African American Soldiers in the Colonial Period

ADAPTED FROM ESSAYS BY BARBARA SAVAGE, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

AFRICAN AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD

Most colonial militia specifically excluded all African Americans from serving, whether free or slave, in part out of fear of armed slave insurrections. But when the colonies began to prepare for full-scale war against Britain in 1775, freed African Americans were permitted to serve in the army, and evidently some slaves also joined the fighting. At the Battle of Bunker Hill, for example, Peter Salem (1750-1816), a former Massachusetts slave, distinguished himself through his valor.

Despite Salem's bravery and that of other blacks who fought in militia units, the official policy for military service drawn up by General George Washington (1732-1799) specifically excluded the "negro," slave and free, from enlisting in the Continental army. This policy would have prevailed had the British not countered by freely opening their armed ranks to African Americans. When this happened, some free African Americans were permitted to join the army, especially after the number of white volunteers began to decline.

There were five thousand African Americans among the three hundred thousand soldiers in the Revolutionary War. The overwhelming majority of these black soldiers came from northern colonies, but they fought in battles in all regions of the country. Prince Whipple and Oliver Cromwell, both African Americans, were with General Washington when he crossed the Delaware in December 1776. Black sailors, pilots, and boatswains also served in the navy during the war, helping to defend coastal cities and towns from the British.

The war for independence ended victoriously, but not for those African Americans who had hoped that the revolutionary cry for freedom would also end slavery. That change would come only after they had served in yet another war.

FREE BLACK SOCIETY FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE CIVIL WAR

By the early 1800s, when manumissions inspired by revolutionary ideals had ended, the contours of free black society in the United States were established. Members of this society were not a homogeneous group. They differed markedly, according to a variety of factors: whether they lived in cities or in the countryside; whether they lived in the North, the upper South, or the lower South; whether they were light-or dark-skinned; whether they were skilled or unskilled; and whether they were manumitted through benevolent paternalism or the random impulse of revolutionary ideals. These factors all helped determine the varied experiences of free black life. They also help explain why some free African Americans identified closely with those still in bondage while others considered themselves a separate group, as distinct from enslaved blacks as they were from whites.

In the states of the upper South, many masters had freed their slaves indiscriminately—that is, without regard to parentage or skin color. These freed African Americans were less likely to be light-skinned, for they were less likely to be the products of relations between white masters and black slaves. They were also less likely to possess the skills and resources a benevolent master might bestow on his own mixed-race child. In this region, there were also enough white people to occupy the ranks of skilled labor, so that most free black people were confined to the lowest rungs of the economy. As a result of all these factors, free African Americans in the upper South tended to see themselves as closely related to those who remained enslaved—as mere free counterparts to their brethren in chains.

In the lower South, however, free African Americans were fewer and more likely to be related to white colonial elites. Whites also formed a much smaller percentage of the population in the states of the lower South. In some places, whites were so scarce that slaves and free blacks were taught the artisan skills needed to make plantations and cities work. African Americans swelled the ranks of coopers, blacksmiths, and carpenters. Such skills allowed some free black men to occupy jobs and enjoy a social status unthinkable farther north. Skilled mulattoes—often manumitted by benevolent masters—sometimes were able to join the middle ranks of society. Because of their greater social opportunities, these "freemen" often regarded themselves as distinct from darker-skinned slaves, whose lives they had never shared.

Throughout the South, it also mattered a great deal whether a free black person lived in the city or in the countryside. Most free African Americans lived in rural areas, possessing few of the skills and resources necessary to succeed in cities. They had little choice but to hire themselves out as cheap agricultural labor, working under terms and conditions similar to those faced by slaves. Most lived in hovels on the margin of a plantation; some even lived in slave quarters. Their struggle for survival tempered their freedom severely, rendering it a mere mockery of the freedom enjoyed by whites. Poor and feared by a hostile white society, some of these free blacks traded their dubious freedom for the relative security of slavery. Others lost their free status when they committed any of a number of minor legal infractions, or through the guile of labor-hungry planters and slave traders.

