The Notion of Compromise in American Politics (1787-1861)

1. The Notion of Compromise in American Politics (1787-1861)

2. Last year, you studied: period 1776-1890 republican experiment individual rights liberty, property, equal opportunity and justice for all.

3. What was obvious: WASPS held economic and political power what treatment was given to the other minorities Especially Indians & Blacks

4. As for Blacks, If their condition did not change much during the period from 1776 until the civil war… the question of slavery more and more divided North and South : sectionalism (opposition North / South)

5. NATIVE AMERICANS: Native Americans : belonging to foreign nations by the Founding Fathers, but special relationships between them & white Americans

6. The American dream… … not for minorities, ( the utter denial of the founding Fathers’ ideals). .. And the founding myths of the nation: a contradiction to lead to the civil war.

7. THIS YEAR’S COURSE: THE NOTION OF COMPROMISE - is part of Am. Life & culture Made it possible to create the American constitution => Am. Nation Has influenced Am. Politics through the 19th cent. to the day *** Book: Peter B.Knupfer, The Union as it is, (Constitutional Unionism & Sectional Compromise, 1787-1861), Univ. Of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill & London, 1991.

8. CM: I) Slavery in Context II) Am. Law (Articles Confederation/ Bill of Rights/ Declaration of independence Compromise in context Début TD: semaine 7: QCM + méthodo III)Compromise & Concepts

9. TD 3: suggested paper Semaine 10: Commentaire sur table (exercice)

10. PART I: SLAVERY

11. Distressing & violent aspect of American history:institution of slavery Africans brought ag. their will to Britain's Am. colonies and to the new USA Herbert Aptheker (HISTORIAN), calculated : 100 separate slave revolts and conspiracies took place from the 1600's to the end of the U.S. Civil War in 1865.

12. many slaves:acts of individual opposition damaging tools, working slowly, burning down buildings occasional act of violence against whites to attempt escape

13. SLAVERY In the New World (the Americas), slavery: a system of forced labor designed to facilitate the production of staple crops… … included sugar, tobacco, coffee, and cotton southern US, most important staples were tobacco and cotton.

14. SLAVERY… played a central role in the history of US. It existed in all the English mainland colonies and came to dominate productive relations from Maryland south Most of the Founding Fathers: large-scale slaveholders, as were eight of the first 12 presidents of the US

15. DEBATE… …over slavery increasingly dominated Am. politics, leading to the nation's only civil war, wh. in turn finally brought slavery to an end After emancipation, overcoming slavery's legacy: a crucial issue in Am. history, from Reconstruction following the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement a century later

16. . Although Dutch traders brought 20 Africans to Jamestown, Virginia, as early as 1619, throughout most of the 17th century the number of Africans : grew very slowly During those years : colonists experimented with two other sources of unfree labor: Native American slaves and European indentured servants.

17. Most indentured servants: poor Europeans, to escape harsh conditions traded 3 to 7 years of their labor in exchange for the transatlantic passage. At first English but later Irish, Welsh, and German, servants consisted primarily of young males:temporary slaves : bulk of immigrants (17th cent.) That number of indentured servant declined sharply toward the end of the 17th century:=> labor crisis

18. To meet the need, landowners turned to African slaves In Virginia, blacks : from about 7 % pop. in 1680 to + than 40 % by middle of 18th cent. Beg. 17th: Holland/Portugal late 17th and 18th centuries, naval superiority England:dominant position in slave trade, English traders transported millions of Africans across the Atlantic

19. :=> slave trade 1 of the largest forced migrations in history early 16th century to mid-19th cent. , bet. 10 and 11 million Africans torn from their homes largest importers of slaves : Brazil / Caribbean sugar colonies: received well over 3/4 of all Africans to the New World. About 6 % came to the area of the present US.

20. SLAVE REBELLIONS Gloucester County, Virginia--Sept. 1663: first major conspiracy New York City Slave Rebellion--1712 Cato's Conspiracy/Stono Rebellion--1739 New York Conspiracy--March and April, 1741 Gabriel Prosser's Rebellion--1800 Slave rebellion in St. John the Baptist Parish --Jan 8-10, 1811

21. Fort Blount--1816 Denmark Vesey's Uprising--1822 (ingenuity of the plot) Nat Turner's Revolt--August, 1831 … Among other smaller rebellions

22. Jamestown – Plimouth Plantation – Founding one nation: 1607 first permanent British settlement in America 3 years later, 1619 first African slaves(+/-20) are brought to Virginia (byJohn Rolfe) : arrive in port of Jamestown (named in honor of King James) & sold to English settlers. word « slave » not before 1656, and statutes (blacks) appear casually in the 1660s

23. !!! Millions of Native Americans were also enslaved, part. in South America.

