10/25

The Early Republic

• Jefferson won election of 1800

  • against Adams and burr

  • burr not expected to win, going to be vice president

  • Adams very disliked

• Increase of democratic participation in Politics + Gov’t

  • increased demand for right to participate in gov’t or “asylum for liberty”

    • non elite white Americans + free/enslaved black Americas

Haitian Revolution

• inspired black activism

• inspired free and enslaved Americans

• scared white Americans (especially in the south)

• US cities got news of revolution and flooded w/ refugees

• fear that this could happen that similar events could happen in America

• free people of color understood it as call for abolition and embraced it

Gabriel’s Rebellion

• showed news of slave revolt wasn’t suppressed

• August 30, 1800

• Thomas Prosser

  • 24

  • slave

  • religious

• 1000 slaves

• collected arms and wanted to end slavery in Virginia by attacking capital in Richmond VA (Aug late 1800’s)

• Plan: set fire to warehouses in warehouse district to distract white authorities, while distracted they would attack white people, take arms, and try to capture VA governor (Monroe)

• Plan foiled by 2 slaves, told plan to slavemasters, told plan to authorities

• Aug 30th bad weather → postponed → Monroe more time to organize response → captured conspirators

• insurrectionists put on trial → 25 guilty and executed

• Message to black Virginians that challenges to slavery = severe punishment

• VA more restrictions on free people of color

• taught white residents that slaves could carry out insurrections

• showed attempts to suppress news of the revolution failed

• Haitian Revolution = inspiration for black Americas

David Walker’s Appeal

• 1829

• former slave, abolitionist

• Boston

• wrote an appeal to people of color

• exposed hypocrisy of American claims of Christianity + freedom

• attacked plans to colonize blacks in Africa

• talks of “whitening” America widespread

• Jefferson supported plan to send slaves to Africa

• god’s justice promised violence to the US

• called for resistance to slavery + racism

• Haitian Revolution = glory of blacks / terror of tyrants

  • message: enslaved + free blacks couldn’t be excluded from meanings of liberty + equality

“Bobalition” Broadsides

• Mock of pronunciation of abolition by whites

• 1810s

• whites mocked call for abolition + racial equality

• activism was very strong → white leaders used revolution violence to reinforce slavery + white supremacy

  • also more restrictions for free people of color

• black Americans mocked + ridiculed for abolition + equality calls by white publications

• Boston

• widely distributed

• crude drawings of black Americans

• whites felt necessary to address calls for abolition + equal treatment cause it was significant and were scared of it

Race and the Enlightenment

• monogenesis = common ancestry

• polygenesis = separate ancestry

• Enlightenment thinkers fostered

  • belief in common humanity

  • possibility of societal progress

  • remaking of one’s self

  • importance of ecological + social environment

• debate: difference between whites and blacks

Henry Moss

• Virginian slave

• 1792

• had vitiligo (white spots)

• marketed himself as a great curiosity and put himself on exhibitions → made enough money and bought his own freedom

• Benjamin Rush + Samuel Stanhope Smith believed blackness was a disease and used Moss to justify it b/c he was turning white and that new environment of America was also a cause

Race and Place

• classifying + ordering natural world

• Enlightenment thinkers: Carolus Linnaeus, Comte de Buffon, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach

  • argued years spent under Africans sun + tropical climate configured Africans race

  • cold northern latitude create Caucasian race (white)

• connection between place and ecological origins

• divided humanity into racial types

  • skin color

  • cranial measurements

  • hair

• environment → differences in human ancestry

• human nature (universal) = primitive vs civilized

Samuel Stanhope Smith

• 1787

• furthered discussion of race and environment to race and society

• causes of the variety of complexion

  • theory of racial change through uplift

  • ecological environment + social environment played role in racial change

  • improving environment → races uplifted

  • ideas return in 20th century

Notes on the State of Virginia

• 1784

• Jefferson disagreed with smith

• Native could be improved and become civilized

  • didn’t think black people could do the same

• Black people incapable of improvement + may have different ancestors

• theory of polygenesis b/c wanted to whiten America

  • believed the races were incompatible

  • wanted to send black people back to africa where they “belonged”

