SLAVERY IN AMERICA

Slavery in the United States began after English colonists settled Virginia in 1654 until the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was established. From 1654 until 1865, slavery was legal in United States. Most slaves are black with the white’s slaveholder, although some Native Americans and free blacks also held slaves. The majority of slaveholding was in Southern United States where most slaves worked like machine in the system of agriculture. The majority of slaves were held by planters who held 20 slaves or more.

Between 1790 and 1860 (between American Revolution and the Civil War) more than 1.000.000 slaves moved to west. Most of them moved from Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina. Previously, the main destinations were Kentucky and Tennessee, but after 1810 they went to Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

Slave in South worked on farms and plantations such as indigo, rice, and tobacco. After 1790, they work on cotton plantation, because cotton was popular after 1790. In South Carolina in 1720 about 65% of the populations were slaves. Slaves were employed by rich farmers and plantation owners with commercial export operations.

In the early 1750, it spreads a sentimental issue during the American Revolution that slavery was social evil which must be abolished. All the Northern states made Emancipation Acts between 1780 and 1804. In 1780, the Northern declared The Massachusetts’s Constitution that declared all men “born free and equal”; thus abolishing slavery in Massachusetts.

In 1831, a bloody slave rebellion took place in Southampton Country, Virginia. A slave named Nat Turner led the rebellion that was known as Nat Turner’s Rebellion or the Southampton Insurrection. On his crusade, Turner and his followers killed approximately fifty men, women, and children, but they were eventually subdued by the white militia. Nat Turner and his fellow was hanged and skinned. In addition to killing Nat Turner and his fellow insurrectionists, more than a hundred innocent slaves who had nothing to do with the rebellion were also massacred by the white militia.

In 1847, Dred Scott, 62 years old slave, got the freedom from the court, but ten years later the Supreme Court denied Scott. The court ruled that Dred Scott was not a citizen who had a right to sue in the Federal Court. The decision of Supreme Court caused many reactions. Many republicans including Abraham Lincoln made the statement to against the Supreme Court decision.

In 1860, American held the presidential election. Abraham Lincoln, the republican candidate won the election with the majority votes. In this time, conflict between Northern territories and Southern territories area about slavery is on heated atmosphere. When the Federal Government made the right to prohibit the slavery in Western territories, North and West completely supported it. In other side, Southern territories rejected it because they worried that the right would be dangerous to the existence of slavery in their area. In 1861, Northern troops attacked Southern with the slavery as the basic issue, and the civil war began.

On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln proclaimed the Emancipation to abolish slavery. The Arizona Organic Act abolished slavery on February 24, 1863 in Arizona. Tennessee and all of the Border States (except Kentucky) abolished slavery in early 1865. Thousands of slaves were freed by the operation of the Emancipation Declaration as Union armies marched across the South. After Civil War was end, federal government made 13th Amendment to abolish all of slaves in America. Then the government made 14th Amendment to give black full citizen rights. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery in the united states.html).