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Questions and Answers
What was a key feature of Vermont's 1777 state constitution?
What was a key feature of Vermont's 1777 state constitution?
- It compensated enslavers for their losses
- It implemented gradual emancipation plans
- It included abolition as a provision (correct)
- It allowed for indentured servitude
What was the stipulation in Pennsylvania's emancipation act of 1780?
What was the stipulation in Pennsylvania's emancipation act of 1780?
- Freed children would be sent to other states
- Freed children would serve an indenture term of twenty-eight years (correct)
- Freed children would be compensated for their servitude
- Freed children would be immediately emancipated
What was the result of gradual emancipation plans in northern states?
What was the result of gradual emancipation plans in northern states?
- Compensation for enslavers' losses
- Immediate freedom for all enslaved individuals
- Emancipation while defending the interests of northern enslavers (correct)
- Increased indentured servitude for Black Americans
What was the experience of James Mars, a young man indentured in Connecticut?
What was the experience of James Mars, a young man indentured in Connecticut?
What year did New Jersey become the last of the northern states to adopt gradual emancipation plans?
What year did New Jersey become the last of the northern states to adopt gradual emancipation plans?
Study Notes
Abolition of Slavery in the North
- By the early 19th century, states north of the Mason-Dixon Line had abolished slavery.
Vermont
- Vermont included abolition as a provision of its 1777 state constitution.
Pennsylvania
- Pennsylvania's emancipation act of 1780 stipulated that freed children must serve an indenture term of twenty-eight years.
Gradual Emancipation
- Gradualism brought emancipation while defending the interests of northern enslavers and controlling another generation of Black Americans.
New Jersey
- In 1804, New Jersey became the last of the northern states to adopt gradual emancipation plans.
Limitations of Emancipation
- There was no immediate moment of jubilee, as many northern states only promised to liberate future children born to enslaved mothers.
- Laws stipulated that such children remain in indentured servitude to their mother's enslaver to compensate the enslaver's loss.
Case Study: James Mars
- James Mars, a young man indentured under this system in Connecticut, risked being thrown in jail when he protested the arrangement that kept him bound to his mother's enslaver until age twenty-five.
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Description
Learn about the abolition of slavery in the North, including Vermont and Pennsylvania's efforts, and the gradual emancipation process.