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Slavery and the Making of AmericaPhoto of a group slaves on a Beaufort, South Carolina plantation
Time and Place Slave Memories Resources The Slave Experience

The Slave Experience: Responses to Enslavement
Intro Historical Overview Character Spotlight Slave Decisions Personal Narratives Original Docs
Introduction Responses to Enslavement
Illustration of slave trader with group of slaves - Library of Congress
Get the historical overview
Slave Decisions
What strategies did slaves have for coping with the experience of enslavement? Did slaves revolt? Did they stay silent? Go to court? When slaves ran away, where did they run to? And who helped them get there?

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Slaves faced difficult decisions everyday. Learn about the choices made by real men and women living under the bonds of slavery. What would you have done?
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Still of John Punch with other slaves Character spotlight: John Punch
Original Documents
'She did run off. She did run off. The beat her so she run off' - Laura Smalley
Learn about the mutiny aboard the Amistad and other responses to enslavement by exploring documents dating to the Colonial, Antebellum, and Reconstruction periods of American history.
go 		Photo of dramatic re-enactment of John Punch with other slaves John Punch, James Gregory, and a man named Victor were all indentured servants contracted to Virginia planter, Hugh Gwyn. The three performed similar tasks...

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Personal Narratives
to compelling first-hand accounts of life during slavery and Reconstruction.

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SLAVERY AND THE MAKING OF AMERICA is a production of Thirteen/WNET New York.
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