1. The First Emancipation, 1777 - 1804

2. Revolutionary Ideas
Reform-minded people reexamining old institutions and ideas
Questioning the justice of . . .
. . . torture
. . . imprisonment for debt
. . . slavery.

3. Could not reconcile slavery with their revolution
If “taxation without representation” is slavery, than what about ACTUAL slavery
If all men are created equal, then what about black men?
The logic of the revolution told them that slavery had to be abolished
Most of these reformers lived in the North

4. Antislavery forces in the North
Active since 1750s
The Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery, established on April 14, 1775
Led by Quakers
1788 – 1792, antislavery organizations est. in Delaware, Maryland, Connecticut, Virginia, and New Jersey

5. Anti-Slavery -- a Trans-Atlantic movement
International Anti-Slavery Societies established in London and Paris
Slavery abolished in “Upper Canada”

6. Northern states abolish slavery
Vermont – 8 July 1777 The first to abolish slavery outright Massachusetts – slavery challenged in the state court Commonwealth v. Jennison Pennsylvania – Connecticut – 1784 Rhode Island – 1784 New York – 1799 New Jersey – 1804

7. Slave-owners resisted abolition
Slavery was profitable in the North Slaveholders paid high prices for Slaves Slaves worked as skilled farmers, industrial workers, domestics

8. By 1800 slavery was less essential to the Northern economy
More white laborers coming to America
Whites resent having to compete with slaves
Laborers and farmers join antislavery movements

9. Gradual abolition Protected the property rights of the master
Protected the interests of the slave owners
Had little sympathy for the enslaved blacks

10. Slavery lingered in the North for decades
In 1800, New York had nearly 20,000 slaves In 1810, about 1/4 of the northern blacks were enslaved In 1840 there were over 1000 slaves in the “free” states

11. Northern complicity and racism
They benefitted from slavery up to the Civil War (1861)
Most northerners believed Blacks were inferior to Whites
Northern states passed laws that limited the rights of free blacks
Midwestern states prevented Blacks from living there.
Some took part in anti-Black violence