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Events In Slavery Essay, Research Paper

Events that Effected Slavery

Essay written by Curtis Cupples

Introduction

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” (Thomas Jefferson). The only problem with this passage from the Declaration of Independence is that it does not say, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and Negroes are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” Thomas Jefferson’s words were not correct. Not all men were created equal and these men were slaves. Slavery has existed throughout the United States for centuries before the present day.

This was the most inhumane treatment any man could go through. The following report will express the impact of slavery on the history of the united states of America.

The Earliest Slaves in America

In the summer of 1619 a 160-ton ship from the Port of Flushing in Holland sailed into the Chesapeake Bay. The Dutch ship was under the command of Captain Jope and piloted by an English man named Marmaduke Raynor. In exchange for supplies Jope sold more than 20 Negroes to the local authorities in the English colony of Virginia. These blacks came ashore 12 years after the founding of Jamestown. At first the Virginians liked white indentured persons who knew their language and their ways, compared to the newly arrived black slaves. Over time though, the black servants grew accustomed to the environment and were better than the white indentured servants. The colonists didn’t approve, but because of the need for laborers for Tobacco the acceptance grew.

Slavery grows from demand of cotton

The Revolutionary War won for the Americans a large stretch of wilderness between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. After 1800 settlers began to clear and plant on the land. Many of these settlers brought slaves with them. One of the crops which they planted was cotton. When the slaves had to pick the cotton it would prick them and slow the picking down tremendously. Then a man named Eli Whitney invented a machine called the Cotton Gin. The Cotton Gin cleaned the short sticky fibers of the upland cotton. Metal teeth simply pulled the fibers from the seeds. The invention of this machine made the cotton economy soar. This increased the need for slaves. They needed more slaves to pick the cotton faster so they could keep up with the production. The masters were constantly working their slaves from dusk until dawn. They would load the cotton into wagons and take the crop to the gin. As planters in the South turned more and more land to growing cotton, the economy could support more people. In 1790 the South had one million white people, six hundred fifty-seven thousand black slaves, and thirty-two thousand free black people. Slaves grew in population rapidly.

Resistance To Slavery

Slaves found many ways to resist white control. Most resistance forms were passive. Slaves used songs to express their longings to be free, but also spread news for secret meetings. Some slaves pretended to be sick, broke tools and worked as slow as possible. Others, ran away. When these slaves were caught, they were punished severely. Other ways slaves resisted the whites were through means of violence. Some slaves would try to poison the masters food which scared many plantation owners. The most violent though were organized riots.

Slavery causes problems Slavery also caused problems where states were concerned. When Missouri sought admission to the Union in 1819, it proposed a state constitution which would protect slavery. At that time there were exactly as many slave states as well as free states in the Union. The house of representatives was dominated by the North and the Southerners stood to gain control of the senate if Missouri was admitted as a slave state. Before the Missouri Debate began, Congress used the Northwest Ordinance to prohibit slavery north and west of the Ohio River. The balance was in danger of being upset. Slavery also affected this greatly and it later led to the Missouri Compromise.

The Antislavery movement In the early 1800’s an antislavery movement was developing. Many voices of free slaves from the North and abolitionists were beginning to speak out against slavery. Abolitionism was a movement for an immediate end to slavery. Many abolitionists freed slaves from their life of enslavement. Sojourner Truth was one of the main women abolitionists in the fight against slavery. She not only aided blacks in their escape, but she spoke to president Lincoln personally about her views. Free blacks were not the only ones who worked to free slaves. There were also white abolitionists who worked for the same cause. A newspaper called the Liberator was started by William Lloyd Garrison supporting abolitionism. This rekindled the flame of the white antislavery movement In 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe published a book called Uncle Tom’s cabin. This book told about the evils of slavery, and what slaves had to live through. Stowe was also against the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. This law enabled the northerners were permitted to catch runaway slaves who could not defend themselves in court. This book caused immediate controversy between the North and the South as soon as it hit the shelves. Three hundred thousand copies were sold of the book in 1 year.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Lawmakers knew that a bill was needed to set up a territorial government for Kansas. And in order to build the railroad, land had to be set aside for the railroad companies. Yet the issue of slavery blocked these promising plans. Kansas and Nebraska were

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