A small number of free black southerners lived in cities; and in places like Charleston and Savannah, where whites were few, free African Americans with skills and resources served as an intermediate class of artisans and merchants. This preferred group often enjoyed a status far higher than that of unskilled free plantation laborers. In addition, urban life offered possibilities for independence denied on plantations. Cities were far from utopias for any black people, but for free African Americans with skills and resources, the complex urban economies offered opportunity and a comfortable anonymity in a hostile world.

SEE PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENT "African Rights and Liberty" by Maria W. Stewart

Another set of factors shaped life for free black people in the North. They had always formed a much smaller part of the population than in the South. Starting in the 1820s, this imbalance grew worse as European immigrants began to swell the labor ranks. Northern free black people were often the descendants of slaves manumitted indiscriminately in the upper South after the revolution. For this reason, they generally lacked the skills and opportunities necessary to play vital roles in the economy.

While nearly all free black northerners lived in cities, they fared far worse than their skilled counterparts in southern cities. White northerners, motivated by racial prejudice, excluded black laborers from working in the skilled crafts, confining them instead to low-paying, unskilled wage labor. Blacks in the North, though free, became an outcast group and the target of numerous race riots. Finally, in the North, skin color often had little to do with social status. Far removed from the Deep South phenomenon of paternalistic manumission, black northerners made fewer distinctions on the basis of skin color. For this reason, they were more likely to consider all people of African descent as a unified group.

The irony of free black life in antebellum America was that those with the highest status, skills, and wealth tended to be from regions where slavery was most firmly entrenched. In the lower South, where the abolition of slavery had never been seriously contemplated, a small number of free mulattoes enjoyed lives that would have been the envy of free blacks in the upper South and North. And in those regions where white Americans had liberated slaves in accordance with their democratic principles, freed black people suffered from poverty and a lack of skills. Differences in status and skill among free African Americans had important implications for black society. While most free African Americans suffered in poverty, a few skilled craftsmen and merchants experienced a better fate, especially in cities like Charleston and New Orleans. This group of light-skinned, urban, relatively wealthy mulattoes occupied a distinct position in American society. Some actually owned slaves, and elite social groups like the Brown Fellowship Society of Charleston excluded dark-skinned African Americans from joining. The free mulatto elites occupied a space between black slaves and white masters—they considered themselves their own, in-between race. The existence of this group seems especially strange to us today, in an America where people are considered either black or white. Yet mulatto elites actually existed in many New World societies. Brazil, the Caribbean islands, and other parts of Latin America witnessed the formation of multi-tiered racial caste systems in which free mulatto elites played important roles.

THE FREE BLACK POPULATION AND RESISTANCE TO SLAVERY

Given its position between a free white world and the world of black slaves, what role did this anomalous group of free African Americans play in the history of slavery in the United States? Did free blacks undermine or uphold the slave system? Was the very existence of an unenslaved black population a challenge to the idea that African-descended people were fit only for servitude? Or did free black people serve as a buffer between resentful slaves and their repressive masters? White southerners certainly saw free black people as a threat to their way of life. As the debate over slavery heated up, slaveholders increasingly saw the very existence of free blacks as a threat to the cherished institution. In the decades before the Civil War, fearful whites instituted a backlash against the freeing of slaves. Laws prohibiting manumission in the southern states increased, and some whites advocated the forced removal of free blacks from the region.

Again, regional differences were important. Free black people in the slave South lived tenuous lives, subject to the whim of local whites. Many sought to protect the little freedom they had gained, rather than risk losing all in supporting slaves' bids for freedom. Still, many took risks, hiring slaves so that they could live away from masters, helping slaves escape by forging passes for them, and even hiding fugitive slaves. Yet there is little evidence that many free black people took an active role in slave conspiracies. In fact, some wealthy mulattoes, who did not consider themselves black at all, expressed disdain for the "rascally Negroes" who slaved for their masters.

