It lasted through the American colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries. African slaves helped build our country into what it is today. Slavery in a whole lasted 1501-1995, but wasn´t official until 1619. African slaves were very important to the U.S at a certain point, they helped build the new nation into an economic powerhouse.(www.history.com)Slavery was necessary for that period of time for crops, and production of new things that we have now, without slavery we might not have found tobacco and had as much cotton production as we did with slaves. Also in the Civil War, which slavery was necessary. Slavery is the backbone to this country, which goes on through where it started, and how it started, through the Missouri Compromise, and through the Civil War. (www.history.com)
Slavery officially started in 1619, when a Dutch ship brought 20 African slaves ashore in the British colony Jamestown. In the 17th century, European settlers looked at slaves as, ¨a cheaper, more efficient labor source than indentured servants(Europeans).¨ (slaveryandremembrance.org) Researchers estimate that 6 to 7 million black slaves were imported to the New World during the 18th century. In the 17th and 18th century, slaves worked mainly on tobacco, rice, indigo plantations. (slaveryandremembrance.org) Slavery in the south consisted about one-third of the southern population. Most of the slaves lived on large plantations or small farms. Most masters owned fewer than 50 slaves. Slaves had to depend on themselves, and a system of restrictive codes governed by slaves. Slaves also did marry and make large families too. Slave owners surprisingly encouraged this. But slave rebellions occurred in this system. Gabriel Prosser(Born 1776, Henrico County, VA) in Richmond in 1800. She planned a large slave rebellion.
Denmark Vesey(Born: 1767, Saint Thomas, U.S, Virgin Islands), who was a leader among African American slaves in Charleston in 1822. But there were very few that were successful. But the most terrified white slaveholders was led by Nat Turner(Born: October 2, 1880, in Southampton County, VA) in Virginia in 1831. His group eventually murdered 60 whites in two days. This led many states making their slave codes stronger and stricter. (www.nationalgeographic.org) The abolishment movement was from the 1830s to 1860s. The movement to abolish slavery gained a lot of strength. Which was led by free blacks such as Frederick Douglass. He was born in Cordova, Maryland. Douglas was an American social reformer. The group of free blacks led by Douglass was helping slaves escape from there masters. That then led to the safe houses for blacks that escaped in the 1780s. They escaped by the underground railroad, it helped anywhere from 40,000 to 100,000 slaves reach freedom.
The success of this helped other people realize that slavery just needs to come to an end altogether. All slaves were convinced to end this slavery-era once and for all. On September 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln(Born February 12, 1809, in Hodgenville, KY) issued a preliminary emancipation of proclamation. On January 1, 1863, he made it official that, ¨slaves within any state, or design part of state… in rebellion… shall be then, thenceforward and forever free.¨(slaveryandremembrance.org) By freeing all of those slaves in rebel states, it deprived the Confederacy of the labor forces and put public opinion on the union side. Which ended slavery but did not end it completely.
