Interpret the Evidence and Put It in Context

1. What encouraged slaves to revolt (Documents 8.1 and 8.3)? What do these documents reveal about slavery in Richmond and in Virginia more generally?

2. What does the runaway slave advertisement (Document 8.2) tell us about Andrew Jackson as a slave owner? Does the fact that it was written by a future president shape how you view it? Why or why not?

3. What does Robert Sutcliff’s report (Document 8.3) reveal about the treatment that slaves in the North and in the South endured? Judging from his writing, how does Sutcliff’s English and Quaker background affect his views of slavery?

4. Given the horrors of slavery in the North and the South and the near impossibility of overthrowing the institution, why did free blacks in Philadelphia oppose colonization (Document 8.4)? What language did they use to address their audience?

5. What caused Richard Allen (Document 8.5) and his colleagues to abandon St. George’s Church? What did white Methodist ministers think of Allen’s plan to organize a new church? What challenges did the founders of the new St. Thomas Church face?

1. According to these documents, how did race relations and the slave system in the United States change between 1785 and 1817?