American Slavery has changed a lot over time. According to (“Revolutionary Changes & Limitations, ushistory.org,”) slavery was more educated and referred to as a central institution in American society during the late 18th century. It was accepted as a normal thing and applauded for by many white Americans. Due to high labor, and the development of plantation agriculture in the South, slavery expanded its presence in colonial society which became more of a southern regional institution, and more central to the economy. However, the acceptance to this slavery was never agreed to by african Americans and began to be challenged during the Revolutionary Era.
In 1619, the first African slaves arrived in Virginia says (“Timeline of Slavery, sharondraper.com.”) They were brought by Dutch traders who had seized them from a captured spanish slave ship. However, in 1787 slavery was made illegal in the Northwest territory says (“History of Slavery, infloplease.com,”) the U.S. constitution stated that congress couldn’t ban the slave trade until 1808.
According to “history.com,” It wasn’t until 1793 that Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin increased slavery. Slavery was a very common thing during the 1700’s and was being fought against by many different people. The decreased amount of slavery was most noticed north of Delaware. Many laws were passed outlawing slavery. However, these laws took awhile to take effect and even after the laws took place, slavery wasn’t abolished until you were about 25 years old.
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By 1810, one third of the American population was set free. However, according to (“Revolutionary Changes & Limitations, ushistory.org”) in the powerful slave state of Virginia, the free black population grew more rapidly than ever before. The rise of the free black population was a very honored time in the Revolutionary era but the overall impact of the revolution on slavery had many different negative consequences.
Years back being a slave meant you were someone’s property states (“A Slaves Life, virgin-islands-history.org.”) The first generation of enslaved laborers did not speak a language that the Europeans understood and were not able to protest when they were sold as goods. They had no way of responding at all considering they had no clue what was being said and had no choice in general. After that, they were not considered as people but as other people’s property. Ownership in this sense was for goods or money.
Enslaved individuals could be sold, pawned, and rented out. You were an item and seen as nothing. In 1831, a slave revolt broke out. A Virginia slave preacher leads a two day uprising against whites which resulted in sixty deaths. Many ended this revolt and spent their next two months searching for this man who lead this revolt named Turner. He was caught and “hanged.” This imposed harsher restrictions on their slaves in Virginia. Many years later in 1849, Harriet Tubman escapes slavery and returns south over fifteen times to save hundreds from the torture.
Majority of slaves went to Brazil which was later followed by the Caribbeans. According to (“Slavery In America, theconversation.com,”) many think that most slaves went to the United states but actually only 4 to 6% of people went to the U.S. which is roughly 380,000 people. A large number of enslaved Africans arrived in the American colonies by the Caribbean where they were “seasoned” and taken into slave life. They spent months or years recovering from the Middle Passage. Once they were used to slave labor, many were then brought to plantations on American soil but not by choice.
This slave labor lasted nearly 246 years. Some people were slaves for their entire lives. Although many new laws were being passed, some places slavery didn’t change but in the U.S., it did. In fact, the first antislavery society was founded in 1775 in Philadelphia. This is where the change of slavery all began in the united states. By 1788, at least thirteen of these clubs were known to exist in the American colonies. However, some Northern states banned the slavery outright while others provided a gradual end to slavery according to the timeline on (“Timeline of Slavery, sharondraper.com.”)
The ending of slavery was not something easy and in fact, it took years and years to abolish. The climate of the Revolution made the institution unacceptable in the minds of many Northerners, who did not rely on forced labor as part of the economic system. Northerners did not go as far as to grant equal rights to freed blacks. This ignited the debate that would be waged throughout the next century which took a long while.
Many slaves received their freedom during the revolution. The British army actually freed many slaves as they moved through America south. If slaves agreed to fight for the American cause then they were granted their freedom back so this caused many slaves to begin fighting for the American cause, says (“Timeline of Slavery, sharondraper.com.”) The growth of free black communities in America was greatly fostered by the War for American Independence. Soon after, sentiments began to ban the importation of slaves in 1807.
Slavery was definitely not something that ended overnight in America. Before any meaningful thing could happen, people needed to see that the economic benefit was overlooked at by the overwhelming disgust of slavery. “In 1850, in exchange for California entering the union as a free state, northern congressmen accept a harsher slave act and in 1852, Stowe wrote a novel about american slavery that sold over 300,000 copies all within a year of being published states (“Timeline of Slavery, sharondraper.com”).
Not too long after in 1854, the Kansas/ Nebraska act set aside the Missouri compromise of 1820 and Congress then allows these two places to choose whether or not to have slavery. However, this causes various problems. This resulted in violent clashes soon erupting. In 1857, the court finally comes to an agreement that African Americans can never be citizens and that Congress has no authority to outlaw slaveries in any territories.
According to (“Timeline of Slavery, sharondraper.com,”) this led to many different conflicts within the U.S. and other territories. This leads to a war outbreak that nobody really expected. This was the United States civil war which resulted in four years of major conflict taking about 620,000 lives. President Lincoln was the first republican to win the presidency and he declared to everyone in the United States that all slaves in the rebel territory are free on January 2nd of 1863.
This event shocked many. It wasn’t too long after that, that slavery abolished the 13th amendment to the U.S. constitution that states “Neither slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” This was the moment everyone knew they were free says history.com. Slavery was no longer legal and everyone had freedom. Slavery had been abolished for good in 1865. This was when finally all slaves were set free.