Slavery played a big part in our American history and what our society has become today. Without slavery, we would not have had the major production of cotton and tobacco. Slavery is good because it helped our economic part of this world, and made a strong backbone for our economy and our nation. Slavery helped our colonies, and make things easier on the masters. Slaves were a necessary part of this era, without it happening out the world would be a much different place than it is right now. It was the first part of history that led blacks to freedom and mass production of cash crops. Slavery eventually turned around in 1800 when the Missouri Compromise came to be. What really caused slavery to shift was the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Years leading up to this though, tensions began to rise between proslavery and antislavery. They reached a boiling point after Missouri 1819 request for admissions to the Union as a slave state. To keep the peace they created a two-part compromise, granting Missouri request but also admitting Maine as a free state. This also passed an amendment that drew an imaginary line through Louisiana, that established boundaries between free and slave states that remained the law of the land. (www.history.com )
The Missouri Compromise was an effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri late in 1819 for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted. James Tallmadge, who played a big part in the Missouri Compromise, he was born in Stanford, NY. He was born on January 28th, 1778. He was elected as the Democratic Republic to the Fifteenth Congress. He was the one that promoted the Missouri Compromise. He proposed an amendment to a bill requesting the Territory of Missouri to be admitted to the Union as a free state. Slavery would have ended right there but, this effort was defeated. He died and there was no chance to veto it. (www.wikipediajamestallmadge) Thomas Jefferson was born April 13th, 1743. In Shadwell, VA. He was president of the United States and played a big part in slavery, as the Missouri Compromise was coming into play. Jefferson observed the Missouri Crisis. He stated, ¨This momentous question, like fire-bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror.¨(slaveryandremembrance.org)
African Americans obviously opposed slavery and news of congressional opposition to its expansion circulated widely within slave communities. With this Denmark Vesey, who was born 1767, Saint Thomas Virgin Islands. He was most famous for his slave revolt. He was a free black living in South Carolina, he made the most dramatic use of the white disagreement about in the west. Vesey quoted the Bible as well as congressional debates over the Missouri issue to denounce slavery. (www.ushistroy.org) Vesey key alley was Gullah Jack. He was born in, Angola. He was most known for the slave revolt with Vasey. They organized a slave rebellion in 1822, that would hope to free most black in Haiti. But the rebellion was betrayed days before it was planned. Slaveholders were clearly on the defensive side with anti-slavery. African slaves knew that they could not rely on whites to end slavery, but they also recognized that the, ¨increasing divide between north and south and their battle over western expansion could open opportunities for blacks to exploit.¨(www.ushistory.org)Soon later they declared the,¨ Missouri Compromise unconstitutional,¨(www.ushistory.org) on the ground that Congress was prohibited by the fifth amendment from depriving individuals of private property without due process of law. (www.ushistory )
The Missouri Crisis probed an enormously problematic area of American politics that would explode a Civil War. Virginia has the largest enslaved African Americans of any state in the Confederacy. Most slaves responded in the Civil War. Thousands escaped to the Union army lines, that would earn their freedom. Others stayed on there farms and home plantations, but they took advantage of the war to gain some measure of autonomy for their families. President Abraham Lincoln, who was born February 12, 1809. His position on slavery is, ¨one of the most discussed topics in American History.¨(www.encyclopediavirginia.org) He led the United States through the American Civil War. He supported banning slavery in all the U.S territories. He worried the extension of slavery in new western lands could block, ¨ free labor on free soil.¨(www.encyclopediavirginia.org) He became politically attacked as an abolishment. Howard Jones states, ¨in the prewar period, as well as into the first months of the Civil War itself… Lincoln believed it prudent to administer a slow death to slavery through gradual emancipation and voluntary colonization rather than to follow the abolishment and demanding an immediate end to slavery without compensation to owners.¨ (www.encyclopediavirginia.org)
On the other hand Vice President Alexander H. Stephens, who was born February 11, 1812. He was Vice President of the Confederate states. He noted ¨Slave labor provided the physical cornerstone for the Confederate war effort.¨(www.encyclopediavirginia.org)Most people hired most slaves during the war to help with food and to produce more food, to feed the soldiers and families. They also helped build railroads for the war effort. He believed that,¨ slavery was necessary and was playing a big factor in the civil war¨(www.encyclopediavirginia.org) They needed slaves to be able to have food, and necessary things. (www.encyclopediavirginia.org) Once the war was done union officers took the initiative to actually free slaves. General John C. Fremont, who was born January 21, 1813, he was an American soldier and politician. He states in August 1861, ¨Declared that the slaves owned by Confederates in his conquered territory in Missouri were free. ¨(www.pbs.org) But Lincoln fired him.
Congress started the process by abolishing slavery in Washington D.C. The proclamation that they made only freed slaves in rebellion against the Federal government. It did not free slaves held in Union states. But on December 6, 1865, the US Congress passed the 13th Amendment to the constitution which abolished slavery through the United States. (www.pbs.org) Slavery was a long part of US history and lasted many years. Slavery went through times when people thought it would never end. Between the Missouri Compromise, and the Civil War. Were people relied on slaves to keep the economy above water. Slavery led to the new world and the way we function today. Without slavery, we would not be the country we are today without slavery being in our history.
