Slavery's Decline After Independence

Slow Death for Slavery?

• After the United States gained independence, slavery appeared to be headed toward decline.
• Britain's closure of West Indian markets to Chesapeake tobacco and Carolina rice caused economic challenges for enslavers.
• Enslaved people faced the struggle between establishing roots and the constant disruptions caused by enslavers.
• Patriots were hesitant to immediately free enslaved people.
• The slave societies in the Chesapeake, Carolinas, and Georgia were patched up, while enslavers in the Mid-Atlantic reasserted their control.
• Republican principles of liberty and self-government were not fully applied to enslaved people due to the economic significance of slavery.
• States with small slave populations began to gradually abolish slavery after 1776, but freedom did not guarantee citizenship.
• Vermont, with the smallest slave population, immediately outlawed slavery.
• New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey chose gradual abolition methods or allowed enslaved people to challenge enslavement in courts.
• States that relied on slave labor did not consider abolishing it.
• Manumission, or the individual freeing of enslaved people, was permitted in some states.
• Virginia, Maryland, and other Southern states (excluding North Carolina) eased manumission laws.
• Laws still prioritized property rights, and only a few enslaved people were able to negotiate their way out of bondage.

Despite British Market Closures

• South Carolina and Georgia planters continued to import enslaved Africans.
• Chesapeake enslavers began to sell enslaved people in an interstate trade.
• Enslavers in states where slavery was marginal still held onto enslaved people who had market value.

Northern States and Gradual Abolition

• States north of Delaware gradually abolished slavery, but a history of associating African descent with servitude hindered full equality.
• This perception negatively impacted free African-descended people.
• Former patrons were replaced by wage and labor markets that offered little opportunity for workers to improve their circumstances.
• The new United States was a fragile confederation of independent states.
• States formulated individual laws regarding slavery, similar to their colonial predecessors.
• Between 1777 and 1804, all states north of Maryland implemented measures to gradually abolish slavery.

Revolutionary War and State Constitutions

• During the war, state governments created new constitutions, experimenting with republican government.
• Black activists, like Lemuel Haynes and Felix Holbrook, and their appeals for abolition resonated with the language of liberties and rights.
• State legislators attempted to incorporate abolition measures into law, driven by the ideals of the Revolution.
• Appeals to abandon slavery were more successful in areas where slavery remained limited.
• Measures concerning slavery were often compromised due to competing interests.
• Vermont's 1777 constitution abolished slavery and servitude for males over twenty-one and females over eighteen.
• The constitution also established religious liberty and enfranchisement for nearly all adult males, regardless of race or previous condition of servitude.
• Colorblind measures were uncontroversial due to Vermont’s small number of enslavers and Black people in the state.

New Hampshire and Massachusetts

• In 1790, Vermont was 0.3 percent nonwhite, not counting Native Americans.
• New Hampshire's 1783 constitution contained strong language on individual rights, but slavery was not clearly defined.
• The slave population decreased from 633 to 158 people between 1767 and 1790 and would be counted in single digits during the nineteenth century.
• Massachusetts adopted similar language and the state was the first in the area to construct abolition law.
• Article 1 of the 1780 Massachusetts constitution stated that all men are born free and equal.
• The challenge to slavery in Massachusetts began with Quok Walker, a former slave.
• Walker fled his owner's farm in 1781 and sought a legal remedy for assault, not his freedom.
• Walker argued that the court should uphold the republican principles for which Massachusetts Patriots were fighting.
• The case, Walker v. Jennison, resulted in the Supreme Judicial Court's 1783 ruling that slavery is inconsistent with the constitution.
• Favorable rulings by lower courts had already freed Mum Bett, who became known as Elizabeth Freeman.
• Women, even in freedom, and Black women, like Elizabeth Freeman, were doubly disenfranchised.

Unrequited Toil

• The Walker decision didn’t free any new slaves in Massachusetts, however decided that Massachusetts law couldn’t protect slave property.
• Slave owners tried to get around decisions.
• New York made a false start in abolishing slavery.
• Fugitives were fleeing from Virginia and elsewhere.

