Week 3 — Readings & Resources · Colonial Society & the Origins of Slavery

Course: U.S. History to 1877 (HIST 1301) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Hartwell
Objectives covered: Objective 3 — colonial society and the development of racial slavery; Objective 1 (source analysis on primary sources for racial slavery).

How to use this page

Everything here is a link to an external resource — open it in your browser. Nothing to download or buy.

This week's resources are organized around the lecture's four main themes: (①) the shift from indentured servitude to racial slavery; (②) Bacon's Rebellion and the legal construction of slavery; (③) the Atlantic slave trade and Equiano; (④) the First Great Awakening. Do one item per group before class and you're ready for the quiz; do all of them for a thorough grounding.

Order that matches the lecture: ① labor systems → ② legal construction → ③ the trade and Equiano → ④ the Great Awakening.

① Colonial Labor: Indenture to Slavery

Maps to Lecture Segments 2–3. The early Chesapeake ran on indentured servants; by 1705 it ran on enslaved people held in permanent hereditary bondage. How?

Reading — "Colonial Society" (OpenStax, U.S. History, Ch. 4: "The Tensions of Empire")
🔗 https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/4-introduction
Why it's assigned: a free, readable survey of colonial labor systems, the tobacco economy, and the gradual shift from indenture to racial slavery. (Read the sections on the Chesapeake and on slavery's development.)
⏱ ~15 min

Reading — "The Origins of American Slavery" (Khan Academy, AP US History unit on colonial America)
🔗 https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history
Why it earns the click: in the colonial era / slavery unit, this short reading traces exactly how race-based hereditary slavery became the dominant labor system — covering Bacon's Rebellion, the partus law, and the Slave Codes in plain language.
⏱ ~10 min

② Bacon's Rebellion and the Legal Construction of Racial Slavery

Maps to Lecture Segment 3. The 1662 partus law, Bacon's Rebellion (1676), and the 1705 Virginia Slave Codes are the three legal pillars of this week.

Primary source — Virginia Act XII (1662), "Negro Women's Children to Serve according to the Condition of the Mother"
🔗 https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/act-xii-1662/
(Encyclopedia Virginia, Virginia Humanities — the full text of the 1662 statute with context.)
Why it's assigned: this is the actual law — the partus sequitur ventrem statute. Read it once, then source it: who enacted it, for what purpose, and what it changed.
⏱ ~8 min

Reading — "Bacon's Rebellion" (Gilder Lehrman Institute)
🔗 https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/essays/bacons-rebellion
Why it earns the click: a clear, scholarly account of the rebellion (1676), its multiracial character, and why it accelerated the shift to race-based slavery.
⏱ ~10 min

③ The Atlantic Slave Trade & Equiano

Maps to Lecture Segments 5 and the Primary Source Workshop. The human scale of the trade, and the week's primary source.

Video — "The Atlantic Slave Trade" (CrashCourse US History #24 or the World History version)
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=crashcourse+atlantic+slave+trade
Why it's assigned: a fast, clear overview of the trade's scale (an estimated 12–13 million people), the Middle Passage, and its economic role in the colonies. (Search CrashCourse and find the US History or World History episode on the Atlantic Slave Trade.)
⏱ ~12 min

Primary source — Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789), Chapter II (the Middle Passage)
🔗 https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/equiano1/equiano1.html (Documenting the American South, UNC — the authoritative full text)
🔗 https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/olaudah-equiano-describes-the-middle-passage-1789 (Gilder Lehrman — excerpted with context)
Why it's assigned: the week's primary source for the workshop. Read Chapter II (the Middle Passage) before the workshop. Two short excerpts from this chapter are in the workshop document; read around them in the full text to understand the context.
⏱ ~15–20 min

Reference — Slave Voyages Database
🔗 https://www.slavevoyages.org/
Why it earns the click: the scholarly database of documented Atlantic slave-trade voyages. Not required reading — but if you want to understand the trade's scale and routes, this is where scholars work from.
⏱ optional

④ The First Great Awakening

Maps to Lecture Segment 6. George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards — the 1730s–1740s revival. Not the Second Great Awakening (Week 10).

Video — "Colonial Religion and the Great Awakening" (Khan Academy or OpenStax)
🔗 https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history
Why it's assigned: in the colonial era unit, find the resource on colonial religion and the Great Awakening. This locks in the First Great Awakening (Whitefield, Edwards, 1730s–1740s) vs. the Second (Week 10) — a classic quiz trap.
⏱ ~10 min

Primary source — Jonathan Edwards, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (1741) — excerpt
🔗 https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/jonathan-edwards-sinners-hands-angry-god-1741 (Gilder Lehrman)
Why it earns the click: a few paragraphs from the most famous sermon of the First Great Awakening. Source it before you read: who's speaking, to whom, in what emotional register?
⏱ ~8 min

Optional one-stop references (free online)

• National Archives — DocsTeach (slavery documents). Primary sources on slavery and colonial law.
  🔗 https://www.docsteach.org/
• Encyclopedia Virginia — Virginia Slave Codes (1705): full text with scholarly context.
  🔗 https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/virginia-slave-codes/

Pick-one quick path (≈30 min total)

In a hurry? Do exactly these and you'll be ready for the quiz and workshop:
1. OpenStax Ch. 4 on colonial labor and slavery (group ①).
2. 1662 Virginia law — read it and source it (group ②).
3. Equiano Chapter II at Documenting the American South or the Gilder Lehrman excerpt (group ③) — this is required for the workshop.
4. Khan Academy Great Awakening video (group ④).

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell Prof. Hartwell and try the OpenStax, Gilder Lehrman, or Documenting the American South links as alternatives.