History of Slavery

       In 1619, twenty Africans came to Jamestown, Virginia. The Africans who came to Jamestown were the beginning of slavery in the soon to be United States. The trip across the Atlantic took about 3 months to cross the the ocean. The thousands of slaves that came to America were all chained together at the bottom of a ship lying in urine, vomit and blood.
     The slaves were sold by the Dutch traders to Virginia colonists to do the work of planting and harvesting tobacco.

     By the 1700's, some free black men could own their own property, but free Africans could not vote. The number of slaves in the 13 colonies still continued to grow and by 1776 there were about 50,000 slaves, living mostly in the South. The slaves worked on rice and tobacco plantations - jobs were also held at the seacoast, building ships, and making ropes and barrels.

    Living the life of a slave was not a happy thing. The journey on the ship to America was very unpleasant. The slaves were treated very poorly. Punishment was harsh and people tryed to escape. This lead to The Underground Railroad because people wanted out of slavery and the only way out was to be purchased, put to death, or to escape.

This picture shows how slaves were arranged on ships on the way
to America. The slaves were lying in blood, vomit and urine.