In the North, where nearly all black people were free, the question of supporting slave resistance was much clearer. There, free African Americans played a vital role in the destruction of slavery. African Americans in the antebellum North took part in a broad range of activities designed to achieve both the abolition of slavery in the South and the equality of free black people in the North. This latter effort was necessary, for free black northerners faced a number of obstacles. In many states, like New Jersey and Pennsylvania, black people were denied the right to vote. By 1840, 93 percent of northern black people were denied equal voting rights. So-called black laws such as those in Ohio and Illinois required black people to post a "bond" (put up a sum of money) when they entered the state as a guarantee of their good behavior. Like their counterparts in the South, free African Americans in the North remained far from equal.

SEE PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENT The Pennsylvania Act and the Abolition of Slavery

In response to these circumstances, black northerners created a variety of institutions designed to achieve equality and abolition. They established separate black churches, such as the Free African Society of Philadelphia, which was founded by Richard Allen (1760-1831) and Absalom Jones (1746-1817) in 1787. They also established newspapers dedicated solely to the needs and interests of black people. Published in New York starting in 1827, Freedom's Journal was the first of these. In addition, black leaders began in 1830 to hold a series of state and national conventions. These were designed to forge black solidarity and demonstrate African Americans' fitness for equality. Finally, African Americans developed an array of local vigilance committees, literary societies, and informal meetings to address the needs of black northerners.

Most importantly, black northerners took part in abolitionist activities. African American activists in the North—people like Frederick Douglass (1817-1895), Maria Stewart (1803-1879), Samuel Cornish (1795-1859), Martin R. Delany (1812-1885), and Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823-1893), to name only a few—forged strong ties with the white abolitionist movement. But such leaders were not merely the black counterparts of white antislavery workers. They espoused a distinct set of ideas, uniquely suited to the interests of black people. Unlike many white abolitionists, they fought for the equality of African Americans in the North, as well as for the abolition of slavery in the South.

SEE PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENT The Vested Interest of the Framers of the Constitution in the Business of Slavery

Some of these activists were fugitive slaves, free not by birth but because they had made daring escapes to the North. Fugitive slaves like Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown (1815-1884), and William (1824-1900) and Ellen Craft (c. 1826-1891) became famous by publishing their life stories and by lecturing antislavery audiences on the horrors of the peculiar institution. They demonstrated the affinities between free black people in the North and free and enslaved African Americans in the South. Other black northerners like David Walker (1785-1830) and Henry Highland Garnet (1815-1882) came very close to calling for violent slave uprisings.

Black activists in the North continually pressured the nation to face up to the hypocrisy of holding both slaves and democratic principles. By doing so, they helped push the nation into the war that would finally end slavery and make all African Americans free. In the process, they also helped forge an African American culture that was unique among the countries that fell under the slaver's lash—a culture that fostered political unity among black people both slave and free.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Nalty, Bernard C. Strength for the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military. New York: Free Press, 1986.

Quarles, Benjamin. The Negro in the American Revolution. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1961.

PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENT

"African Rights and Liberty" by Maria W. Stewart

INTRODUCTION

Born to free parents in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1803, Maria Stewart was orphaned at a young age and spent most of her childhood bound out as a servant in a clergyman's household. Her only education came from attending Sabbath schools as a teenager and young woman. Despite her limited training and prevailing attitudes that discouraged women from taking a public role in political matters, Stewart became the first American woman to speak before public audiences, vigorously addressing the cause of women and enslaved African Americans on many occasions.

The following speech was delivered at the African Mason Hall in Boston on February 23, 1833. In it, Stewart calls on other free African Americans to take a more active part in the struggle against slavery.

