Today in History Slavery in U S Dec 18

The history of slavery in the United States began soon after Europeans first settled in what in 1776 would become United States . The practice ended in 1863 - 65 with Abraham Lincolns Emancipation Act . It ended with the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865.

From around 1619 to 1865 were people of African descent lawfully held as slaves within the borders of America today. Economy to the young country was made ​​possible largely through free labor performed by slaves. Around half a million Africans were brought over from Africa during the slave trade, but because of the promise that made ​​the children of slaves to slaves, slave population grew in the U.S. to four million in the census in 1860 .

Slavery in the Colonies

The second record of slavery in the American colonies begins with 20 blacks who were brought by a Dutch ship and sold to the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia , in 1619 as indentured. The transition from indentured, servants who were under contract for time off, to racial slavery happened gradually. There are no laws regarding slavery early in Virginia's history, but in 1640 had courts in Virginia sentenced at least one black servant to slavery.

Three servants who worked for a farmer named Hugh Gwyn ran away to Maryland . Two were white, one was black. They were taken in Maryland and returned to Jamestown, where a court sentenced all three to 30 lashes, a severe punishment even by 1600s Virginia. The two white men were sentenced to another four years of servants, a year more for Gwyn followed by three years of the colony. But in addition to whipping, got the black man, John Punch, the order to "serve his master or his mission in his life, here or elsewhere."

It was only in 1661 that a reference to slavery appeared in Virginia's law, and this law was directed at white servants against those who ran away with a black servant. The following year, the colony went one step further by stating that children born would be bonded or free according to the status of the mother. The transformation had begun, but it was not until the slave laws in 1705 that the status of African Americans was sealed.

Originally, Native Americans and other groups, mainly Europeans who captured soldiers, less crime, etc., used as slaves (or contracted servants) from 1600 to 1800, but by the 19th century were almost all slaves responded . During the British colonial slaves were used mainly in the southern colonies and to a lesser extent in the north. Early slaves were most useful in the cultivation of indigo plants, rice and tobacco , cotton was a crop of the page. Slaves were most economical in the plantation - agriculture . Many landowners began increasingly becoming dependent on the labor of slaves to survive, and the legislation responded with increasingly stringent regulations on labor, known as slave laws .

Indian Tribes often took slaves from other tribes, but it should be noted that these slaves were not treated as hard as slaves who belonged to white slave owners. Indian slaves were known to be treated like family more than real estate. After 1800 began Cherokees buying and using black slaves, a practice they continued after being relocated to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) in the 1830s. The other of the so-called five civilized voices did the same ( Chickasaw , Choctaw , Creek and Seminole ). All these tribes supported the Confederacy in the Civil War , but first and foremost to be spared of American imperialism . Their slaves were freed by frigjøringsproklamasjonen.

Historical records indicate that some slave owners treated their slaves worse than others. Some slave owners raped and whipped slaves, and cut through limbs of slaves who tried to escape, while the other slave owners provided material for their slaves and were less violent. In many households, treatment of slaves varied with the slave's skin tone. Darker slaves worked in the fields, while lighter slaves or " husnegre "was put to work in the house and had better conditions. America's slave population was the only slave population in history who rose through birth rather than imports. The interpretation of this fact has been the subject of much debate.

1750s to 1850s

Some of the British colonies attempted to abolish the slave trade. The British Board of Governors let down against Virginia's decision, Rhode Island forbade the import of slaves completely in 1774. All states except Georgia had banned or restricted trade in 1786, Georgia followed in 1798, although some of these laws were later reversed.

In 1776 anti grew low currents in the country, they were stronger in Pennsylvania where Quakers were strongest. The various meetings of Quakers attempted in the early 1750s to persuade its members that they should not own slaves, some who stood against this claim was expelled from the meeting. Some tried to persuade others to do the same. There was a widespread feeling in the Revolution that slavery was wrong and that it would eventually be abolished. The northern states did release decisions between 1780 and 1804, most of them retired to the gradual emancipation and a special status for the liberated, so there was still some "permanent apprentices" in New Jersey in 1860. The last freed slaves were New York ( 1799 ) and New Jersey ( 1804 ).

Constitution of Vermont expressed for slavery abolished (at least for adults) in 1777. Constitution of Massachusetts from 1780 declared that all men were "born free and equal," slave Quork Walker went to trial for his freedom on this basis and were set free and hence abolished slavery in the state.

The economic value of plantation slavery was reinforced in 1793 with the invention of the Cotton gin by Eli Whitney , a machine that was designed to separate the cotton fibers from the seed boxes and the sometimes sticky seeds. The invention revolutionized the cotton growing industry by increasing the quantity of cotton that could be processed in one day with fifty times. The result was an explosive growth in the cotton industry and a proportional increase in the demand for slave labor in the south.