Critiquing Jefferson’s Racial Theory

• Benjamin Banneker

  • african american

  • surveyor

• wanted Jefferson to stop this way of thinking absurd and false ideas and embrace the idea that we are “all of one flesh” (monogenesis)

Defending Jefferson’s Racial Theory

• supporters: Charles Caldwell, Samuel George Morton

• argued black and white people were different species and of separate creation and ancestors

  • idea persisted through antebellum period/ pre civil war period

• believed by most whites

• whites forced to realize that if black were “whitening”, it wasn’t due to theories that informed Henry Moss’s experience (different environment = healing)

• whitening of black population due to interracial sex

Jeffersonian Republicanism

• Jefferson elected in 1800

  • victory for non elite white Americans

  • Jefferson embraced politics of the masses

• masses wanted more direct control in American politics

• women and African Americans advocating for more say in American democracy → America still a white man’s world

• Jefferson seen as hero to non elite white Americans

• political elite mostly federalist, didn’t like Jefferson embrace of politics of masses

• non elite celebrated Jefferson for saving American republican values

• Jefferson believed that he was teaching people that regular people can govern themselves democratically

• sought to differentiate his administration from federalists → defined American union as bonds between people

• federalists defined union by state power + public submission

• reduced taxes = better economic opportunity for everyday people

• cut budget of gov’t + national defense → army size = 3000 → improved economic opportunity for most Americans

Louisiana Purchase

• 1803

• Jefferson crowning achievement during presidency

• largest real estate deal in American history

• France gave LA to Spain after 7 years war for west Florida

• Jefferson saw New Orleans as critical place for western farmers to bring produce to market

• Jefferson concerned b/c France secretly got new Orleans from the Spanish in 1800

• Haiti defeated French → Napoleon cut losses and Jefferson bought LA for $15 mil ($250 mil today)

• Jefferson bought LA regardless of constitution limitations b/c he saw it as his duty to the American people to act outside the limits of the Constitution

10/26

Embargo Act

• 1807

• England, France, and Spanish rejected/ no respect for US neutrality in Europeans wars

• British attacked USS Chesapeake

• Jefferson wanted to stay neutral

• closing of all American ports to foreign trade

• peaceable coercion to tell Europeans no trading unless they respect US neutrality

• withholding commerce from Europeans + England = act of war

• hurt US economy over time

  • people smuggling goods outside US

  • Jefferson seen as a tyrant

• allowed criticism from federalists, attacked Jefferson’s polices using same republican rhetoric Jefferson used in 1800 election vs Adams

Criticism of Jefferson

• James Calendar: accused Jefferson of having sexual relations with one of his slaves (Sally Hemmings)

  • called Jefferson ‘our little Mulago president’, suggesting relationship with enslaved women “reduced” his whiteness

  • undermined Jeffersonian Republicanism b/c federalists claimed embarrassing politics of the masses was not a safe path and would lead to racial equality

• Sally Hemmings

  • 25% African American, mostly white

  • Half Sister: Martha Jefferson

    • wife of Jefferson

  • Descendants of Sally Hemmings

    • David Works, software engineer

    • Julius ‘Calvin’ Jefferson, archivist

    • Brenda Yurkoski, caregiver

  • 6 children w/ Jefferson, 4 survived to adulthood

• Jefferson had 600 slaves, author of Declaration of Independence

• Slaves relationships with slavemasters not always 100% consensual

• Idea that blackness is healed by environment unsustainable in 1800s

• “whitening” of population due to interracial relationships between white planation owner and slave

• south full of light skinned Africans Americans that were enslaved due to interracial relations

• Sally used to criticize Jefferson and undermine Jeffersonian Republicanism

• Embargo act and republican rhetoric from 1800 election used to question how much Jefferson was actually representing the American people when Americans hurting from his policies

