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Slavery in Antebellum America

Source credits

Library of Congress

Historyplace.com

Lumenlearning.com

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When?

The first enslaved Africans arrived in America in 1619 and they were placed in Jamestown, VA.
By the end of the 1600s slavery was an established practice in the colonies.
Slavery throughout America was made illegal by the 13^th Amendment in December of 1865.

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When?

African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the 17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution.
As part of the compromises that allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of slaves into the United States by 1808.

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When?

By 1800 or so, however, African American slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the Southern United States.
One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. The cotton gin allowed Southern planters to grow a variety of cotton--short staple cotton--that was especially well suited to the climate of the Deep South.
The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney’s gin made it much easier and more economical to do. This made cotton production much more profitable and hence very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. African American slaves supplied this labor.

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Replica of an early cotton gin

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When?

It is important to remember, however, that not all slaves worked on large cotton plantations. African American slaves also worked in many other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for rope-making), corn, and livestock.
Many slaves also worked in Southern cities, working at a variety of skilled trades as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for slaves working in the cities to put away enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had large so-called free black populations.

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Slave life

Despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, slaves were not just powerless victims of their owners and the slave system. Slave families and communities became very important institutions.
Slaves on large plantations also lived in a community that extended well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation or farm. The slave cabins, or quarters, provided one of the few places where slaves could be more or less free from constant supervision by slave overseers. There the slaves created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of their masters.

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A group of ‘contrabands’ – slaves liberated by the northern Army – during the Civil War.

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Slave Codes

Prior to 1800 there had been numerous slave rebellions in America.
In many parts of the South enslaved populations were very close to the levels of white populations.
In many parts of America, particularly in the South, fear of organized rebellion by the slaves was very high.
Slave codes were laws adopted to stop slave revolts.
Not all slave codes were the same, but some common examples follow.

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Slave Codes

These codes forbade slaves from learning to read, owning firearms, or marrying a white person.
The penalty a slave faced for learning to read was having a thumb cut off!
These laws also made the children born to slaves automatically slaves for life (generational slavery).
In the courts, a slave accused of any crime against a white person was doomed. No testimony could be made by a slave against a white person. Therefore, the slave's side of the story could never be told in a court of law. Of course, slaves were conspicuously absent from juries as well.

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Slave Codes

Movement Restrictions: Most regions required any slaves away from their plantations or outside of the cities they resided in to have a pass signed by their master. Many cities in the slave-states required slave-tags, small copper badges that enslaved people wore, to show that they were allowed to move about.
Marriage Restrictions: Most places restricted the marriage rights of enslaved people, ostensibly to prevent them from trying to change masters by marrying into a family on another plantation. Marriage between people of different races was also usually restricted.

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Slave Codes

Prohibitions on Gathering: Slave codes generally prevented large groups of enslaved people from gathering away from their plantations.

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Slave Codes

Slave Patrols: In the slave-dependent portions of North America, varying degrees of legal authority backed patrols by plantation owners and other free whites to ensure that enslaved people were not free to move about at night, and to generally enforce the restrictions on slaves.
Trade and Commerce by Slaves: Initially, most places gave enslaved people some land to work personally and allowed them to operate their own markets. As slavery became more profitable, slave codes restricting the rights of enslaved people to buy, sell, and produce goods were introduced. In some places, slave tags were required to be worn by enslaved people to prove that they were allowed to participate in certain types of work.

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Artwork from an anti-slavery pamphlet by LM Child, 1838.

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Slave Codes

Punishment and Killing of Slaves: Slave codes regulated how slaves could be punished, usually going so far as to apply no penalty for accidentally killing a slave while punishing them. Later laws began to apply restrictions on this, but slave-owners were still rarely punished for killing their slaves.
Education Restrictions: Some codes made it illegal to teach slaves to read.

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The Underground Railroad

Resistance to slavery could involve helping enslaved people escape slavery. The loosely formed organization that helped escaping slaves was referred to as the Underground Railroad.
The Underground Railroad was not a series of train tracks that ran underground. It was a connection of routes, shelters, and transporters who helped slaves get to freedom – almost always by heading north to non-slave states.

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The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad used slang, codes, songs, markers, specially created wagons, hidden basements, churches, and more to hide escaping slaves from slave catchers.
Slave catchers could receive large rewards for returning escaping slaves.

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The Underground Railroad

Probably the most famous person to come out of the Underground Railroad was Harriet Tubman.
Her stories of heroism are legendary.
Short biography

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The Underground Railroad

The most active period for the Underground Railroad was from about 1830 to 1860.
During the later years of the Underground Railroad, the idea of escaping to the northern states became less secure as the northern states were forced to support slavery through a series of federal laws. As a result, the ultimate goal for escaping slaves became more focused on Canada.
There were some lesser known routes of the Underground Railroad that assisted slaves in escaping to Mexico, but the numbers of slaves on those routes was very small compared to those seeking to go north.