African rights and liberty is a subject that ought to fire the breast of every free man of color in these United States, and excite in his bosom a lively, deep, decided and heart-felt interest. When I cast my eyes on the long list of illustrious names that are enrolled on the bright annals of fame amongst the whites, I turn my eyes within, and ask my thoughts,"Where are the names of our illustrious ones?" It must certainly have been for the want of energy on the part of the free people of color that they have been long willing to bear the yoke of oppression. It must have been the want of ambition and force that has given the whites occasion to say that our natural abilities are not as good, and our capacities by nature inferior to theirs. They boldly assert that, did we possess a natural independence of soul, and feel a love for liberty within our breasts, some one of our sable race, long before this, would have testified it, notwithstanding the disadvantages under which we labor. We have made ourselves appear altogether unqualified to speak in our own defence, and are therefore looked upon as objects of pity and commiseration. We have been imposed upon, insulted and derided on every side; and now, if we complain, it is considered as the height of impertinence. We have suffered ourselves to be considered as dastards, cowards, mean, faint-hearted wretches; and on this account, (not because of our complexion,) many despise us and would gladly spurn us from their presence.

These things have fired my soul with a holy indignation, and compelled me thus to come forward, and endeavor to turn their attention to knowledge and improvement; for knowledge is power. I would ask, is it blindness of mind, or stupidity of soul, or the want of education, that has caused our men who are 60 to 70 years of age, never to let their voices be heard nor their hands be raised in behalf of their color? Or has it been for the fear of offending the whites? If it has, O ye fearful ones, throw off your fearfulness, and come forth in the name of the Lord, and in the strength of the God of Justice, and make yourselves useful and active members in society; for they admire a noble and patriotic spirit in other—and should they not admire it in us? If you are men, convince them that you possess the spirit of men; and as your day, so shall your strength be. Have the sons of Africa no souls? feel they no ambitious desires? shall the chains of ignorance forever confine them? shall the insipid appellation of "clever negroes," or "good creatures," any longer content them? Where can we find amongst ourselves the man of science, or a philosopher, or an able statesman, or a counsellor at law? Show me our fearless and brave, our noble and gallant ones. Where are our lecturers on natural history, and our critics in useful knowledge? There may be a few such men amongst us, but they are rare. It is true, our fathers bled and died in the revolutionary war, and others fought bravely under the command of Jackson, in defence of liberty. But where is the man that has distinguished himself in these modern days by acting wholly in the defence of African rights and liberty? There was one—although he sleeps, his memory lives.

I am sensible that there are many highly intelligent gentlemen of color in these United States, in the force of whose arguments, doubtless, I should discover my inferiority; but if they are blest with wit and talent, friends and fortune, why have they not made themselves men of eminence, by striving to take all the reproach that is cast upon the people of color, and in endeavoring to alleviate the woes of their brethren in bondage? Talk, without effort, is nothing; you are abundantly capable, gentlemen, of making yourselves men of distinction; and this gross neglect, on your part, causes my blood to boil within me. Here is the grand cause which hinders the rise and progress of the people of color. It is their want of laudable ambition and requisite courage.

Individuals have been distinguished according to their genius and talents, ever since the first formation of man, and will continue to be whilst the world stands. The different grades rise to honor and respectability as their merits may deserve. History informs us that we sprung from one of the most learned nations of the whole earth—from the seat, if not the parent of science; yes, poor, despised Africa was once the resort of sages and legislators of other nations, was esteemed the school for learning, and the most illustrious men in Greece flocked thither for instruction. But it was our gross sins and abominations that provoked the Almighty to frown thus heavily upon us, and give our glory unto others. Sin and prodigality have caused the downfall of nations, kings and emperors; and were it not that God in wrath remembers mercy, we might indeed despair; but a promise is left us; "Ethiopia shall again stretch forth her hands unto God."

