Abolition of slavery in the North

[Derek Jackson]

In 1787 as I undestand it slavery was Legal in all of the United States.

By 1861- and I think by about the 1830s slavery had been abolished in the Northern states

Does anyone know the circumstances of the abolition? Were former slave holders compensated? What if anything was done to assist former slaves?

[wkwillis]

In 1787 as I undestand it slavery was Legal in all of the United States.

By 1861- and I think by about the 1830s slavery had been abolished in the Northern states

Does anyone know the circumstances of the abolition? Were former slave holders compensated? What if anything was done to assist former slaves?

Dead silence from all. If you find a book about this, tell me.

[chrispi]

Dead silence from all. If you find a book about this, tell me.

The Slave Trade by Hugh Thomas is probably the most all-embracing book on slavery, but it is mostly non-US-based. I think that the "Illegal Era" section of the book is the most relevant regarding abolition in the North. Suffice it to say that capitalism was most assuredly NOT the driving force behind emancipation, quite the opposite actually...

[robertp6165]

In 1787 as I undestand it slavery was Legal in all of the United States.

By 1861- and I think by about the 1830s slavery had been abolished in the Northern states

Does anyone know the circumstances of the abolition? Were former slave holders compensated? What if anything was done to assist former slaves?

It is true that by the 1830s slavery had been abolished in the Northern States (the last one to act was New York, in 1827). In most cases, slavery was "grandfathered" out...i.e. children born after a certain date were to be free, but those born before that date would remain slaves until they died (there were still a few very old slaves held in some Northern States which had formally abolished slavery, for example, right up until the 13th Amendment abolished slavery throughout the United States in December 1865). In other cases, slavery was abolished, but owners were not forced to actually free their slaves...instead, they were permitted to sell them to owners in states where the institution was still allowed. By using these systems, the Northern states were able to abolish slavery without the expense of compensating slave owners. Little was done to assist the freed slaves, and conditions for them got increasingly worse as time went on. For example, some States initially allowed freedmen to vote in State elections, but these rights were taken away during the 1830s and 1840s in all Northern States. Systems of segregation were imposed which became the model for the later "Jim Crow" system of the South in the years after the Civil War. Some Northern States even went to the extreme of passing laws which forbade free blacks from living there.

Try reading Alexis de Tocqueville's description of the condition of free blacks in the North in his book DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA. It's quite interesting.