Supplemental Information to "The American Revolution
and Slavery", by Charles W. Miller, Ph.D. 

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On this page: Numbers and Graphs | The Three-fifths Compromise | Timeline to Emancipation | Key Legislators

Latest Changes: 2007Dec29 - specific dates for abolition in British colonies /

Census Numbers  Census data from the Univ. of Virginia Geostat Center's Historical Census Browser Fewer that 1,000,000 immigrants entered the U.S. during 1790-1840. Some 4,300,000 immigrants entered the U.S. during 1841-1860.

While the absolute numbers continued to increase, the percentages decreased after 1810. After importation of slaves ended in 1808, the increase was due primarily to births. While the absolute numbers continued to increase, the percentages decreased after 1810.

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How did the Three-fifths Compromise Arise?  The Continental Congress originally agreed that each state would be treated as a sovereign nation and would have a single vote in balloting on a motion or resolution. However each large state felt that it should have more influence than a small state on governance (and thus more votes in the balloting), while each small state felt that it should be asked to pay less in taxes than a large state. While the delegates might agree that some sort of proportionality was acceptable, there are many different ways in which a state can be large -- geographic area, population, and economic wealth are several options. Article Eight of the Articles of Confederation said that the tax requested of each state should be "in proportion to the value of all land within each State, granted or surveyed for any person, as such land and the buildings and improvements thereon shall be estimated...." The Articles were adopted in 1781, but by 1783 only a few states had submitted a report of their valuations. Clearly securing an honest valuation of so much property was not working well. After considerable debate it was agreed that population might be a better basis for apportionment, but the southern states argued that slaves should count for less than free persons (which would reduce the taxes the southern states would have to pay), while the northern states argued that the slaves should count the same as free persons. A compromise was reached and a proposal was introduced to amend Article Eight to say the tax should be "in proportion to the number of white and other free citizens and inhabitants, and three fifths of all other persons, Indians not paying taxes excepted." In the Confederation unanimous approval was required for an amendment to be adopted, and two northern states (NH and NY) voted against it, so the amendment was NOT adopted in 1783. However, when a similar disagreement over apportionment arose during the Constitutional Convention a slightly modified version of this compromise was proposed as a fair way to determine how to apportion the Representatives to Congress among the states. This time the positions were reversed, as the northern states argued that the slaves should count less than free persons (which would decrease the number of Representatives the southern states could send to Congress), while the southern states argued that slaves should count the same as free persons. The compromise was once again to use the same three-fifths ratio. This time it was adopted.

