HISTORY

Post Civil War out Law on Slavery



Post Civil War out Law on Slavery

Initiation of Slavery

In 1619 came the first blacks in the New World. Whether slaves or not is unknown, although we know that these people were brought to America Dutch ships. Then slavery grew slowly along with the growth of the colonies, but was not widely practiced. To 1640 was primarily in the New World "de facto" (actual, but not legally permitted) slavery, but in 1669 it was also "de jure" or legal, possible to keep slaves. From that time, slavery in the British colonies is growing in popularity.

The international slave trade of that time, now known as the "Middle Passage", quickly grew into a large, profitable business. There were three reasons. First there was the so-called "triangle trade": they wanted to prevent the trading ships on a portion of their trip would be empty, so we followed a triangular route which the ships were always fully loaded.

Thus, for example, machinery, wood and food to the Caribbean transported, where the goods needed because they were not available. In those days, mainly in the Caribbean times sugar was converted into rum that was processed. The rum was then trading ships to Africa, where it used to buy slaves, who were then transported to America, where weather and food machines were loaded for the Caribbean.

The second reason was linked to mortality of slaves on the ships. They lived in very harsh conditions and died of various diseases. Especially smallpox was a hated enemy: all the slave ships could it go down. But when they all were vaccinated, the mortality rate went down drastically and was transporting slaves suddenly a lot more profitable.

The third reason is simple: pure imperialism. The British colonies grew rapidly, and from Europe were not enough people for that growth to keep full. They had cheap labor needed, and found that the African slaves. The result was that during the census of 1790 in the United States 3.9 million people were counted, of which 757,000 black African slaves.

When the British colonies declared independence in 1776, the founding fathers did not know how to deal with slavery. On the one hand, they were aware of the potential problem of slavery, on the other hand, they were mostly slave owners themselves. Their solution was simple: we ignore the problem.

The U.S. Constitution, which in 1789 was ratified, was hardly about slavery mention, with two notable exceptions: First, slaves for census and representation in the House of Representatives and 3 / 5 of a white person counted, second, in 1808, the international slave trade (but not slavery itself) in the U.S. are abolished.

The dichotomy of North and South in the United States was around this time even more clearly. In the North they had traditionally been little known slavery, simply because there is less labor-intensive farming was practiced, and there before the industrial revolution got underway. The states Pennsylvania and Massachusetts in 1780 and 1786 ...