Crash Course: Black American History

Today we're learning about the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which brought millions of captive Africans to the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries, with the largest number of people trafficked between 1700 and 1808.

In the 17th century, as the British colonies in the Americas were getting established in places like Jamestown, VA, the system of chattel slavery was also developing.

It is possible for the legal system to rectify injustices.

Slave codes were a method of protecting the investment of white enslavers in the Colonies by restricting the lives of enslaved people in almost every way.

In 1688, in Pennsylvania, a group of four men created the Germantown Petition, which made the case that slavery was immoral and that it was inconsistent with Christian beliefs in general, and Quaker beliefs specifically.

The Stono Rebellion was an uprising led by enslaved people in South Carolina in 1784. We'll also talk about ways that enslaved people resisted in general and methods like enforced illiteracy used by those who sought to keep people in bondage.