WEBVTT NOTE 78. Elimination of Feudalism and the Beginnings of the Abolition of Slavery 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.000 Volume 4, Chapter 78, Elimination of Feudalism and the Beginnings of the Abolition of Slavery 2 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:16.000 The American Revolution brought about an important smashing of feudal elements in land ownership 3 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:22.000 and their transformation into a far more liberal land structure. 4 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:27.000 Land monopoly was transformed by the opening of free and virgin land in the West, 5 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:57.000 Virginia's thwarting the designs of the speculative land companies, the liquidation of huge British proprietary estates and quit rents in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, the confiscation and resale of crown lands and through the confiscation, subdivision and resale largely to tenants of huge Tory estates, especially in southern New York, one other anti-feudal 6 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:16.000 The most prominent leader of the assault on these remnants of outright feudalism was Thomas Jefferson, who summarized his goals in this struggle with his customary eloquence. 7 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:23.000 In the earlier times of the colony, some provident individuals pursued large grants. 8 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:32.000 and desirous of founding great families settled them on their descendants so that they could not be alienated. 9 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:52.000 The transmission of this property from generation to generation in the same name raised up a distinct set of families who, being privileged by law in the perpetuation of their wealth, were thus transformed into a patrician order. 10 00:01:52.000 --> 00:02:22.000 From this order, too, the king habitually selected his counselors of state. To annul this privilege, and instead of an aristocracy of wealth, of more harm and danger than benefit to society, to make an opening for the aristocracy of wealth and talent, which nature has wisely provided, for the direction of the interest of society, was deemed essential to a well-ordered republic. 11 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:28.640 It is true, as recent historians have emphasized, that end tales and promogenitor were not extensively 12 00:02:28.640 --> 00:02:34.920 employed in Virginia or the South, their abolition remains important as a principle. 13 00:02:34.920 --> 00:02:41.980 Furthermore, the arch-conservatives, led by Edmund Pendleton and Landon Carter, felt intensely 14 00:02:41.980 --> 00:02:48.400 enough about abolition that they fought it almost to a standstill. Carter, indeed, had 15 00:02:48.400 --> 00:03:01.400 and the effrontery to call Entail a severe interference with an owner's right to control and dispose of his property a basic component of the right to do as we please with our own property. 16 00:03:01.400 --> 00:03:10.400 Entail was abolished in Virginia in 1776 and in South Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania during the Revolution. 17 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:16.400 North Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey and New York followed in the years after the war. 18 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:30.400 Primogenitor was slower to fall, but was abolished in Georgia in 1777, and in Virginia, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and the Carolinas during the 1780s. 19 00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:40.400 By the mid-1780s, all but two states had abolished entail, and all had eliminated primogenitor by the early 1790s. 20 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:50.400 One critical element of coercion and of land monopoly remaining in American life after the revolution was Negro slavery. 21 00:03:50.400 --> 00:04:00.400 The relatively cheap and coerced labor provided by slavery made large plantations for such products as tobacco and rice profitable, 22 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:04.400 which would not have been viable on the free market. 23 00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:16.400 This was true because the simplicity and easy supervision of field work on a single crop made slavery particularly adaptable to plantation labor. 24 00:04:16.400 --> 00:04:24.400 Furthermore, the concentration of slaves on plantations had already brought about fundamental sectional divisions in America. 25 00:04:24.400 --> 00:04:31.400 Divisions that were, of course, exacerbated once the colonies became independent and united. 26 00:04:31.400 --> 00:04:47.400 While in the North, Negroes, some of whom were free, constituted less than 5% of the population, in the South, Maryland and below, they formed 40% of the population, virtually all of them slaves. 27 00:04:47.400 --> 00:04:53.400 During the revolution, the northern states began to move against slavery within their borders. 28 00:04:53.400 --> 00:04:59.400 The first steps were taken against the slave trade, against the importation of slaves into the state. 29 00:04:59.400 --> 00:05:08.400 Since existing slavery was considered by too many people as a property right, even though in human beings, that could not be violated. 