• federalists embrace republican rhetoric → demise of the federalist party

• Jeffersonian Republicans in power

  • promised expansion of voting

  • more direct link between leaders and voters

  • Americans demand more access to political power

• Jeffersonian Republicans: Jefferson, Madison, Monroe

  • attempted to increase access to voting

  • easier to acquire land = access to political power + participation in gov’t

• 1824, 3 states still had property requirement to vote

• Rufus King, last federalist to run for pres. in 1816, lost to Monroe

• Monroe victory → era of good feeling

Native American Diplomacy

• Pre-Revolution

• diplomatic relations w/ natives

  • example of how American society still hierarchical + unequal

  • example of dangers in maintaining social inequality in a state

• native before American Revolution maintained balance b/t other native groups + european empires

• Playoff system: pitted european empires against each other to give themselves an advantage + leverage

• natives dominated social relations in US

• tensions w/ Americans increased leading up to Revolution

  • due to boundary disputes

  • trade

  • criminal jurisdiction

  • liquor sales

  • alliances

  • construction of roads in native land

  • ^ key negotiating points for Americans and natives

• natives fought on both sides

• natives left out of negotiations to end Ameri. Revolution + war for independence even though they fought for both sides

• Treaty of Paris 1783, no concessions for natives

• natives served as trading partners, scouts, and allies

• natives seen as savages despite contribution

• native ridiculed and disrespected → abandoned white society + practices

• Treaty of Greenville 1795

• natives developed relations w/ (British, Americans, Spanish) or cut ties w/ (British, Americans, Spanish)

• negotiated w/ other natives

  • involved rituals + ceremonies

• treaty conferences in native towns or space between native and white communities/ neutral site

• orators (metaphorical, command of audience, compelling voice + gestures), intermediaries, translators were key in negotiations

• both sides (natives + Americans) preferred diplomacy over war

  • war expensive

  • many casualties

  • disrupt of trade

  • ruined reputations

• diplomacy: air grievances, negotiate relations, minimize violence

  • when this failed alternative = war

• Americans still treat natives as ignorant savages

  • hostility toward Americans

  • call for pan-indian alliance

Tecumseh & Tenskwatawa

• 2 brothers

• Shawnee Indians

• Tecumseh

  • warrior

  • leader

  • organizer

• Tenskwatawa

  • Prophet

• Helped generate interest in alliance of north American natives

• Treaty of Greenville 1795

  • attempt to end hostilities in Great Lakes region

  • attempt to establish permanent Indian land

• Shawnee, Delawares, Iroquois, and Ottawas suffered at hands of Americans in Great Lakes region

  • 100’s of villages burned

  • unknown # of casualties

• these 2 created pan Indian towns to defy treaty of Greenville

  • first town in Greenville

  • 2nd town in ?

• Tecumseh traveled from Canada to Georgia to call for resistance to white Americans + restoration of native sacred power

• attempt to make pan Indian alliance relied on 18th C. predecessors

18th Century Predecessors

• Before 7 years war

• Neolin

  • influenced/inspired Pontiac → Pontiac’s rebellion

  • vision of native independence, cultural renewal, religious revitalization

  • urged natives to throw off dependency of European goods + tech and put faith in spirituality + rituals and increase cooperation w/ each other

  • encouraged violence + resistance to european influence

    • increase after 7 years war

• Neolin + Pontiac + Pontiac’s Rebellion inspired people of Great lakes region, Ohio valley, and upper Susquehanna valley to unite and attack British forts + people

• 1765 to 1811, series of native prophets

  • Joseph Brant

    • Iroquois leader

  • Handsome Lake

    • Seneca Prophet

  • The Trout

    • Ottawa leader

  • Mad Dog

    • Creek Leader

  • Coocochi

    • Mohawk woman

• Widespread revitalization efforts by native leaders + prophets

• happen in Great Lakes and Ohio River valley

• Western Confederacy waged war vs Americans (1791 - 1795)

