Brief History of Slavery in America

Brief History of Slavery in America

1619• First 20 Negroes

brought to Jamestown Virginia from West Africa

• Originally as indentured servants

• By 1775 there were 400,000 slaves in America 300,000 of them in the South

1776 Declaration of Independence

• Said nothing about slavery

• New England ship owners engaged in slave trade

• Southern plantation system needed cheep labor

1787 Northwest Ordinance

• New territories of Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, Michigan and Illinois are closed to slavery

Northwest Territory contd.

• July 13, 1787 “There shall be formed in said territory, not less than three nor more than five states

• Congress later decided to divide the Territory into the 6 states of Ohio (1803), Indiana (1816), Illinois (1818), Michigan (1837), Wisconsin (1848), Minnesota (1858).

1789 U.S. Constitution

• 3/5 compromise is necessary to secure ratification of the Constitution

• Sets the stage for debate over the nature of the negro – person or property

1793 Cotton Gin

• Cotton production is now more profitable than growing tobacco, rice, hemp or indigo

• Plantations grow rapidly increasing the need for cheep / free labor

• 1800 Gabriel Prosser Slave Rebellion• First recorded slave uprising in

America• 1804 All Northern States were

committed to the elimination of slavery• Little use to northern farmers and mill

owners• 1808 Importation of Slaves is prohibited

by Federal Law

1817 American Colonization Society Formed

• Back to Africa • Negro will never be

equal in a White Society

• Races should not be mixed

1820 Missouri Compromise

• Fears of a Southern Majority in the Senate are overcome by admitting Missouri to US as Slave State

• Main is admitted as a Free State• Prohibited slavery in most of what had

been the Louisiana Territory

1821

• First Anti – Slave journal published • Benjamin Lundy – white Quaker• “The Genius of Universal Emancipation

1822 Denmark Vesey Slave Revolt

• Charleston South Carolina• Vesey was a free Black• 80 Blacks in groups of 6 according to

tribel lines• All captured – some returned to owners

35 men including Vesey hanged and 37 sold out of state to eliminate trouble makers

1829 Mexico Outlaws Slavery in Texas

• Mexico is a Catholic Country

• Catholics opposed slavery

• General Santa Anna moved against Texas to enforce the Mexican Constitution

• Death of David Walker in Boston

1831 Nat Turner Slave Revolt

• Slave Revolt causes fear in Southern Whites

• Some southern states Negros outnumber whites 3 to 1

• William Lloyd Garrison begins publishing anti-slave newspaper “The Liberator”

1846 Wilmot Proviso

• No slavery in territory acquired from Mexico

• Stability in the Senate is threatened if territory is made into several states

1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

1850 – Compromise of 1850

• Millard Fillmore of East Aurora was President

• California admitted as a free state

• Territory of New Mexico and Utah can decide the issue themselves

• Selling of slaves is banned in Washington D.C.

• Fugitive Slave Act is passed

Key Senators

1852 Uncle Tom’s Cabin published

• Best Seller• Good story• 20 languages• Tried for

balanced portrayal but definitely anti - slave

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Southern Reaction

• George Fitzhugh• Book – “Cannibals All”• Northern Industrialists are no better

than Cannibals

1854 Kansas Nebraska Act

• Kansas and Nebraska • Popular sovereignty• Squatter Sovereignty• Bleeding Kansas• Balance in Senate is again in question

1857 Dred Scott vs. Sanford

• Slaves are NOT Citizens

• Slaves can NOT sue in Federal Courts

• Slaves are Property and are protected by the Constitution

Chief Justice Roger Taney

1859 John Brown’s Raid

• Brown sees self as Moses of the Black Man

• Hopes to arm Blacks and stage a rebellion

• Attacks the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry Virginia

John Brown & Robert E. Lee

• Robert E. Lee dispatched from Washington to put down rebellion in Virginia