2.6

• The British colonies in North America participated in and benefited from the African slave trade
• The increased demand for colonial agricultural goods combined with the shortage of indentured servants led to an explosion of demand for enslaved laborers from Africa
• Distribution of enslaved Africans in the British colonies

  • Fewer in New England
  • More in the Middle colonies
  • Significant numbers in major port cities
  • Far more in the Chesapeake and Southern colonies
  • Greatest portion in the British West Indies
• Chattel slavery


  Race-based slavery where enslaved people were considered property on the level of a farm tool or domesticated animal
• The British West Indies influenced the establishment of harsh slave laws in Virginia and other southern colonies
• Examples of harsh slave laws in Virginia

  • Legally defined African laborers as chattel
  • Slavery made a perpetual institution passed down generations
  • Plantation owners granted legal right to kill enslaved laborers for defiance
  • Illegal for any black person to possess weapons or leave plantation without permission
• These slave laws established a firm line of demarcation between the white and black races, making interracial relationships illegal
• Slave resistance


  • Covert resistance like practicing cultural customs, maintaining beliefs/languages, and sabotaging work
  • Overt rebellion like the Stono Rebellion in South Carolina where enslaved men stole weapons, killed owners, and burned plantations
• Slave rebellions directly challenged the narrative of plantation owners as benevolent caretakers