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Slavery in the United States began soon after English colonists first settled Virginia and lasted until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa African American history is the portion of American history that specifically discusses the African American or Black American ethnic group in the United The Atlantic Slave trade, also known as the transatlantic slave trade, was the trade of African people supplied to the Colonies of the New World The word Maafa (also known as the African Holocaust or Holocaust of Enslavement) is derived from a Swahili word meaning disaster terrible occurrence or The Military history of African Americans spans from the arrival of the first black slaves during the colonial history of the United The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enacted primarily but not exclusively in the Southern and border states of the United States between 1876 and 1965 Redlining is the practice of denying or increasing the cost of services such as Banking, Insurance, access to jobs access to health care or even Supermarkets The American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968 refers to the reform movements in the United States aimed at abolishing racial discrimination against African Afrocentrism or Afrocentricity is a World view that emphasizes the importance of African people in culture philosophy and history Reparations for Slavery is a proposal by some in the United States that some type of compensation should be provided to the descendants of enslaved people in African American culture in the United States refers to the cultural contributions of African ethnic groups to the culture of the United States either as part of or distinct from African American studies is a subset of Black studies or Africana studies. African American neighborhoods or black neighborhoods are types of Ethnic enclaves found in many cities in the United States. Historically black colleges and universities ( HBCUs) are institutions of Higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention Kwanzaa is a week-long holiday celebrated primarily in the United States, honoring African-American heritage African American art is a broad term describing the visual arts of the American black community This is an incomplete list of museums which can or may never satisfy any objective standard for completeness African American dances in the vernacular tradition (academically known as "African American vernacular dance" are those dances which have developed within African African American literature is the body of Literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent African American music (also called black music) is an umbrella term given to a range of Music and Musical genres emerging from or influenced by the The term black church or African American church refers to predominantly African-American Christian churches that minister to predominantly black congregations This theology maintains that African Americans must be liberated from multiple forms of bondage — social political economic and religious Black theology refers to a variety of Christian theologies which has as its base in the The Doctrine of Father Divine is the teachings of the late Father Divine (d The Nation of Islam ( NOI) (أمة الإسلام Ummah al-Islāmu) is a group founded in Detroit, Michigan, Black Hebrew Israelites (also Black Hebrews, African Hebrew Israelites, and Hebrew Israelites) are groups of people of Black African ancestry Vodou ( Anglicized: Voodoo) or Vaudoo is a family of New World syncretistic religions primarily based on the faiths of the Hoodoo is a form of predominantly African-American traditional folk magic. Santería, also known as La Regla de Lukumi (Lukumi's Rule and The Way of the Saints is an Afro-Cuban religious tradition derived from traditional beliefs Pan-Africanism is a Sociopolitical World view, and Philosophy, as well as a movement which seeks to unify both Native Africans and those of Black nationalism (BN advocates a racial definition (or redefinition of black national identity as opposed to Multiculturalism. Black Power is a racially based Political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies Black Capitalism is a movement among African Americans to build wealth through the ownership and development of businesses Black conservatism is an international political and social movement rooted in communities of African descent that aligns largely with the conservative movement Following the collapse of Reconstruction, African Americans created a broad-based independent political movement in the South black populism that influence all The African American left tends to support leftist positions on social issues and an expansive state that aims at bringing about equality of outcome between the African The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a Marxist / Maoist African-American organization established Garveyism is an aspect of Black Nationalism which takes its source from the works words and deeds of UNIA-ACL founder Marcus Garvey. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is one of the oldest and most influential Civil rights organizations The Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC) is an American Civil rights organization The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (or SNCC, pronounced "snick" was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement The National Urban League ( NUL) formerly known as the National League of black men and women, is a Civil rights organization based in New York City The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH is a non-profit organization founded in Chicago, Illinois, on September 9, The United Negro College Fund ( UNCF) is a Fairfax, Virginia -based American philanthropic organization that fundraises College tuition The National Black Chamber of Commerce was incorporated in 1993 by Harry Alford who in 2007 continues as CEO History The National Pan-Hellenic Council was established in an age when Racial segregation and disenfranchisement plagued African Americans, the rise of each The Links Incorporated is an exclusive non-profit organization based upon the ideals of combining friendship and community service The National Council of Negro Women (NCNW is a Non-profit organization with the mission to advance the opportunities and the quality of life for African American women their Part of the History of baseball in the United States series The Negro leagues were American professional Baseball leagues History The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, founded on the campus of Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in 1912 is the oldest African-American Conference sports Conference member schools Current members Former members Conference Stadia Championships The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC is a Collegiate athletic conference of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs in the Southeastern "Southwestern Conference" redirects here For the former major conference in Texas and Arkansas see Southwest Conference; for the Ohio High School Conference English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States The Gullah language (Sea Island Creole English Geechee is a Creole language spoken by the Gullah people (also called "Geechees" an African Louisiana Creole is a French Creole language spoken by the mixed Louisiana Creole people of the state of Louisiana. African American Vernacular English ( AAVE) – also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Notable African-Americans or Black Americans For people from current African countries see lists for individual countries List of first African-American mayors for most mayor listings African Americans are a demographic minority in the United States. This is a list of landmark legislation, court decisions, executive orders and proclamations in the United States significantly affecting African Americans This is an alphabetical list of African-American-related topics: A African American African American culture This is a list of articles that are related to African and black people British colonization of the Americas (including colonization under the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland before the 1707 Acts of Union created The Colony of Virginia (also known frequently as the Virginia Colony and occasionally as the Dominion and Colony of Virginia) was the English colony The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution officially abolished and continues to prohibit Slavery, and with limited exceptions such as those Before the widespread establishment of chattel slavery, much labor was organized under a system of bonded labor known as indentured servitude. As a social-economic system slavery is a legal institution under which a Person (called "a slave" is compelled to work for another An indentured servant is a form of Debt bondage worker The Laborer is under Contract of an Employer for some period of time usually three to This typically lasted for several years for white and black alike, and it was a means of using labor to pay the costs of transporting people to the colonies. White People is the second album by Handsome Boy Modeling School. The term black people usually refers to a racial group of Humans with dark Skin color, but the term has also been used to categorise a number of diverse ^[1] By the 18th century, court rulings established the racial basis of the American incarnation of slavery to apply chiefly to Black Africans and people of African descent, and occasionally to Native Americans. As a social-economic system slavery is a legal institution under which a Person (called "a slave" is compelled to work for another The term black people usually refers to a racial group of Humans with dark Skin color, but the term has also been used to categorise a number of diverse Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States ^[2] In part because of the Southern colonies' devotion of resources to tobacco culture, which was labor intensive, by the end of the 17th century they had a higher number and proportion of slaves than in the north. The Southern Colonies of British Colonial America consisted of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, and Virginia. Tobacco is an Agricultural product recognized as an addictive drug processed from the fresh Leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. The Thirteen Colonies were part of what became known as British America, a name that was used by Great Britain until the Treaty of Paris (1783 recognized the ^[3]

From 1654 until 1865, slavery for life was legal within the boundaries of the present United States. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the ^[4] Most slaves were black and were held by whites, although some Native Americans and free blacks also held slaves. The majority of slaveholding was in the southern United States where most slaves were engaged in an efficient machine-like gang system of agriculture. The Southern United States &mdashcommonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South &mdashconstitutes a large distinctive According to the 1860 U. S. census, nearly four million slaves were held in a total population of just over 12 million in the 15 states in which slavery was legal. ^[5] Of all 1,515,605 families in the 15 slave states, 393,967 held slaves (roughly one in four),^[6] amounting to 8% of all American families. A slave state was a US state in which Slavery of African Americans was legal ^[7] Most households, however, had only a few slaves. The majority of slaves was held by planters, defined by historians as those who held 20 or more slaves. ^[8] The planters achieved wealth and social and political power. Ninety-five percent of black people lived in the South, comprising one-third of the population there, as opposed to 2% of the population of the North. The Northern United States is a large geographic region of the United States of America. ^[9]

The wealth of the United States in the first half of the 19th century was greatly enhanced by the labor of African Americans. ^[10][11] But with the Union victory in the American Civil War, the slave-labor system was abolished in the South. During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty-three Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South ^[12] This led to the decline of the antebellum Southern economy. The large southern cotton plantations became much less profitable because of the loss of the efficiencies in the gang system of agriculture. Cotton is a soft staple Fibre that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant ( Gossypium sp ^[13] Northern industry, which had expanded rapidly before and during the war, surged even further ahead of the South's agricultural economy. The technological and industrial history of the United States describes the United States ' emergence as one of the largest nations in the world as well as the most technologically Agriculture is a major industry in the United States and the country is a net exporter of food Industrialists from northeastern states came to dominate many aspects of the nation's life, including social and some aspects of political affairs. The Northeast is a region of the United States. As defined by the U Politics of the United States takes place in the framework of a presidential, Federal republic where the President of the United States (the Head of The planter class of the South lost power temporarily. The rapid economic development following the Civil War laid the groundwork for the modern U.S. industrial economy. The Economy of the United States is the largest national economy in the world

Twelve million black Africans were shipped to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World, consisting of the Continents of North America and South America ^[14][15] Of these, an estimated 645,000 (5. 4% of the total) were brought to what is now the United States. The overwhelming majority were shipped to Brazil^[16] The slave population in the United States had grown to four million by the 1860 Census. |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld ^[17]

Colonial America

Main article: Slavery in Colonial America

The first record of African slavery in Colonial America occurred in 1619. The origins of Slavery in the colonial United States are complex and there are several theories that have been proposed to explain the trade A Dutch ship, the White Lion, had captured 20 enslaved Africans in a battle with a Spanish ship bound for Mexico. The Dutch Empire was the territories controlled by The Netherlands from the 17th to the 20th century The Atlantic Slave trade, also known as the transatlantic slave trade, was the trade of African people supplied to the Colonies of the New World The Spanish Empire (Imperio Español was one of the largest Empires in history and one of the first Global empires In the 15th and 16th centuries The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. The Dutch ship had been damaged first by the battle and then more severely in a great storm during the late summer when it came ashore at Old Point Comfort, site of present day Fort Monroe in Virginia. Fort Monroe (also known as Fortress Monroe) is a Hampton Virginia, military installation located at Old Point Comfort, which is on the tip of the The Commonwealth of Virginia ( is an American state Though the colony was in the middle of a period later known as "The Great Migration" (1618-1623), during which its population grew from 450 to 4,000 residents, extremely high mortality rates from disease, malnutrition, and war with Native Americans kept the population of able-bodied laborers low [3]. An infectious disease is a clinically evident Disease resulting from the presence of Pathogenic microbial agents including Pathogenic viruses Pathogenic Malnutrition is a general term for a medical condition caused by an improper or insufficient diet. Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States With the Dutch ship being in severe need of repairs and supplies and the colonists being in need of able-bodied workers, the human cargo was traded for food and services.

