How slavery grew in the colonies, and the lives and resistance of enslaved Africans

Grade 8 Social Studies Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   Freedom seekers and Spanish Florida (cards A to D). Card A, from the NPS page "African Americans in St. Augustine 1565-1821" (Castillo de San Marcos National Monument): in October 1687, "eight men, two women, and a three-year-old nursing child" from Carolina reached St. Augustine in a boat. When an English official came the next fall to claim them, Governor Diego de Quiroga "refused to release them on the grounds that they had been converted to Catholicism, had married in the town, and were usefully employed". In 1693 King Charles II issued "the first official position on the runaways", "giving liberty to all...the men as well as the women...so that by their example and by my liberality others will do the same." Decrees in 1733 reinforced "the offer of freedom, prohibiting the reimbursement of the English for escaped slaves, and requiring four years of service to the Crown in order to become free". In 1738 Governor Manuel de Montiano granted a plot about two miles north of St. Augustine. Fort Mose housed "thirty-eight men and their families with an estimated population of about one hundred people". Card B, from two NPS pages. Sanctuary in the Spanish Empire: "St. Augustine had mustered an all-black militia unit as early as 1683, and seven years later King Charles II issued a royal proclamation freeing all slaves who fled to Florida and accepted conversion and baptism." Fort Matanzas National Monument: slavery in Spanish culture "never had the racial overtones that it did to the English". The Castillo page adds: "Blacks were not free from racial prejudice." Card C, a summary in our words from the South Carolina Encyclopedia and an NPS Underground Railroad page. The Encyclopedia calls the Stono Rebellion of 1739 "a violent albeit failed attempt by as many as one hundred slaves to reach St. Augustine and claim freedom in Spanish-controlled Florida", and says it began "on Sunday, September 9, 1739". It says "their ranks increased from sixty to as many as one hundred participants". The NPS page says a group of about 20 led by a man named Cato armed themselves and traveled toward the Edisto River, and that "the group of nearly 60" met a militia there. The Encyclopedia says the revolt "resulted in legislation designed to control slaves". "The 1740 Negro Act made the manumission of slaves dependent on a special act of the assembly and mandated patrol service for every militiaman." In 1741 the colony laid a "prohibitive duty on the importation of new slaves" "in an effort to stem the growth of South Carolina's majority black population". Card D, from the NPS Fort Matanzas page on Fort Mose and the Castillo page: in 1740 a British general captured Fort Mose; the community's leader Francisco Menendez led a surprise attack that retook it, but "the battle had destroyed the fort, and it would not be re-built until 1752". In 1763 Spain gave up Florida to Britain by treaty and "these people moved to Cuba with the rest of the citizens of St. Augustine". An archaeological dig in 1986 found the site, and in 1994 Fort Mose was named a National Historic Landmark.

2. 1.

   Card A quotes King Charles II's 1693 decree through an NPS page. What is the quotation best evidence for, Ari asks?

   • What runaways from the Carolinas said about their own reasons for leaving home
   • How many people from the Carolinas reached Florida after the decree was issued
   • How the English governor of Carolina answered the decree when it became known
   • What the Spanish Crown announced as policy toward runaways from English colonies
3. 2.

   The decree grants "liberty to all...so that by their example and by my liberality others will do the same". What was its purpose, Bo asks?

   • To punish runaways with a term of service before any of them could be free
   • To draw more people to leave the English colonies for Spanish Florida
   • To warn the English governor to come and claim the people who had left
   • To end slavery throughout the Spanish empire, beginning with Florida and Cuba
4. 3.

   Card A dates the king's decree to 1693; card B says seven years after 1683. How should a reader treat the difference, Esme asks?

   • Throw out card B, because a page about a militia cannot be used to date a decree
   • As proof that the king issued two separate decrees, one in 1690 and one in 1693
   • As two dates three years apart, which the decree's own record should settle
   • Average the two dates and treat 1691 or 1692 as the year of the decree
5. 4.

   A student claims: "Slavery in Spanish Florida had no racial prejudice." How strong is that claim given card B, Jun asks?

   • Weak: card B is a government source, so both lines in it can safely be ignored
   • Strong: card B says Spanish slavery lacked racial overtones, so prejudice did not exist
   • Strong: Fort Mose was a free town, so prejudice could not have existed around it
   • Weak: one page in card B says no racial overtones, and another says prejudice existed
6. 5.

   Card D: the fort was destroyed in 1740, rebuilt in 1752, and left in 1763. For about how many years did it stand, counting from 1738, Luz asks?

   • About 25 years, from 1738 right through to 1763
   • About 12 years, counting the years from 1740 up to the rebuilding in 1752
   • About 13 years, counting 1738 to 1740 and 1752 to 1763
   • About 11 years, counting just the span from 1752 to 1763 alone
7. 6.

   How did Spain's offer to runaways change between the 1693 decree and the 1733 decrees in card A, Milo asks?

   • The offer of freedom was withdrawn, and runaways were returned to the English owners
   • The offer of freedom was kept, but four years of royal service were required first
   • The offer was widened, and each runaway was freed on the very day of arrival in Florida
   • Spain stopped caring about runaways from the Carolinas once Fort Mose was founded
8. 7.

   The English official and Governor Quiroga disagreed about the eleven people from 1687. How did their views differ, Noah asks?

   • The official wanted them returned; Quiroga cited their conversion, marriages and work
   • Both wanted them returned, but disagreed about the date of the escape by boat
   • Quiroga wanted them punished, while the English official wanted them freed in the town
   • Both agreed the eleven belonged to the Spanish Crown from the day they arrived
9. 8.

   A student claims: "The Stono Rebellion shows most enslaved people in South Carolina were trying to reach Florida." How strong is that, Pia asks?

   • Weak: card C counts sixty to a hundred participants in a colony with a black majority
   • Weak: Florida was too far away for anyone to try to reach it from Charleston
   • Strong: the Encyclopedia says the aim was to reach Florida, so most people shared that aim
   • Strong: the 1741 duty on imports shows the colony felt that most were leaving
10. 9.

    Card C gives about 60 at Edisto and as many as 100 in all. Which new evidence would best settle how many took part, Ren asks?

    • A modern textbook that gives a single round number for the group of participants
    • Letters, court records and lists made in 1739 and 1740 that counted participants
    • The 1740 Negro Act, which lists new rules for patrols and for freeing people
    • A map of present-day South Carolina showing where the Edisto River runs today
11. 10.

    Which new evidence would best test whether Stono's participants aimed at Florida, Tala asks?

    • Testimony and letters from 1739 and 1740 on their words and direction
    • The NPS claim that the aim was Florida, repeated in a newer article by another writer
    • The 1741 import duty, which shows what the colony feared a little later
    • A dictionary entry for the word liberty as it was used in colonial law