Section #3 - Turning Point Events
1607-1775 Colonial
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Colonial Era – 1569 – 1775 | |
| 1549 | Brazil becomes the focal point for the International Slave Trade. The first Portuguese Governor of Brazil, Tome de Sousa, arrives in 1549 along with enslaved Blacks sent by the King Sebastian. This sets off the international slave which from 1650 forward finds some 10-15 million kidnapped Africans shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to work mainly on the sugar cane plantations in Brazil and the West Indies. Causal Theme: Slavery Expansion Learn More: Read Chapter 2 in Prelude |
| 1619 | Chattel Slavery comes to America. In August 1619 the private British ship White Lion drops anchor on the James River near Hampton, Virginia. In exchange for “victuals,” the ship commander, John Jope, hands over “20 and odd” Africans seized earlier in a raid on a Spanish slave ship. They become the property of Sir George Yeardley, the sitting Governor of Virginia, and are held then at Jamestown. Causal Theme: Slavery Expansion Learn More: Read Chapter 2 in Prelude |
| 1650 | Slavery expands to all thirteen American colonies. Commercial profits from the Triangular Trade System linking the colonies to England and Africa supports the spread of slavery. Tiny Rhode Island plays a major role because of its distilleries, which convert molasses from the sugar cane plantations into rum which is then transported to Europe and white settlers in Africa. Causal Theme: Slavery Expansion, Sectional Economics Learn More: Read Chapter 2 in Prelude |
| 1688 | Germantown Quakers protest against slavery. Francis Pastorius and three fellow Quakers in Pennsylvania issue the first official protest against slavery, It reads: “Pray, what thing in the world can be done worse towards us, than if men should rob or steal us away, and sell us for slaves to strange countries; separating housbands (sic) from their wives and children.” Causal Theme: Abolition Learn More: Read Chapter 4 in Prelude |