GHIST 225: US History Kevin R. Hardwick Spring 2012 Lecture 18
Debating Slavery, 1787-1821
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I.North West Ordinance a)Thomas Jeffersons Notes on the State
of Virginia b)Lack of Enforcement II.The American Colonization
Society III.Missouri Compromise a)James Tallmadge b)The Tallmadge
Amendments c)Jesse Thomas solution to the impasse
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North West Ordinance, 1787: 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 labour 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 labour or service
aforesaid.
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George Mason, Philadelphia Constitutional Convention, 1787:
Slaves produce the most pernicious effect on manners. Every master
of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of heaven
on a country. As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the
next world they must be in this... providence punishes national
sins by national calamities.
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Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1782 The
whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of
the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the
one part, and degrading submissions on the other.
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Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1782 The
whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of
the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the
one part, and degrading submissions on the other.
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North West Ordinance, 1787: The French and Canadian
inhabitants, and other settlers of the Kaskaskies, St. Vincents,
and the neighboring villages, who have professed themselves
citizens of Virginia may retain their laws and customs now in force
among them, relative to the descent and conveyance of
property.
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Henry Clay: Emancipation without colonization would be followed
by instantaneous collisions between the two races, which would
break out into a civil war that would end in the extermination or
subjugation of one race or the other.
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Rev. James Forten and many others, The Voice From Philadelphia:
Wrote to inform the humane and benevolent inhabitants of the city
that we have no wish to separate from our present homes for any
purpose whatsoever. They were, they said, contented with our
present situation and condition and wanted only to use of those
opportunities which the Constitution and laws allow to all.
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Rev. James Forten and many others, The Voice From Philadelphia:
We, therefore, a portion of those who are the objects of this plan,
and among those whose happiness, with that of others of our color,
it is intended to promote; with humble and grateful
acknowledgements to those who have devised it, renounce and
disclaim every connexion with it.
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Thus, Thomas Ritchie, editor of the THE RICHMOND ENQUIRER, We
do not vindicate servitude; we wish no slave had touched our soil;
we wish slavery could be terminated. Robert Reid, of Georgia,
speech to congress I hate the touch of servile hands; I loath the
slaves who cringe around; and I would hail the day as most glorious
when negroes shall be placed upon the high eminence of equal
rights.
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South Carolina Senator William Smith: No class of laboring
people in any country upon the globe are better clothed, better
fed, or more cheerful, or labor less.
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Richard Furman, 1823 letter to the Governor of South Carolina:
The holding of slaves is clearly established by the Holy
Scriptures, both by precept and example. The powerful Romans had
succeeded, in empire, the polished Greeks; and under both empires,
the countries they possessed and governed were full of slaves.
While men remain in the chains of ignorance and error, and under
the domination of tyrant lusts and passions, they cannot be
free.
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Richard Furman, 1823 letter to the Governor of South Carolina:
It is therefore firmly believed that general emancipation to the
Negroes in this country, would not, in present circumstances, be
for their own happiness.