Time expressions for the Simple Past

You will study how to express the specific time or period of events happened in the past.

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Time expressions for the Simple Past

The spread of slavery

Instructions: Read the text. Look at the letters and numbers in bold.

Imagen: "Slave states in the US (animation)" Golbez and Kenmayer (2010), Wikimedia commons

Not long after Columbus sailed for the New World, the French and Spanish brought slaves with them on various expeditions. Slaves accompanied Ponce de Leon to Florida in 1513, for instance. But a far greater proportion of slaves arrived in chains in crowded, sweltering cargo holds. The first dark-skinned slaves in what was to become British North America arrived in Virginia –perhaps stopping first in Spanish lands- in 1619 aboard a Dutch vessel. From 1500 to 1900, approximately 12 million Africans were forced from their homes to go westward, with about 10 million of them completing the journey. Yet very few ended up in the British colonies and young American republic. By 1808, when the trans-Atlantic slave trade to the U.S. officially ended, only about 6 percent of African slaves landing in the New World had come to North America.

Slavery in the United States. Retrieved January, 2017 from https://eh.net/encyclopedia/slavery-in-the-united-states/

Slavery in the north of the US

Instructions: Read the following information about Slavery in the north of the US. Then do the activity suggested.

Colonial slavery had a slow start, particularly in the North. The proportion there never got much above 5 percent of the total population. Scholars have speculated about the reasons of this, without coming to a final conclusion. Some surmise that indentured servants were fundamentally better suited to the Northern climate, crops, and tasks at hand; some claim that anti-slavery sentiment provided the explanation. At the time of the American Revolution, fewer that 10 percent of the half million slaves in the thirteen colonies resided in the North, working primarily in agriculture. New York had the greatest number, with just over 20,000. New Jersey had close to 12,000 slaves. Vermont was the first Northern region to abolish slavery when it became and independent republic in 1777. Most of the original Northern colonies implemented a process of gradual emancipation in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, requiring the children of slave mothers to remain in servitude for a set period, typically 28 years. Other regions above the Mason-Dixon line ended slavery upon statehood early in the nineteenth century – Ohio in 1803 and Indiana in 1816.

Slavery in the United States. Retrieved January, 2017 from https://eh.net/encyclopedia/slavery-in-the-united-states/

US General Information

Instructions: Match the statements to the dates.

in 1777.early in the nineteenth century.at the time of the American Revolution.in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

1. Fewer that 10 percent of the half million slaves in the thirteen colonies resided in the North _______________

2. Vermont was the first Northern region to abolish slavery when it became and independent republic _______________

3. Most of the original Northern colonies implemented a process of gradual emancipation _______________

4. Other regions above the Mason-Dixon line ended slavery upon statehood _______________

Let’s check out some Time expressions for the Simple Past.

Instructions: Look at the information about some Time expressions for the Simple Past.

Common Past Time ExpressionsExample Sentences
yesterday (one day before today)
  • Michael walked to school yesterday.
  • Yesterday, Michael walked to work.
the day before yesterday (two days before today)
  • David bought a car the day before yesterday.
  • The day before yesterday, David bought a car.
last night (the most recent night)
  • We went to a party last night.
  • Last night, we went to a party.
this morning (an earlier time on the same day)
  • Justin called me this morning.
  • This morning, Justin called me.
one week ago (a specific period of time in the past)
  • The boys visited the US one week ago.
  • One week ago,the boys visited the US.
in 1990 (a specific point in the past)
  • I finished university in 1999.
  • In 1999, I finished university.
when + subject + past tense verb (a specific period of time, event, or point in the past)
  • My husband played basketball when he was a student.
  • When he was a student, my husband played basketball.

 

Past Tense expressions. Retrieved and adapted January, 2017 from http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/elc/Sample/Advanced/gs/gs_05.htm

Quiz

Slavery in the South

Instructions: Drag and drop the best option into the spaces.

1810186016801790

Throughout colonial and antebellum history, U.S. slaves lived primarily in the South. Slaves comprised less than a tenth of the total Southern population in ________ but grew to a third by ________. At that date, 293,000 slaves lived in Virginia alone, making up 42 percent of all slaves in the U.S. at the time. South Carolina, North Carolina, and Maryland each had over 100,000 slaves. After the American Revolution, the Southern slave population exploded, reaching about 1.1 million in ________ and over 3.9 million in ________.

Slavery in the United States. Retrieved January, 2017 fromhttps://eh.net/encyclopedia/slavery-in-the-united-states/

Quiz

Slave ownership patterns

Instructions: Choose the best option for each sentence.

  1. Despite their numbers, slaves typically comprised a minority of the local population in the last century / a century ago.
  2. Only in antebellum South Carolina and Mississippi did slaves outnumber free persons in the nineteenth / on the nineteenth century.
  3. Most Southerners owned no slaves and most slaves lived in small groups rather than on large plantations in that time / last time.
  4. On 1860 / In 1860, there were almost 4 million slaves.
done Check

Evaluation

Increase of Slave Population

Instructions: Choose “in, between or by” to correct the mistakes.

betweenbyin

Slave population had an exceptional rate of natural increase. Unlike elsewhere in the New World, the South did not require constant infusions of immigrant slaves to keep its slave population intact. In fact, ________ 1825, 36 percent of the slaves in the Western hemisphere lived in the U.S. This was partly due to higher birth rates, which were in turn due to a more equal ratio of female to male slaves in the U.S. relative to other parts of the Americas. Lower mortality rates also figured prominently. Climate was one cause; crops were another. U.S. slaves planted and harvested first tobacco and then, after Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin ________ 1793, cotton. This work was relatively less grueling than the tasks on the sugar plantations of the West Indies and in the mines and fields of South America. Southern slaves worked in industry, did domestic work, and grew a variety of other food crops as well, mostly under less abusive conditions than their counterparts elsewhere. For example, the South grew half to three-quarters of the corn crop harvested ________ 1840 and 1860.

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