Other Definitions
slave state (dict)
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Slave StateA slave state is a U.S. state that had legal slavery (overwhelmingly the enslavement of African-Americans, although historically also the enslavement of Native Americans, and whites through indentured servitude) in the period before the American Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation. The 15 slave states were Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. (The District of Columbia also had slavery prior to the Civil War.) All but four of these states seceded in 1860 and 1861 to form the Confederate States of America; Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri did not leave the Union. (The District of Columbia also remained part of the Union.) Original state-based abolition efforts All of the British North American colonies, prior to the Revolution, had slavery, but the Revolutionary War gave impetus to a general antislavery sentiment. The Northwest Territories were organized, with a prohibition on slavery. Massachusetts accepted that its 1780 Constitution effectively abolished slavery, and several other northern States adopted statutes requiring gradual emancipation. New Jersey was the last State to embark on the course of gradual emancipation, in 1804, a process, which had still not quite eliminated slavery entirely, even as late as 1860. Northern slave states
| T | PA | MA | NH | CN | RI | NY | NJ | | uropean settlement | 1666 | 1638 | 1620 | 1623 | 1633 | 1636 | 1624 | 1620 | | irst record of slavery | c.1760? | 1639 | 1629? | 1645 | 1639 | 1652 | 1626 | 1626? | | fficial end of slavery | 1777 | 1780 | 1783 | 1783 | 1784 | 1784 | 1799 | 1804 | | ctual end of slavery | 1777? | c.1845? | 1783 | c.1845? | 1848 | 1842 | 1827 | 1865 |
Conflict over new territories By the end of the War of 1812, the momentum for antislavery reform, state by state, appeared to run out of steam, with half of the States having already abolished slavery or committed to eliminating slavery, and half committed to continuing the institution indefinitely. The potential for political conflict over slavery at a federal level led politicians to be concerned about the balance of power in the U.S. Senate, where each State was represented by two Senators. With an equal number of slave States and free States, the Senate was equally divided. As the population of the free States began to outstrip the population of the slave States, the Senate became the preoccupation of Slave state politicians, interested in maintaining a veto over federal policy in regard to slavery. As a result of this preoccupation, slave states and free states were often admitted into the Union in pairs, so as to maintain the existing balance between slave and free. The admission of Missouri and the Missouri Compromise Controversy over whether Missouri should be admitted as a slave State, resulted in the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which specified that Louisiana Purchase territory north of latitude 36 30', which described Missouri's southern boundary, would be organized as free States and territory south of that line would be reserved for organization as Slave states. As part of that Compromise, the admission of Maine was secured to balance Missouri's admission as a slave State. Status of Texas and the Mexican Cession states The admission of Texas and the acquisition of vast new western territories in the Mexican War, further excited controversy. Although the settled portion of Texas was an area rich in cotton plantations and dependent on slavery, the territory acquired in the Mountain West did not seem hospitable to cotton or slavery. In 1850, California was admitted as a free State, without an additional Slave state as balance. This would have created a free State majority in the Senate, except for the fact that California agreeably sent one pro-slavery and one anti-slavery Senator to Washington. Thus, the admission of California increased the anxiety of pro-slavery politicians, but did not change the balance in the Senate. The last battles The difficulty of identifying any territory, which could be organized into additional Slave states stalled the process of opening the western territories to settlement, while Slave state politicians sought a solution. Efforts were made to acquire Cuba, and even to annex Nicaragua. In 1854, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was repealed, and an effort was initiated to organize Kansas, as a Slave state. Kansas was paired with Minnesota, for admission, but the admission of Kansas as a Slave state was blocked, over the legitimacy of its Slave state constitution. When the admission of Minnesota proceeded unimpeded, the balance in the Senate was lost, a loss compounded by the subsequent admission of Oregon. Slave and free state pairs Before 1812 the concern about balancing slave-states and free states was not profound. This is how the states lined up in 1812.
| Slave States!!Year!!Free States!!Year | | a href="/encyclopedia/Delaware" title="Delaware">Delaware | 1787 | New Jersey | 1787 | slave until 1804 | | a href="/encyclopedia/Georgia-(U.S.-state)" title="Georgia (U.S. state)">Georgia | 1788 | Pennsylvania | 1787 | | a href="/encyclopedia/Maryland" title="Maryland">Maryland | 1788 | Connecticut | 1788 | | a href="/encyclopedia/South-Carolina" title="South Carolina">South Carolina | 1788 | Massachusettes | 1788 | | a href="/encyclopedia/Virginia" title="Virginia">Virginia | 1788 | New Hampshire | 1788 | | a href="/encyclopedia/North-Carolina" title="North Carolina">North Carolina | 1789 | New York | 1788 | slave until 1799 | | |||Rhode Island||1790 | | a href="/encyclopedia/Kentucky" title="Kentucky">Kentucky | 1792 | | a href="/encyclopedia/Tennessee" title="Tennessee">Tennessee | 1796 | Vermont | 1791 | | a href="/encyclopedia/Louisiana" title="Louisiana">Louisiana | 1812 | Ohio | 1803 |
Following 1812 and until the American Civil War, maintaining the balance of free and slave states within the federal legislature was considered of paramount importance if the Union was to be preserved, and states were admitted in pairs.
| Slave States!!Year!!Free States!!Year | | a href="/encyclopedia/Mississippi" title="Mississippi">Mississippi | 1817 | Indiana | 1816 | | a href="/encyclopedia/Alabama" title="Alabama">Alabama | 1819 | Illinois | 1818 | | a href="/encyclopedia/Missouri" title="Missouri">Missouri | 1821 | Maine | 1820 | | a href="/encyclopedia/Arkansas" title="Arkansas">Arkansas | 1836 | Michigan | 1837 | | a href="/encyclopedia/Florida" title="Florida">Florida | 1845 | Iowa | 1846 | | a href="/encyclopedia/Texas" title="Texas">Texas | 1845 | Wisconsin | 1848 | | ||||California||1850||1 Senator pro-slavery | | i>Kansas (blocked) | ||Minnesota||1858 | | ||||Oregon||1859 | | ||||Kansas|||1861 |
The end of slave states Maryland and the pro-Union government of Missouri abolished slavery during the Civil War. West Virginia split from Virginia and entered the Union as a free state in 1863. The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified December 6, 1865, abolished slavery throughout the United States, ending the distinction. Ratification of the 13th Amendment was a condition of the return of local rule to those states that had seceded. External links
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