From 1492 to 1865, slavery occupied a central place in the lives and minds of Americans. Describe the changing meaning of slavery in each third of the course. Explain how most Colonial Americans (1490-1750) believed that slavery was normal, necessary, and perhaps even just. Why were Revolutionary Americans (1750-1815) among the first people in the world to condemn slavery? Why were they still unable to completely destroy it? Among Jacksonian Americans (1815-1865), why did a few people denounce slavery as a sin, others come to see slavery as a threat to their own freedom, and still others become willing to fight a bloody war to preserve it?