1. No slave family was the same. Some
were treated more kindly, but most were
treated cruelly. These slaves tried many
things, from resistance, escaping, and
adapting, to deal with slavery.

2.  Huge amounts of  White males often
manual labor sexually abused slave
detrimental to their women.
health.  Families often
 Banned from education separated
 Viewed as property  Slaves who tried to
 Physically abused escape would be
(whipped, lashed) for punished with mutilation
minor things. or death. 50,000
attempted to escape,
few successfully did.

3.  Many slaves just had to make
the best of their horrible life.
 Most were devout Christians
and sang slave songs to
cope.
Their responsorial style of
preaching – when people
responded to the minister’s
sermon with accents and
amens – was an adaptation of
the style in the African
ringshout dance.
 Funerals and weddings were
important to bond the slave
community.

4.  Most slavery rebellions were
swiftly squashed, such as Nat
Turner’s Rebellion, where black
preacher Nat Turner led an
uprising that killed 60
Virginians.
 Most resisted by running away.
 One of the few successful
rebellions was when enslaved
Africans overthrew the Spanish
slave ship Amistad in 1839.
They tried to sail back to Africa
but ended up on Long Island
and were imprisoned. John
Quincy Adams fought for their
release, and they were
released back to Africa.

5.  Slaves who tried to
escape were assisted by
Northern abolitionists in a
system called the
Underground Railroad.
 Because of the fugitive
slave laws, Northerners
who hid slaves were in
risk of imprisonment.
 One escaped slave,
Harriet Tubman, helped
This document is a Southern over 400 slaves escape to
advertisement for an escaped the North.
slave. The poster promises a
$150 reward for his return.