24. 1620 Mayflower arrives at Cape Cod. English Pilgrims : freely practice their religion. They arrived: at Cape Cod, now coast of Massachusetts a colony in 1691. Right now, settle and colonize the new village of Plymouth (named after a town in England). What were to become of "peculiar institution »: defined in the Virginia General Assembly from about 1640 onwards

25. Whipping and branding borrowed from Roman practice appeared early

26. Slave ( Emanuel) convicted :trying to escape, ( 1640) condemned to thirty stripes, with the letter "R" for "runaway » on his cheek

27. Slavery in the US … governed by extensive body of law developed from the 1660s to the 1860s. Every slave state : its own slave code and body of court decisions All slave codes : slavery a permanent condition Slaves : property no slave marriage had any legal standing

28. Slaves charged with crimes in Virginia …were tried in special non-jury courts created in 1692 not to guarantee due process but to set an example speedily. The courts: hideous punishments to reassert white authority. Offending slaves : hung, burned at the stake, dismembered, castrated and branded in addition to the usual whippings

29. White fear of black rebellion : a constant undercurrent

30. SLAVE LAWS 1660Slavery spread quickly in the American colonies

32. US slaves states &free states a slave state: where slavery of African Americans and Native Americans was legal // a free state : slavery was either prohibited or eliminated over time. 15 states of the Union in wh. Slavery:legal before civil war: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

33. 1660 Slavery spread quickly At first, legal status of Africans in Am. poorly defined. some, (like European indentured servants), managed to become free after several years of service. From the 1660s, however, the colonies began enacting laws that defined and regulated slave relations

34. Central to these laws … :provision that black slaves, (+ children of slave women) would serve for life => meant that slavery could survive and grow… demand for African slaves' labor arose from the dvpt of plantation agriculture, the long-term rise in prices and consumption of sugar, and the demand for miners

35. Africans… were the final solution to the acute labor problem in the New World

36. 1641 : Massachusetts permits slavery of Indians, whites, and Blacks in its Body of Liberties: first mainland British colony to legalize slavery.

37. 1642 : Virginia passes a fugitive slave law. Offenders helping runaway slaves :fined in pounds of tobacco. An enslaved person is to be branded with a large R after a second escape attempt.

38. 1645 : Merchant ships from Barbados arrive in Boston • Cliquez pour modifier les styles du texte du masque • Deuxième niveau • Troisième niveau • Quatrième niveau • Cinquième niveau

39. The profitability of this exchange… …encourages the slave trade in New England.1650 : Connecticut legalizes slavery. Rhode Island by this date has large plantations worked by enslaved Africans.

40. 1650 : Connecticut legalizes slavery. Rhode Island by this date has large plantations worked by enslaved Africans.

41. 1663 : Maryland slave laws rules… => all Africans arriving in the colony : presumed slaves. Free Europ. Am. women who marry enslaved men lose their freedom/ Children of Europ. Am. women and enslaved men are enslaved Other North American colonies develop similar laws.

42. Same year: In South Carolina every new white settler : granted 20 acres for each black male slave and 10 acres for each black female slave he or she brings into the colony.

43. 1664 : SLAVE LAWS AND RACIAL RESTRICTIONS Maryland establishes slavery for life for persons of African ancestry New Jersey and New York also recognize the legality of slavery. Maryland enacts the first law in Colonial America banning marriage between white women and black men.

44. 1670 : The Massachusetts legislature: its citizens can sell the children of enslaved Africans into bondage => separating them from their parents. 1672 : Virginia law now bans prosecution for the killing of a slave if the death comes during the course of his or her apprehension. 1682 : New York enacts its first slave codes restricting the freedom of mvt and the ability to trade of all enslaved people in the colony.

45. THE ABOLITION MVT 1688 : Quakers in Germantown, Pennsylvania denounce slavery (in first recorded formal protest in North Am. Ag. the enslavement of Africans. 1690 *** By this year, all English colonies in America have enslaved Africans. IN THE SAME YEAR : resistance : Enslaved Africans and Native Americans in Massachusetts plan a rebellion.

46. glossary Abolitionist: an individual who held strong anti-slavery viewsAfrican Diaspora: the dispersal of Africans in the New WorldBondsperson: a person held in servitude as human property to anotherCoffle: a group of enslaved individuals transported together for saleConductor: one who helped escaping persons move from station to station on the RailroadEnslave: to force another into bondageManumit: to free Maroons: runaways who escapedMiddle Passage: the name Africans gave to the trip across the Atlantic Ocean to New World enslavement

47. In 1690… South Carolina enacts its first laws regulating slave movement & behavior.

48. in 1691, Virginia enacts a new law which punishes white men and women for marrying black or Indians.

49. 1694: 1694 : The success of rice cultivation in South Carolina encourages the importation of larger numbers of enslaved laborers esp. from Senegal and other rice producing regions of West Africa.

50. NOTE : Late 1600s to late 1700s -The height of the slave trade is sometimes called the Triangular Trade, because it moves in a triangle.