But it is of no use for us to boast that we sprung from this learned and enlightened nation, for this day a thick mist of moral gloom hangs over millions of our race. Our condition as a people has been low for hundreds of years, and it will continue to be so, unless, by the true piety and virtue, we strive to regain that which we have lost. White Americans, by their prudence, economy and exertions, have sprung up and become one of the most flourishing nations in the world, distinguished for their knowledge of the arts and sciences, for their polite literature. Whilst our minds are vacant and starving for want of knowledge, theirs are filled to overflowing. Most of our color have been taught to stand in fear of the white man from their earliest infancy, to work as soon as they could walk, and call "master" before they scarce could lisp the name of mother. Continual fear and laborious servitude have in some degree lessened in us that natural force and energy which belong to man; or else, in defiance of opposition, our men before this would have nobly and boldly contended for their rights. But give the man of color an equal opportunity with the white, from the cradle to manhood, and from manhood to the grave, and you would discover the dignified statesman, the man of science, and the philosopher. But there is no such opportunity for the sons of Africa, and I fear that our powerful ones are fully determined that there never shall be. Forbid, ye Powers on High, that it should any longer be said that our men possess no force. O ye sons of Africa, when will your voices be heard in our legislative halls, in defiance of your enemies, contending for equal rights and liberty? How can you, when you reflect from what you have fallen, refrain from crying mightily unto God, to turn away from us the fierceness of his anger, and remember our transgressions against us no more forever. But a God of infinite purity will not regard the prayers of those who hold religion in one hand, and prejudice, sin and pollution in the other; he will not regard the prayers of self-righteousness and hypocrisy. Is it possible, I exclaim, that for the want of knowledge, we have labored for thousands of years to support others, and been content to receive what they chose to give us in return? Cast your eyes about—look as far as you can see—all, all is owned by the lordly white, except here and there a lowly dwelling which the man of color, midst deprivations, fraud and opposition, has been scarce able to procure. Like King Solomon, who put neither nail nor hammer to the temple, yet received the praise; so also have the white Americans gained themselves a name, like the names of the great men who are in the earth, whilst in reality we have been their principal foundation and support. We have pursued the shadow, they have obtained the substance; we have performed the labor, they have received the profits; we have planted the vines, they have eaten the fruits of them.

I would implore our men, and especially our rising youth, to flee from the gambling board and the dance hall; for we are poor, and have no money to throw away. I do not consider dancing as criminal in itself, but it is astonishing to me that our young men are so blind to their own interest and the future welfare of their children, as to spend their hard earnings for this frivolous amusement; for it has been carried on among us to such an unbecoming extent that it has become absolutely disgusting. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. "Had those men amongst us, who have had an opportunity, turned their attention as assiduously to mental and moral improvement as they have to gambling and dancing, I might have remained quietly at home, and they stood contending in my place. These polite accomplishments will never enroll your names on the bright annals of fame, who admire the belle void of intellectual knowledge, or applaud the dandy that talks largely on politics, without striving to assist his fellow in the revolution, when the nerves and muscles of every other man forced him into the field of action. You have a right to rejoice, and to let your hearts cheer you in the days of your youth; yet remember that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Then, O ye sons of Africa, turn your mind from these perishable objects, and contend for the cause of God and the rights of man. Form yourselves into temperance societies. There are temperate men amongst you; then why will you any longer neglect to strive, by your example, to suppress vice in all its abhorrent forms? You have been told repeatedly of the glorious results arising from temperance, and can you bear to see the whites arising in honor and respectability, without endeavoring to grasp after that honor and respectability also?

But I forbear. Let our money, instead of being thrown away as heretofore, be appropriated for schools and seminaries of learning for our children and youth. We ought to follow the example of the whites in this respect. Nothing would raise our respectability, add to our peace and happiness and reflect so much honor upon us, as to be ourselves the promoters of temperance, and the supporters, as far as we are able, of useful and scientific knowledge. The rays of light and knowledge have been hid from our view; we have been taught to consider ourselves as scarce superior to the brute creation; and have performed the most laborious part of American drudgery. Had we as people received one half the early advantages the whites have received, I would defy the government of these United States to deprive us any longer of our rights.

