Slavery in America

🏚️ Slavery in America (c. 1619–1865)

Part 1 of 7 — Foundations & Key Concepts

Why this unit matters

Slavery in British North America hardened from a fluid 17th-century labor system into race-based, hereditary chattel slavery. By 1860, ~4 million enslaved African Americans produced two-thirds of the world's cotton supply, financing southern wealth and northern industry.

Core concepts

🔑 Key Concept: AP African American History rewards arguments that combine specific evidence (named figures, dates, primary sources) with claims about causation, continuity, and change.

📖 Key Figures of Slavery in America

⚠️ AP Alert: Strong responses cite specific figures by name and date — e.g., 'Anthony Johnson (c. 1600–1670)' rather than 'a famous leader.'

Concept Check 🎯

Historical Context

Primary sources to know

• Douglass, Narrative (1845) — Argues that literacy is the road to freedom — a reframing of master-slave power.
• Jacobs, Incidents (1861) — Reveals gendered violence largely absent from earlier male-authored narratives.
• Slave Codes of Virginia (1705) — Codifies racial hierarchy in colonial law.

Applied Recall ✍️

Use the exact historical term:

1. Plantation work organized in supervised groups, common on cotton estates

2. Each enslaved person assigned a daily task; common in Lowcountry rice plantations

3. Colony/state laws defining the legal status and restrictions of enslaved people

Match the Concepts 🔍

AP-Style Application 🎯

🏚️ Slavery in America

Part 2 of 7 — Key Processes & Mechanisms

What drove Slavery in America?

This part focuses on the mechanisms — the systematic processes that produced the patterns historians describe.

Mechanisms in action

Causal chains

AP responses on Slavery in America should make causation explicit. A strong sentence might be:

Because chattel slavery intensified, communities responded by domestic slave trade, which in turn produced partus sequitur ventrem.

Concept Check 🎯

Applied Recall ✍️

1. Which figure (c. 1600–1670) is associated with Slavery in America?

2. Which figure (1765–1825) shaped this mechanism?

3. Which figure (1808–c. 1864) extended it?

Trace the Mechanism 🔍

AP-Style Application 🎯

🏚️ Slavery in America

Part 3 of 7 — Patterns, Regions & Case Studies

Specific cases — not abstractions

Comparing cases

AP comparison prompts ask you to identify a specific similarity AND difference between cases. For Slavery in America, useful comparisons include:

• 1641 Massachusetts legalizes slavery vs. 1662 Virginia partus law
• 1662 Virginia partus law vs. 1705 Virginia Slave Codes
• 1705 Virginia Slave Codes vs. 1820 Missouri Compromise

Strong comparison sentence

Both 1641 Massachusetts legalizes slavery and 1662 Virginia partus law involved chattel slavery, but they differed in the specific actors and consequences involved.

Concept Check 🎯

Applied Recall ✍️

1. Name the event: First English colony to do so.…

2. Name the event: Slavery becomes hereditary through the mother.…

3. Name the event: Comprehensive race-based legal regime; later models for other colonies.…

Match Cases to Patterns 🔍

AP-Style Application 🎯

🏚️ Slavery in America

Part 4 of 7 — Connections Across the Diaspora

How Slavery in America connects to other units

Slavery in America does not stand alone. Strong AP responses connect it to Resistance & Abolition, because this oppressive system generated continuous resistance.

Connection table

Specific cross-unit connections

Each event above interacts with Resistance & Abolition — either as cause, consequence, or parallel.

Concept Check 🎯

Applied Recall ✍️

1. Which figure connects Slavery in America most directly to Resistance & Abolition?

2. What is the analytical term for outcomes reinforcing their own causes?

3. What is the AP term for combining evidence from multiple units?

Map the Connections 🔍

AP-Style Application 🎯

🏚️ Slavery in America

Part 5 of 7 — Continuity & Change Over Time

Tracing Slavery in America through c. 1619–1865

AP CCOT (Continuity and Change Over Time) prompts ask: what changed, what stayed the same, and what drove the change?

Specific moments of change

Strong CCOT sentence

Although chattel slavery continued throughout c. 1619–1865, the events of 1820 Missouri Compromise marked a decisive shift in how Black communities engaged with it.

Concept Check 🎯

Applied Recall ✍️

1. An aspect of Slavery in America that persisted: ___

2. An event that marked decisive change: ___

3. The AP analytical category for tracking these together: ___

Continuity vs Change 🔍

AP-Style Application 🎯

🏚️ Slavery in America

Part 6 of 7 — Source & Evidence Workshop

Working with primary sources for Slavery in America

AP DBQ-style work expects students to identify a source's purpose, audience, point of view, and historical situation — and to use that analysis to support a claim.

Primary sources for this unit

• Douglass, Narrative (1845) — Argues that literacy is the road to freedom — a reframing of master-slave power.
• Jacobs, Incidents (1861) — Reveals gendered violence largely absent from earlier male-authored narratives.
• Slave Codes of Virginia (1705) — Codifies racial hierarchy in colonial law.

Source-analysis workshop

For each source, ask:

1. Who is the author? What is their position relative to events?
2. When was it produced? Before, during, or after the events described?
3. For whom was it written? Audience shapes argument.
4. What does it claim? What does it leave out?

Worked example

Douglass, Narrative (1845) — Argues that literacy is the road to freedom — a reframing of master-slave power. A strong AP citation reads: 'According to Douglass, Narrative (1845), …' followed by an inference about authorial purpose.

Concept Check 🎯

Applied Recall ✍️

1. Name the source: Argues that literacy is the road to freedom — a reframing of…

2. Name the source: Reveals gendered violence largely absent from earlier male-a…

3. Name the source: Codifies racial hierarchy in colonial law.…

Match Sources to Their Function 🔍

AP-Style Application 🎯

🏚️ Slavery in America

Part 7 of 7 — AP Exam Strategy & Review

What the AP exam expects on Slavery in America

Multiple choice

• Stimulus-based questions citing a primary source — apply contextualization.
• Comparison and CCOT prompts — recall specific dated events.
• Synthesis prompts — connect to Resistance & Abolition.

Short Answer & Essay

• Name two specific figures, two specific events, and one primary source.
• State a clear, defensible thesis and tie evidence to claim.
• Acknowledge regional, gender, or class differences when relevant.

Master review for Slavery in America

Concepts to define on demand

Figures to deploy

Events to cite

Sources to attribute

• Douglass, Narrative (1845) — Argues that literacy is the road to freedom — a reframing of master-slave power.
• Jacobs, Incidents (1861) — Reveals gendered violence largely absent from earlier male-authored narratives.
• Slave Codes of Virginia (1705) — Codifies racial hierarchy in colonial law.

Concept Check 🎯

Applied Recall ✍️

Name one figure, one event, and one primary source you would deploy in an essay on this unit:

1. Figure: ___

2. Event: ___

3. Source: ___

Match the AP Skill to the Move 🔍

AP-Style Application 🎯