- Slavery began in the colonies with tobacco planters in Virginia
- Most slaves in the colonies were from West Africa
- Cloth, guns, and rum were traded for Africans
- By the 1700s, there were slaves in every colony
- Most slaves in the colonies were from West Africa
- Cloth, guns, and rum¹ were traded for Africans
- One African, named Olaudah Equiando, wrote an autobiography about how he was put on a slave ship at age ten, where he refused to eat, hoping to die instead of becoming a slave
- Many Africans died of sickness or despair on slave ships
- Slaves worked as farmers, nurses, carpenters, blacksmiths, drivers, servants, gardeners, or midwives¹, with no hope for a better life.