From Slavery to Civil Rights Movement

The foundation of American racial inequality began with the triangular slave trade, predominantly affecting the southern United States. Agricultural production, particularly cotton and sugarcane, drove the slave economy.

Definition: The triangular trade was a three-way trading route across the Atlantic Ocean that facilitated the slave trade between Africa, the Americas, and Europe.

Highlight: A distinct social hierarchy existed within the slave system, with lighter-skinned slaves typically working as house servants while darker-skinned slaves labored in fields.

Example: The Civil War (1861-1865) emerged from tensions between the Union and Confederate states over slavery and economic policies, culminating in the Thirteenth Amendment's prohibition of slavery.

Vocabulary: Jim Crow laws - Segregation legislation named after a racist blackface character, enforced primarily in southern states.

Quote: "Segregation is the action of separating people, historically on the basis of race and/or gender."