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Timeline of Actions Leading to Emancipation  For a sparse timeline of slavery from 1502 to 1841 see Timeline: The Atlantic Slave Trade [Mystic Seaport] This site describes the revolt of slaves on the ship Amistad and the U.S. trial through which they gained their freedom. 1777 - Article I of the new Vermont Constitution said, in part, Therefore, no male person, born in this country, or brought from over sea, ought to be holden by law, to serve any person, as a servant, slave or apprentice, after he arrives to the age of twenty-one Years, nor female, in like manner, after she arrives to the age of eighteen years, unless they are bound by their own consent, after they arrive to such age, or bound by law, for the payment of debts, damages, fines, costs, or the like. 1780 - Article X of the new Massachusetts Constitution said, in part, Each individual of the society has a right to be protected by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty, and property, according to standing laws. Within a year this was interpreted by the Massachusetts courts as declaring all people (including slaves) to individuals of the society with a right to liberty, and thus to be emancipated. 1783 - The Continental Army and Navy were disbanded, preventing the central government from helping states to defend themselves, to suppress local rebellions, or to enforce their laws. 1787 - The new Northwest Ordnance prohibited slavery in the states formed from that territory: Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. While the new U.S. Constitution did not mention slavery, Article I Section 9(1) prohibits Congress prohibiting the importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit (a circuitous definition that included slaves, without actually using that word) until 1808. 1787 - Although the Constitution required a small tariff on the importation of persons (slaves), many slaves may have been smuggled in (and thus not counted in import statistics) because the U.S. had no navy to enforce the tariff. 1790 - Samuel Slater (illegally) brought the design of thread-spinning machines from England to Rhode Island and the first spinning mill was in operation there within a year. U.S. demand for cotton to spin into thread increased it's price and thus the profitability for cotton growers. 1793 - Eli Whitney (CT) developed the cotton gin, which reduced the cost of producing baled cotton, again raising profitability for growers. 1799 - In New York a law was passed to prohibit new slaves and to declare as free all children born to slaves after enactment. 1804 - In New Jersey a law was passed following New York's 1799 example. 1806 - In his State of the Union address President Jefferson asked the U.S. Congress to end slave importation. 1807/8 - The Constitutional ban on prohibiting the importation of slaves expired, and the U.S. Congress immediately voted to prohibit it. Great Britain also banned slave trade, while allowing slavery to continue in its colonies until 1834/38 (see below). 1818 - The territory of Missouri (where slavery had been allowed) applied for statehood. At this time there were 11 "free" and 11 "slave" states, so a new slave state would change the balance of political power in the Senate (free states dominated in the House of Representatives). James Tallmadge of NY proposed that the new state follow New York's 1799 example (to prohibit new slaves and to declare as free all children born to slaves after enactment). When Maine applied for statehood a compromise seemed possible, but the constitutional commission in Missouri added to the proposed state constitution a clause banning free blacks or mullatos (part-black) from entering the state. In further negotiations Henry Clay of Kentucky (Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives) in 1820 secured a final compromise in which that clause was dropped, black citizens were not to be denied their Constitutional rights, and slavery would not be permitted in the remaining territory of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36o20' N latitude (the southernmost reach of Missouri). 1828 - The U.S. House of Representatives) dominated by northern states and business interests passed a "protective" tariff on the export of cotton. The consequence was that southern cotton planters had to sell their cotton inside the U.S. (to spinning plants in the northern states) at prices lower than what they could have gotten in the world market if there had been no tariff. U.S. Vice President John Calhoun (a native of South Carolina) wrote (anonymously) the South Carolina Exposition [posted by Prof. John C. Willis (Sewannee Univ.)], which argued that a state need not abide by a U.S. law that it considered unconstitutional. Such an action was called "nullification", and it was a less extreme act than secession [through which a state would withdraw from the United States to become a completely independent (sovereign) nation]. The Exposition said, in part: No government based on the naked principle, that the majority ought to govern, however true the maxim in its proper sense and under proper restrictions, ever preserved its liberty, even for a single generation. 1832 - The U.S. House of Representatives) passed another "protective" tariff, South Carolina voted to "nullify" it (refusing to pay the tariff), and Vice President Calhoun resigned so that he could be elected to the Senate and speak freely for the principle of nullification. South Carolina threatened to secede, President Andrew Jackson threatened to enforce the tariff, and Congress passed a "Force Bill" to support the President. Senators Calhoun and Clay developed the Compromise Tariff of 1833, which greatly reduced the tariff duties, defused the situation, and avoided -- for the moment at least -- secession. 1833 - The British Parliament passed the Abolition of Slavery Act. Its main terms were: 1) All slaves younger than six were freed immediately 2) Older slaves remained as apprentices (partly slave, partly free) for four more years (to 1838), and during that time they received one-quarter wages (they were considered free for a quarter of each week) 3) The government of Great Britain provided £20,000,000 to compensate slave-owners for their loss of "property". 1850 - Following the 1846-48 war with Mexico the U.S. paid $15 million to acquire most of the land that is now California, Nevada, Ttah, and Arizona and the western portions of Colorado and New Mexico. Would people in this area be allowed to hold slaves? John Calhoun argued they should, but Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and Stephen Douglas secured passage of a series of acts known as the "Compromise of 1850", which prevented a direct confrontation between the advocates of slavery and the advocates of abolition (of slavery). The acts abolished slavery in the District of Columbia, made California a free state, established more strict slave return laws. The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act (sponsored by Stephen A. Douglas) left up to the voters of these territories whether or not they would allow slavery, thus repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820. 1848 - France ended slavery in its colonies in the Western Hemisphere. 1858 - In a prominent series of public debates during the Illinois campaign for U.S. Senate incumbent Stephen A. Douglas argued for "popular sovereignty" (letting the voters of a territory decide whether or not their new state's constitution would permit slavery) while Abraham Lincoln argued that the Declaration of Independence promised freedom and equality and that A house divided against itself [half-slave, half-free] cannot stand but would inevitably become all-slave or all-free. Douglas won this election, but Lincoln won (although with only 40% of the popular vote in a four-way race) when they were both candidates for U.S. President in 1860. 1860 December - Since Lincoln's campaign platform contained many proposals which the southern states had long opposed, South Carolina seceded and was joined by ten of the other fourteen slave states. 1862 July - The U.S. Congress passed a law freeing all Confederate slaves who came into Union lines. On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all persons held as slaves within any state ... in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforth, and forever free.... 1865 - In December emancipation was extended throughout all U.S. territory with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, through Section 1, Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude ... shall exist within the United States.... 1873 - Spain abolished slavery in its colony of Puerto Rico, then its colony of Cuba in 1886. The nation of Brazil abolished slavery in 1888.

