English Audio Request

There were still around half a million enslaved Africans in the colonies when the Declaration of Independence was issued in 1776, stating that "All men are created equal."
Almost one in every six people was enslaved.

More than 10 million African slaves were brought to the Americas by force from Africa. About half a million of these enslaved Africans were sold in what is now the United States.

Slaves were packed into dirty, overcrowded ships and carried like cargo across the Atlantic Ocean. They were chained together and given little food and water. This dreadful journey took about four months. Many slaves died of disease and starvation. The African “slave trade” was banned in 1808 but slavery continued in the United States.

Slaves were sold at slave markets in the American colonies. Slave traders were looking for the healthiest, strongest slaves. Many families were broken apart. Husbands and wives were separated. Children were taken from their mothers.

Slaves had no rights. They were their master’s property. They could not own property, travel without a pass, or even legally marry. It was also against the law for slaves to learn to read or write, although some did secretly.

Some slaves worked in cities, others on small farms on large plantations. The largest crop in the South was cotton. Plantation owners made their fortune growing crops like tobacco, rice, and sugar.

Slaves did backbreaking work in fields, some worked in kitchens and homes, as maids, cooks and weavers, others as craftsmen and carpenters or blacksmiths.

Slaves on plantations usually lived together in small cabins. They were often given little to eat and forced to work from dawn to dusk, even when they were sick.

Slaves were chained so they wouldn't run away or whipped for breaking a rule. Sometimes the worst punishment was to be sold to another plantation far from their families. Being sold was a constant fear among slaves since it could happen when their owners died or needed more money.

By 1860, almost four million enslaved African lived in the South. Only 25 percent of white Southerners owned slaves, but most supported slavery because it was so important to their economy. Slavery was abolished in the North in 1770 but continued until the end of the American Civil War.

The Civil War was fought between the North (the Union) and the South (the Confederacy) over slavery. The Civil War lasted four years and resulted in massive losses on both sides.

Nearly 180,000 free blacks and runaway slaves fought on the side of the North, or the Union.

The Emancipation Proclamation, signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, declared the freedom of all slaves in the Confederacy.
Slavery had been abolished in the United States by December 1865.