4. Slavery, Freedom, and the Struggle for Empire, to 1763

week 4 - learning objectives

1. Explain how African slavery differed regionally in eighteenth-century North America.

2. Identify the factors that led to distinct African-American cultures in the eighteenth century.

3. Identify the various meanings of British liberty in the eighteenth century.

4. Identify the concepts and institutions that dominated colonial politics in the eighteenth century.

5. Explain how the Great Awakening challenged the religious and social structure of British North America.

6. Explain how the Spanish and French empires in America developed in the eighteenth century.

7. Describe the impact of the Seven Years’ War on imperial and Indian-white relations.

week 4 - questions to contemplate

• One early American contemporary stated that there was a widespread “dangerous spirit of liberty” among the New World’s slaves. Explore that idea by considering slave culture and forms of resistance. Be sure to discuss Olaudah Equiano’s ideas expressed in “Voices of Freedom.”

• How vital was slavery to the Atlantic economy in the eighteenth century? Provide specific evidence to support your response.

• Discuss republicanism and liberalism. What are the similarities and differences between the two concepts?

• Explain why property was important as a qualifier for voting in British America. How did such a policy exclude able voters? Were liberty and property ownership linked? Why or why not?

• How did the Great Awakening inspire ordinary citizens to assert their right to independent judgment? Did the movement expand freedoms? Why or why not?

• How did Indians cope with the increasing settlement of whites during the eighteenth century and the subsequent removal of the French after the French and Indian War? Discuss how the ideas of freedom and liberty expressed by the English were never intended to be extended to the Indians.

• Discuss the concept of the middle ground in the eighteenth century.