In addition to African slaves, Europeans, mostly Irish,^[18] Scottish,^[19] English, and Germans, were brought over in substantial numbers as indentured servants,^[20] particularly in the British Thirteen Colonies. The Irish people ( Irish: Muintir na hÉireann, na hÉireannaigh, na Gaeil) are a Western European Ethnic group who originate The Scots people ( Scots Gaelic: Albannaich) are a Nation and an Ethnic group indigenous to Scotland. The English people (from the adjective in Englisc) are a Nation and Ethnic group native to England who predominantly speak English The German people (Deutsche are an Ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common German culture, descent and speaking the German language as An indentured servant is a form of Debt bondage worker The Laborer is under Contract of an Employer for some period of time usually three to The Thirteen Colonies were part of what became known as British America, a name that was used by Great Britain until the Treaty of Paris (1783 recognized the ^[21] Over half of all white immigrants to the English colonies of North America during the 17th and 18th centuries consisted of indentured servants. ^[22] The white citizens of Virginia, who had arrived from Britain, decided to treat the first Africans in Virginia as indentured servants. As with European indentured servants, the Africans were freed after a stated period and given the use of land and supplies by their former owners, and at least one African American, Anthony Johnson, eventually became a landowner on the Eastern Shore and a slave-owner. Anthony Johnson (? - 1670 was an early black resident of the Virginia Colony. The Eastern Shore of Virginia consists of two Counties ( Accomack and Northampton) on the Atlantic coast of the Commonwealth of ^[23] The major problem with indentured servants was that in time they would be freed, but they were unlikely to become prosperous. The best lands in the tidewater regions were already in the hands of wealthy plantation families by 1650, and the former servants became an underclass. The Tidewater region of Virginia is a term used to refer to the eastern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Bacon's Rebellion showed that the poor laborers and farmers could prove a dangerous element to the wealthy landowners. Bacon's Rebellion was an uprising in 1676 in the Virginia Colony, led by Nathaniel Bacon. By switching to pure chattel slavery, new white laborers and small farmers were mostly limited to those who could afford to immigrate and support themselves.

Slaves on a Virginia plantation (The Old Plantation, c. The Old Plantation is an American Folk art Watercolor that was likely painted in the late 18th century on a South Carolina Plantation 1790)

The transformation from indentured servitude to racial slavery happened gradually. There were no laws regarding slavery early in Virginia's history. However, by 1640 the Virginia courts had sentenced at least one black servant to slavery.

In 1654, John Casor, a black man, became the first legally-recognized slave in the area to become the United States. In 1654 John Casor of Northampton County in the Virginia Colony became the first person to be declared a slave for life A court in Northampton County ruled against Casor, declaring him property for life, "owned" by the black colonist Anthony Johnson. Northampton County is a county located in the US state &mdash officially " Commonwealth " &mdash of Virginia. Personal property is a type of Property. In the Common law systems personal property may also be called chattels or personalty. Since persons with African origins were not English citizens by birth, they were not necessarily covered by English Common Law. Common law refers to law and the corresponding legal system developed through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive

The Virginia Slave codes of 1705 made clear the status of slaves. Slave codes were laws each US state had defining the status of slaves and the rights of masters the code gave slave owners near-absolute power over the right of their During the British colonial period, every colony had slavery. Those in the north were primarily house servants. Early on, slaves in the South worked on farms and plantations growing indigo, rice, and tobacco; cotton became a major crop after the 1790s. Fundamentally a plantation is usually a large Farm or estate, especially in a tropical or semitropical country on which Cotton, Tobacco Indigofera is a large genus of about 700 species of Flowering plants belonging to the family Fabaceae. Rice is a Cereal foodstuff which forms an important part of the diet of many people worldwide and as such it is a staple food for many Cotton is a soft staple Fibre that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant ( Gossypium sp ^[24] In South Carolina in 1720 about 65% of the population consisted of slaves. The South Carolina Colony was originally part of the Province of Carolina, which was chartered in 1653 ^[25] Slaves were used by rich farmers and plantation owners with commercial export operations. Backwoods subsistence farmers seldom owned slaves.

Some of the British colonies attempted to abolish the international slave trade, fearing that the importation of new Africans would be disruptive. The Atlantic Slave trade, also known as the transatlantic slave trade, was the trade of African people supplied to the Colonies of the New World Virginia bills to that effect were vetoed by the British Privy Council; Rhode Island forbade the import of slaves in 1774. Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council is a body of advisors to the British Sovereign. Providence Plantation was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a theologian independent preacher and linguist on land gifted by the Narragansett sachem Canonicus All of the colonies except Georgia had banned or limited the African slave trade by 1786; Georgia did so in 1798 - although some of these laws were later repealed. The Province of Georgia (also Georgia Colony) was one of the Southern colonies in British North America. ^[26]

The West Africa Squadron was assisted by forces from the United States Navy, starting in 1820 with the USS Cyane. The West Africa Squadron, established in 1808 after the passing of the Slave Trade Act in 1807 was a unit of the Royal Navy that was involved in the suppression Initially this consisted of a few ships but was eventually formalised by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 into the Africa Squadron. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty, signed August 9, 1842, settled the dispute over the location of the Maine - New Brunswick border between the The Africa Squadron was a unit of the United States Navy that operated from 1843 to 1861 to suppress the Slave trade along the coast of West Africa. ^[27]

1776 to 1850

Second Middle Passage

As the nation expanded west, so did the cultivation of cotton^[28] and the institution of slavery. As a social-economic system slavery is a legal institution under which a Person (called "a slave" is compelled to work for another The history of slavery uncovers many different forms of human exploitation across many cultures throughout history Slavery as an institution in Mediterranean cultures of the ancient world comprised a mixture of Debt-slavery, slavery as a punishment for crime and The issue of religion and slavery is an area of historical research into the relationship between the world's major Religions and the practice of Slavery. The Bible contains several references to slavery. The Hebrew Bible does not promote Slavery, but neither does it condemn it Christianity does not have a clear position regarding slavery, in favour or against The major juristic schools of Islam traditionally accepted the institution of Slavery. Judaism has been influenced by the experience of slavery of the Hebrews in the land of Egypt, as narrated in the biblical story of The Exodus The Atlantic Slave trade, also known as the transatlantic slave trade, was the trade of African people supplied to the Colonies of the New World This article discusses systems of slavery within Africa the history and effects of the slavery trade upon Africa The Arab Slave trade was the practice of Slavery in West Asia, North Africa, East Africa, and certain parts of Europe (such The history of slavery uncovers many different forms of human exploitation across many cultures throughout history Human trafficking is the recruitment transportation harbouring or receipt of people for the purposes of slavery forced labor (including bonded labor or debt bondage and servitude Sexual slavery refers to the organised coercion of persons into various different sexual practices forced Prostitution single-owner sexual slavery Abolitionism was a political movement of the 18th and 19th century which sought to make Slavery illegal particularly in the United States and British West Indies Involuntary servitude is a United States legal and Constitutional term for a person laboring against that person's will to benefit another under some form The Gulag was the government agency that administered the penal labor camps of the Soviet Union. Unfree labour is a generic or collective term for those work relations especially in modern or early modern history in which people are employed against their will Debt bondage or bonded labor is a means of paying off loans with direct labor instead of currency or goods An indentured servant is a form of Debt bondage worker The Laborer is under Contract of an Employer for some period of time usually three to Slavery is a social-economic system under which certain persons — known as slaves — are deprived of personal freedom and compelled to perform labour or services In Law legal status refers to the concept of individuals having a particular place in society relative to the law as it determines the laws which affect them This is a simplified list of United States territorial acquisitions, beginning with American independence. Historian Peter Kolchin wrote, "By breaking up existing families and forcing slaves to relocate far from everyone and everything they knew" this migration "replicated (if on a reduced level) many of [the] horrors" of the Atlantic slave trade. ^[29] Historian Ira Berlin called this movement the Second Middle Passage. Middle Passage refers to the forcible passage of African people from Africa to the New World, as part of the Atlantic slave trade. Characterizing it as the "central event” in the life of a slave between the American Revolution and the Civil War, Berlin wrote that whether they were uprooted themselves or simply lived in fear that they or their families would be involuntarily moved, "the massive deportation traumatized black people, both slave and free. In this article the inhabitants of the thirteen colonies that supported the American Revolution are primarily referred to as "Americans" with occasional references to "Patriots" "^[30]

Although complete statistics are lacking, it is estimated that 1,000,000 slaves moved west between 1790 and 1860. Most of the slaves were moved from Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas. The Commonwealth of Virginia ( is an American state The Carolinas is a term used in the United States to refer collectively to the states of North and South Carolina. Originally the points of destination were Kentucky and Tennessee, but after 1810 Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas received the most. The Commonwealth of Kentucky ( is a state located in the East Central United States of America. Tennessee ( is a state located in the Southern United States. The State of Georgia ( is a state in the United States and was one of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule Alabama (formally the State of Alabama;) is a State located in the southern region of the United States of America. Mississippi ( is a state located in the Deep South of the United States The State of Louisiana ( or, État de Louisiane, pronounced) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. In the 1830s, almost 300,000 were transported, with Alabama and Mississippi receiving 100,000 each. Every decade between 1810 and 1860 had at least 100,000 slaves moved from their state of origin. In the final decade before the Civil War, 250,000 were moved. Michael Tadman, in a 1989 book Speculators and Slaves: Masters, Traders, and Slaves in the Old South, indicates that 60-70% of interregional migrations were the result of the sale of slaves. In 1820 a child in the Upper South had a 30% chance to be sold south by 1860. ^[31]

Slave traders were responsible for the majority of the slaves that moved west. Only a minority moved with their families and existing owner. Slave traders had little interest in purchasing or transporting intact slave families, although in the interest of creating a "self-reproducing labor force" equal numbers of men and women were transported. Berlin wrote, "The internal slave trade became the largest enterprise in the South outside the plantation itself, and probably the most advanced in its employment of modern transportation, finance, and publicity. " The slave trade industry developed its own unique language with terms such as "prime hands, bucks, breeding wenches, and fancy girls" coming into common use. ^[32] The expansion of the interstate slave trade contributed to the "economic revival of once depressed seaboard states" as demand accelerated the value of the slaves that were subject to sale. ^[33]

Some traders moved their "chattels" by sea, with Norfolk to New Orleans being the most common route, but most slaves were forced to walk. Norfolk is an Independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States New Orleans (nʲuːˈɔrliənz nʲuːˈɔrlənz French: La Nouvelle-Orléans) is a major United States port city and the largest city in Louisiana Regular migration routes were established and were served by a network of slave pens, yards, and warehouses needed as temporary housing for the slaves. As the trek advanced, some slaves were sold and new ones purchased. Berlin concluded, "In all, the slave trade, with its hubs and regional centers, its spurs and circuits, reached into every cranny of southern society. Few southerners, black or white, were untouched. "^[34]

The death rate for the slaves on their way to their new destination across the American South was much less than that of the captives on their way across the Atlantic Ocean, but they were still higher than the normal death rate. Berlin summarizes the experience:

. . .  the Second Middle Passage was extraordinarily lonely, debilitating, and dispiriting. Capturing the mournful character of one southward marching coffle, an observer characterized it as "a procession of men, women, and children resembling that of a funeral. " Indeed, with men and women dying on the march or being sold and resold, slaves became not merely commodified but cut off from nearly every human attachment. . . .

