5.2 Forces for Slavery

The U.S. Constitution The original government of the US was detailed in the Articles of Confederation It was an association of states that had a very weak national government After Shay’s Rebellion the states realized they needed a more powerful central government But this meant giving in to states in the South on issues concerning slavery

The Constitutional Convention 1787 Delegates from each state met to discuss a new constitution Delegates removed the words slave and slavery from the document but kept clauses designed to maintain slavery in the South These clauses continued the Atlantic Slave Trade for another twenty years and increased southern representation in Congress

Proslavery and the Constitution The new Constitution gave guarantees to help with slave revolts It also included a provision that allowed the Fugitive Slave Act to be passed This act allowed slave masters to travel to the North to reclaim escaped slaves This forced northern states to uphold slavery and provided opportunities for the kidnapping of free northerners claimed to be escapees

Three Fifths Clause 3/5 The constitution strengthened the political power of slaveholders through the 3/5 clause The number of representatives each state has in the House of Representatives is determined by population The 3/5 clause said that slaves should be counted as three fifths of a person for the purpose of determining representation in Congress This gave the South a distinct political advantage

Cotton The industrial revolution led to England becoming the world’s leader in textile production British demand and the invention of the cotton gin made cotton the US’s most lucrative export This also encouraged the development of textile mills in the Northern US that led to a proslavery alliance between slave owners and factory owners The cotton for these products was grown by slaves in the American South

Cotton Demand for cotton reinvigorated the slave labor system in the South Slavery to produce cotton spread rapidly across the southern US This encouraged the development of an internal slave trade where slave holders in the old tobacco country sold their slaves to the cotton growers

The Louisiana Purchase When the US bought the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803, the harsh system of American slavery came with it Slaves here previously lived under French or Spanish rule which provided easier access to freedom The strict system of slave codes and plantation slavery of the low country spread to this new territory along with cotton production

Conservatism and Racism The Enlightenment ideas of the Revolutionary period began to fade in the 1790’s The bloody French Revolution, which saw the redistribution of property, led many Americans to become more conservative and to value property rights-including human property The profitability of cotton also encouraged Americans to turn their backs on the ideals of the Enlightenment Also, a new popular belief in scientific racism began to view African Americans as a separate species of whites and was used to justify slavery

Assignment 1. How did the Fugitive Slave Law hurt the prospect of freedom in the North? 2. What was the 3/5 clause in the Constitution? How did this increase the power of southern slaveholders? 3. How did the industrial revolution lead to a reinvigorated slave labor system in the South? 4. Explain how the Louisiana Purchase affected African Americans in this area. 5. What factors led to the decline of Enlightenment beliefs throughout the country.