Slavery & Abolitionism in America
Written and Researched by Nancy Jean
The enslavement of persons and exacting involuntary servitude began long before the Civil War. Many wealthy landowners, including George Washington and other influential, landed gentry were wealthy because of the slave trade.
The industry reached a point, in the south, when there were as many as 4 million enslaved persons. The buying and selling of human persons was as lucrative and significant a part of the industry as the actual product slaves brought to market.
When Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, slavery had been “legal" in the United States for many years. The years after issuing the proclamation, additional slave holding pieces of legislation were introduced. But, it was not until the ratifying of Amendment 13 that the legislation became law.
The years before Lincoln won the 1860 election, the use of enslaved people was in full-swing due to the ever-increasing demand for products, especially cotton. This was the period when hundreds of thousands of slaves were transported, by one method or another, to the deep south from various locations.
The Abolitionist Movement was active from 1853 until approximately 1870. Increasing numbers of Abolitionists, both black and white, aided fugitive slaves who were becoming desperate to escape the extreme cruelty of their lives. Large plantations, where the owners were not necessarily on the premises near the field, and which were managed by overseers, often became the place of the worst forms of abuse.
One of the most terrifying forms of cruelty was the practice of selling a slave away from the home and family they had established for themselves. Slaves were terrified of this possibility, and owners and overseers gave no value to an enslaved person's desire to stay within a community.
During the peak of the slave trade activity, healthy, strong “bucks,” “breeding wenches,” and “fancy girls” could be sold for $1,000 and more, a great deal of money in that day. Some slave merchants were involved in a whole breeding process to bring the maximum market value possible. Some brokers specialized in presenting desirable, attractive mulattoes, fathered, of course, by the wealthy white plantation owners and his sons.
Harriet Beecher Stowe was part of a growing movement to abolish slavery, and to help, when possible, fugitive slaves to escape. Her treatise, "Uncle Tom’s Cabin"* punctuated in shocking fashion the plight of slaves and their desire to flee from all sorts of cruelties, including the most horrific act of selling and separating families.
The industry reached a point, in the south, when there were as many as 4 million enslaved persons. The buying and selling of human persons was as lucrative and significant a part of the industry as the actual product slaves brought to market.
When Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, slavery had been “legal" in the United States for many years. The years after issuing the proclamation, additional slave holding pieces of legislation were introduced. But, it was not until the ratifying of Amendment 13 that the legislation became law.
The years before Lincoln won the 1860 election, the use of enslaved people was in full-swing due to the ever-increasing demand for products, especially cotton. This was the period when hundreds of thousands of slaves were transported, by one method or another, to the deep south from various locations.
The Abolitionist Movement was active from 1853 until approximately 1870. Increasing numbers of Abolitionists, both black and white, aided fugitive slaves who were becoming desperate to escape the extreme cruelty of their lives. Large plantations, where the owners were not necessarily on the premises near the field, and which were managed by overseers, often became the place of the worst forms of abuse.
One of the most terrifying forms of cruelty was the practice of selling a slave away from the home and family they had established for themselves. Slaves were terrified of this possibility, and owners and overseers gave no value to an enslaved person's desire to stay within a community.
During the peak of the slave trade activity, healthy, strong “bucks,” “breeding wenches,” and “fancy girls” could be sold for $1,000 and more, a great deal of money in that day. Some slave merchants were involved in a whole breeding process to bring the maximum market value possible. Some brokers specialized in presenting desirable, attractive mulattoes, fathered, of course, by the wealthy white plantation owners and his sons.
Harriet Beecher Stowe was part of a growing movement to abolish slavery, and to help, when possible, fugitive slaves to escape. Her treatise, "Uncle Tom’s Cabin"* punctuated in shocking fashion the plight of slaves and their desire to flee from all sorts of cruelties, including the most horrific act of selling and separating families.
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
“I looks like gwine to heaven,” said the woman; “an’t thar where white folks is gwine? S’pose they’d have me thar? I’d rather go to torment, and get away from Mas’r and Missis.” - Abused slave Pru, Uncle Tom's Cabin
As the decades rolled by, the possibility of a war between the North and South became imminent. By 1860, southern slave states formed the Confederacy, which inevitably led to the Civil War.
* Read the "Uncle Tom's Cabin" eBook here thanks to Project Gutenberg.