Murder and mayhem made the Second Middle Passage almost as dangerous for traders as it was for slaves, which was why the men were chained tightly and guarded closely. . . . The coffles that marched slaves southward – like the slave ships that carried their ancestors westward – became mobile fortresses, and under such circumstances, flight was more common than revolt. Slaves found it easier – and far less perilous – to slip into the night and follow the North Star to the fabled land of freedom than to confront their heavily armed overlords. ^[35]

Once the trip was ended, slaves faced a life on the frontier significantly different from their experiences back east. Clearing trees and starting crops on virgin fields was harsh and backbreaking work. A combination of inadequate nutrition, bad water, and exhaustion from both the journey and the work weakened the newly arrived slaves and produced casualties. The preferred locations of the new plantations in river bottoms with mosquitoes and other environmental challenges threatened the survival of slaves, who had acquired only limited immunities in their previous homes. Mosquitoes are insects in the family Culicidae. They have a pair of scaled wings a pair of Halteres, a slender body and long legs The death rate was such that, in the first few years of hewing a plantation out of the wilderness, some planters preferred whenever possible to use rented slaves rather than their own. ^[36]

The harsh conditions on the frontier increased slave resistance and led to much more reliance on violence by the owners and overseers. Many of the slaves were new to cotton fields and unaccustomed to the "sunrise-to-sunset gang labor" required by their new life. Slaves were driven much harder than when they were involved in growing tobacco or wheat back east. Wheat ( Triticum spp is a worldwide cultivated grass from the Levant area of the Middle East. Slaves also had less time and opportunity to boost the quality of their lifestyle by raising their own livestock or tending vegetable gardens, for either their own consumption or trade, as they could in the eastern south. Livestock is the term used to refer (singularly or plurally to a Domesticated Animal intentionally reared in an agricultural setting to produce such as Food ^[37]

In Louisiana it was sugar, rather than cotton, that was the main crop. Sugar is a class of edible Crystalline substances mainly Sucrose, Lactose, and Fructose. Between 1810 and 1830 the number of slaves increased from under 10,000 to over 42,000. New Orleans became nationally important as a slave port and by the 1840s had the largest slave market in the country. Dealing with sugar cane was even more physically demanding than growing cotton, and the preference was for young males, who represented two-thirds of the slave purchases. The largely young, unmarried male slave force made the reliance on violence by the owners “especially savage. ”^[38]

Treatment of slaves

Slave market, built in 1762, in Newport, Rhode Island, now home to the Museum of Newport History

Historian Kenneth M. Stampp describes the role of coercion in slavery, “Without the power to punish, which the state conferred upon the master, bondage could not have existed. The Museum of Newport History is a museum in the Old Brick Market building in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about 30 miles (48 km south of Providence Kenneth Milton Stampp (b July 12 1912 Alexander F and May T Morrison Professor of History Emeritus at the University of California Berkeley (1946-1983 is a celebrated Unfree labour is a generic or collective term for those work relations especially in modern or early modern history in which people are employed against their will By comparison, all other techniques of control were of secondary importance. ” Stampp further notes that while rewards sometimes led slaves to perform adequately, most agreed with an Arkansas slaveholder, who wrote:

Now, I speak what I know, when I say it is like ‘casting pearls before swine' to try to persuade a negro to work. He must be made to work, and should always be given to understand that if he fails to perform his duty he will be punished for it. ^[39]

According to both the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Brion Davis and Marxist historian Eugene Genovese, treatment of slaves was both harsh and inhumane. The Pulitzer Prize, ˈpʊlɨtsɚ PULL-it-sər is an American award regarded as the highest national honor in Newspaper journalism, David Brion Davis (born February 16, 1927) is Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University. Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Eugene Dominic Genovese (born May 19, 1930) is an award-winning and noted historian of the American South and American slavery Whether laboring or walking about in public, people living as slaves were regulated by legally authorized violence. Davis makes the point that, while some aspects of slavery took on a "welfare capitalist" look,:

Yet we must never forget that these same "welfare capitalist" plantations in the Deep South were essentially ruled by terror. Even the most kindly and humane masters knew that only the threat of violence could force gangs of field hands to work from dawn to dusk "with the discipline," as one contemporary observer put it, "of a regular trained army. " Frequent public floggings reminded every slave of the penalty for inefficient labor, disorderly conduct, or refusal to accept the authority of a superior. ^[40]

On large plantations, slave overseers were authorized to whip and brutalize non-compliant slaves. A bullwhip is a single-tailed whip, usually made of braided leather which was originally used as a farmer's tool for working with livestock Slave codes authorized, indemnified or even required the use of violence, and were denounced by abolitionists for their brutality. An indemnity is a sum paid by A to B by way of compensation for a particular loss suffered by B. Abolitionism was a political movement of the 18th and 19th century which sought to make Slavery illegal particularly in the United States and British West Indies Both slaves and free blacks were regulated by the Black Codes and had their movements monitored by slave patrols conscripted from the white population which were allowed to use summary punishment against escapees, sometimes maiming or killing them. Slave patrols (called patrollers, pattyrollers or paddy rollers by the slaves were organized groups of three to six white men who enforced discipline upon In addition to physical abuse and murder, slaves were at constant risk of losing members of their families if their owners decided to trade them for profit, punishment, or to pay debts. A few slaves retaliated by murdering owners and overseers, burning barns, killing horses, or staging work slowdowns. ^[41] Stampp, without contesting Genovese's assertions concerning the violence and sexual exploitation faced by slaves, does question the appropriateness of a Marxian approach in analyzing the owner-slave relationship. Sexual slavery refers to the organised coercion of persons into various different sexual practices forced Prostitution single-owner sexual slavery ^[42]

Genovese claims that because the slaves were the legal property of their owners, it was not unusual for enslaved black women to be raped by their owners, members of their owner's families, or their owner's friends. Children who resulted from such rapes were slaves as well because they took the status of their mothers, unless freed by the slaveholder. Nell Irwin Painter and other historians have also documented that Southern history went "across the color line". Contemporary accounts by Mary Chesnut and Fanny Kemble, both married in the planter class, as well as accounts by former slaves gathered under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), all attested to the abuse of women slaves by white men of the owning and overseer class. Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut ( March 31, 1823 &ndash November 22, 1886) better known as Mary Boykin Chesnut, was a South Carolina This article refers an actress For other uses of the proper noun Kemble see the disambiguation page entitled Kemble. The Works Progress Administration (renamed in 1939 the Work Projects Administration; WPA) was the largest New Deal agency employing millions of people

However, the Nobel economist Robert Fogel controversially describes the belief that slave-breeding and sexual exploitation destroyed the black family as a myth. Robert William Fogel (born July 1, 1926) is an American economic historian and scientist and winner (with Douglass North) of the 1993 He argues that the family was the basic unit of social organization under slavery; it was to the economic interest of planters to encourage the stability of slave families, and most of them did so. Most slave sales were either of whole families or of individuals who were at an age when it would have been normal for them to have left the family. ^[43] However, eye-witness testimony from slaves, such as Frederick Douglass, does not agree with this account. Frederick Douglass, who grew up as a slave in Maryland, reported the systematic separation of slave families. He also reports the widespread rape of slave women, in order to boost slave numbers. ^[44]

According to Genovese, slaves were fed, clothed, housed and provided medical care in the most minimal manner. It was common to pay small bonuses during the Christmas season, and some slave owners permitted their slaves to keep earnings and gambling profits. (One slave, Denmark Vesey, is known to have won a lottery and bought his freedom. Denmark Vesey (originally Telemaque,1767? &ndash July 2, 1822) was a West Indian slave brought to the United States ) In many households, treatment of slaves varied with the slave's skin color. Darker-skinned slaves worked in the fields, while lighter-skinned house servants had comparatively better clothing, food and housing. ^[45]

As in President Thomas Jefferson's household, this was not merely an issue of skin color. Thomas Jefferson (April 13 1743 – July 4 1826 was the third President of the United States (1801–1809 the principal author of the Declaration of Independence Sometimes planters used light-skinned slaves as house servants because they were relatives. Several of Jefferson's household slaves were children of his father-in-law and an enslaved woman, who were brought to the marriage by Jefferson's wife.

However, Fogel argues that the material conditions of the lives of slaves compared favorably with those of free industrial workers. They were not good by modern standards, but this fact emphasizes the hard lot of all workers, free or slave, during the first half of the 19th century. Over the course of his lifetime, the typical slave field hand received about 90% of the income he produced. ^[43]

In a survey, 58% of historians and 42% of economists disagreed with the proposition that the material condition of slaves compared favorably with those of free industrial workers. ^[43]

Slaves were considered legal non-persons except if they committed crimes. An Alabama court asserted that slaves "are rational beings, they are capable of committing crimes; and in reference to acts which are crimes, are regarded as persons. Because they are slaves, they are incapable of performing civil acts, and, in reference to all such, they are things, not persons. "^[46]

In 1811, Arthur William Hodge was the first slave owner executed for the murder of a slave in the British West Indies. The term British West Indies refers to territories in and around the Caribbean which were at one time colonised by the United Kingdom. ^[47] He though was not, as some have claimed, the first white person to have been lawfully executed for the killing of a slave. Capital punishment, the death penalty or execution, is the Killing of a person by judicial process as Punishment. ^[48] Records indicate at least two earlier incidents. On November 23, 1739, in Williamsburg, Virginia, two white men, Charles Quin and David White, were hanged for the murder of another white man's black slave; and on April 21, 1775, the Fredericksburg newspaper, the Virginia Gazette reported that a white man William Pitman had been hanged for the murder of his own black slave. Events 800 - Charlemagne arrives at Rome to investigate the alleged crimes of Year 1739 ( MDCCXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Williamsburg is a city located on the Virginia Peninsula in the Hampton Roads region in southeastern Virginia Events 753 BC - Romulus and Remus found Rome ( traditional date) Year 1775 ( MDCCLXXV) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Fredericksburg is an Independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia and is located 50 miles south of Washington D The Virginia Gazette is the local Newspaper of the City of Williamsburg, James City County Virginia. ^[49]

Women's rights

While working on plantations and farms, women and men had equal labor-intensive work. However, much of the hard labor was taken care of by men or by women who were past the child-bearing stage. Some of the labor-intensive jobs given to women were: cooking for the owner's household as well as the slaves themselves, sewing, midwifery, pruning fields, and many other laborious occupations.