I am informed that the agent of the Colonization Society has recently formed an association of young men, for the purpose of influencing those of us to go to Liberia who may feel disposed. The colonizationalists are blind to their own interest, for should the nations of the earth make war with America, they would find their forces much weakened by our absence; or should we remain here, can our "brave soldiers" and "fellow citizens," as they were termed in time of calamity, condescend to defend the rights of the whites, and be again deprived of their own, or sent to Liberia in return? O, if the colonizationists are real friends to Africa, let them expend the money which they collect in erecting a college to educate her injured sons in this land of gospel light and liberty; for it would be most thankfully received on our part, and convince us of the truth of their professions, and save time, expense and anxiety. Let them place before us noble objects, worthy of pursuit, and see if we prove ourselves to be those unambitious Negroes they term us. But ah! methinks their hearts are so frozen towards us, they had rather their money should be sunk in the ocean than to administer it to our relief; and I fear, if they dared, like Pharaoh king of Egypt, they would order every male child amongst us to be drowned. But the most high God is still as able to subdue the lofty pride of these white Americans, as He was the heart of that ancient rebel. They say though we are looked upon as things, yet we sprang from a scientific people. Had our men the requisite force and energy, they would soon convince them, by their efforts both in public and private, that they were men, or things in the shape of men. Well may the colonizationists laugh us to scorn for our negligence; well may they cry, "Shame to the sons of Africa. "As the burden of the Israelites was too great for Moses to bear, so also is our burden too great for our noble advocate to bear. You must feel interested, my brethren, in what he undertakes, and hold up his hands by your good words, or in spite of himself his soul will become discouraged, and his heart will die within him; for he has, as it were, the strong bulls of Bashan to contend with.

It is of no use for us to wait any longer for a generation of well educated men to arise. We have slumbered and slept too long already; the day is far spent; the night of death approaches; and you have sound sense and good judgment sufficient to begin with, if you feel disposed to make a right use of it. Let every man of color throughout the United States, who possesses the spirit and principles of a man, sign a petition to Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and grant you the rights and privileges of common free citizens; for if you had had faith as a grain of mustard seed, long before this the mountains of prejudice might have been removed. We are all sensible that the Anti-Slavery Society has taken hold of the arm of our whole population, in order to raise them out of the mire. Now all we have to do is, by a spirit of virtuous ambition to strive to raise ourselves; and I am happy to have it in my power thus publicly to say that the colored inhabitants of this city, in some respects, are beginning to improve. Had the free people of color in these United States nobly and boldly contended for their rights, and showed a natural genius and talent, although not so brilliant as some; had they up, encouraged and patronized each other; nothing could have hindered us from being a thriving and flourishing people. There has been a fault amongst us. The reason why our distinguished men have not made themselves more influential is, because they fear the strong current of opposition through which they must pass, would cause their downfall and prove their overthrow. And what gives rise to this opposition? Envy. And what has it amounted to? Nothing. And who are the cause of it? Our whited sepulchres who want to be great, and don't know how; who love to be called of men "Rabbi, Rabbi," who put on false sanctity, and humble themselves to their brethren, for the sake of acquiring the highest place in the synagogue, and the uppermost seats at the feast. You, dearly beloved, who are the genuine followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, the salt of the earth and the light of the world, are not so culpable. As I told you, in the very first of my writing, I tell you again, I am but as one drop in the bucket—as one particle of the small dust of the earth. God will surely raise up those amongst us who will plead the cause of virtue, and the pure principles of morality, more eloquently than I am able to do.

It appears to me that America has become like the great city of Babylon, for she has boasted in her heart,—"I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. "She is indeed a seller of slaves and the souls of men; she has made the Africans drunk with the wine of her fornication; she has put them completely beneath her feet, and she means to keep them there; her right hand supports the reins of government, and her left hand the wheel of power, and she is determined not to let go her grasp. But many powerful sons and daughters of Africa will shortly arise, who will put down vice and immorality amongst us, and declare by Him that sitteth upon the throne, that they will have their rights; and if refused, I am afraid they will spread horror and devastation around. I believe that the oppression of injured Africa has come up before the majesty of Heaven; and when our cries shall have reached the ears of the Most High, it will be a tremendous day for the people of this land; for strong is the arm of the Lord God Almighty.

