The Abolishment Of Slavery In America

Slavery in America

Slavery in America began in 1619 when a Dutch ship, the White Lion, brought over 20 African slaves to Jamestown, Virginia. People felt that slaves were a better source of labor than the indentured servants, which was also cheaper. It is estimated that just in the 18th century, six to seven million more slaves were imported. Black slaves mainly worked on tobacco, indigo, and rice plantations during the 17th and 18th centuries. They had no rights, no say in where they lived, and could hold no representation in government. After the American Revolution (1775-1783), many colonists, mostly up North, called for the abolishment of slavery. Then the U.S. Constitution stated that each slave counted as three-fifths of a person. This

was for the purpose of taxation and representation in Congress.
The South faced an economic crisis in the late 18th century when the land used to grow tobacco exhausted. During this same time, industries in England led to a large demand for cotton. The production of cotton was limited because of the difficulty of removing the seeds by hand. Then in 1793, the cotton gin was invented by a young school teacher by the name of Eli Whitney. The cotton gin was simply a machine that removed the seeds at a much faster pace. The South then transferred from their production of tobacco to a large production of cotton.
Although they had slavery up North and businessmen grew rich from slave trade and plantation investments, it was never as widespread there as it was in the South.

By 1804, all of the Northern states had abolished slavery. The Missouri Compromise then banned all slavery north of the southern boundary of Missouri in 1808. While slavery still remained in the South, about one-third of the population was slaves. Most of them lived on small plantations or on large farms. The majority of the slave owners wanted the slaves to be fully dependent on them, and the slaves were governed by a system of restrictive codes. They were forbidden to learn to read and write. Among many other cruel treatments, many of the slave masters engaged in sexual relations with their slaves. The slaves who were obedient and listened to their masters were often rewarded, while the mutinous slaves were cruelly punished. Although they could not legally marry anyone, they still would get married and raise large families. This was encouraged by slave owners, but they still would split them up by selling them or simply just removing

them.
While there were many unsuccessful slave revolts, Nat Turner, an African American man, led a revolt in Virginia in August 1831. Turner’s group consisted of about 75 black men and they murdered about 60 white men. People who supported slavery used this evidence that blacks were ignorant and that they needed to an institution such as slavery. Because of this revolt, many southern states made their slaves codes a lot stricter than they already were. This was to further limit the education, assembly, and movement of slaves. It caused the abolitionist movement to grow stronger up North.
The abolitionist movement lasted from the 1830s throughout the 1860s.

Freed blacks such as Frederick Douglass were leaders of this movement. It was also led by white supporters such as William Lloyd Garrison. Some abolitionists were against slavery because they believed it was a sin, while other non-religious abolitionists simply just supported the “free labor” argument. People began helping slaves escape from the southern plantation to the North as early as the 1780s. Thousands of slaves escaped through a network of safe houses and this was known as the Underground Railroad. The success of this made abolitionists even more eager to bring slavery to an

end.
When America began expanding westward, that caused more conflicts over slavery and how it would either be limited or expanded. After a long debate with the federal government about slavery in Missouri, it all ended in a compromise called the Missouri Compromise. It admitted Missouri to the Union as a slave state and admitted Maine as a free state. Also, all western territories north of Missouri’s southern border were considered free. The purpose of the Missouri Compromise was to maintain a balance in free states and slave states. However, this only helped temporarily. In 1850, another compromise was made which was called the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This act let people decide whether or not all of the new territories would be free states or slave states through popular sovereignty. In 1857, the Dred Scott case repealed the Missouri Compromise by stating that all territories were open to slavery. The Dred Scott case was a case in which a slave got sued for his freedom after his master had taken him into free territory.
After Abraham Lincoln was elected president, the South would then soon reach their breaking point. Seven southern states seceded to form the Confederate States of America after just three months. Four more followed through after the Civil War began. Although it is clear that Lincoln was against slavery, his goals at first were not to end it. His main goal was to preserve the United States as a nation. Just five days after the Union victory at Antietam, Lincoln issued an emancipation proclamation. Then on January 1st, 1863, he made it official that “slaves within any State, or designated part of a State…in rebellion…shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” After freeing around 3 million slaves, about 186,000 black soldiers joined the Union Army and 38,000 lost their lives.
In 1865, the 13th Amendment officially ended slavery; however, blacks were still not favored by many in the South. After being freed, the former slaves then received their rights of citizenship and equal protection in the 14th Amendment. They also gained the right to vote in the 15th Amendment. Although slaves were given these rights, life was still difficult for them in the post-war economy because of previous restrictive black codes. The remaining racism that still stuck around caused the civil rights movement, which led to the greatest