End of slavery in the United States
From the late-18th to the mid-19th century, various
After the United States was founded in 1776, the country split into
Background
On 22 August 1791, the Haitian Revolution began; it concluded in 1804 with the independence of Haiti. Slavery in Haiti thus came to an end, and Haiti became the second country on the planet that abolished slavery (after the United Kingdom in 1772).[2][3]
In 1804, Alexander von Humboldt visited the United States and expressed the idea that slavery was not a good way to treat citizens; this was during Thomas Jefferson's presidency. Humboldt's ideas were expanded by the following generation of American politicians, writers, and clergy members, among them Ralph Waldo Emerson and Abraham Lincoln.[4][5][6]
The growing U.S. abolition movement sought to gradually or immediately end slavery in the United States. It was active from the late colonial era until the American Civil War, which culminated in the abolition of American slavery through the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Civil War
The
The practice of slavery in the United States was one of the key political issues of the 19th century; decades of political unrest over slavery led up to the war. At the start of the Civil War, there were 34 states in the United States, 15 of which were slave states. Eleven of these slave states, after conventions devoted to the topic, issued declarations of secession from the United States and created the Confederate States of America and were represented in the Confederate Congress.[8][9] The slave states that stayed in the Union — Maryland, Missouri, Delaware, and Kentucky (called border states) — continued to be represented in the U.S. Congress. By the time the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, Tennessee was already under Union control.[10] Accordingly, the Proclamation applied only to the ten remaining Confederate states. During the war, the abolition of slavery was required by President Abraham Lincoln for the readmission of Confederate states.[11]
The
Local Resistance and Social Reconstruction
After the Civil War, many white Southerners were unwilling to accept that black people were now free and had rights. White Southerners saw the abolition of slavery as a threat to the superior status of white people in the social order. Historian Drew Gilpin Faust documented the emergence of guerrilla warfare by white Southerners who sought to resist black people's newfound rights. These white Southerners used various means of sabotage and intimidation and engaged in violent acts to hinder Reconstruction. This resistance was often targeted at newly freed slaves when they tried to assert their newfound freedom and claim their rights as citizens.
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was a
- That on the first day of January in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.[25]
On January 1, 1863, the Proclamation changed the legal status under federal law of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the secessionist Confederate states from enslaved to free. As soon as an enslaved person escaped the control of his or her master, either by running away across Union lines or through the advance of federal troops, the person was permanently free. Ultimately, the Union victory brought the proclamation into effect in all of the former Confederacy.
The Challenges of Pursuing Education for Freed Slaves
The challenges that awaited freed slaves after the Civil War were daunting and far-reaching. Despite the Emancipation Proclamation officially freeing them from slavery, transitioning from bondage to freedom proved to be a difficult task. Most of the formerly enslaved people were faced with severe economic hardships, because they lacked land and job opportunities. Moreover, their journey was made even more challenging by their lack of legal rights and social equality, as discriminatory practices persisted in both the North and the South. One of the most significant obstacles was access to education. Although the Freedmen's Bureau was established to provide educational opportunities, the availability of schools for freed slaves varied widely across regions. Some states in the South even enacted Black Codes that restricted the educational opportunities of African Americans. However, despite these challenges, many freed slaves showed remarkable resilience by creating their own schools as a means of empowerment and social advancement. Their struggle for educational rights would become a pivotal aspect of the broader fight for civil rights in the post-Civil War era.
Formerly enslaved people faced many challenges in the post-Civil War era, as they were struggling not only for economic independence but also fighting for their basic rights as citizens. The Reconstruction era was a time of great social upheaval, and the newly freed slaves found themselves in a world that was hostile and unwelcoming. They faced violence and discrimination at every turn, and despite the abolition of slavery, many were still treated as second-class citizens. The Black Codes, which were laws that restricted the rights and freedoms of black people, made it even harder for them to achieve economic or social mobility. These discriminatory laws were enforced in both the North and the South, and it was only through the hard work and perseverance of the black community that they were eventually overturned. Despite these obstacles, many formerly enslaved people were able to build successful lives for themselves and their families, but it was a long and difficult road for them.
Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) to the
Juneteenth
On June 19, 1865 —
During the American Civil War (1861–1865), emancipation came at different times to different places in the Southern United States. Large celebrations of emancipation, often called Jubilees (recalling the biblical Jubilee in which enslaved people were freed) occurred on September 22, January 1, July 4, August 1, April 6, and November 1, among other dates. Although June 19, 1865, was not the actual end of slavery even in Texas (like the Emancipation Proclamation, General Gordon's military order had to be acted upon), and although it has competed with other dates for emancipation's celebration,[31] ordinary African Americans created, preserved, and spread a shared commemoration of slavery's wartime demise across the United States.[28]
The end of slavery effectively occurred with the federal Padrone Act of 1874 (18 Stat. 251), which was enacted on June 23, 1874, "in response to exploitation of immigrant children in forced begging and street crime by criminalizing the practice of enslaving, buying, selling, or holding any person in involuntary servitude."[32]
Brussels Conference and slavery in the 20th century
Since the abolition of slavery in the United States in 1865, efforts have been made to eliminate other forms of slavery. In 1890, the Brussels Conference Act adopted a collection of anti-slavery measures to end the slave trade on land and sea. In 1904, the International Agreement for the suppression of the White Slave Traffic was signed. In 1926, the Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery was ratified.
Even after slavery became illegal more than a century ago, many criminal organizations continued to engage in
Slavery in the 21st century
In 2014, the Human Trafficking Prevention Act was created. It amended the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 to require training for federal government personnel related to trafficking in persons.[33] On 12 Dec 2000 the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime was put in charge of implementing the protocol. In 2002, the Polaris Project was founded.[34] Polaris is one of the few organizations working on all forms of trafficking, including both sex trafficking and labor trafficking. It furnishes support for survivors, whether male, female, transgender, or children, and whether U.S. citizens or foreign nationals.[35]
Media
- The mass incarceration in the United States."[36] Its title alludes to the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1865, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States, except as a punishment for a crime. Slavery, however, has been silently perpetuated by criminalizing behavior and enabling police to arrest poor black people and forcing them to work for the state. In addition, "carceral states" are managed by for-profit prison corporations.[37]
- Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North, is a 2008 documentary film that focuses on the descendants of the DeWolf family, a prominent slave-trading family who settled in Bristol, Rhode Island and trafficked Africans from 1769 to 1820, and on the legacy of the slave trade in the North of the United States.[38][39]
See also
- Slavery in the United States
- Timeline of abolition of slavery and serfdom
- History of civil rights in the United States
- Abolitionism
- Juneteenth
- History of unfree labor in the United States
- Slave Trade Act
- Slavery Abolition Act 1833
- Abolitionism in the United Kingdom
- International Agreement for the suppression of the White Slave Traffic
- Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery
- Slavery in the 21st century
Notes
- Congress of the Confederate States, as their legal positions made it unnecessary.
References
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- ^ Kocher, Greg (February 23, 2013). "Kentucky supported Lincoln's efforts to abolish slavery — 111 years late | Lexington Herald-Leader". Kentucky.com. Archived from the original on July 2, 2018. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
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- ^ Copied from the article Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North