Life has almost lost its charms for me; death has lost its sting and the grave its terrors; and at times I have a strong desire to depart and dwell with Christ, which is far better. Let me entreat my white brethren to awake and save our sons from dissipation, and our daughters from ruin. Lend the hand of assistance to feeble merit, and plead the cause of virtue amongst our sable race; so shall our curses upon you be turned into blessings; and though you shall endeavor to drive us from these shores, still we will cling to you the more firmly; nor will we attempt to rise above you; we will presume to be called equals only.

The unfriendly whites first drove the native American from his much loved home. Then they stole our fathers from their peaceful and quiet dwellings, and brought them hither and made bond men and bond women of them and their little ones; they have obliged our brethren to labor, kept them in utter ignorance, nourished them in vice and raised them in degradation; and now that we have enriched their soil, and filled their coffers, they say that we are not capable of becoming like white men, and that we never can rise to respectability in this country. They would drive us to a strange land. But before I go, the bayonet shall pierce me through. African rights and liberty is a subject that ought to fire the breast of every free man of color in these United States, and excite in his bosom a lively, deep, decided and heartfelt interest.

PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENT

The Pennsylvania Act and the Abolition of Slavery

INTRODUCTION

In the years following the American Revolution, Pennsylvania's act, passed in 1780, became a model for other northern states seeking to end slavery. This was not a view shared by the southern states and differences of opinion regarding the role of slavery in the nation would eventually bring about the conflicts leading to the outbreak of the Civil War.

An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery

When we contemplate our abhorrence of that condition to which the arms and tyranny of Great-Britain were exerted to reduce us; when we look back on the variety of dangers to which we have been exposed, and how miraculously our wants in many instances have been supplied, and our deliverances wrought, when even hope and human fortitude have become unequal to the conflict; we are unavoidably led to a serious and grateful sense of the manifold blessings which we have undeservedly received from the hand of that Being from whom every good and perfect gift cometh. Impressed with these ideas, we conceive that it is our duty, and we rejoice that it is in our power, to extend a portion of that freedom to others, which hath been extended to us; and a release from that state of thraldom, to which we ourselves were tyrannically doomed, and from which we have now every prospect of being delivered. It is not for us to inquire, why, in the creation of mankind, the inhabitants of the several parts of the earth were distinguished by a difference in feature or complexion. It is sufficient to know, that all are the work of an Almighty Hand. We find in the distribution of the human species, that the most fertile, as well as the most barren parts of the earth, are inhabited by men of complexions different from ours, and from each other, from whence we may reasonably, as well as religiously infer, that He, who placed them in their various situations, hath extended equally His care and protection to all, and that it becometh not us to counteract His mercies. We esteem it a peculiar blessing granted to us, that we are enabled this day, to add one more step to universal civilization, by removing as much as possible, the sorrows of those who have lived in undeserved bondage, and from which, by the assumed authority of the Kings of Britain, no effectual legal relief, could be obtained. Weaned by a long course of experience, from those narrow prejudices and partialities we had imbibed, we find our hearts enlarged with kindness and benevolence, towards men of all conditions and nations; and we conceive ourselves at this particular period extraordinarily called upon, by the blessings which we have received, to manifest the sincerity of our profession, and to give a substantial proof of our gratitude.

And whereas the condition of those persons who have heretofore been denominated Negroe and Mulatto slaves, has been attended with circumstances, which not only deprived them of the common blessings that they were by nature entitled to, but has cast them into the deepest afflictions, by an unnatural separation and sale of husband and wife from each other, and from their children; an injury the greatness of which, can only be conceived, by supposing, that we were in the same unhappy case. In justice therefore, to persons so unhappily circumstanced, and who, having no prospect before them, whereon they may rest their sorrows and their hopes, have no reasonable inducement, to render that service to society, which they otherwise might; and also, in grateful commemoration of our own happy deliverance, from that state of unconditional submission, to which we were doomed by the tyranny of Britain.