  • defeated in battle of fallen timbers (1794)

• Coalition was unsuccessful but defeated 2 American armies and made Washington reformulate Indian Policy

• Tecumseh in involved in confederacy → efforts in creating Tecumseh Confederacy

• 2 brothers claimed “master of life” gave them duty to return natives to the one true path and eliminate european influence + American trade + culture

• Tenskwatawa stressed need for religious + cultural renewal ( blend of native religion & Christianity)

• Tenskwatawa emphasized apocalyptic visions that he described as ushering in a new world and restoring native power to the continent

• message empowering and liberating for followers

Tecumseh Confederacy

• drew from natives in Great lakes & Ohio River Valley

  • aka old northwest

• hate for land hungry Americans

• attracted allies b/c refused to give anymore land to the Americans

• promoted native unity & restoration of native land

• offered distinct Indian identity

  • included multiple native peoples

  • common spirituality

• spirituality = kept confederacy together

• spirituality + union used to attack opposers of confederacy or natives that wanted to accommodate white Americans/ U.S. (were called witches) → witch hunts to weed out opposition and those who wanted to accommodate the U.S. , early 1800’s

• Hillis Hadjo

  • red stick creeks

  • creek prophet

  • tried to build support for Tecumseh’s confederacy in south east

  • spread same ideas as Tecumseh

  • accompanied Tecumseh on his travels from Canada to Georgia in 1811

• Red Stick Creeks

  • used some of Tecumseh’s ideas but made their own traditions

  • joined Tecumseh confederacy movement to remove european influence on creek society

  • some creek leaders maintained relations w/ U.S.

    • best way to avoid American incursions on native land is to accommodate them or diplomacy

  • most native leaders stayed aligned with U.S. → civil war among creeks

Decline of the Tecumseh Confederacy

• Tecumseh little support in south east

• 1813, Andrew Jackson cut Red Sticks off from Tecumseh Confederacy

• Red Sticks involved in civil war with other creeks

• 1814, Battle of Horseshoe Bend

  • Jackson sided w/ Cherokee & Lower Creeks to defeat Red Sticks

  • present day Alabama

  • Red Sticks lost →Treaty of Fort Jackson → 14 million acres of land seized to US → US expand past Mississippi River

• pan indian identity failed + loss in Battle of Tippecanoe (1811) → Demise of Tecumseh confederacy

• confederacy “limped” on until Tecumseh died in battle in 1813 in Ohio = pan american identity ended

11/1

Market Revolution

• 1815 to 1850

• large role in modernizing America + world

• transition from subsistence (surviving) world → productivity and profit

• Subsistence world = bartering + trading

• commercial world = new tech (steamboats, canals, railroads, textile mills), transportation networks

• textile mills = factories that made cloth from cotton used to make clothes

  • mostly in northeast

• farmers farm for profit rather than survival

• cities and factories created in north, middle class enlarged, fortunes made

Unexpected Costs

• more textile factories = more demand for slave labor

• farmers left farms to work in factories

• explosive economic growth → growing lower class of workers w/o property

• some places still have property requirement to vote → people taken away from land → opportunity for political participation gone

• panics = series of economic depressions

• 19th century characterized by panics = business cycle

  • booms of productivity + busts

• Americans working for lower wages

  • trapped in endless cycle of property

  • women worked 13 hours a day 6 days a week

• North tried to distance from slavery → gradual emancipation laws

• textile factories actually increase demand for cotton → more demand for slave labor in north

• north banks provided financing for “land speculation” + expansion of slavery + purchase of slaves from south

• slavery stand in south b/c of demand for cotton + textiles

• ablility to purchase land + expand + purchase slaves from financing from northern banks

• US = nation of free labor + slavery, wealth + equality, endless promise + peril

• fufiled revolutionary generations dream by producing troubling trends

  • child labor

  • accelerated immigration

  • expansion of slavery

Transportation Revolution

• allowed market revolution to grow

• connects nation together w/ canals, steamboats, roads, railroads

• widespread use of roads, railroads, steamboats and canals

• reshaped American life 19th C.

