homework

1780 Pennsylvania passes a gradual abolition law

1783 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules slavery unconstitutional, a decision based on the 1780 Massachusetts constitution. All slaves are immediately freed.

1783 New Hampshire passes a gradual abolition law

1784 Connecticut and Rhode Island pass a gradual abolition law

1793 FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT PASSED

1799 New York passes a gradual abolition law

1802 Ohio frees all slaves

1804 New Jersey frees all slaves

Now ALL northern states have passed laws freeing slaves

The Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery was passed by Pennsylvania legislature on March 1, 1780.

Section 3:

Be it enacted, and it is hereby enacted, by the representatives of the freeman of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in general assembly met, and by the authority of the same, That all persons, as well Negroes and Mulattoes 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 forever abolished.

Section 10:

That no man or woman of any nation or colour… shall at any time hereafter be deemed, adjudged, or holden within the territories of this commonwealth as slaves or servants for life, but as free men and free women…. Provided such domestic slaves be not aliened or sold to any inhabitants nor…retained in this state longer than six months.

However, many, including George Washington, found loopholes in the law.

Section 11: FREES slaves who have run away and been missing for more than 5 years, while allowing owners to recover slaves during this time period.

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 1787:

ISSUES:

1. IS SLAVERY LEGAL?

Article I, Section 9, Clause 1: Slave Trade cannot be stopped until after 1808. But MUST it stop?

2. MUST RUNAWAY SLAVES BE RETURNED?

Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3: Runaway slaves must be returned

3. HOW IS REPRESENTATION DETERMINED?

Great Compromise: Senate and the House of Representatives

4. ARE SLAVES CITIZENS OR PROPERTY?

Article I, Section 2, Clause 3: 3/5 Compromise

55 White Men attended Constitutional Convention in 1787.

· Of those 20 own slaves

· 38 are wealthy

They own 1200+ slaves among them.

The value in today's dollars of a slave during the antebellum period ranges from $50,000 (in 1809) to $150,000 of a slave's expected revenue less maintenance costs.

Washington owned 317 slaves at the time of his death in 1799.

New Jersey Plan: Equal Representation regardless of population

Virginia Plan: Representation based on population

Great Compromise: Senate and the House of Representatives

What about counting slaves?

If VA gets to count slaves, it will be the most powerful state in the nation.

1790 VA population: 690,000 total 404,000 free 288,000 slaves

1790 PA population: 434,000 total 430,000 free 4,000 slaves

Are slaves citizens or property? The men decide that slavery is not a moral issue but a matter of “interest.”

If slaves are property that the southern states can count toward their population and therefore the number of representatives they have in the House, then can the North count their horses and cows?

Article I, Section 2, Clause 3: 3/5 Compromise

Article I, Section 9, Clause 1: Slave Trade cannot be stopped until after 1808. But MUST it stop?

Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3: Runaway slaves must be returned