In 1837, an Antislavery Convention of American Women met in New York City with both black and white women participating. The City of New York Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had first met at the convention and realized the need for a separate women's rights movement. Lucretia Coffin Mott ( January 3, 1793 – November 11, 1880) was an American Quaker minister, Abolitionist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton (November 12 1815 &ndash October 26 1902 was an American social activist and leading figure of the early woman's movement. At the London gathering Stanton also met other women delegates such as Emily Winslow, Abby Southwick, Elizabeth Neal, Mary Grew, Abby Kimber, as well as many other women. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. However, during the Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society meetings, which Stanton and Winslow attended, the hosts refused to seat the women delegates. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts ( is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. This resulted in a convention of their own to form a "society to advocate the rights of women". In 1848 at Seneca Falls, New York, Stanton and Winslow launched the women's rights movement, becoming one of the most diverse and social forces in American life. ^[50]

Abolitionist movement

Beginning in the 1750s, there was widespread sentiment during the American Revolution that slavery was a social evil (for the country as a whole and for the whites) and should eventually be abolished. In this article the inhabitants of the thirteen colonies that supported the American Revolution are primarily referred to as "Americans" with occasional references to "Patriots" All the Northern states passed emancipation acts between 1780 and 1804; most of these arranged for gradual emancipation and a special status for freedmen, so there were still a dozen "permanent apprentices" in New Jersey in 1860. New Jersey ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. ^[51]

The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 declared all men "born free and equal"; the slave Quork Walker sued for his freedom on this basis and won his freedom, thus abolishing slavery in Massachusetts. The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the fundamental governing document of the United States Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Quacko Walker Lewis was an early African American Abolitionist, Freemason, and Mormon elder from Massachusetts.

Throughout the first half of the 19th century, a movement to end slavery grew in strength throughout the United States. This struggle took place amid strong support for slavery among white Southerners, who profited greatly from the system of enslaved labor. These slave owners began to refer to slavery as the "peculiar institution" in a defensive attempt to differentiate it from other examples of forced labor. "(Our peculiar institution" was a Euphemism for Slavery and the economic ramifications of it in the American South.

The large, well-funded American Colonization Society had an active program of shipping ex-slaves and free blacks who volunteered back to Africa to the American colony of Liberia. The American Colonization Society (in full The Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America was an organization that helped in founding Liberia, a Colony Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the west coast of Africa, bordered by Sierra Leone, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire

After 1830, a religious movement led by William Lloyd Garrison declared slavery to be a personal sin and demanded the owners repent immediately and start the process of emancipation. William Lloyd Garrison ( December 12 1805 – May 24 1879) was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist and social reformer Sin is a term used mainly in a religious context to describe an act that violates a moral Rule, or the state of having committed such a violation The movement was highly controversial and was a factor in causing the American Civil War. The main explanation for the origins of the American Civil War was slavery, especially the issue of the expansion of slavery into the territories.

Very few abolitionists, such as John Brown, favored the use of armed force to foment uprisings among the slaves; others tried to use the legal system. John Brown (May 9 1800 December 2 1859 was an American Abolitionist who advocated and practiced armed Insurrection as a means to end all Slavery

Peter, a slave from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1863. Baton Rouge (French Bâton-Rouge ˌbætən ˈruːdʒ in English, and in French) is the capital city of Louisiana. The scars are a result of a whipping by his overseer, who was subsequently discharged. It took two months to recover from the beating. This man's name is also given as "Gordon". See [http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/detailsKeyword.php?keyword=results%20of%20severe%20whipping&recordCount=1&theRecord=0

Influential leaders of the abolition movement (1810-60) included:

• William Lloyd Garrison - published The Liberator newspaper
• Harriet Beecher Stowe - author of Uncle Tom's Cabin
• Frederick Douglass - nation's most powerful anti-slavery speaker, a former slave. William Lloyd Garrison ( December 12 1805 – May 24 1879) was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist and social reformer The Liberator was an abolitionist newspaper founded by William Lloyd Garrison in 1831. Harriet Beecher Stowe (June 14 1811 – July 1 1896 was an American Author and Abolitionist, whose Novel Uncle Tom's Cabin Uncle Tom's Cabin; or Life Among the Lowly is an anti- Slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 14 1818 February 20 1895 was an American abolitionist, editor, Orator Most famous for his book Narrative in the Life of Frederick Douglass.
• Harriet Tubman - helped 350 slaves escape from the South, became known as a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross; c 1820 – 10 March 1913 was an African-American Abolitionist, Humanitarian, and Union The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and Safe houses used by 19th century Black slaves in the United States

Slave uprisings that used armed force (1700 - 1859) include:

• New York Revolt of 1712
• The Stono Rebellion (1739) in South Carolina
• New York Slave Insurrection of 1741
• Gabriel's Rebellion (1800) in Virginia
• Louisiana Territory Slave Rebellion, led by Charles Deslondes (1811)
• George Boxley Rebellion (1815) in Virginia
• Denmark Vesey Uprising in South Carolina (1822)
• Nat Turner's Rebellion (1831) in Virginia
• The Amistad Seizure (1839) on a Spanish ship

See also: List of notable opponents of slavery‎

Rising tensions

The economic value of plantation slavery was magnified in 1793 with the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney, a device designed to separate cotton fibers from seedpods and the sometimes sticky seeds. The Stono Rebellion (sometimes called Cato's Conspiracy or Cato's Rebellion) is one of the earliest known organized acts of rebellion against slavery within the The Gabriel (1776&ndash October 10, 1800) today commonly if incorrectly known as Gabriel Prosser, was a skilled and literate enslaved blacksmith Charles Deslondes led a slave revolt in parts of the Louisiana Territory on January 8, 1811. George Boxley was a white storekeeper who while living in Spotsylvania Virginia, allegedly tried to coordinate a local slave rebellion on March 6, 1815 Denmark Vesey (originally Telemaque,1767? &ndash July 2, 1822) was a West Indian slave brought to the United States Nat Turner's Rebellion (also known as the Southampton Insurrection) was a Slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia during The Amistad, 40 US (15 Pet 518 (1841 was a United States Supreme Court case resulting from the rebellion of slaves on board the Spanish This is a listing of notable opponents of slavery. Groups African Methodist Episcopal Church A Cotton Gin' (short for cotton engine) is a machine that quickly and easily separates the Cotton fibers from the seedpods and the sometimes sticky seeds a job The invention revolutionized the cotton-growing industry by increasing the quantity of cotton that could be processed in a day by fiftyfold. The result was explosive growth in the cotton industry and greatly increased demand for slave labor in the South. ^[52]

At the same time, the northern states banned slavery, though as Alexis de Toqueville pointed out in Democracy in America (1835), the prohibition did not always mean that the slaves were freed. De la démocratie en Amérique (published in two volumes the first in 1835 and the second in 1840 is a classic French text by Alexis de Tocqueville Toqueville noted that as Northern states provided for gradual emancipation, they generally outlawed the sale of slaves within the state. This meant that the only way to sell slaves before they were freed was to move them South. Toqueville does not provide any documentation that such transfers actually occurred to any great extent. ^[53] In fact, the emancipation of slaves in the North led to the growth in the population of northern free blacks from several hundred in the 1770s to nearly 50,000 by 1810. ^[54]

Just as demand for slaves was increasing, supply was restricted. The United States Constitution, adopted in 1787, prevented Congress from banning the importation of slaves until 1808. The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme Law of the United States. The United States Congress is the bicameral Legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses In Economics, an import is any good (eg a Commodity) or Service brought into one country from another country in a legitimate fashion On January 1, 1808, Congress acted to ban further imports. New Year See also New Year The Ancient Romans began their consular year on January 1st since 153 BC Year 1808 ( MDCCCVIII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Any new slaves would have to be descendants of ones who were currently in the United States. The internal U. S. slave trade, and the involvement in the international slave trade or the outfitting of ships for that trade by U. S. citizens, were not banned. Though there were certainly violations of this law, slavery in America became more or less self-sustaining.

Internal Slave Trade

With the movement in Virginia and the Carolinas away from tobacco cultivation and toward mixed agriculture, which was less labor intensive, planters in those states had excess slave labor. They hired out some slaves for occasional labor, but planters also began to sell enslaved African Americans to traders who took them to markets in the Deep South for their expanding plantations. The internal slave trade and forced migration of enslaved African Americans continued for another half-century. Tens of thousands of slaves were transported from the Upper South, including Kentucky and Tennessee which became slave-selling states in these decades, to the Deep South. The Deep South is a descriptive category of cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Thousands of African American families were broken up in the sales, which first concentrated on male laborers. The scale of the internal slave trade contributed substantially to the wealth of the Deep South. In 1840, New Orleans—which had the largest slave market and important shipping—was the third largest city in the country and the wealthiest.

Because of the three-fifths compromise in the U. The Three-Fifths Compromise was a compromise between Southern and Northern states reached during the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in which S. Constitution, slaveholders exerted their power through the Federal Government and passed Federal fugitive slave laws. The fugitive slave laws were laws passed by the United States Congress in 1793 and 1850 to provide for the return of slaves who escaped from one state Refugees from slavery fled the South across the Ohio River and other parts of the Mason-Dixon Line dividing North from South, to the North via the Underground Railroad. The Ohio River is the largest Tributary by volume of the Mississippi River. The Mason–Dixon Line (or "Mason and Dixon's Line" is a Demarcation line between four U The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and Safe houses used by 19th century Black slaves in the United States The physical presence of African Americans in Cincinnati, Oberlin, and other Northern towns agitated some white Northerners, though others helped hide former slaves from their former owners, and others helped them reach freedom in Canada. Oberlin is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States, to the south and west of Cleveland. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page After 1854, Republicans fumed that the Slave Power, especially the pro-slavery Democratic Party, controlled two of the three branches of the Federal government. The Slave Power (sometimes referred to as the " Slaveocracy " was a term used in the Northern United States (primarily in the period 1840-1875 to characterize The Democratic Party is one of two major Political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party.