• expanded internal trade → US economy grows as goods are grown for profit not subsistence

• US farmers export produce to Europe b/c of french revolutionary + Napoleonic wars (1793 - 1815)

• 1790 US exports = $20 million → $108 million in 1815

• profits from exports lowered b/c of high cost of internal transport → hindered US development

• 1816 cheaper to ship produce oversea than to move it over land

• after war of 1812 new national infrastructure = more affordable + faster to ship goods over land in US

  • canals, roads, railroads

• more infrastructure in northeast than rest of US

• South rely on river networks to get produce (mostly cotton)

• development in state gov began b/c of Andrew Jackson Presidency

• national expenditure $1.3 million per year

• funded by state banks + european capital → growth

• bank growth skyrocket

• 1783, 1 state bank → 1820, 266 state banks → 1840, 702 banks → 1860, 1400 banks

Panic of 1819

• economic growth not even, punctuated by depression/panic

• 19th century = business cycles = booms & busts

• related to land

• era of good feelings (1815 - 1825 (James Monroe presidency (1817 - 1825))

  • began w/ end of Napoleonic war

  • US could ignore european military + political affairs for first time

  • era of complacency

  • development of issues that would affect US later

  • stimulated by US protected tariff + Second national bank

    • tariffs = tax on imported goods to protect US manufacturing

• war of 1812 → growth of trade stopped → rise in unemployment, prices, foreclosed mortgages, lost property, failed banks

• decline of property values significant

• debtors prisons = prisons for people in debt

• Philly, 1800 people in DP

• Boston, 3500 people in DP

• 1/3 of pop. affected by panic

• causes

  • decline of cotton prices

  • contraction of credit

  • only hard money used to buy land (hard to come by)

  • factories closed b/c of foreign competition

• left lasting impact on US politics b/c of greater demands for democratization b/c people have no access to property = not allowed to vote → demand for participation in politics b/c people suffering from gov decision → demand for state constitutions democratization + restrictions on voting be lifted → hostility towards banks + corps + monopolies

Panic of 1837

• related to land, speculation, slaves

• worst financial crisis of 19th C.

• (1837 - 1842) bank assets fell by 1/2, credit dried up, business slowed to a crawl b/c of easy credit + large speculation in land

• Causes

  • Jackson felt bank of US corrupt + held undue influence on US people → moved fund from bank of US to state banks

  • state banks lessened restrictions on credit → easier to acquire land

  • Specie Circular (1836) = hard currency for land purchases → hard currency moved from northeast to west b/c more growth in west → NY in debt to Britain & Britain want payment in hard currency → bubbles bust + land speculation

  • cotton prices decline b/c speculation in slavery + cotton gin (made slavery profitable)

    • south over producing cotton → more supply than demand → cotton price decline

  • Jackson hate 2nd bank of US

    • believed it was corrupt + hurting Americans

    • vetoed bank charter renewal (1832) → no oversight on monetary policy → easy credit widely available

• business slow + factories closing = farmers who left land to work in factories have no where to get money or food from

• Market Revolution diversified market but catastrophic for people who don’t have land anymore

11/4

19th century America= booms and busts

Panic of 1857

• speculation (investment) in railroad bonds

• first panic to rapidly spread across nation b/c of telegraph

• Telegraph

  • invented by Samuel Morse

    • also invented morse code

• excessive investment in railroad stocks since 1847

  • increased price of stock

  • more demand less supply

• People expected price to keep growing → investors/speculators borrowed more money → more than 24k miles of rail laid + price of bond securities increased beyond their value

• speculation/investment where railroad development happening in hopes farmers, migrants, entrepreneurs would buy land to turn a profit

• related to Crimean War (1854 to 1856)

  • Russia in war w/ France, ottoman empire, UK

  • UK cut grain exports to Europe → American farmers shipped their grain to Europe → grain price increase

