SlaveryRevolutionaryEra

Slavery at the Time of the Revolution

Around 1750, the colonies had a population of approximately 1.5 million. Each year, about 3,500 black captives arrived from Africa or the Caribbean. Nearly 1 in 5 Americans, about 300,000 people, were enslaved. The majority of the white colonists lived in the North, but most blacks lived in the South, driving the agricultural economies there. Over the next few decades, colonists began to talk of breaking free from English rule. This led to the American Revolution and a new philosophy of freedom and equality. This ideology affected African Americans as well; many became caught up in a “parallel struggle for their own freedom”.