Most Northeastern states became free states through local emancipation. The settlement of the Midwestern states after the Revolution led to their decisions in the 1820s not to allow slavery. A Northern block of free states solidified into one contiguous geographic area which shared culture. The dividing line was the Mason-Dixon Line (between slave-state Maryland and free-state Pennsylvania) and the Ohio River. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ( often colloquially referred to as PA (its abbreviation by natives and Northeasterners is a state located in the Northeastern

Religious institutions

North and South grew further apart in 1845 when the Baptist Church and other denominations split into Northern and Southern organizations. The Southern Baptist Convention formed on the premise that the Bible sanctions slavery and that it was acceptable for Christians to own slaves. The Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC) is a United States -based mostly conservative Christian denomination Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings (In the 20th century, the Southern Baptist Convention renounced this interpretation. ) Northern Baptists opposed slavery. In 1844, the Home Mission Society declared that a person could not be a missionary and still keep slaves as property. The American Baptist Home Mission Society is a Christian missionary society A missionary is a member of a Religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith someone who proselytizes. The Methodist and Presbyterian churches likewise divided north and south. Methodism is a movement within Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations Presbyterianism is a family of Christian denominations within the Reformed branch of Protestant Western Christianity By the late 1850s only the Democratic Party was a national institution, although it split in the 1860 election. The United States presidential election of 1860 set the stage for the American Civil War.

Distribution of slaves

Distribution of slaves in 1820

Nat Turner, anti-literacy laws

In 1831, a bloody slave rebellion took place in Southampton County, Virginia. Southampton County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state of the United States. A slave named Nat Turner who was able to read and write and had "visions", led what became known as Nat Turner's Rebellion or the Southampton Insurrection. Nat Turner (Nathaniel Turner October 2 1800 – November 11 1831 was an American slave who started the largest slave rebellion in the Antebellum Nat Turner's Rebellion (also known as the Southampton Insurrection) was a Slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia during On a crusade with the goal of freeing himself and others, Turner and his followers killed approximately fifty men, women and children, but they were eventually subdued by the white militia.

Nat Turner was hanged and skinned. His fellow freedom fighters were also hanged. In addition to killing Turner and his fellow insurrectionists, more than a hundred innocent slaves who had nothing to do with the rebellion were also massacred by the white militia. Across the South, harsh new laws were enacted in the aftermath of the 1831 Turner Rebellion to curtail the already limited rights of African Americans. Typical was the Virginia law against educating slaves, free blacks and children of whites and blacks. These laws were often defied by individuals, among whom was noted future Confederate General Stonewall Jackson. The Confederate States of America (also called the Confederacy, the Confederate States, and CSA) formed as the government set up from 1861 Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (January 21 1824 &ndash May 10 1863 was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, and probably the

1850s to the Civil War

Bleeding Kansas

After the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854, the border wars broke out in Kansas Territory, where the question of whether it would be admitted to the Union as a slave or free state was left to the inhabitants. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opened new lands repealed the Missouri Compromise of The Territory of Kansas was an Organized territory of the United States that existed from May 30 1854 until January 29 1861 when Kansas became the 34th A slave state was a US state in which Slavery of African Americans was legal The free states of the United States existed in opposition to the Slave states prior to the American Civil War. Abolitionist John Brown was active in the rebellion and killing in "Bleeding Kansas" as were many white Southerners. John Brown (May 9 1800 December 2 1859 was an American Abolitionist who advocated and practiced armed Insurrection as a means to end all Slavery Bleeding Kansas, sometimes referred to in history as Bloody Kansas or the Border War, was a series of violent events involving Free-Staters At the same time, fears that the Slave Power was seizing full control of the national government swept anti-slavery Republicans into office.

Dred Scott

Dred Scott was a 62-year-old slave who sued for his freedom after the death of his owner on the grounds that he had lived in a territory where slavery was forbidden (the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase, from which slavery was excluded under the terms of the Missouri Compromise). Dred Scott (1799 – September 17, 1858) was a slave in the United States who sued unsuccessfully for his freedom in the famous For the film see Louisiana Purchase (film. The Louisiana Purchase (French Vente de la Louisiane "Louisiana Sale" The Missouri Compromise was an agreement passed in 1820 between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress, involving Scott filed suit for freedom in 1847 and went through two state trials, the first denying and the second granting freedom. Ten years later the Supreme Court denied Scott his freedom in a sweeping decision that set the United States on course for Civil War. The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The court ruled that Dred Scott was not a citizen who had a right to sue in the Federal courts, and that Congress had no constitutional power to pass the Missouri Compromise. Article I section 8 clause 4 of the United States Constitution expressly gives the United States Congress the power to establish a uniform rule of naturalization

The 1857 Dred Scott decision, decided 7-2, held that a slave did not become free when taken into a free state; Congress could not bar slavery from a territory; and blacks could not be citizens. Dred Scott v Sandford —whether or not they were slaves—could never be Citizens of the United States, and that the United States Congress Furthermore, a state could not bar slaveowners from bringing slaves into that state. This decision, seen as unjust by many Republicans including Abraham Lincoln, was also seen as proof that the Slave Power had seized control of the Supreme Court. Abraham Lincoln (February 12 1809 &ndash April 15 1865 the sixteenth President of the United States, successfully led his country through its greatest internal The decision, written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, barred slaves and their descendants from citizenship. The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the judicial branch of the government of the United States, and presides over the U Roger Brooke Taney ( "tawny" March 17, 1777 – October 12, 1864) was the twelfth United States Attorney General The decision enraged abolitionists and encouraged slave owners, helping to push the country towards civil war. ^[56]

1860 presidential election

The divisions became fully exposed with the 1860 presidential election. The United States presidential election of 1860 set the stage for the American Civil War. The electorate split four ways. The Southern Democrats endorsed slavery, while the Republicans denounced it. The Northern Democrats said democracy required the people to decide on slavery locally. The Constitutional Union Party said the survival of the Union was at stake and everything else should be compromised. The Constitutional Union Party (also known as the Bell-Everett Party in California was a Political party in the United States created in 1860

Lincoln, the Republican, won with a plurality of popular votes and a majority of electoral votes. The Electoral College consists of 538 popularly elected representatives who formally select the President and Vice President of the United States. Lincoln, however, did not appear on the ballots of ten southern states: thus his election necessarily split the nation along sectional lines. Many slave owners in the South feared that the real intent of the Republicans was the abolition of slavery in states where it already existed, and that the sudden emancipation of four million slaves would be problematic for the slave owners and for the economy that drew its greatest profits from the labor of people who were not paid.

They also argued that banning slavery in new states would upset what they saw as a delicate balance of free states and slave states. They feared that ending this balance could lead to the domination of the industrial North with its preference for high tariffs on imported goods. For other uses of this word see Tariff (disambiguation. A tariff is a tax imposed on goods when they are moved across a political boundary The combination of these factors led the South to secede from the Union, and thus began the American Civil War. The Ordinance of Secession was the document drafted and ratified in 1860 and 1861 by the seceding states that officially declared their Secession from the Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South Northern leaders had viewed the slavery interests as a threat politically, and with secession, they viewed the prospect of a new southern nation, the Confederate States of America, with control over the Mississippi River and the West, as politically and militarily unacceptable. The Confederate States of America (also called the Confederacy, the Confederate States, and CSA) formed as the government set up from 1861 The Mississippi River is the second longest River in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to The Western United States &mdashcommonly referred to as the American West or simply the West &mdashtraditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost

War and emancipation

The consequent American Civil War, beginning in 1861, led to the end of chattel slavery in America. Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South Not long after the war broke out, through a legal maneuver credited to Union General Benjamin F. Butler, a lawyer by profession, slaves who came into Union "possession" were considered "contraband of war". Benjamin Franklin Butler (November 5 1818 January 11 1893 was an American Lawyer and Politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States Contraband was a term commonly used in the United States during the American Civil War to describe a new status for certain escaped slaves or those who came into the General Butler ruled that they were not subject to return to Confederate owners as they had been before the war. Soon word spread, and many slaves sought refuge in Union territory, desiring to be declared "contraband. " Many of the "contrabands" joined the Union Army as workers or troops, forming entire regiments of the U.S. Colored Troops. The Union Army was the army that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. The United States Colored Troops ( USCT) were regiments of the United States Army during the American Civil War that were composed of African-American Others went to refugee camps such as the Grand Contraband Camp near Fort Monroe or fled to northern cities. Grand Contraband Camp was located in Elizabeth City County near Fort Monroe and the downtown section of the present-day Independent city of Hampton Fort Monroe (also known as Fortress Monroe) is a Hampton Virginia, military installation located at Old Point Comfort, which is on the tip of the General Butler's interpretation was reinforced when Congress passed the Confiscation Act of 1861, which declared that any property used by the Confederate military, including slaves, could be confiscated by Union forces. The Confiscation Act of 1861 was an act permitting seizure of property including slaves being used to support insurrection during the American Civil War.

Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863 was a powerful move that promised freedom for slaves in the Confederacy as soon as the Union armies reached them, and authorized the enlistment of African Americans in the Union Army. The Emancipation Proclamation consists of two executive orders issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. New Year See also New Year The Ancient Romans began their consular year on January 1st since 153 BC Year 1863 ( MDCCCLXIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The Emancipation Proclamation did not free slaves in the Union-allied slave-holding states that bordered the Confederacy. Since the Confederate States did not recognize the authority of President Lincoln, and the proclamation did not apply in the border states, at first the proclamation freed only slaves who had escaped behind Union lines. Still, the proclamation made the abolition of slavery an official war goal that was implemented as the Union took territory from the Confederacy. According to the Census of 1860, this policy would free nearly four million slaves, or over 12% of the total population of the United States.