• After war Russia continued exports to Europe → made 1857 panic worse b/c demand for wheat stopped

• Ohio Life & Trust failed → national panic b/c telegram spread news of failure quickly → more banks closed

• Telegraph spread news of bank failures immediately + rapidly → panic + other banks started contracting/closing loans → farmers, merchants, manufacturers went bankrupt/ stopped production temporarily

Counterfeiting

• paper currency unmoored traditional signifiers of wealth, mainly land

• counterfeit bills more common

• Americans looking for con/ confidence man (looked like normal people)

• Counterfeit bills + Con men + impending bust = anxiety in new Capitalist economy

Americans didn’t blame new commercial system despite its issues, instead worked harder to get further ahead

Transportation Revolution

• facilitated this push by opening land west of Appalachian Mountains

The National Road

• built from 1811 to 1837

• 624 miles long

• 6 weeks to travel in 19th C.

• spanned 4-5 states, from Cumberland Maryland to Vandalia Illinois

• first federal highway

• main route to Northwest Territory for several years

• Congress approve funds for road in 1802

• 1833, states responsible for maintaining national road that ran through their state

• originally free, 1833 state imposed tolls to maintain road

The Erie Canal

• 1825

• 350 Miles

• NY completed canal

• human made waterway

• linked Great Lakes to Hudson River to Atlantic Ocean

• allowed western crops to be brought to eastern cities via waterway

• led to boom in National Canal building → 1840, Ohio made 2 canals, linked ohio river w/ lake erie

Internal improvements connecting nation + allowing western produce to get to Hudson river and Atlantic ocean

The Steamboat

• 1807, first commercial Steamboat service

  • traveled up and down western rivers

  • established by Robert Fulton

• 1830, 200+ steamboats going up and down routes

  • previously only downstream routes

The Railroad

• 1827, first long distance rail line

  • Maryland

  • 1/2 startup fund from city of Baltimore + State Gov → B & O Railroad

• B & O Railroad

  • to bring agricultural products across Appalachian mountains into Chesapeake bay

  • inspired other cities + states to build own railroad

• NYC, Charleston, Boston, Philly made own railroads b/c of B & O

  • fund from state + local govs

  • panic of 1837 made govs weary about supporting

• 1860, 30k+ miles of railroad created

Web of different type of transport made it easier for farmers to get their goods to eastern markets.

Development of railroads slower in south, but railroad + canals/rivers made it easier for cotton planters to get their goods to textile mills.

Transportation Revolution facilitated market economy and growth of American Economy

Most of development in the northeast

Communication Revolution

• accompanied Transportation Revo.

The Telegraph

• 1843, Samuel Morse convinced congress to fund telegraph line

  • 40 miles long, from Washington DC to Baltimore

• Mexican American War

  • 1846 to 1848

  • News from battlefield printed in eastern newspapers in a few days

  • telegraph instantly communicated news → news papers publish news few days after receiving it

Transporation Revo + Communication Revo transformed American lives

• Farmers producing food for profit not survival → began accessing credit through eastern banks → allowed them to expand + protect them from failure from catastrophic forces

Farming Technology

• northeast to Midwest farmers turn to tech to increase productivity

Horse-Drawn Reaper

• invented by Cyrus McCormick

Steel Plow

• invented by John Deer

Made easier to plow unbroken ground into fertile land

Growth Of Cities

• cities transformed by market revo

• 1820, NYC only city w/ pop. over 100k people

• 1850, 6 cities w/ pop. over 100k people

  • including Chicago, only 20 years old

• transport revo gave shape to cities

  • Erie canal made NYC important economic city in US b/c of trade connection to great lakes

  • St. Louis + Cincinnati made into centers of trade b/c of steamboat

  • Chicago = railway hub between Great Lakes + Great Plains

• geographic center of nation shifted west b/c of steam power

• Pennsylvania = center of American Manufacturing

• 1830’s, New England lost competitive edge in manufacturing to west

• cash economy eclipsed barter & trade systems → income = measure of economic growth

