Slavery in the United States

1
Slavery in the United States

• 1619-1848

2
Slavery in the Colonies

• 1619- first slaves arrive in Virginia
• Colonial assemblies pass laws that recognized the
  institution of slavery
  
• Slavery existed in all 13 colonies
• Quakers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey call for
  the abolition of slavery

3
Northern States and the American Revolution

• Ideas of the Revolution threw the institution of
  slavery into debate slave trade stopped during
  the A/R
  
• 1775- Quakers establish the first anti-slavery
  society
  
• Northern states where slaves were few passed laws
  for abolishing slavery
  
• Slavery violated many northern state
  constitutions
  
• Other northern states called for gradual
  emancipation and provided that slaves born from
  then on would be free at age 21 slavery
  gradually died in those states

4
Southern states and the American Revolution

• Ideas of the Revolution were the same but the
  number of slaves was much greater
  
• Virginia and Maryland debated the question but
  passed no laws abolishing slavery( some slave
  owners freed their slaves)
  
• Carolinas and Georgia- little debate and no laws
  abolishing the highly profitable institution

5
Slavery and the Constitution

• A fight over slavery would have fractured the
  fragile national unity of the new nation
  
• Northwest Ordinance of 1787- no slavery north of
  the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River
  
• Three-Fifths Compromise- 3/5 of a slave would be
  counted for purposes of representation
  
• Slave Trade Compromise- Congress could not do
  anything about the slave trade for 20 years until
  1808

6
Eli Whitney, the cotton gin and slavery

• Massachusetts born Yale graduate
• Spent time in Georgia
• 1793-invented the cotton gin to separate the
  cotton seeds from the fiber
  
• Impact- cotton production became extremely
  profitable
  
• 50 times more effective than picking cotton by
  hand
  
• Reinvigorated the demand for slaves in the South
  great increase in slave population from 1800-1850
  due to natural reproduction
  

7
The Cotton Kingdom

• Much of the South developed into a huge
  agricultural factory
  
• Western expansion into the lower Gulf
  states-slaves brought in to pick cotton
  
• La.(1812), Ms.(1817), Al.(1819)
• Cotton exported to Britain
• South used money to buy northern goods
• North and South economy depended on slave labor
• After 1840- cotton accounts for 50 of all
  American exports by 1850- most slaves lived on
  large plantations
  
• South- produces 75 of the worlds cotton

8
Slavery and the Missouri Compromise

• 1803- Louisiana Purchase
• 1818- Missouri wants into the U.S. as a slave
  state
  
• 1820- Maine wants into the U.S. as a free state
• 1820-3630north latitude - north-free-except
  Missouri south-slave
  

9
Free Blacks

• Freedom after the A/R
• Purchased freedom
• Mulattoes- white father/black mother- sometimes
  given freedom upon the death of the father
  
• Slaves without mastersconsidered a 3rd race-
  limited rights discrimination and segregation
  
• 250,000 free blacks in the North-competition with
  European immigrants
  
• Resulted in race prejudice

10
The Abolition Movement

• 1820s- about 120 societies throughout the U.S.
• Most members were moderates
• Wanted gradual emancipation and payment to slave
  owners for the loss of property
  
• Many opposed accepting free blacks as equals
• Some believed in shipping all blacks back to
  Africa

11
The American Colonization Society

• 1817- supported by many prominent Americans such
  as Clay, Webster, Marshall, and Monroe
  
• Colonization appealed to many because they
  believed that blacks and whites could not coexist
  in a free society some feared the mixing of the
  racesothers racist- believed in black
  inferiority
• 1822-with the help of the federal government
  acquired some land in West Africa- Liberia and
  its capital- Monrovia
  
• Only 15,000 free blacks settled in Liberia
  between 1822-1865

12
Abolitionists in the 1830s

• Second Great Awakening convinced abolitionists of
  the sin of slavery
  
• Britain abolished slavery in the West Indies in
  1833
  
• Leading abolitionist- William Lloyd Garrison from
  Boston
  
• New and revolutionary ideas
• Asserted that blacks were not Africans but
  American citizens
  
• Blacks entitled to the same rights
• Did not advocate force but rather constitutional
  changes

13
The Liberator

• 1831- published in Boston and edited by Garrison
• Wanted to change public opinion
• Financed mostly by free blacks
• Called for the immediate and unconditional
  abolition of slavery
  
• Wrote I will not retreat a single inch- AND I
  WILL BE HEARD
  

14
The Anti-Slavery Society

• 1833- founded
• 1840- 200,000 members
• Lecturers traveled the country
• Theodore Dwight Weld- preached the anti-slavery
  gospel north of the Ohio River married Angelina
  Grimke, a feminist and abolitionistAmerican
  Slavery As It Is
• Wendell Phillips-wealthy Bostonian oratorproduct
  of the Second Great Awakening

15
Other Abolitionists

• Arthur and Lewis Tappan-wealthy New York
  merchants-funded the abolitionist projects as
  well as Oberlin College
  
• Sojourner Truth-freed black women fought for
  abolition and womens rights
  
• Elijah Lovejoy-militant editor of anti-slavery
  paper in Illinois
  
• Harriet Beecher Stowe- Uncle Toms Cabin-
  theme-enforced separation of slave families
  

16
Frederick Douglass

• Greatest of the black abolitionists
• Published The North Star, his own abolitionist
  newspaper
  
• Former slave who escaped slavery at age 21
• Wrote Narrative of the Life of Frederick
  Douglass- depicted his life as a slave, his
  struggle to read and write and his escape to the
  North
• Looked to politics to end slavery- backed the
  Liberty Party in 1840 and the Republican Party in
  the 1850s
  

17
Southern Reprisals

• In 1820s- southern anti-slavery societies
  outnumbered northern societies most white
  southerners were nonslaveowning subsistence
  farmers who could not afford slaves
• 1830s- southern abolition silenced
• 1831-Nat Turner revolt-60 white Virginians
  killed over 100 slaves killedmost uncommon and
  least successful form of slave resistance
  
• South blamed Garrison and abolitionistsproduced
  a wave of concern among slave owners that
  resulted in harsh slavery laws
  
• Nullification Crisis of 1832 and the Force
  Bill-believed federal government would support
  abolitionists and try to force the South to free
  slaves

18
Slavery in the South A Positive Good

• Massive defense and rationalization of slavery
  in the South
  
• Slavery supported by the Bible
• Slavery existed in ancient Greece and Rome
• Good for barbarous Africans who were civilized
  and Christianized
  
• Master-slave relationship like a family
• Slaves cared for in sickness and old age not like
  workers in the North
  
• South in opposition to much of the Western world

19
Abolitionists Impact in the North

• Unpopular
• Slavery was part of the Constitution
• Idea of the Union important abolitionists plea
  to disunite were seen as dangerously radical
  
• North dependent on the South
• Lewis Tappans house ransacked in 1834
• Elijah Lovejoy killed
• Politicians avoided abolitionism- political
  suicide
  
• 3rd Parties take up the cause- Liberty Party and
  Free Soil Party