The word “slave’ is not in the US Constitution (not until the 13th Amendment)
3/5th Compromise → 5 slaves = 3 persons when counting for population in the House of Reps
Importation of slaves into the United States would be halted after 1808
That doesn’t mean the slave trade WITHIN the United States was ended, just that no more slaves were imported into the US.
Fugitive Slave Clause → If a slave escapes, they must be returned to their owner.
Slaves were first transported to the sugar plantations on the islands in the Caribbean before slavery came to the United States. Sugar production is what fueled the Transatlantic Slave Trade
African Slaves replaced Native American slaves on the sugar plantations
This is because of the INTENSE population decreases of the Native populations after European arrival
Population of central Mexico fell 90% in 75 years after European arrival
Estimates put the Native Arawak/Taino Indian population (these were the people Columbus encountered) at 300,000 to half a million people pre European contact and by 1540 there were fewer than 500. (Columbus landed in 1492).
In Africa, some African states sold prisoners of war to European slave dealers as well as hunted down other people not of their culture to sell to European traders in exchange for gunpowder, weapons, and luxury goods. Yes, I know that can be hard to believe that Africans sold other Africans. But you have to remember that Africa is a vast continent with thousands of tribal peoples as well as larger nation/states. Slavery is not an uncommon phenomenon in any part of the world. I think this excerpt from historian David Brion Davis is illuminating:
“The concept of an African ‘race’ was the invention of Western [people], and most African merchants ‘saw themselves as selling people other than their own.”
Slaves had more freedom (in some instances)
Owned land and sometimes their own businesses
They simply paid their owners a share of the profits
More common that they could read and write
Not all slaves worked on a Southern plantation...there are no plantations in the North
Some worked for small family farms and were treated as family members
Worked at skilled labor [blacksmith, carpenter, etc.]
Indentured servants (usually lower class white workers) provided enough labor for growing tobacco in the early colonial era, not slavery
UNTIL the English Civil War and the London Fire of 1660
Civil War ended up creating better working conditions and higher wages in Europe
The Fire provided jobs rebuilding part of London
THEN the demand for slaves in America went up
White settlers in America relied on Africans to:
Show them how to herd cattle
Cultivate rice
Build irrigation canals
All of this was familiar to Africans, but not so much to the English
First of all slaves were aware of this line in the Declaration and some petitioned against it
During the Revolution, slaves protested against slavery during the Stamp Act riots
Your founding fathers knew it was hypocritical
Madison freed one of his slaves after this slave defected to the British
“The young man had only desired that liberty for which we have paid the price of so much blood and have proclaimed to be the right and worthy pursuit of every human being” --James Madison
Britain promised freedom to any slave that would fight on the British side
Jefferson wanted to list slavery as a grievance against the King in the Declaration
Jefferson had class in mind rather than race when he wrote this famous phrase. For him “all men” in part meant all rich and poor were created equal.
Your founding fathers knew that slavery was a divisive issue.
It was more important to form the United States and leave the slave question to future generations. Compromises had to be made in 1787 to establish the United States first.
Essentially from 1836 to 1844, the US Senate passed a series of resolutions that said any petition that had to do with slavery was not allowed to be talked about in the Senate.
That should tell you how powerful the Southern block of Senators was
John Quincy Adams!
We don’t spend much time talking about him in class, but he was an avid advocate for abolishing slavery. Neither he, nor his father John Adams, owned slaves.
Besides being president, he served in the Senate for many years
He made it a point during the Gag Rule era to intentionally bring a petition about slavery to the floor almost every day to the uproar of the Southern Senators
1808, the slave trade is banned, so no more possibility of importing slaves to the US
The Louisiana Purchase opens the possibility of expanding slavery to the West
Invention of the cotton gin made the plantation and growing cotton more profitable
By 1840, the South grows 60% of the world’s cotton
Cotton is sold all over Europe
Cotton is half of the value of all American exports
This pays for all of the stuff we import and for building roads, canals, etc
Cotton is essential to the Northern factory industry
Immigrants can’t compete with slave labor, so they settle in the North
The South is totally dependent on cotton, they don’t grow many other crops
⅔ of the wealthiest Americans live in the South...and as you know, money means power
In 1860, the population of the South is 8 million people
3,000 families owned 100+ slaves
25% of Southerners owned at least one slave
Out of that 25%, half own 5 to 10 slaves
Tennessee and Virginia → there are regions where no one owns slaves
In the Upper South, slavery decreased dramatically by the Civil War. There are smaller farms in the Upper South that don’t require slave labor. OR some farmers work side by side with their slaves
The Deep South is where the higher concentration of slaves are