Incorporation

• offered by states to encourage more growth of commerce

• protected wealth and liabilities of entrepreneurs

• Private charter allowed investors & directors to avoid personal liability for company debt

• purpose: to protect organizations w/ main purpose of public good

  • universities, municipalities, public work projects

• Americans didn’t trust new impersonal organizations

  • believed they lacked personal responsibility but had legal rights

• Americans wanted limitations put on corps

  • Jefferson also wanted limits but also wanted to crush the aristocracy of money corps

Transportation revo limited in south

slave labor fueled market revo b/c it provided the cotton necessary for textile mills

1832, 88/106 American cops w/ value over $100k were textile mills

Textile companies worked w/ free labor but depended on southern slave labor for cotton supply

The Cotton Kingdom

• Americans thought slavery would end @ end of 18th C. b/c not profitable for rice or tobacco anymore

• Driving textile mills in northeast

• boom in cotton production

• drove increase in slavery

Cotton Gin

• 1793

• made cotton profitable as a staple crop in the deep south

• laborious to get seeds out of sticky cotton

• Eli Whitney

• good for productivity

• took seeds out of cotton and cotton came out other side w/o the seeds quickly

Modern America emerging in 19th C., created non modern US south

South doesn’t have as much development as north east, no railroad or road development

Unexpected out come of market revo

Gradual Emancipation

• northern states put plans, processes, acts in place to emancipate slaves

• slaves that were alive when it plans, processes, acts passed not emancipated

• emancipated children of slaves

• Jersey last state to embrace gradual emancipation 1804

• defended interest of northern slave owners by controlling a generation of black Americans

• slaves born before gradual emancipation acts passed still slaves, those born after passed emancipated after a certain amount of time or certain amount of years served

• northern states promise of emancipation required slave mother’s children to compensate slaveholder loss by serving indentured servitude

• other options:

  • escape

    • dangerous

    • 1793 harboring fugitive slave = federal crime

    • if slave found to be escaped → returned to owner

    • slave catchers

      • hunt escaped slaves

      • some had little ethics in terms of who they kidnapped

      • took both enslaved and free people of color into slavery

  • manumission

    • slaveowner gives slave their freedom

    • rare

    • only happened if slave wasn’t valuable anymore

    • freed slaves had to leave state in some states to avoid free black communities who could inspire escape + revolt

    • 1/5 of white families in NYC owned slaves

    • 1783 to 1800, less than 80 slaves received freedom through manumission

    • not a viable option

• very slow

• 1830, 3500 people still enslaved in north

• NJ didn’t end slavery until after civil war (1866 NJ radified 13th amendment, ended slavery in NJ)

• created free black pop.

• 1790, 60k free blacks

• 1810, 186k+ free blacks

Free Black Communities

• grew during market revo

• fought for their civil rights

• most northern states gave free blacks right to own property + trial by jury

• In New England Free blacks:

  • owned land & businesses

  • founded mutual aid societies

  • established churches

  • promoted education

  • developed print culture

  • voted

• 1790, <70k enslaved

• 1820, >1.5 mil enslaved

• slave pop. growth driven by cotton

A Cotton Boom

• tech increased supply + demand of cotton

• water powered textile mills in England + US northeast turned cotton into cloth → white southerners expanded cultivation westward, past Mississippi river

• slavery less profitable in late 18th C. in tobacco + rice growing places

• growth of cotton increased demand for slavery

Speculation in Slaves

• aka investment in slaves

• Slave market (Atlanta, Georgia)

• cotton fueled speculation in slavery

• slave owners leveraged potential profits in to loans → loans used to buy more slaves

• 18th C. advertising sales of slaves

• people taking out loans on slaves and selling slaves for profit when they didn’t pay for them

Cotton Exports

• 1815, 150k bales of cotton exported

• 1859, 4.5 mil bales of cotton exported

• slave owners shipped cotton to north, textile manufacturers, north financiers (shipped cotton overseas)