History of slavery in the United States

Slavery, the practice of keeping people in servitude against their will and owning them as property, has a long history in the United States. The first slaves were imported to Jamestown, Virginia from Africa in 1619. Originally, keeping Native Americans and other groups as slaves was tried, but eventually almost all slaves were blacks. During the British colonial period (see History of the United States), slaves were used extensively in the Southern colonies, but to a lesser degree in the Northern colonies as well. Early on, the slaves were most useful in the growing of indigo, rice, and tobacco; cotton was only a side crop. Nevertheless, it was clear that slaves were most economically viable in plantation-style agriculture.

This was reinforced even more in 1793 when Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. This device picked the seeds out of cotton much faster than had previously been possible, thereby encouraging cotton production. Prior to this invention, slavery may or may not have been dying out as an economic option; there exists considerable debate amongst economists and historians as to how profitable slaveowning was.

Just as demand for slaves was increasing, however, supply was restricted. The United States Constitution, adopted in 1787, banned the import of slaves after 1808. Any new slaves would have to be descendents of ones that were currently in the US.

Another point of historical contention is just how harsh the treatment of slaves was. While essentially all scholars agree that it was a harsh regimen for the slaves, some have noted that the United States slave population was the only slave population in history that actually grew through birth, rather than importation. This as well is still a topic of debate.

Throughout the first half of the 19th century, a movement to end slavery, called abolitionism, grew in strength throughout the United States. There were several strains of this movement. Some wanted to ship the slaves back to Africa, and settle them in a new homeland there (some also wanted to deport any free blacks in the country); a movement of this type led to the foundation of the modern-day nation Liberia. Others wanted to simply end the practice of slavery, leaving free blacks in the United States. One divide was over whether or not slave-owners would be compensated for the value of their lost "property". Another divide was over the degree of militancy to use. Some abolitionists, such as John Brown, favored the use of armed force to foment uprisings amongst the slaves, while others preferred to use the legal system.

This movement clashed with slave-owners numerous times throughout the century. The first effort to mediate the two was known as the Missouri Compromise of 1821, an attempt to make sure that the two interests were balanced in the United States Senate. When this fell apart, it was replaced by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which led to open battle in the states of Kansas and Nebraska; the period is often referred to as "Bloody Kansas".

The tensions came to a head with the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln, who was opposed to the expansion of slavery. Many in the South also wanted to see the end of slavery, but in a more measured way. They felt that the North did not understand the problems that might arise if millions of slaves were suddenly freed. They feared that the delicate balance of free and slave states would be no more and that they would now be under the domination of industrial North with its preference for high tariffs which would hurt global markets for their cotton and other crops. The combination of these factors led the South to secede from the Union. The remaining states refused to allow the Southern states to leave and thus began the American Civil War. During the Civil War (in 1863), Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in the Confederate States of America (though not Missouri or the other border states, which had remained part of the Union). Following the war, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed, which officially banned slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States.

Further reading

• 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 089587069X
• Before Freedom: Forty-Eight Oral Histories of Former North & South Carolina Slaves, Belinda Hurmence, Mentor Books, 1990, mass market paperback, ISBN 0451627814