African Americans in
the New Nation (1783-1820)
Part I
Pro and Antislavery Forces and the Emergence of Free Black
Communities
Following the Revolutionary War, a strong trend favoring
emancipation developed in the North and Chesapeake regions.
Economic change, religious revival, and revolutionary ideals
spawned this time of reformist ideals in America.
African Americans found their freedom through
escape, manumission, legal cases, and
petitions.
In the North, slavery was not economically
essential due to smaller farms and a large
immigrant work force.
The Great Awakening and Enlightenment
changed the moral views on slavery, and a
market economy pushed for wage labor.
Forces for Freedom
Northern emancipation began after the Haitian
Revolt in 1804, and was hastened by the British
gradual emancipation of 1838 and termination of
slavery in the French empire in 1848.
What made the northern emancipation different?
It was not the result of force or outside intervention
by a foreign power. It was self-initiated.
VT, NH, and MA abolished slavery outright in
the 1770’s and 1780’s.
Gradual emancipation plans were put into
effect in CT and RI. This would free the
children of slaves after a set age or number of
years.
NY, NJ and PA had a larger investment in slaves
and took much longer to follow this trend.
Northern Emancipation
Congress decided to limit slavery’s expansion
through its adoption of the Northwest
Ordinance of 1787.
What did this act establish, and what
precedent did it set?
This provided for the sale of land, support for
education, territorial government, and set
rules for state formation.
The precedent set by the ordinance was the
exclusion of slavery in U.S. territories.
This only excluded slavery from the Ohio Valley Region and left a
large portion of southern land open to slavery, particularly after the
purchase of the Louisiana territory.
The constitutionality of this act would be argued up into the Civil
War era.
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787
White abolitionist societies began in 1775, when
Quaker Anthony Benezet organized the 1st one
in the world; the Pennsylvania Society for
Promoting the Abolition of Slavery.
Societies began appearing in many northern
states, as well as in Virginia, Kentucky, and
Tennessee.
Working with black leaders, these societies focused
on the gradual emancipation of slaves in the
Chesapeake region. These societies never
appeared in the Deep South.
Gradual emancipation was pushed due to experience by northern
states, the challenge of property rights with masters, and the
opinion that slaves would need training to become free citizens.
Antislavery Societies in the North
& Upper South
Following the Revolutionary War, many southern states liberalized
their manumission laws. Masters no longer had to petition a state
legislature to prove their slave could be freed.
Although some freed their slaves for moral reasons, many hoped to
profit of the self-purchase of these slaves. The slaves would make
money through marketing farm produce , outside employment, and
paid installments to their masters.
Masters would also manumit slaves when
switching types of crops or when the slaves
became too old to be of use to them.
Younger slaves would offer their masters the
option of manumitting them after a set number
of years, or having them escape immediately.
Manumission & Self-Purchase
Due to manumission, self-purchase, and
freedom suits a large portion of free blacks
emerged in the upper south.
Percent of Free African Americans:
North- 83.9%
Upper South- 10.6%
Deep South- Low % (1-3% aprx.)
In the Deep South, manumission was
generally reserved for the master’s
illegitimate children, favorites, and those
unable to work.
Unfortunately, the forces working for slavery were much stronger
than the forces that opposed it, and this would remain this way up
into the Civil War.
The Emergence of a Free Black
Class in the South
This map illustrates the
distribution of slaves. The
dates indicate the
beginning of emancipation.
Map of Slavery
in 1820
The U.S. Constitution went into effect
in 1789, and became a proponent for
slavery. Why?
The provision of the Constitution that
prohibited Congress from abolishing
the slave trade until 1808.
This led to more slaves entering the U.S. between 1787 and 1808
than any other 20yr period in U.S. history.
The Constitution also gave Congress the power to put down
“insurrections” and “domestic violence”
As well as providing the basis for the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793
through the clause stating, “All persons held to service or labour in
one State, escaping into another… shall be delivered up”
Finally, the 3/5ths Compromise gave Southern states more power in
Congress and drastically impacted the political history that followed.
Forces for Slavery- The US Constitution
Britain’s industrialization in the textile industry led to a high
demand of cotton. Coupled with the invention of the cotton gin,
this led to an increase in slave labor.
The slave labor system was reignited with this new development
and spread rapidly throughout the southern states, as well as
expanding in the west.
This also led to
internal slave
trading. Masters in
the Chesapeake
region sold their
slaves to the south
in the new cotton
growing regions.
Forces for Slavery- Cotton
Jefferson’s purchase of the
Louisiana territory in 1803 sped up
westward expansion along with the
domestic slave trade.
Two groups of African Americans
were in New Orleans: free Creoles
and African slaves. Creoles freedom
was under question upon the
purchase of this territory.
Conditions for slaves in this region were extremely harsh. The
population of slaves rapidly increased due to internal trading.
Slave Population in Louisiana:
1770: 5,600
1810: 34,660
1820: 149,654
Forces for Slavery- The Louisiana Purchase
The Revolutionary ideals began fading by the
1790’s and many in the North and Chesapeake
became complacent with the idea of slavery.
The radicalism of the French Revolution in 1789
was one cause of the backlash of conservatism
as well as the profiteering off slavery due to
cotton.
Quakers and African Americans became the
minority that continued the push for abolition
and manumission declined sharply in the 1800’s.
Race was also used as a means to justify slavery
and deny the rights granted in the Declaration of
Independence to an “undeserving” African race.
Science was used to show differences between whites and blacks,
and religion was used with the great chain of being that placed
blacks in an inferior position.
Forces for Slavery- Conservatism & Racism
The growth of free black
populations in the north and upper
south led to the establishment of
communities.
Boston, New York, Norfolk,
Newport, Richmond, Baltimore,
and Philadelphia all had thriving
free black communities.
Small communities in the deep south also emerged, such as in
Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans.
These communities pooled their wealth and wisdom to establish
institutions that would shape the lives of African Americans after.
The realization that they would be treated as inferiors in white
institutions and organizations, as well as the want to perpetuate
their own heritage led to the need for their own communities.
The Emergence of Free Black Communities
The first black community institutions
were mutual aid societies. These
would provide for their members
medical and burial expenses, and
helped support widows and children.
These societies maintained a Christian
moral character and members had to
pledge to refrain from fornication,
adultery, drunkenness and other sinful
acts.
The black Freemasons were vital as well since they united the
northern cities black men. The Prince Hall Masons in Boston were
the 1st group established and was ironically helped by the British
since the Boston Masonic Organization rejected Prince Hall’s
application due to his African descent.
Free Black Communities
Independent black churches became
the core of the African American
communities, and the leaders of this
church were also leaders of the
communities.
The 1st black churches appeared in the
1770’s in SC and GA, were blacks were
treated as inferiors in the biracial churches.
The churches in the South remained subordinate to white churches,
but in the north a truly independent black church emerged.
Richard Allen and Absalom Jones (who established the Free African
Society) began preaching in the evening at a white church, but soon
split from this church to establish their own institutions.
In Philadelphia, two black churches emerge: St. Thomas’s Episcopal
Church and Mother Bethel Congregation which later became the
African Methodist Episcopal Church with Allen as Bishop.
The Origins of Independent Black Churches
Black mutual aid societies and
churches created the first
schools for black children
following the Revolutionary War.
Many early schools were taught
and organized by whites, but
this trend shifted as blacks saw
the inadequacy in the education
that was received.
It was the Augustine School in 1818 that became the 1st to be
entirely administrated and taught by African Americans.
These schools struggled early on due to a lack of resources, parents
inability to pay fees, a belief that an education was pointless when
whites refused to give skilled labor positions, and threats from
whites to suppress the schools were all taken into account.
The First Black Schools

The North and Upper South began a trend of
emancipation during the mid to late 18th century.

The Constitution, Cotton, Conservatism, Racism ,
and expansion westward all pushed back against
the forces against slavery.

The emergence of free black communities led to
the rise of black institutions and selfimprovement.

Free blacks still faced many hardships and had to
fight an uphill battle to utilize their freedom.

HW: 1pg active notes on pgs. 109-119
Conclusions