U.S. Slavery in TV and Film Exam #3

Free Black People in the North

First issue of the first African American newspaper, freedom’s Journal was based in NYC Publication date: March 16, 1827

Freedom in the Northwest Ordinance Territory

• Ohio - free state in 1803; residents policed the border along the Ohio River between the slavery South and the free North

• Indiana - state in 1816; gradual emancipation for 30 years

Naturalization Law

• Naturalization Act of 1790 instituted residence and racial requirements for potential citizens

• available to free white people who had lived in the U.S. for at least 2 years

The Lives of Free Black People in the New Republic

• By 1810: 50k free Black people living in the North

• By 1840: 170,728 free people Black people living in the North

• Formerly enslaved people in NYC, Philly, and Boston

Free African Society (1787)

• pledged to support other black people when sick and provide aid to widows and fatherless children

• was a social safety net for free Black people; also provided disability benefits and burial insurance

St. George’s Methodist Church

• Richard Allen gifted preacher that led special services for African American at church

• More black worshippers attended St. George’s but white churchgoers not welcoming

Bethel AME Church

• white leaders at St. George’s Church created segregated seating for its white and Black congregation members

• Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and other FBP left the church and founded their own church, Bethel AME Church, on July 29, 1794

African American Episcopal Church

• Some Black people abdanoned Methodism altogether

• Absalom Jones founded the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, the nation’s first African American Episcopal Church

Black Churches

• In northern cities, Black churches were mostly Methodist or Baptist

• hosted mutual aid society meetings, public lectures, protest meetings, and others

• served the needs of newly-free men and women

• Richard Allen founded the nation’s first Black Sunday school in 1795

Employment Option for Free Black People

• recently freed black people were poorer than the poor whites they worked with

• many white people were unwilling to work alongside Black people, and many white employers were reluctant to hire former enslaved people

• Black women worked as washers, seamstresses and cooks, men as laborers, dock people, barbers, coachmen

Education for Free Black People

• 1790s: Boston established a public school system; white students treated their African American peers poorly

• No public schools in Philly before 1818

• The PA Antislavery Society (PAS) founded a private school for Black children, but many parents could not afford the tuition

New York Manumission Society

• an exclusively white organization founded by some of New York’s wealthiest men which had modest anti-slavery goals

• established the New York Free School in 1787

• 1788 - established the Committee for Preventing Irregular Conduct Among Free Negroes

White Hostility

• White mobs targeted Black institutions

• White anti-slavery organizations urged African Americans to avoid any behavior that might offend white people

• many African American leaders believed that white racism was one of the greatest obstacles facing the anti-slavery movement

Voting Rights

• Black people in NJ lost the right to vote in 1807

• Connecticut disenfranchised Black people in 1814 and Pennsylvania did in 1838

• New York imposed high property requirements on Black voters, eccentric after abolishing these requirements for white voters in 1821

Sierra Leone

• founded in 1787 by British reformer Granville Sharp

• Colony was home to poor Black people who used to live in London and approximately 1,200 Black loyalists from Nova Scotia

• In 1787, a group of Black people from Massachusetts petitioned the state legislative to help them immigrate to Africa. Legislators never answered the petition.

American Colonization Society (ACS)

• First meeting was in Washington, D.C. in 1816

• plan was to colonize free Black people in Western Africa

• By 1819, the organization had received $100k from Congress for its cause

Opposition to the ACS

• most of the Black people the ACS shipped to Liberia were formerly enslaved

• many free Black people suspected that colonization was a plan to continue slavery by removing free Black people from the U.S.

Wells Reading: Why do you think the author started with the story of Henry S?

To show that no one is safe. Children are kidnapped from classrooms, therefore anyone, anywhere, and at anytime can be kidnapped.

Wells Reading: What is Richard Riker’s official job? What is his connection to slavery?

He was a recorder, and a main judge in the court of common pleas, meaning he decided the fate of all fugitive slaves. He supports the South, so most of the time his decision is to return fugitive slaves to their ‘owners’

Wells Reading: Why is Richard Riker pro slavery?

He was suspected to own slaves himself. Main motivation was money and power. Slavery was a lucrative business, and allying himself with the South gave him power.

Wells Reading: What does one have to do to accuse someone as a fugitive?

Someone can accuse another for literally no reason at all. One can just generally accuse another with no proof or truth to it.

Wells Reading: Why would someone become a kidnapper?

It is an easy and accessible job as you can do it without an education.

You can gain power, money, you are going along with the current climate, and the law is on your side.

Wells Reading: How did the New York State and city court system help or hurt suspected fugitive slaves?

• There was a denial of jury trials, which defies the constitutional right to due process.

• There was also the ignoring of relevant evidence or the accepting of falsified evidence.

Wells Reading: Why were White New Yorkers apathetic to the kidnappers?

• The issue of slavery and its inequalities were not affecting them

• There was less competition for jobs and houses

• there were other significant problems that were affecting them (lack of clean water, expenses, etc.)

• Those who identified as anti-slavery supporters were attacked, so it was safer to ignore it

• The law supported the kidnappers (fugitive slaves running away was considering stealing themselves, because by Southern law they are property rather than human beings)

Wells Reading: How did the fire propel urbanization in New York City?

• The real estate prices went up

• Old poor people were displaced

• Huge homes were made as replacements, and then white people moved in

Wells Reading: How did urbanization make kidnapping easier?

• The city became highly populated and busier making it harder to keep track of whose coming in and out.

• Black neighborhoods formed making it easier to find them all in one place.

• With everyone either moving out or moving in, long time neighbors became a thing of the past, ridding black people of witnesses that they have been free.