30 00:05:08.400 --> 00:05:20.400 In 1776, the Delaware Constitution prohibited the importation into the state of slaves for sale, and Massachusetts outlawed the slave trade. 31 00:05:20.400 --> 00:05:36.400 John Adams, however, effectively killed a Massachusetts bill for emancipation in 1777, and it took the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 for slavery to be abolished there. 32 00:05:36.400 --> 00:05:47.400 Or so the Constitution was eloquently construed in the Massachusetts Supreme Court in 1781 in the notable case of Commonwealth versus Geneson. 33 00:05:47.400 --> 00:05:53.840 and Geneson. Chief Justice William Cushing decreed that the Constitution's declaration 34 00:05:53.840 --> 00:06:00.840 that all men are born free and equal and are entitled to liberty clearly made slavery unconstitutional. 35 00:06:02.640 --> 00:06:08.740 In his construction, Cushing was undoubtedly influenced by the brief of the lawyer Levi 36 00:06:08.740 --> 00:06:15.740 Lincoln, later Attorney General of the United States under Jefferson, to the opposing argument 37 00:06:15.740 --> 00:06:20.740 In an argument that slavery was sanctified by the custom and usage of the country, 38 00:06:20.740 --> 00:06:28.740 Lincoln pungently replied that custom and usage against reason and right were void. 39 00:06:28.740 --> 00:06:34.740 Vermont directly prohibited slavery in its Constitution of 1777, 40 00:06:34.740 --> 00:06:41.740 a bill drafted by radical leaders Thomas Paine, George Brian, and Charles Wilson Peel, 41 00:06:41.740 --> 00:06:50.140 Gradually abolishing slavery passed the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1780, but it freed only children 42 00:06:50.140 --> 00:06:54.700 of existing slaves upon reaching the age of 28. 43 00:06:54.700 --> 00:07:02.020 The New Hampshire Constitution of 1784 prohibited slavery and Connecticut and Rhode Island decreed 44 00:07:02.020 --> 00:07:06.460 its gradual abolition in 1784. 45 00:07:06.460 --> 00:07:11.780 The Rhode Island action came after years of prodding by the prominent Quaker merchant 46 00:07:11.780 --> 00:07:19.780 Moses Brown. New York, New Jersey, Delaware and the southern states remained with slavery 47 00:07:19.780 --> 00:07:26.740 unchecked by the end of the revolution. New York City delegates, headed by John Jay, had 48 00:07:26.740 --> 00:07:36.100 urged a gradual emancipation law in 1777 but lost by a close vote. It was vetoed by the 49 00:07:36.100 --> 00:07:42.860 The Council of Revision of New York, however, because it denied the freed Negroes the ballot, 50 00:07:42.860 --> 00:07:46.620 and thus would create a group of half-citizens. 51 00:07:46.620 --> 00:07:53.140 The staunchest and most principled libertarian in the New York legislature was New York assemblyman 52 00:07:53.140 --> 00:07:59.320 Aaron Burr, who not only argued persistently for the Negroes' right to vote, to be a witness 53 00:07:59.320 --> 00:08:06.320 New York did liberate all the slaves of its tories, and New Jersey liberated the slaves who had become state property by its confiscation of tory properties, but while slavery was being largely liquidated in the north, it was being cemented in the south. 54 00:08:29.320 --> 00:08:37.320 Despite the staunch opposition of such men as Jefferson, indeed the states actively encouraged slavery. 55 00:08:37.320 --> 00:08:44.320 North Carolina passed a law in 1777 restricting the voluntary manumission of slaves, 56 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:52.320 while South Carolina and Georgia paid out slaves as part of the salaries of soldiers and state officials. 57 00:08:52.320 --> 00:09:02.320 During the war, however, every state except Georgia and South Carolina either severely restricted the slave trade or prohibited it. 58 00:09:02.320 --> 00:09:15.320 This was not a particularly idealistic action by the Upper South, however, since the value of domestic slaves would inevitably rise after prohibiting their further importation. 59 00:09:15.320 --> 00:09:27.320 And then, Virginia and Maryland, where slave labor was becoming less profitable, could breed slaves to replace foreign imports as a source of new slaves to the Lower South. 60 00:09:27.320 --> 00:09:42.320 Fearful of slave defections to the British in the light of their wholesale flight to Lord Dunmore's forces early in the war, the southern states placed especially severe controls upon the slaves during the war. 61 00:09:42.320 --> 00:09:54.320 Slaves were herded to points far from British-occupied zones, special patrols were set up to prevent escape, and executions of slaves attempting to flee were stepped up. 62 00:09:54.320 --> 00:10:07.320 And yet, despite the harsh treatment and the resale into slavery in the West Indies suffered by the Negroes in British hands, many tens of thousands of slaves escaped to the British lines. 63 00:10:07.320 --> 00:10:19.320 Thus 4,000 escaped Negroes sailed away when the British evacuated Savannah and around 6,000 sailed with the British from Charleston. 64 00:10:19.320 --> 00:10:34.320 In 1782, nearly 3,000 sailed with the British from New York City, probably as many as 100,000 slaves or nearly one-fifth of the slave population succeeded in escaping during the Revolutionary War. 65 00:10:34.320 --> 00:11:04.320 Many slaves also became known as maroons, fugitives fighting in inaccessible areas, and waging guerrilla war against slaveholders. Maroon activity abounded in Georgia and the Carolinas, and a slave named Bill was hanged in 1781 in Prince William County, Virginia, for leading other ex-slaves in attacks upon plantations. One group of 300 determined ex-slaves 66 00:11:04.320 --> 00:11:08.320 The British slaves decided not to evacuate Savannah with the British. 