toms Cabin told the heartbreaking story of slaves being mistreated by a cruel overseer.

Abolitionists
0People who opposed slavery

worked to abolish, or end it. 0One well-known abolitionist speaker was Frederick Douglass, a runaway slave.