Simon Legree and Uncle Tom: A scene from Uncle Tom's Cabin, history's most famous abolitionist novel

The Arizona Organic Act abolished slavery on February 24, 1863 in the newly formed Arizona Territory. Uncle Tom's Cabin; or Life Among the Lowly is an anti- Slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Abolitionism was a political movement of the 18th and 19th century which sought to make Slavery illegal particularly in the United States and British West Indies The Arizona Organic Act was a United States federal law introduced as H Events 303 - Galerius, Roman Emperor, publishes his edict that begins the persecution of Christians in his portion of the Year 1863 ( MDCCCLXIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The Territory of Arizona was an Organized territory of the United States that existed between 1863 and 1912 Tennessee and all of the border states (except Kentucky) abolished slavery by early 1865. Tennessee ( is a state located in the Southern United States. The Commonwealth of Kentucky ( is a state located in the East Central United States of America. Thousands of slaves were freed by the operation of the Emancipation Proclamation as Union armies marched across the South. Emancipation as a reality came to the remaining southern slaves after the surrender of all Confederate troops in spring 1865.

There still were over 250,000 slaves in Texas. Word did not reach Texas about the collapse of the Confederacy until June 19, 1865. Events 1179 - The Norwegian Battle of Kalvskinnet outside Nidaros. Year 1865 ( MDCCCLXV) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year African Americans and others celebrate that day as Juneteenth, the day of freedom, in Texas, Oklahoma and some other states. Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, is an official annual holiday in 29 Twelve other states list it as an official holiday including Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. Oklahoma ( is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. It commemorates the date when the news finally reached slaves at Galveston, Texas. "Galveston" redirects here For the town in the US state of Indiana see Galveston Indiana.

Legally, the last 40,000 or so slaves were freed in Kentucky^[57] by the final ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in December 1865. The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution officially abolished and continues to prohibit Slavery, and with limited exceptions such as those Slaves still held in New Jersey, Delaware, West Virginia, Maryland and Missouri also became legally free on this date. Delaware ( is a state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. West Virginia ( is a state in the Appalachian Upland South, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, bordered by A slave state was a US state in which Slavery of African Americans was legal

Reconstruction to present

During Reconstruction, it was a serious question whether slavery had been permanently abolished or whether some form of semi-slavery would appear after the Union armies left.

Sharecropping

An 1867 federal law prohibited a descendant form of slavery known as sharecropping or debt bondage, which still existed in the New Mexico Territory as a legacy of Spanish imperial rule. Sharecropping is a system of agriculture or agricultural production in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced on the land (e Debt bondage or bonded labor is a means of paying off loans with direct labor instead of currency or goods The Territory of New Mexico became an Organized territory of the United States on September 9, 1850, and it existed until New Mexico The Viceroyalty of New Spain (Virreinato de Nueva España was a name given to the Viceroy -ruled territories of the Spanish Empire in North America, Between 1903 and 1944, the Supreme Court ruled on several cases involving debt bondage of black Americans, declaring these arrangements unconstitutional. In actual practice, however, sharecropping arrangements often resulted in peonage for both black and white farmers in the South.

Educational issues

The anti-literacy laws after 1832 undoubtedly contributed greatly to the widespread illiteracy facing the freedmen and other African Americans after the Civil War and Emancipation 35 years later. A freedman is a former slave who has been manumitted or emancipated. After Emancipation, the unfairness of such laws helped draw attention to the problem of illiteracy as one of the great challenges confronting these people as they sought to join the free enterprise system and support themselves during Reconstruction and thereafter. Capitalism is the Economic system in which the Means of production are owned by private Persons and operated for Profit and where

Consequently, many religious organizations, former Union Army officers and soldiers, and wealthy philanthropists were inspired to create and fund educational efforts specifically for the betterment of African Americans in the South. They helped create normal schools to generate teachers, such as those which eventually became Hampton University and Tuskegee University. normal school was a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers Hampton University is a historically black university located in Hampton Virginia, United States. Tuskegee University is a private, historically black university located in Tuskegee, Alabama, United States. Stimulated by the work of educators such as Dr. Booker T. Washington, by the first part of the 20th century over 5,000 local schools had been built for blacks in the South using private matching funds provided by individuals such as Henry H. Rogers, Andrew Carnegie, and most notably, Julius Rosenwald, each of whom had arisen from modest roots to become wealthy. Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5 1856 &ndash November 14 1915 was an American educator orator author and leader of the African-American community Matching funds is a term used to describe the requirement or condition that a generally minimal amount of money or services-in-kind originate from the beneficiaries of financial amounts Henry Huttleston Rogers ( January 29 1840 &ndash May 19 1909) was a United States capitalist, Businessman Andrew Carnegie (properly kɑrˈneɪgi but commonly /ˈkɑrnɨgi/ or /kɑrˈnɛgi/ (25 November 1835 – 11 August 1919 was a Scottish -born American Industrialist Julius Rosenwald ( August 12 1862 &ndash January 6, 1932) was a U

Apologies

On February 24, 2007, the Virginia General Assembly passed House Joint Resolution Number 728 acknowledging "with profound regret the involuntary servitude of Africans and the exploitation of Native Americans, and call for reconciliation among all Virginians. Events 303 - Galerius, Roman Emperor, publishes his edict that begins the persecution of Christians in his portion of the Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia. "^[58] With the passing of this resolution, Virginia became the first of the 50 United States to acknowledge through the state's governing body their state's negative involvement in slavery. The passing of this resolution came on the heels of the 400th anniversary celebration of the city of Jamestown, Virginia, which was one of the first slave ports of the American colonies. Jamestown, located on Jamestown Island in the Virginia Colony, was founded on May 14 1607

Arguments used to justify slavery

"A necessary evil"

In the 19th century, proponents of slavery often defended the institution as a "necessary evil". It was feared that emancipation would have more harmful social and economic consequences than the continuation of slavery. In 1820, Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter that with slavery:

We have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Thomas Jefferson (April 13 1743 – July 4 1826 was the third President of the United States (1801–1809 the principal author of the Declaration of Independence Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other. ^[59]

Robert E. Lee wrote in 1856:

There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil. Robert Edward Lee (January 19 1807 &ndash October 12 1870 was a career United States Army officer, an Engineer, and among the most celebrated It is idle to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it is a greater evil to the white than to the colored race. While my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter, my sympathies are more deeply engaged for the former. The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, physically, and socially. The painful discipline they are undergoing is necessary for their further instruction as a race, and will prepare them, I hope, for better things. How long their servitude may be necessary is known and ordered by a merciful Providence. ^[60]

"A positive good"

However, as the abolition agitation increased and the planting system expanded, apologies for slavery became more faint in the South. Then apologies were superseded by claims that slavery was a beneficial scheme of labor control. John C. Calhoun, in a famous speech in the Senate in 1837, declared that slavery was "instead of an evil, a good—a positive good. John Caldwell Calhoun (March 18 1782 &ndash March 31 1850 was a leading United States Southern politician and political philosopher from South Carolina during The United States Senate is the Upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the Lower house being the House of Representatives " Calhoun supported his view with the following reasoning: in every civilized society one portion of the community must live on the labor of another; learning, science, and the arts are built upon leisure; the African slave, kindly treated by his master and mistress and looked after in his old age, is better off than the free laborers of Europe; and under the slave system conflicts between capital and labor are avoided. The advantages of slavery in this respect, he concluded, "will become more and more manifest, if left undisturbed by interference from without, as the country advances in wealth and numbers. "^[61]

Native Americans

Enslavement of Native Americans

During the 17th century, Indian slavery, the enslavement of Native Americans by European colonists, was common. Indian Slavery was the practice of using Indigenous peoples of the Americas as Slaves. The start of the European colonization of the Americas is typically dated to 1492 although there was at least one earlier colonization effort Many of these Native slaves were exported to off-shore colonies, especially the "sugar islands" of the Caribbean. The Caribbean (ˌkærəˡbiən kæ'rəbiən Cariben|Caraïben or Caraïben; Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Caribe is a Region consisting Historian Alan Gallay estimates that from 1670-1715, British slave traders sold between 24,000 and 51,000 Native Americans from what is now the southern part of the U. S. ^[62]

Slavery of Native Americans was organized in colonial and Mexican California through Franciscan missions, theoretically entitled to ten years of Native labor, but in practice maintaining them in perpetual servitude, until their charge was revoked in the mid-1830s. The Californias ( Spanish: Las Californias) was the name given by the Spanish to the area which today is primarily the three States of Baja Alta California (Upper California was formed in 1804 when the Province of the Californias, then a part of the Commandancy General of the Provincias Internas in the The term Franciscan is commonly used to refer to members of Catholic Following the 1847-1848 invasion by U.S. troops, Native Californians were enslaved in the new state from statehood in 1850 to 1867. ^[63] Slavery required the posting of a bond by the slave holder and enslavement occurred through raids and a four-month servitude imposed as a punishment for Indian "vagrancy". See also Vagrancy (biology for an alternative use of the term ^[64]

Slavery among Native Americans

The Haida and Tlingit Indians who lived along southeast Alaska's coast were traditionally known as fierce warriors and slave-traders, raiding as far as California. The Haida (19th C-early 20th C Indigenous nation of the west coast of North America. Not to be confused with the Turkic Telengit people The Tlingit (ˈklɪŋkɪt in English also /-gɪt/ or Tlinkit /ˈtlɪŋkɪt/ which Alaska ( Аляска Alyaska) is a state in the United States of America, in the northwest of the North American continent Slavery was hereditary, the slaves being prisoners of war. Among some Pacific Northwest tribes, about a quarter of the population were slaves. The Pacific Northwest is a region in the northwest of North America (the term refers to the land not the ocean ^[65][66] Other slave-owning tribes of North America were, for example, Comanche of Texas, Creek of Georgia, the fishing societies, such as the Yurok, that lived along the coast from what is now Alaska to California, the Pawnee, and Klamath. The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose range (the Comancheria) consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado The Pawnee (also Paneassa, Pari, Pariki) are a Native American tribe that historically lived along the Platte, Loup and The Klamath are a Native American tribe of the Plateau culture area in Southern Oregon. ^[24]

After 1800, the Cherokees and some other tribes started buying and using black slaves, a practice they continued after being relocated to Indian Territory in the 1830s. The Cherokee (ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯ a-ni-yv-wi-ya, in the Cherokee language) are a people native to North America, who at the time of European contact The Indian Territory, also known as The Indian Country, The Indian territory or the Indian territories, was land set aside within the United States ^[67]

The nature of slavery in Cherokee society often mirrored that of white slave-owning society. The Cherokee Freedmen Controversy is an ongoing political and tribal dispute between the administration of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and descendants of the Cherokee The law barred intermarriage of Cherokees and blacks, whether slave or free. Blacks who aided slaves were punished with one hundred lashes on the back. In Cherokee society, blacks were barred from holding office, bearing arms, and owning property, and it was illegal to teach blacks to read and write. ^[68][69]