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The Underground Railroad

The stories of slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad are filled with heroes and villains. Some were white, others were African American.
Probably the most consistent white supporters of the Underground Railroad were members of the Society of Friends or Quakers – especially those who lived along the Ohio River in northern Kentucky. These people simply would do anything peaceful required to help slaves across the river to safety. They had been the strongest opponents of slavery since the colonial years, and continued to peacefully resist it even through the Civil War.

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Slavery Rebellions

Among the slave-led rebellions of the early 1800s, one stands out. It was the rebellion led by Nat Turner.
The rebellion occurred in the summer of 1831 in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831, led by Nat Turner.
Rebel slaves killed from 55 to 65 people, at least 51 being white.
The rebellion was put down within a few days, but Turner survived in hiding for more than two months afterwards.

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Slavery Rebellions

Rumors quickly spread among whites that the slave revolt was not limited to Southampton and that it had spread as far south as Alabama.
Fears led to reports in North Carolina that "armies" of slaves were seen on highways, and that they had burned and massacred the white inhabitants of Wilmington, North Carolina and were marching on the state capital.
Such fear and alarm led to whites' attacking blacks throughout the South with flimsy cause; led to "the slaughter of many blacks without trial and under circumstances of great barbarity".^[
The white violence against the black people continued two weeks after the rebellion had been suppressed.

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Slavery in National Law

The national government was controlled by the states. Because of the 3/5 Compromise, the southern states carried an over-sized influence by pro-slavery interests in the national legislature.
Slavery was a sharply divisive issue between the northern and southern states.
There were may attempts to control the expansion of slavery to the west.

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Slavery in National Law

A balance between slave and free states was seen as being crucial. Probably the best early example of this was the Missouri Compromise of 1820. This act allowed Missouri to become a state and Massachusetts to be split with Maine coming in as a free state. This maintained the national balance of free and slave states.
Slavery was also prohibited in the Louisiana Territory north of the southern border of Missouri. Remember that slavery had been prohibited north and west of the Ohio River by the Northwest Land Ordinances in 1785 and 1787.

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Slavery in National Law – The Compromise of 1850

The Compromise of 1850 consists of five laws passed in September of 1850 that dealt with the issue of slavery and territorial expansion. In 1849 California requested permission to enter the Union as a free state, potentially upsetting the balance between the free and slave states in the U.S. Senate.

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Slavery in National Law – The Compromise of 1850

Senator Henry Clay introduced a series of compromise resolutions on January 29, 1850, in an attempt to seek a compromise and avert a crisis between North and South. As part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished.
Furthermore, California entered the Union as a free state and a territorial government was created in Utah. In addition, an act was passed settling a boundary dispute between Texas and New Mexico that also established a territorial government in New Mexico.

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Slavery in National Law

Repeated efforts to address slavery in the new territories met with opposition and deep conflict.
Probably the most violent demonstration of this tearing of America came as a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

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The Kansas – Nebraska Act

The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act infuriated many in the North who considered the Missouri Compromise to be a long-standing binding agreement. In the pro-slavery South it was strongly supported. Essentially it could have allowed slavery to spread into the northern parts of the western territories.

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The Kansas – Nebraska Act

After the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, pro-slavery and anti-slavery supporters rushed in to settle Kansas to affect the outcome of the first election held there after the law went into effect. Pro-slavery settlers carried the election but were charged with fraud by anti-slavery settlers, and the results were not accepted by them.
The anti-slavery settlers held another election, however pro-slavery settlers refused to vote. This resulted in the establishment of two opposing legislatures within the Kansas territory.

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The Kansas – Nebraska Act

Violence soon erupted, with the anti-slavery forces led by John Brown. The territory earned the nickname “bleeding Kansas” as the death toll rose.
President Franklin Pierce, in support of the pro-slavery settlers, sent in Federal troops to stop the violence and disperse the anti-slavery legislature. Another election was called. Once again pro-slavery supporters won and once again they were charged with election fraud.

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The Kansas – Nebraska Act

As a result, Congress did not recognize the constitution adopted by the pro-slavery settlers and Kansas was not allowed to become a state.
Eventually, however, anti-slavery settlers outnumbered pro-slavery settlers and a new constitution was drawn up. On January 29, 1861, just before the start of the Civil War, Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state.

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The Tragic Prelude by Curry, 1936, depicts John Brown leading the build up to the Civil War after the Kansas – Nebraska Act.

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Fugitive Slave Laws

As the number of slaves successfully escaping slavery to the North increased, slave hunters began to follow them. Their actions were based on a clause in the Constitution.
The Fugitive Slave Clause states that escaped slaves "shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due", which abridged state rights because retrieving slaves was a form of retrieving private property.

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Fugitive Slave Laws

Many northern cities began to oppose the actions of slave hunters.
The harshness of the new Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 had an effect quite the opposite of its intent – abolitionism began to rise in the North and the resistance to slave hunters, aided by federal marshals threatened to weaken the power of the national government within the large cities of the North.

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