Louisiana Purchase

• provided land for slavery to expand

• started with rebellion from Haiti, then France sells their territory to help other side win

• Led to removal of Indigenous people

Indigenous Land Dispossession

• White migration farther west and deeper south disrupted Indigenous communities already living in these places

• Late 1810s: growing support for U.S. government to take Indigenous land

• Early 1820s: protestant missionaries wanted to “civilize” Native Americans by converting them to Christianity and encouraging them to adopt “American” ways

Indigenous Land Loss

• 100% —> 2% due to genocide to make space for slavery

Missouri Compromise 1820

• slave state —> wanted to join the union, but would have to abolish slavery. When they refused so they were denied entrance

U.S. Domestic Trade of Enslaved People

• an estimated 1.2 million enslaved African Americans involuntarily migrated from the Upper South to the Lower South

• Second Middle Passage —> chained, fear, long time, family separations

Fugitive Slave Act (1850)

• required federal marshals to pursue alleged fugitives from slavery

• Black people that are accused of being fugitives have no jury trial and are unable to testify on their own behald

• compelled regular citizens to aid in kidnapping of suspected fugitivevs

• anyone who didn’t assist with the capture or harbored/protected fugitives could face a $1000 fine (apx. 40k now) and 60 months in prison

Beware of Kidnappers Flyer

• need free papers because you’re not truly free until you have them

• some just go straight to Canada because the slavery laws are different there

Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

• popular sovereignty - allowed future states and territories to determine if its residents wanted slavery or not

• repeated Missouri Compromise of 1820

Dred and Harriet Scott

• lived in a free territory and asked for freedom, and won 1850

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

• U.S. Supreme Court ruled (after an appeal)

  • Scott wasn’t entitled to sue because he wasn’t a citizen; no person of African descent could be a citizen of the U.S.

  • Chief Justice Roger G. Taney declared that those of African descent were inferior and had no rights which the white man was bound to respect

  • Enslaved people were legally-protected property, and Congress had no authority to deny the right to property

12 Years a Slave Reading: How did the 2 kidnappers present?

Nice, friendly gentlemen. Not dangerous at all

12 Years a Slave Reading: Why did Solomon Northrup accept the offer to travel with them?

He needed an opportunity to make money while his wife and kids were gone, and this was that great opportunity

12 Years a Slave Reading: Why did Solomon want to go to Washington D.C.? And why did the kidnappers want him to go?

Solomon wanted to visit and liked to travel.

The kidnappers wanted him to go, because slavery is still legal there, so it would be easier to claim he is a fugitive slave, and also because he is so far from home he has no one to claim that he is a free man.

12 Years a Slave Reading: Why didn’t Solomon write a message to his wife?

He did not think that his trip would last long (even left the house with his free papers). He also trusted his companions.

12 Years a Slave Reading: What happened to him with the drink?

He was drugged, not drunk. The drug caused him to feel extremely thirsty, feel an extreme headache, and lose consciousness. When he woke up with everything was gone, he was alone with no support.

12 Years a Slave Reading: Why is he surprised to be kidnapped?

Solomon left willingly due to the kidnappers being so friendly, so he is confused because it doesn’t look like a typical kidnapping.

12 Years a Slave Reading: How is Epps described?

He is described as uneducated, violent, a drunkard, controlling, and calculated

12 Years a Slave Reading: Where is Solomon taken?

Northern Louisiana, which is a long way home

12 Years a Slave Reading: What was the work day like?

Long work hours, difficult living conditions, rotten food/small portions, physical punishment, expected to be machines

12 Years a Slave Reading: What is there to be fearful of?

Picking too much or not enough cotton, oversleeping, lagging behind, or injury all can lead to whipping

12 Years a Slave Movie: How did it compare to what we read?

Well depicted, brought the reading to life.

12 Years a Slave Movie: What was Solomon Northrup’s life before kidnapping?

Happy, had a wife, and 2 kids. He fiddled as a hobby and occasional job. He was respected in his community, and was a freeman, had a house. Educated, accomplished, wealthy (middle class?) NY to Louisiana.

12 Years a Slave Movie: Why was Tibit jealous of Solomon?

Solomon was smarter (he came up with a better plan than Tibit; Solomon verbally sounds educated compared to Tibit not knowing perfect English; Solomon mentioned his experience)

12 Years a Slave Movie: How would you describe Ford?

Kinder than Epps, a bit more sympathetic, selfish/willfully ignorant (sold Solomon despite knowing he was free), man of faith

12 Years a Slave Movie: What was Northrup building on Ford’s plantation?

He was building housing for future enslaved people, so Ford had plans to buy more.

12 Years a Slave Movie: How much cotton did Patsy pick per average per day?

500 pieces of cotton

12 Years a Slave Movie: Why does Mistress Epps hate Patsy?

Patsey takes a lot of attention from Epps, so it’s jealousy. Patsy also most productive person on the plantation, and is getting sexually assaulted by Epps.

12 Years a Slave Movie: Why did Armsby betray Northrup?

Trying to gain Epps’ favor to maybe become overseer. No penalty.

12 Years a Slave Movie: Over which item is Patsy whipped?

Soap. Patsy went to a nearby plantation to get soap bc Mistress Epps was purposely keeping it from him, and then was drastically whipped.

12 Years a Slave Movie: Why did it take so long for Northrup to become free?

There is no opportunities, especially because it is very risky because getting caught trying to leave would lead to his death. Finally asks Bass (Canadian hired hand) to send out letters for him, and he hesitantly agrees despite the risk to him and then after months passing he finally is free.

12 Years a Slave Movie: Was the ending bittersweet?

Missed his family’s whole lives, but his whole family is still there and alive. He is still respected and was missed, grandson named after him. But coming home traumatized, his family has lived whole privileged lives, and he is no longer the same person he was before (maybe that’s why he decided to work on the Underground Railroad) Single mother having to work more than before and take care of her family