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Key Legislators during 1820-1860  Note that while all of the legislators below played significant roles in the national deliberations about whether slavery should be allowed and to what length a state could go to avoid what it considered an unfair fedeeal law, not one of them lived to see the start of the "Civil War", which they had spent much of their careers working to prevent. John C. Calhoun was born in South Carolina in 1782, became a lawyer, and established a practice in South Carolina. He served as one of South Carolina's U.S. Representatives from 1811-17 and as Secretary of War from 1817-1825 (under President John Monroe). He was elected Vice President from 1825-32 (first with President John Q. Adams, then with Adams' rival, President Andrew Jackson). He resigned the Vice Presidency in mid-term to become a candidate for the U.S. Senate from South Carolina so that he could lead the nullification movement. He won the election. While in favor of nullification he was opposed to the secession of South Carolina and was a key figure in negotiating the Compromise Tariff of 1833. He was Secretary of State in 1844-45, then returned to the Senate and was in office there when he died in 1850. Henry Clay was born in Virginia in 1777, became a lawyer, and established a practice in Kentucky, where in 1801 he participated in that state's constitutional convention. We has appointed to complete unexpired terms in the U.S. Senate in 1806 and again in 1809. He was elected to the U.S. House in 1811, where on his first day he was elected to be Speaker of the House -- a post he held for ten years. He then served in the U.S. Senate. He was Secretary of State under John Q. Adams. Clay ran for President of the U.S. (and lost) in 1824, 1832, and 1844. The opinions of Clay, Calhoun, and Webster dominated the Congress from 1825-50, and Clay was a key figure in the slave vs free compromises of 1820 and 1850. He died in 1852. Stephen A. Douglas was born in Vermont in 1813, became a lawyer in Illinois, was elected from that state to the U.S. House in 1843 and to the U.S. Senate in 1847. In 1858 he won re-election over challenger Abraham Lincoln following a series of public debates in which Douglas supported "popular sovereignty" while Lincoln He died in 1861. Daniel Webster was born in New Hampshire in 1782, became a lawyer, and established a practice in New Hampshire. He was a U.S. Congressman from New Hampshire from 1813-1817, then moved his law practice to Boston MA and from 1823-27 represented that state in Congress. Elected a U.S. Senator in 1827 he was in the 1830s the leading opponent of the concept of "nullification". Webster served as U.S. Secretary of State in 1841-43, then returned to the Senate, where he helped negotiate the Compromise of 1850. He served again as U.S. Secretary of State from 1850 to 1852, when he died.

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