By contrast, the Seminoles welcomed into their nation African Americans who had escaped slavery (Black Seminoles). The Seminole are a Native American people originally of Florida and now residing in Florida and Oklahoma. In the History of slavery in the United States, a fugitive slave was a slave who had escaped his or her enslaver often with the intention of traveling to a place where The Black Seminoles are descendants of free Africans and some Runaway slaves who escaped from coastal South Carolina and Georgia into the Florida wilderness

Barbary states

According to Robert Davis between 1 million and 1. 25 million Europeans were captured by Barbary pirates and sold as slaves in North Africa and Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 19th centuries. The Barbary pirates, also sometimes called Ottoman corsairs, were Muslim Pirates and Privateers that operated from North Africa, from North Africa or Northern Africa is the Northernmost Region of the African Continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish ^[70][71] Slave-taking persisted into the 19th century when Barbary pirates would capture ships and enslave the crew. Between 1609 and 1616 England alone had 466 merchant ships lost to Barbary pirates. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland ^[72] Even the United States was not immune. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the In 1783 the United States made peace with, and gained recognition from, the British monarchy, and in 1784 the first American ship was seized by pirates from Morocco. The British Empire was the largest empire in history and for over a century was the foremost global power. Morocco (المغرب "al-Maghrib" officially the Kingdom of Morocco (المملكة المغربية is a country located in North Africa By late 1793, a dozen American ships had been captured, goods stripped and everyone enslaved. After some serious debate, the United States Navy was born in March 1794. This new military presence helped to stiffen American resolve to resist the continuation of tribute payments, leading to the two Barbary Wars along the North African coast: the First Barbary War from 1801 to 1805^[73] and the Second Barbary War in 1815. The Barbary Wars (or Tripolitan Wars were two wars between the United States of America and Barbary States in North Africa in the early 19th century The First Barbary War (1801&ndash1805 also known as the Barbary Coast War or the Tripolitan War, was the first of two wars fought between the United The Second Barbary War (1815 also known as the Algerine or Algerian War) was the second of two wars fought between the United States of America Payments in ransom and tribute to the Barbary states amounted to 20% of United States government annual revenues in 1800. ^[74] It was not until 1815 that naval victories ended tribute payments by the U. S. , although some European nations continued annual payments until the 1830s. ^[75]

Free black people and slavery

Some slaveholders were black or had some black ancestry. In 1830 there were 3,775 such slaveholders in the South with 80% of them located in Louisiana, South Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland. Half of these lived in cities rather than the countryside, with most in New Orleans and Charleston. Charleston is a city in Charleston county in the US state of South Carolina. Only a few were “substantial planters”, and, of those that were, most were of mixed race. ^[76] Historians John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger wrote:

A large majority of profit-oriented free black slaveholders resided in the Lower South. For the most part, they were persons of mixed racial origin, often women who cohabited or were mistresses of white men, or mulatto men . . . . Provided land and slaves by whites, they owned farms and plantations, worked their hands in the rice, cotton, and sugar fields, and like their white contemporaries were troubled with runaways. ^[77]

Historian Ira Berlin wrote:

In slave societies, nearly everyone – free and slave – aspired to enter the slaveholding class, and upon occasion some former slaves rose into slaveholders’ ranks. Their acceptance was grudging, as they carried the stigma of bondage in their lineage and, in the case of American slavery, color in their skin. ^[78]

Free blacks were perceived “as a continual symbolic threat to slaveholders, challenging the idea that ‘black’ and ‘slave’ were synonymous. ” Free blacks were seen as potential allies of fugitive slaves and “slaveholders bore witness to their fear and loathing of free blacks in no uncertain terms. ^[79] For free blacks, who had only a precarious hold on freedom, “slave ownership was not simply an economic convenience but indispensable evidence of the free blacks” determination to break with their slave past and their silent acceptance of – if not approval – of slavery. ”^[80]

Historian James Oakes notes that, “The evidence is overwhelming that the vast majority of black slaveholders were free men who purchased members of their families or who acted out of benevolence. ”^[81] In the early part of the 19th century, southern states made it increasingly difficult for any slaveholders to free slaves. Often the purchasers of family members were left with no choice but to maintain, on paper, the owner-slave relationship. In the 1850s “there were increasing efforts to restrict the right to hold bondsmen on the grounds that slaves should be kept ‘as far as possible under the control of white men only. ”^[82]

Historiography of American slavery

Historian Peter Kolchin, writing in 1993, noted that until recently historians of slavery concentrated more on the behavior of slaveholders than on slaves. Part of this was related to the fact that most slaveholders were literate and able to leave behind a written record of their perspective. Most slaves were illiterate and unable to create a written record. There were differences among scholars as to whether slavery should be considered a benign or a “harshly exploitive” institution. ^[83]

Kolchin described the state of historiography in the early twentieth century as follows:

During the first half of the twentieth century, a major component of this approach was often simply racism, manifest in the belief that blacks were, at best, imitative of whites. Thus Ulrich B. Phillips, the era's most celebrated and influential expert on slavery, combined a sophisticated portrait of the white planters' life and behavior with crude passing generalizations about the life and behavior of their black slaves. ^[84]

Historians James Oliver Horton and Louise Horton described Phillips' mindset, methodology and influence:

His portrayal of blacks as passive, inferior people, whose African origins made them uncivilized, seemed to provide historical evidence for the theories of racial inferiority that supported racial segregation. Drawing evidence exclusively from plantation records, letters, southern newspapers, and other sources reflecting the slaveholder's point of view, Phillips depicted slave masters who provided for the welfare of their slaves and contended that true affection existed between master and slave. ^[85]

The racist attitude concerning slaves carried over into the historiography of the Dunning School of reconstruction history, which dominated in the early 20th century. Writing in 2005, historian Eric Foner states:

Their account of the era rested, as one member of the Dunning school put it, on the assumption of “negro incapacity. ” Finding it impossible to believe that blacks could ever be independent actors on the stage of history, with their own aspirations and motivations, Dunning et. al. portrayed African Americans either as “children”, ignorant dupes manipulated by unscrupulous whites, or as savages, their primal passions unleashed by the end of slavery. ^[86]

Beginning in the 1930s and 1940s, historiography moved away from the “overt” racism of the Phillips era. However, historians still emphasized the slave as an object. Whereas Phillips presented the slave as the object of benign attention by the owners, historians such as Kenneth Stampp changed the emphasis to the mistreatment and abuse of the slave. ^[87]

In the culmination of the slave as victim, Historian Stanley M. Elkins in his 1959 work “Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life” compared United States slavery to the brutality of the Nazi concentration camps. See also List of Nazi-German concentration camps, Extermination camp Prior to and during World War II, Nazi Germany under Hitler maintained He stated the institution destroyed the will of the slave, creating an “emasculated, docile Sambo” who identified totally with the owner. Sambo is a racial term for a person with mixed Amerindian and African heritage in the Caribbean, also for a black or South Asian person Elkins' thesis immediately was challenged by historians. Gradually historians recognized that in addition to the effects of the owner-slave relationship, slaves did not live in a “totally closed environment but rather in one that permitted the emergence of enormous variety and allowed slaves to pursue important relationships with persons other than their master, including those to be found in their families, churches and communities. ”

Robert W. Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman in the 1970s, through their work "Time on the Cross," presented the final attempt to salvage a version of the Sambo theory, picturing slaves as having internalized the Protestant work ethic of their owners. ^[88] In portraying the more benign version of slavery, they also argue in their 1974 book that the material conditions under which the slaves lived and worked compared favorably to those of free workers in the agriculture and industry of the time.

In the 1970s and 1980s, historians made use of archaeological records, black folklore, and statistical data to describe a much more detailed and nuanced picture of slave life. Relying also on autobiographies of ex-slaves and former slave interviews conducted in the 1930s by the Federal Writers' Project, historians described slavery as the slaves experienced it. Far from slaves' being strictly victims or content, historians showed slaves as both resilient and autonomous in many of their activities. Despite the efforts at autonomy and their efforts to make a life within slavery, current historians recognize the precariousness of the slave's situation. Slave children quickly learned that they were subject to the direction of both their parents and their owners. They saw their parents disciplined just as they came to realize that they also could be physically or verbally abused by their owners. Historians writing during this era include John Blassingame (“Slave Community”), Eugene Genovese (“Roll, Jordon, Roll”), Leslie Howard Owens (“This Species of Property”), and Herbert Gutman (“The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom”). ^[89]

Modern slavery

Although slave ownership by private individuals and businesses has been illegal in the United States since 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution specifically exempts the judiciary, permitting the enslavement of individuals "as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted".

The United States Department of Labor occasionally prosecutes cases against people for false imprisonment and involuntary servitude. The United States Department of Labor is a Cabinet department of the United States government responsible for occupational safety wage and hour standards False imprisonment is a Tort, and possibly a Crime, wherein a person is intentionally confined without legal authority Involuntary servitude is a United States legal and Constitutional term for a person laboring against that person's will to benefit another under some form These cases often involve illegal immigrants who are forced to work as slaves in factories to pay off a debt claimed by the people who transported them into the United States. Illegal immigration refers to Immigration across National Borders in a way that violates the Immigration laws of the destination Country Other cases have involved domestic workers. A domestic worker, domestic, servingman, servingwoman, or servant is one who works and often also lives within the employer's household ^[90]

Reports of child sexual slavery and on the business of working children in organized criminal businesses as well as in legitimate businesses and trading sexual favours for contracts and business in the United States under both inhuman and human conditions exist. Sexual slavery refers to the organised coercion of persons into various different sexual practices forced Prostitution single-owner sexual slavery

In 2002, the U. S. Department of State repeated an earlier CIA estimate^[91] that each year, about 50,000 women and children are brought against their will to the United States for sexual exploitation. near as long as it used to be several months ago It has been actively summarized and split into sub-articles and there is a dynamic talk page discussion of all ^[92] Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said that "Here and abroad, the victims of trafficking toil under inhuman conditions -- in brothels, sweatshops, fields and even in private homes. Secretary of State is a commonly used title for a Government Official. Colin Luther Powell, KCB (Honorary MSC, (born April 5, 1937) is a retired General in the United States Army. "^[93]

President George W. Bush says he has taken action to combat human trafficking within U. The President of the United States is the Head of state and Head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in United States by George Walker Bush ( born July 6 1946 is the forty-third and current President of the United States. Human trafficking is the recruitment transportation harbouring or receipt of people for the purposes of slavery forced labor (including bonded labor or debt bondage and servitude S. borders and abroad. ^[94][95]