Be it enacted, and it is hereby enacted, by the Representatives of the Freemen of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in General Assembly met, and by the authority of the same, That all persons, as well Negroes and Mulattos as others, who shall be born within this State, from and after the passing of this Act, shall not be deemed and considered as servants for life or slaves; and that all servitude for life, or slavery of children, in consequence of the slavery of their mothers, in the case of all children born within this State, from and after the passing of this Act as aforesaid, shall be, and hereby is utterly taken away, extinguished and for ever abolished.

Provided always, and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That every Negroe and Mulatto child born within this State, after the passing of this Act as aforesaid, who would, in case this Act had not been made, have been born a servant for years, or life or a slave, shall be deemed to be and shall be by virtue of this Act, the servant of such person or his or her assigns, who would in such case have been intitled to the service of such child, until such child shall attain unto the age of twenty eight years, in the manner and on the conditions whereon servants bound by indenture for four years, are or may be retained and holden; and shall be liable to like correction and punishment, and intitled to like relief in case he or she be evily treated by his or her master of mistress, and to like freedom dues and other privileges as servants bound by indenture for four years, are or may be intitled, unless the person to whom the service of any such child shall belong, shall abandon his or her claim to the same, in which case the Overseers of the Poor of the city, township or district respectively, where such child shall be so abandoned, shall by indenture bind out every child so abandoned, as an apprentice for a time not exceeding the age herein before limited, for the service of such children.

PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENT

The Vested Interest of the Framers of the Constitution in the Business of Slavery

INTRODUCTION

It is the kind of contradiction that is apparent throughout American history. The early Constitution was drafted by men of learning and power, men from families with land, some from plantations. So despite high-minded values of liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the Constitution also reflected the interests of men of power and influence. As a result, the language dealing with the issues of slavery and the rights of Africans in the Americas were drafted with a careful vagueness. Article I, Section 2, is reprinted below with its exact language—the famous "3/5ths" designation for slaves—designed to keep certain members of the society separate, unequal, and unrepresented.

Article I, Section 2, of the Constitution of the United States of America

The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature.

No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the Executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies.

The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment.

The Constitution and the Omission of the Word "Slave" in its Framing

Animated by the spirit of liberty that had triumphed in the American Revolution, many of the members of the Philadelphia Convention, which met in 1787 to draw up a constitution for the new nation, wished to abolish slavery altogether. Even slaveholders like Thomas Jefferson understood that slavery was a mark upon the new nation, an offense to the egalitarian principles of the Revolution and a corrupting influence on slaveholder and slave alike.

But slavery was by then an entrenched economic feature of American life, the source of millions of dollars in human property that would have been wiped off the books had the spirit of liberty held sway. In a compromise that prepared the way for a bloody civil war some seventy years later, the framers of the Constitution refused to incorporate the words "slave," "slaveholder," or "slave trade" in the document they fashioned, but bowed to slave-holding interests in a variety of ways. Article IV, Section 2, allowed slaveholders to recover slaves who escaped to free states. Article V allowed the slave trade to continue until 1808. Article I, Section 2, allowed slaveholding states to count three-fifths of their enslaved population in the apportionment of representatives to Congress, even though that population had no rights and could not vote.

The Gradual Abolition of Slavery

In 1780, Pennsylvania became the first state to pass an act providing for the gradual abolition of slavery within its borders. The act stipulated that all persons born after passage of it,"as well Negroes and Mulattoes as others," could not be held in perpetual slavery. However, children born after the act who would have been slaves "in case this Act had not been made"—that is, children born to enslaved mothers—could be held in servitude by their owners until the age of twenty-eight. Hence,"gradual abolition."