The_slave_days

 By: Ebony Ormeno

It was 1612, //John Rolfe// successfully planted the first tobacco plant in //Jamestown, Virginia// when the demand for //[|slaves]// reached an all time high.

 **~The Beginning~**

John Rolfe needed people to help him keep up with his crops. The only people that were available were the //Native Americans// but 70 percent of them were wiped out by //[|small pox]// so John Rolfe had no choice but to have the African Americans that were brought in from the //[|triangle trade]// to help him.

media type="file" key="30 Second slideshow - Large.m4v" width="300" height="300"

 **Why African Americans?**

 The white men and women thought that they were more powerful and better than african americans because they were traded from Africa. Africa wasn’t developed and the New World was getting better.

 When John Rolfe’s plantation got bigger and needed more people, other people got the idea to start planting crops. Over time people needed help to maintain their plantation so they turned to the black people and had them help. People sold and traded slaves for money or other things.



Most slave owners treated slaves badly and made them work long hours on the field. The slaves did not like them being treated as if they meant nothing to the world and that they were useless but the truth is that if there were no slaves then the plantations would dry out and all the crops would not grow.

Slaves would try to runaway or kill themselves but the slave owners would stop them and make them work twice as hard.

 **The Ending of Slavery**

Slavery ended with the //[|Emancipation Proclamation]// on January 1, 1863. From then to the end of the war, as soon as Union forces were able to take charge of an area, its slaves were freed. The proclamation also opened the way for later gains. Along with the practice of allowing blacks to fight (and gain much respect doing so) and Lincoln's other political efforts, it helped convince border states to end slavery (as Lincoln had long urged them to do voluntarily), and finally to passage of the [|13th amendment]. Slavery officially ended when the //13th amendment// to the Constitution was ratified by the states on December 8, 1865.



[| Click here to watch Abraham Lincoln sign the Emancipation Proclamation]

media type="file" key="lincoln_cell_05.mp3" width="240" height="20" Listen here to hear the Emancipation Proclamation