Legal Ambiguity and the Constitution

• The 1777 constitution protected slave property.
• Made it possible for freeholders to vote .
• Military service was one path to receiving freedom.
• The government would manumit slaves who served.
• New York's Manumission Society.
• Made sure known supporters for the Crown were stripped of their positions.
• New York's Federal was 21,324 slaves in 1790.
• Did not pass a measure until 1799.
• Pennsylvania struggled with human liberty versus property rights in its 1780 constitution.
• Philadelphia would be the largest American city.
• Quakers were big opponents of slavery.
• Petitioned the government to live up to restoration.
• 3% of the people in that area were black.

Petitions and Quaker Activity

• Pennsylvania passed an abolition act that failed to free any slaves.
• All enslaved children still remained enslaved.
• Possibility for owners to keep slaves for 2 more generations.
• Ended up abolishing slavery in 1847.
• Enslaved women got out of out of state babies to be born.
• New England took their advice from Philadelphia.

Rhode Island and Gradual Abolition

• The Society of Friends advocated for black freedom. Rhode Island passes this abolition law.
• Shippers and merchants remained active during this trade.
• Continues to embark slaves for decades more.
• Fewer than 400 enslaved were counted.
• Other free states are reluctant to give up citizen property.
• 1784 abolished the people in slavery.
• Life expectancy was thought to be the age of 30.
• Even enslaved people’s property rights was an impediment to the people's independence.
• A widespread expectation would be confined to a narrow patch of land.

Attempts to regulate and expand slavery

• Ambivalent attempts
• Congress in the Article of Confederation prohibited slavery.
• The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 abolished slavery.
• Restricted black residents posting bonds.
• The first US congress responded to pressure.
• Passed The Southwest Ordinance in 1790
• Federal authority promised to remove Indian nations.
• Even before the rise of cotton, the government promoted slavery expansion.

Emergence Of Racism

• Developed the European idea of white exceptionalsim.
• Carl Linnaeus classified human beings.
• Divided into subspecies.
• Stated black peole were "crafty, indolent, and negligent."
• The notes by Virginia Thomas Jefferson argued about the rights of African American citizens.
• Jefferson contemplated a gradual freeing of female from eighteen and makes to twenty-one.
• Believed Black’s were more sexually aggressive.
• Had memories that were equal.
• Intellectual lack.
• Did no let them excuse their agricultural behavior.

Revolutionary War Impact

• Ambivalent Virginia and Maryland passed laws.
• Religious conviction.
• Removed the right and property in the persons of any of his fellow creatures.
• Provided without back wages or health care.
• Blacked increased toward freedom.
• North of the lines they passed to gradual emancipation.
• Slaves were granted freedom in order to favor laws of Virginia.

The Washingtons

• George Washington favored the laws.
• Washington directed his slaves to be freed after Martha Washington died.
• Some people Washington were sold.
• Martha attempted to reach for money.
• Bushrod a US Supreme Court also for emigration.
• Did not pay estates or debts.
• Federal conversation was to protect slavery and limits on political power.

Political Weakness And Debate

• Old slave economies were threatened by the Revolution.
• Was unclear in North America.
• There were delegates at the 1787.
• Protected slavery but limited the political legislature.
• 1808 banned from foreign import covers.
• States has slowly restricted political evils.
• Wilson, in 1787 wanted to eradicate slavery in the state.

The rise of Cotton

• The rise of slaves were key for America
• George Washington noted in 1789 with his own notes

Trade Routes

• There are several ships and their trading routes.
• People were transported from state to state.
• They were being sold and transported against their own will.

Unrequited toil

• By the end the British revolution banned.
• Sold Africans in Charleston
• US passed an act banning the trade.
• Several deaths were accounted.
• Survivors were treated with great care
• The survivors were sold.

Culimnation of revolution

• Developed grammar of political freedom.
• But patriots had to fight.
• Fought british-allied Indians ad African decedents.
• Disqualification predicted on perceiving inferiority.
• Became a forgotten aspect.
• Economic changes reshaped the US.