Fiche de révision : Slavery and the Underground Railroad

📋 Plan du Cours

1. L’Equal Justice Initiative
2. Origines et économie de l’esclavage
3. Fonctionnement du commerce triangulaire
4. La traversée du Middle Passage
5. Vie des personnes réduites en esclavage
6. Harriet Tubman et le réseau clandestin

📖 1. L’Equal Justice Initiative

🔑 Notions clés & Définitions

• Equal Justice Initiative : The Equal Justice Initiative is a non-profit organization based in Montgomery, Alabama, that provides legal representation to prisoners who may have been wrongly convicted, poor prisoners without effective representation, and others who may have been denied a fair trial.

★ À maîtriser

• The Equal Justice Initiative guarantees the defense of anyone in a death penalty case.

Compléments

• Alabama is the only state that does not provide state-funded legal assistance to death row prisoners, so the Equal Justice Initiative has committed to representing them.

📖 2. Origines et économie de l’esclavage

★ À maîtriser

• White Europeans settled in North America and sought to exploit the natural resources of their new land.

• After Indigenous people died, Europeans needed a labor force to exploit natural resources without paying for the work.

• Europeans forcibly brought Africans to the United States to provide an unpaid labor force.

• The United States economy flourished through shipbuilding, commerce, manufacturing, and banking, but the course attributes this prosperity to the enslavement of Black people.

Compléments

• In 1619, enslaved Africans were brought to America, according to the course timeline.

💡 Astuce mémo

La mort des populations autochtones → le besoin d’une main-d’œuvre africaine non rémunérée.

📖 3. Fonctionnement du commerce triangulaire

🔑 Notions clés & Définitions

• Triangular trade : The triangular trade was a trading system that exchanged manufactured goods, enslaved people, and raw materials between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

📝 Points essentiels

• The triangular trade carried manufactured goods from Europe to Africa, enslaved Africans from Africa to the Americas, and raw materials from the Americas to Europe.

📌 Enslaved people were regarded by merchants as valuable resources and transported like other goods, rather than being treated as human beings.

💡 Astuce mémo

Europe → Afrique → Amériques → Europe : biens manufacturés, personnes réduites en esclavage, matières premières.

📖 4. La traversée du Middle Passage

🔑 Notions clés & Définitions

• Middle Passage : The Middle Passage was the middle leg of the journey across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to America and the colonies.

★ À maîtriser

• Crews of merchants’ ships removed 12.5 million Africans from Africa, and 2 million of them died before reaching their destination.

• The Middle Passage lasted from 30 to 90 days.

• Enslaved people travelled in horrible conditions, packed into overcrowded ships and low-roofed spaces where they could barely move, chained or shackled, and exposed to disease, malnutrition, and abuse.

Compléments

• Enslaved people resisted in several ways :
  • Trying to take over the boat
  • Committing suicide by jumping overboard
  • Organizing mutinies
  • Refusing to eat

📖 5. Vie des personnes réduites en esclavage

★ À maîtriser

• Enslaved people were their owners’ property and could be sold at any time, which could tear families apart.

• Enslaved people worked from sunrise until sunset and received a 15-minute break per day.

• Enslaved people could not receive an education, marry, vote, own property, or testify in court, and they were not regarded as citizens.

📌 The planters and their families enjoyed comfort, ease, and luxury, while enslaved people endured hardship, suffering, and poverty.

Compléments

📌 House slaves cared for the owner’s house and family, whereas field slaves worked in the fields.

• Enslaved people lived in small cabins shared by 10 or 12 people, slept on straw piled on a blanket on a dirty floor, received meagre pork rations, and were given a new set of winter and summer clothes each year.

💡 Astuce mémo

Le confort des planteurs s’oppose aux privations des personnes esclavisées.

📖 6. Harriet Tubman et le réseau clandestin

🔑 Notions clés & Définitions

• Harriet Tubman : Harriet Tubman, nicknamed Moses after the biblical figure who led the Israelites out of Egypt, helped hundreds of enslaved people escape to the free North through the Underground Railroad.
• Underground Railroad : The Underground Railroad was a secret network organized by people who helped men, women, and children escape slavery, providing hiding places, food, and often transportation to help fugitives reach northern states or Canada.

📝 Points essentiels

• Harriet Tubman was born enslaved in 1822 and was abused by masters for years.

• When Harriet Tubman was 12, an overseer threw a metal weight at her head, causing dizziness and headaches that lasted throughout her life.

• In 1849, Harriet Tubman escaped to Philadelphia.

💡 Astuce mémo

Harriet Tubman guide des fugitifs vers le Nord par un réseau secret de refuges.