European traders brought the first slaves from Africa to the new colonies in the 1600s. After arriving in the New World, they were bought by white masters and had to work on large cotton and tobacco farms in the South. They didn’t get any money for their work and living conditions were very bad. The economy of the South depended on slaves.
Slave work was very difficult. Most women cooked, cleaned the house and raised the children of their white masters. Men were trained to be carpenters or masons. Most of them, however, were farm labourers. They planted and harvested crops.
Not all Blacks in America were slaves. “Free Blacks” lived and worked in big American cities, but they had very few rights. Expressing political views, carrying guns and meeting with white people was forbidden.
Americans in the northern states thought that slavery shouldn’t be allowed in a free country. As time went on, more and more people joined in the fight to end slavery. These abolitionists helped slaves escape to the North through secret routes. This system was called the Underground Railway.
In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States. He was strongly against slavery. Many southern states withdrew from the union and formed their own country – the Confederate States of America. It was the beginning of the Civil War, which lasted until 1865.
In 1863 Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery in the Emancipation Proclamation. The northern states won the Civil War and American slaves were free.
Words
- abolish = ban, forbid
- abolitionist = someone who wants to end a system or a law
- carpenter = someone who makes and repairs objects made of wood
- Civil War = war between two groups of the same country
- crops = a plant like wheat or corn that farmers grow and use as food
- cotton = a plant with soft white balls of hair on it; used to make cloth
- depend on=if you need something very badly
- economy =the financial system in a country
- elect = to vote for someone
- escape = get away from
- express = show
- forbid = not to allow
- harvest = bring in
- join in = to take part
- labourer = worker
- living conditions = the situation in which people live
- mason = someone who cuts stones into pieces to make buildings
- master = a man or woman who controls other people or servants
- plant = to put seeds into the ground so that crops can grow
- raise = bring up, educate
- right =something that you are allowed to do
- secret = something that only a few people know
- slave = someone who is owned by another person and works for them without getting any money
- slavery =the system of having slaves
- trade = to buy and sell things
- view = opinion
- withdraw = leave