From the National Park Service and Dickinson College

Category: Johnson

(1787) Northwest Ordinance

Citation

Northwest Ordinance, July 13, 1787, FULL TEXT via National Archives


Excerpt

maps of Northwest Territory

Northwest Territory (Library of Congress)

Art. 6. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted: Provided, always, That any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid.


Related Sources


Related Essays

(1804) Ohio Black Laws

Citation

An act to regulate black and mulatto persons, January 5, 1804, FULL TEXT via Stephen Middleton, The Black Laws in the Old Northwest: A Documentary History (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993), 15-16


Excerpt

pamphlet front page

An 1886 pamphlet decrying Ohio’s lengthy history of Black Laws (Library of Congress)

Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That from and after the first day of June next no black or mulatto person shall be permitted to settle or reside in this state, unless he or she shall first produce a fair certificate from some court within the United States, of his or her actual freedom, which certificate shall be attested by the clerk of said court, and the seal thereof annexed thereto, by said clerk.

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That no person or persons residents of this state, shall be permitted to hire, or in any way employ any black or mulatto person, unless such black or mulatto person shall have one of the certificates as aforesaid, under pain of forfeiting and paying any sum not less than ten nor more than fifty dollars, at the discretion of the court….


Related Sources


Related Essays

(1854) Kansas-Nebraska Act

Citation

1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, May 30, 1854, FULL TEXT via National Archives


Excerpt

cartoon man lying down mouth open

Political cartoon attacking the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act (Library of Congress)

SECTION 32. And be it further enacted, … That the Constitution, and all laws of the United States which are not locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within the said Territory of Kansas as elsewhere within the United States, except the eighth section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March sixth, eighteen hundred and twenty, which, being inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the States and Territories, as recognized by the legislation of eighteen hundred and fifty, commonly called the Compromise Measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void; it being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States


Related Sources


Related Essays

(1854) St. Louis Stampedes

Nearly 40 enslaved people liberate themselves in a pair of “slave stampedes” from St. Louis in October and November.

[This post is still under construction, more forthcoming in 2023]

(1854) Wisconsin Supreme Court

Wisconsin Supreme Court defies federal authority and declares the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act unconstitutional in July. The US Supreme Court later reverses the Wisconsin court ruling in 1859 in Abelman v. Booth.

[This post is still under construction, more forthcoming in 2023]

(1855) St. Louis Stampede

St. Louis authorities thwart another attempted “slave stampede” and accuse three free Black residents of involvement in the escape plot, including Mary Meachum.

[This post is still under construction, more forthcoming in 2023]

(1857) Dred Scott Decision

Citation

Majority opinion by Chief Justice Roger Taney in Scott v. Sanford, March 6, 1857, FULL TEXT via National Archives


Excerpt

Scott Family colorized

Scott family (Colorized by House Divided Project)

In the opinion of the court, the legislation and histories of the times, and the language used in the Declaration of Independence, show, that neither the class of persons who had been imported as slaves, nor their descendants, whether they had become free or not, were then acknowledged as a part of the people, nor intended to be included in the general words used in that memorable instrument.

It is difficult at this day to realize the state of public opinion in relation to that unfortunate race, which prevailed in the civilized and enlightened portions of the world at the time of the Declaration of Independence, and when the Constitution of the United States was framed and adopted. But the public history of every European nation displays it in a manner too plain to be mistaken.

They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold, and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever a profit could be made by it. This opinion was at that time fixed and universal in the civilized portion of the white race. It was regarded as an axiom in morals as well as in politics, which no one thought of disputing, or supposed to be open to dispute; and men in every grade and position in society daily and habitually acted upon it in their private pursuits, as well as in matters of public concern; without doubting for a moment the correctness of this opinion.

And in no nation was this opinion here firmly fixed or more uniformly acted upon than by the English Government and English people. They not only seized them on the coast of Africa, and sold them or held them in slavery for their own use; but they took them as ordinary articles of merchandise to every country where they could make a profit on them, and were far more extensively engaged in this commerce, than any other nation in the world.

The opinion thus entertained and acted upon in England was naturally impressed upon the colonies they founded on this side of the Atlantic. And, accordingly, a negro of the African race was regarded by them as an article of property, and held, and bought and sold as such, in every one of the thirteen colonies which united in the Declaration of Independence, and afterwards formed the Constitution of the United States. The slaves were more or less numerous in the different colonies, as slave labor was found more or less profitable. But no one seems to have doubted the correctness of the prevailing opinion of the time.


Related Sources


Related Essays

(1859) Harpers Ferry Raid

John Brown launches his abortive Harpers Ferry insurrection on October 16-18 before US marines surround Brown and his followers. Virginia authorities execute Brown in December, but his death transforms him into a martyr among many antislavery Northerners.

[This post is still under construction, more forthcoming in 2023]

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén