Economics of Emancipation: America Turns Against Slavery
The Society of the Cincinnati - Society of Cincinnati
This talk gives an overview of slavery at the time of the American Revolution and explains how the revolutionary era was an important point-a watershed moment-in the history of American slavery. It notes that slavery existed in all the colonies at the time of the Revolution but there were great differences between the colonies in the concentration of slave population. The origins of slavery, how it developed on a racial basis, and the reasons for the differences between the colonies come in for discussion. A distinctive African American culture developed as a means of protecting the identity and dignity of those who were enslaved. Finally, it notes that the natural rights argument for the Revolution brought the first deep questioning of slavery and began its eradication in the seven northern states. The division over slavery between North and South was starting.