Northern States Abolished Slavery

Mia Richmond - Symposium Notes - Slaves - 1817-1852 ? 1817-1830 Northern States abolished slavery ? between 1774-1804

In 1791, 163 Members of the Commons voted against abolition. Very few MPs endeavored to defend the trade on moral grounds. Instead, they called attention to the various economic and political reasons to sustain it. Those who profited from the trade had a vested interest, and they understood that an end to the slave trade was jeopardy to the whole plantation operation. “The property of the West Indians is at stake” declared one MP, “and, though men may be generous with their own property, they should not be so with the property of others.” Abolition of British trade could also give France an economic and naval advantage.

In 1783 the British Quakers established the antislavery committee that played a considerable role in abolition.May 12, 1789, was apparently out of season for abolition. Sixty members of the West Indian lobby were present, and the trade’s supporters had already called abolition a “mad, wild, fanatical scheme of enthusiasts.”In 1806, abolitionists in Parliament secured the West Indian vote on a bill that ended the three-quarters of the trade that was not with the West Indies. The bill, though in the West Indians” interest, also did a lot to allow for the 1807 decision.The definitive 283-16 vote for total abolition of the trade occured in in 1807. The bill was put into law on March 25, and was effective as of January 1, 1808.

Underground Railroad ? 1780-1830 - onwards America is obviously not the nation slaves want it to be, so they must escape. Free blacks and other antislavery northerners were helping fugitive slaves escape from southern plantations to the North using a loose network of safe houses starting in the 1780s. This was known as the Underground Railroad. It gained momentum in the 1830s and although there are a variety of estimates, it could have helped somewhere from 40,000 to 100,000 slaves reach freedom. The success of the Underground Railroad helped expand abolitionist beliefs in the North. It also increased regional tensions, convincing pro-slavery southerners of their northerners determination to defeat the institution that supported it.

Gabriel Prosser in Richmond leads a slave revolt ? 1800 Gabriel Prosser, was a intelligent, literate enslaved blacksmith who organized a significant slave rebellion in the Richmond region in the summer of 1800. Details about the revolt were leaked before its execution, resulting in Gabriel and twenty-five followers to be taken captive and hanged as retribution. In response, Virginia and other state legislatures established restrictions on free blacks, as well as made efforts to prohibit the education, assembly, and hiring out of slaves, to restrict their chances to learn and to plan similar rebellions.

Gabriel planned the revolt during the spring and summer of 1800. On August 30, 1800, Gabriel intended to lead slaves into Richmond, but the rebellion was postponed because of rain. The slaves” masters were suspicious of the revolt, and two slaves told their owner about the plans.He then, in turn, informed Virginia’s Governor, James Monroe, who explained this to the state militia. Gabriel escaped downriver to Norfolk, but he was spotted and betrayed there by another slave for the reward offered by the state. That slave did not even receive the full reward.Gabriel was returned to Richmond for interrogation, but he did not surrender. Gabriel, his two brothers, and 23 other slaves were hanged

U.S. Congress outlawed African Slave trade (but domestic trade flourished) ? 1808 The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807 (2 Stat. 426, enacted March 2, 1807) is a US federal law that stated that no new slaves were permitted to be imported into the United States. It took effect in 1808, the earliest date permitted by the United States Constitution. This legislation was promoted by President Thomas Jefferson, who called for its enactment in his 1806 State of the Union Address. He had been promoting the idea since the 1770s. It exhibited the strength of the general trend toward abolishing the international slave trade, which Virginia followed by all the other states had prohibited or restricted since then.

The 1807 Act made the trade illegal in the U.S. However, it was not always well enforced, and slaves remained being smuggled in short numbers. All the northern states had ended slavery by 1804, but ownership remained legal in all the Southern states. The 1807 law did not change that—it just made importation from abroad a crime. The domestic slave trade within the U.S. was unaffected by the 1807 law. Britain, the major power involved in the Atlantic slave trade, passed the comparable Abolition of the Slave Trade Act that same month.Slave population in the U.S. almost tripled over the next 50 years.

Missouri Compromise

In 1820, a debate over the federal government’s right to restrict slavery over Missouri’s application for statehood settled in a compromise: Missouri was accepted to the Union as a slave state, Maine as a free state and all western regions north of Missouri’s southern border were designated as free soil. Although the Missouri Compromise was designed to maintain an even balance between slave and free states, it was able to help suppress the forces of sectionalism only temporarily.

In 1820, the Missouri Compromise outlawed slavery in all the newer western territories, which Southern states saw as a menace to the institution of slavery.What was is like being a slave?Slaves in the South constituted about one-third of the southern population. Most slaves lived on large farms or small plantations; many masters owned less than 50 slaves.

Slave owners wanted to make their slaves entirely dependent on them, and a method of limiting codes dictated life between slaves. They were forbidden from learning to read and write, and their behavior and movement was restricted. A strict hierarchy among slaves (from privileged house slaves and skilled artisans down to lowly field hands) helped keep them divided and less likely to organize against their masters. Slave marriages had no legal basis, but slaves did marry and raise large families; most slave owners encouraged this practice, but nonetheless did not hesitate to divide slave families by sale or removal.