See also

• Abraham Lincoln on slavery
• Cherokee freedmen controversy
• Colonization and the founding of Liberia
• Cornerstone Speech
• Frances Anne Kemble
• History of slavery
• History of slavery in Kentucky
• History of slavery in Missouri
• Hush harbor
• Partus
• Slave rebellion
• York (Lewis and Clark)
• White guilt

Notes

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Albert, Octavia V. Rogers. Octavia V Rogers Albert ( December 24, 1853 -c1890 was a chronicler of Slavery in the United States. The House of Bondage Or Charlotte Brooks and Other Slaves. Oxford University Press, 1991. Primary sources with commentary. ISBN 0-19-506784-3
  • The House of Bondage, or, Charlotte Brooks and Other Slaves, Original and Life-Like complete text of original 1890 edition, along with cover & title page images, at website of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Berlin, Ira, Joseph P. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ( UNC, North Carolina, or simply Carolina) is a public, Coeducational Research Reidy, and Leslie S. Rowlands, eds. Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867 5 vol Cambridge University Press, 1982. very large collection of primary sources regarding the end of slavery
• Blassingame, John W. , ed. Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies. Louisiana State University Press, 1977.
• A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845) (Project Gutenberg: [4]), (Audio book at FreeAudio. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a memoir and treatise on Abolition written by famous Orator and ex- Slave, Frederick org [5])
• "The Heroic Slave. " Autographs for Freedom. Ed. Julia Griffiths Boston: Jewett and Company, 1853. 174-239. Available at the Documenting the American South website[6].
• Frederick Douglass My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) (Project Gutenberg: [7])
• Frederick Douglass Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1892)
• Frederick Douglass Collected Articles Of Frederick Douglass, A Slave (Project Gutenberg)
• Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies by Frederick Douglass, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Editor. My Bondage and My Freedom is an autobiographical Slave narrative written by Frederick Douglass and published in 1855. Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, educator scholar writer editor and Public intellectual (Omnibus of all three) ISBN 0-940450-79-8
• Rawick, George P. , ed. The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography . 19 vols. Greenwood Publishing Company, 1972. Collection of WPA interviews made in 1930s with ex-slaves

Historical studies

• Berlin, Ira. Generations of Captivity: A History of African American Slaves. (2003) ISBN 0-674-01061-2.
• Berlin, Ira. Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America. Harvard University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-674-81092-9
• Berlin, Ira and Ronald Hoffman, eds. Slavery and Freedom in the Age of the American Revolution University Press of Virginia, 1983. essays by scholars
• Blassingame, John W. The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South Oxford University Press, 1979. The Slave Community Plantation Life in the Antebellum South is a book written by Historian John W ISBN 0-19-502563-6.
• David, Paul A. and Temin, Peter. Slavery:The Progressive Institution? The Journal of Economic History. Vol. 34, No. 3 (September 1974)
• David Brion Davis. Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World (2006)
• De Tocqueville, Alexis. Democracy in America. (1994 Edition by Alfred A Knopf, Inc) ISBN 0-679-43134-9
• Elkins, Stanley. Slavery : A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life. University of Chicago Press, 1976. ISBN 0-226-20477-4
• Fehrenbacher, Don E. Slavery, Law, and Politics: The Dred Scott Case in Historical Perspective Oxford University Press, 1981
• Fogel, Robert W. Without Consent or Contract: The Rise and Fall of American Slavery W. W. Norton, 1989. Econometric approach
• Foner, Eric. Forever Free. (2005) ISBN 0-375-40259-4
• Franklin, John Hope and Schweninger. Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation. (1999) ISBN 0-19-508449-7.
• Gallay, Alan. The Indian Slave Trade (2002).
• Genovese, Eugene D. Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made Pantheon Books, 1974.
• Genovese, Eugene D. The Political Economy of Slavery: Studies in the Economy and Society of the Slave South (1967)
• Genovese, Eugene D. and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Fruits of Merchant Capital: Slavery and Bourgeois Property in the Rise and Expansion of Capitalism (1983)
• Hahn, Steven. "The Greatest Slave Rebellion in Modern History: Southern Slaves in the American Civil War." Southern Spaces (2004)
• Higginbotham, A. Leon, Jr. In the Matter of Color: Race and the American Legal Process: The Colonial Period. Oxford University Press, 1978. ISBN 0-19-502745-0
• Horton, James Oliver and Horton, Lois E. Slavery and the Making of America. (2005) ISBN 0-19-517903-X
• Kolchin, Peter. American Slavery, 1619-1877 Hill and Wang, 1993. Survey
• Mason, Matthew. Slavery and Politics in the Early American Republic. (2006) ISBN 13:978-0-8078-3049-9.
• Morgan, Edmund S. American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia W. W. Norton, 1975.
• Morris, Thomas D. Southern Slavery and the Law, 1619-1860 University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
• Oakes, James. The Ruling Race: A History of American Slaveholders. (1982) ISBN 0-393-31705-6.
• Ransom, Roger L. Was It Really All That Great to Be a Slave? Agricultural History, Vol. 48, No. 4 (October 1974)
• Scarborough, William K. The Overseer: Plantation Management in the Old South (1984)
• Stampp, Kenneth M. The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South (1956) Survey
• Stampp, Kenneth M. "Interpreting the Slaveholders' World: a Review. " Agricultural History 1970 44(4): 407-412. ISSN 0002-1482
• Tadman, Michael. Speculators and Slaves: Masters, Traders, and Slaves in the Old South University of Wisconsin Press, 1989.

References

• Rodriguez, Junius P. , ed. Encyclopedia of Slave Resistance and Rebellion. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2007.
• Rodriguez, Junius P. , ed. Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2007.

State and local studies

• Fields, Barbara J. Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground: Maryland During the Nineteenth Century Yale University Press, 1985.
• Clayton E. Jewett and John O. Allen; Slavery in the South: A State-By-State History Greenwood Press, 2004
• Kulikoff, Alan. Tobacco and Slaves: The Development of Southern Cultures in the Chesapeake, 1680-1800 University of North Carolina Press, 1986.
• Minges, Patrick N. ; Slavery in the Cherokee Nation: The Keetoowah Society and the Defining of a People, 1855-1867 2003 deals with Indian slave owners.
• Mohr, Clarence L. On the Threshold of Freedom: Masters and Slaves in Civil War Georgia University of Georgia Press, 1986.
• Mooney, Chase C. Slavery in Tennessee Indiana University Press, 1957.
• Olwell, Robert. Masters, Slaves, & Subjects: The Culture of Power in the South Carolina Low Country, 1740-1790 Cornell University Press, 1998.
• Reidy, Joseph P. From Slavery to Agrarian Capitalism in the Cotton Plantation South, Central Georgia, 1800-1880 University of North Carolina Press, 1992.
• Ripley, C. Peter. Slaves and Freemen in Civil War Louisiana Louisiana State University Press, 1976.
• Rivers, Larry Eugene. Slavery in Florida: Territorial Days to Emancipation University Press of Florida, 2000.
• Sellers, James Benson; Slavery in Alabama University of Alabama Press, 1950
• Sydnor, Charles S. Slavery in Mississippi. 1933
• Takagi, Midori. Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction: Slavery in Richmond, Virginia, 1782-1865 University Press of Virginia, 1999.
• Taylor, Joe Gray. Negro Slavery in Louisiana. Louisiana Historical Society, 1963.
• Wood, Peter H. Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 through the Stono Rebellion W. W. Norton & Company, 1974.

Historiography

• John B. Boles and Evelyn T. Nolen, eds. , Interpreting Southern History: Historiographical Essays in Honor of Sanford W. Higginbotham (1987).
• Richard H. King, "Marxism and the Slave South", American Quarterly 29 (1977), 117-31. focus on Genovese
• Peter Kolchin, "American Historians and Antebellum Southern Slavery, 1959-1984", in William J. Cooper, Michael F. Holt, and John McCardell, eds. , A Master's Due: Essays in Honor of David Herbert Donald (1985), 87-111
• James M. McPherson et al. , Blacks in America: Bibliographical Essays (1971).
• Peter J. Parish; Slavery: History and Historians Westview Press. 1989
• Tulloch, Hugh. The Debate on the American Civil War Era (1999) ch 2-4

Further reading

Oral histories of ex-slaves

• Before Freedom When I Just Can Remember: Twenty-seven Oral Histories of Former South Carolina Slaves, Belinda Hurmence, John F. Blair, Publisher, 1989, trade paperback 125 pages, ISBN 0-89587-069-X
• Before Freedom: Forty-Eight Oral Histories of Former North & South Carolina Slaves, Belinda Hurmence, Mentor Books, 1990, mass market paperback, ISBN 0-451-62781-4
• God Struck Me Dead, Voices of Ex-Slaves, Clifton H. Johnson ISBN 0-8298-0945-7

Historical fiction

• Edward P. Jones. Edward P Jones is an African American author and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The Known World New York: Amistad, 2003. The Known World is a 2003 Historical novel by Edward P Jones. ISBN 0-06-055755-9, 2003 winner of the National Book Critic Circle for fiction and 2004 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction has been awarded since 1948 for distinguished fiction by an American author preferably dealing with American life

Literary and cultural criticism

• Ryan, Tim A. Calls and Responses: The American Novel of Slavery since Gone with the Wind. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2008.
• Van Deburg, William. Slavery and Race in American Popular Culture. Madsion: U of Wisconsin P, 1984.

External links

• Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938
• Voices from the Days of Slavery, interviews of 23 former slaves recorded between 1932 and 1975, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
• "John Brown's body and blood" by Ari Kelman: a review in the TLS, February 14, 2007. Events 842 - Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.
• Slavery and the Making of America - PBS - WNET, New York (4-Part Series)
• Timeline of Slavery in America
• Images of slavery drawn by Thomas Nast (has background music)
• History of Slavery in America a historical overview
• Teaching resources about Slavery and Abolition on blackhistory4schools.com
• Slavery in the United States from EH. Thomas Nast ( September 27, 1840 – December 7, 1902) was a famous German-American Caricaturist and Editorial cartoonist NET by Jenny B. Wahl of Carleton College
• Map of 1820 showing free and slave territories.
• Classics on American Slavery collection of old documents available on-line through Dinsmore Documentation
• Slavery: A Dehumanizing Institution by Nell Irvin Painter, historian and author of Creating Black Americans
• New Georgia Encyclopedia (Slavery in Antebellum Georgia)
• WWW-VL: Online Books on Slavery in America
• University of North Carolina Press on finding freedom and liberty in BNA-Canada
• Account of an African Prince Sold into Slavery - Islamica Magazine
• The Underground Railroad: Escape from Slavery | Scholastic.com
• Stace England & The Salt Kings concept Music CD on "The Old Slave House" in Illinois