Meanwhile banned the northern states slavery, even if Alexis de Tocqueville pointed out in Democracy in America (1835) that this is not always done with the best of motives. As Northern states abolished slavery meant not always the slaves were freed. In many cases, it only encouraged slave owners to move their slaves to states that still allowed slavery. This resulted in the population of black Americans moved south. The southern states did not have this opportunity to remove their black population since the slaves already constituted a much larger proportion of the total population and the international slave trade was abolished. This meant that slavery was stronger support for fear of what the slaves would do if they were set free.

Just as demand for slaves increased, it became subject to restrictions on supply. States Constitution , adopted in 1787, prevented Congress from banning importation of slaves until 1808. 1 January that year, Congress banned further imports. Any new slaves had to be a descendant of those who were currently in the U.S.. But the internal slavehandlen and involvement in the international slave trade or the outfitting of slave ships carried by U.S. citizens were not banned. Although there was no violation of this law, the American slavery more or less self-sufficient. Slave trade over land from Virginia and the Carolinas to Georgia, Alabama and Texas continued for half a century.

Since the states in the Midwest decided in the 1820s not to allow slavery and since most northeastern states were free state through local abolition, was formed a northern block of the free state to a contiguous geographic area. Sharing The line was Ohio River and the Mason-Dixon line between slave-state Maryland and Pennsylvania free state.

Through the first half of the 19th century, grew a movement to end slavery forward, also called abolisjonisme , until, in the United States. This reform took place among strong supporters of slavery among white sørstatsfolk began referring to it as "the peculiar institution" in a defensive attempt to differentiate it from other examples of forced labor. The large well-financed American Colonization Society had an active program to send former slaves and free blacks who volunteered back to Africa, the American colony of Liberia .

In 1830 declared a religious movement led by William Lloyd Garrison slavery as a personal sin and demanded the owners repent immediately and should start by freeing the slaves. This movement was highly controversial and was a factor in the outbreak of the Civil War.

1850s to the Civil War

After the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in 1854, broke out border war in Kansas Territory in which the question whether it would join the Union as a slave state or free state was left to the inhabitants. Abolisjonisten John Brown was active in the mayhem and killing in " Bleeding Kansas . "Meanwhile characterized fears that the" slave power "was about to take full control of the national government the slave Republican opponents.

The Supreme Court attempted to resolve the matter, but its decision in the Dred Scott case in 1857 raised only temperature. The majority voted for the presence of slavery in the Midwest was legal, when owners crossed into the free states. This was further evidence for Republicans Abraham Lincoln that the slave power had taken control of the Supreme Court.

The split erupted in full bloom with the presidential election in 1860 . Select Male Assembly was divided into four groups. Southern Democrats promoted slavery, Republicans hated it, the Northern Democrats said democracy required the people themselves had to clarify slavery locally, while the constitutional party said that the survival of the Union was in danger and all compromises have to be concluded. Lincoln, the Republican, won with a majority vote total and the majority of electoral votes. Lincoln appeared, however, not on the ballot papers for the ten southern states, thus had the choice of him split the nation along section lines.

Many slave owners in the South feared that the real intent of the Republicans was the abolition of slavery in the states where it already existed, and that the sudden emancipation of four million slaves would be problematic for the slave owners and the economy that made their biggest profits from the labor of people who do not got paid. They also argued that banning slavery in new states would destroy what they saw as a delicate balance between free states and slave states. They feared that by putting an end to this balance, would the industrial North with its desire high customs duties on imported goods, dominate the union.

The combination of these factors led to the south pulled out of the union and thus began the American Civil War . Leaders in the North as Lincoln and Chase had seen interests around slavery as a political threat. They saw the Confederate states that had control of the Mississippi and the West as politically and militarily unacceptable.

The American Civil War that began in 1861 , led to the end of slavery in America. Lincolns frigjøringsproklamasjon 1 January 1863 promised the slaves in the Confederacy freedom as soon as the Union armies reached them. Proclamation made the liberation 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 U.S. population.

Arizona Organic Act abolished slavery on 24th February 1863 in the newly created Arizona Territory. Tennessee and all border states (except Kentucky ) abolished slavery by early 1865 . Formally, the last 40,000 slaves freed in Kentucky  at the final ratification of the thirteen amendments to the Constitution in December 1865.

Many slaves joined unionsarméen as workers or troops, and others went to refugee camps or fled to the cities. Releasing that reality came to the remaining slaves after the surrender of all Confederate forces in the spring of 1865. There were still 250,000 slaves in Texas. They were set free as soon as news of the Confederate collapse arrived, the 19 June 1865 . This day is celebrated in Texas , Oklahoma and other areas and reminds date news arrived in the last slaves in Galveston, Texas .