67 00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:15.320 Instead, they stayed in the swamps at Bear Creek as self-styled King of England's soldiers, 68 00:11:15.320 --> 00:11:19.320 engaging in guerrilla raids on Georgia plantations. 69 00:11:19.320 --> 00:11:26.320 It took four years, and the combined militia of Georgia and South Carolina to finally rout this band. 70 00:11:26.320 --> 00:11:34.320 Plots of slave revolts were diminished during the war by the opportunities to escape offered by the Revolutionary Conflict. 71 00:11:34.320 --> 00:11:46.320 Still, several plots were uncovered, the most important being a planned revolt of the slaves of Pitt, Craven and Beaufort Counties in coastal North Carolina. 72 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:56.320 The plot was betrayed by two slaves on the eve of the uprising in July 1775, and scores of slaves were arrested throughout the counties. 73 00:11:56.320 --> 00:12:00.320 They were punished by numerous lashes and ear croppings. 74 00:12:00.320 --> 00:12:05.320 Slaves rebelled on Tybee Island, Georgia in early 1776. 75 00:12:05.320 --> 00:12:15.320 A Negro restiveness was noted, starting at about the same time in Albany, New York, in Elizabethtown in Somerset County, New Jersey, 76 00:12:15.320 --> 00:12:22.320 New Jersey, and in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Restiffness among the nearly 4,000 slaves 77 00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:28.960 in Albany County continued for several years, including organized escapes and a plot to 78 00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:35.120 destroy the slave owners and burn Albany to the ground. Virginia was beset by several 79 00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:42.120 slave revolts or threatened revolts during the war. In Boetocourt, Halifax, in Akomak 80 00:12:42.120 --> 00:12:49.280 Black Counties, and Williamsburg, where in December 1781 the slaves set fire to governmental 81 00:12:49.280 --> 00:12:51.960 and other buildings in the town. 82 00:12:51.960 --> 00:12:58.040 One other escape route for several thousand Negro slaves was enlistment in the revolutionary 83 00:12:58.040 --> 00:13:04.300 armed forces, for in many cases where the states permitted, masters offered freedom 84 00:13:04.300 --> 00:13:07.000 to Negroes who enlisted. 85 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:14.000 These enlistments could not begin until mid-1776, for until then, Negroes were barred from 86 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:15.480 the Army. 87 00:13:15.480 --> 00:13:20.960 In Congress, this prohibition was led by the Rutledge's of Georgia, but the ban also prevailed 88 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:26.240 in the separate state militias, including Massachusetts, the rest of New England and 89 00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:28.440 all the middle states. 90 00:13:28.440 --> 00:13:34.600 Tightened war conditions, however, as well as Dunmore's call for Negroes to escape, reversed 91 00:13:34.600 --> 00:13:38.600 First American Policy and Permitted Slave Enlistments 92 00:13:38.600 --> 00:13:46.480 In early 1776, Congress reversed its previous decision to bar Negroes from the armed forces, 93 00:13:46.480 --> 00:13:49.360 and the towns and states followed later on. 94 00:13:49.360 --> 00:13:55.320 The enthusiastic expectations of the enlisted Negroes were reflected in the surnames many 95 00:13:55.320 --> 00:14:02.000 of them now gave themselves, including free man, liberty, freedom and free. 96 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:08.160 South Carolina and Georgia, however, despite the ardent pressure of Henry and John Laurens 97 00:14:08.160 --> 00:14:14.760 and of William Henry Drayton, refused throughout the war to allow their Negroes to enlist and 98 00:14:14.760 --> 00:14:20.280 made it clear that they preferred defeat in the war to allowing that sort of subversive 99 00:14:20.280 --> 00:14:22.000 license. 100 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:26.900 The stubbornness of these two deep south states prevented what might have been a severe 101 00:14:26.900 --> 00:14:31.600 blow to the entire structure of slavery in the south. 102 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:45.600 Most of the Negro soldiers served in the Continental Army rather than in the short-term state militia, and the bulk of them was furnished by the New England states, despite their relatively small Negro population. 103 00:14:45.600 --> 00:14:54.600 Negroes served in fully integrated units, but few were selected for the higher status service of cavalry or artillery. 104 00:14:54.600 --> 00:15:06.600 Most were infantry privates, often in menial service, servants, orderlies, waiters, cooks, teamsters, drummers, rather than in arms-bearing functions. 105 00:15:06.600 --> 00:15:20.600 Even so, Negroes, happy to be slaves no longer, generally enjoyed higher morale than the other soldiers who were eager to return to the freedom and higher living standards they had been used to in civilian life. 106 00:15:20.600 --> 00:15:21.600 in Life. 107 00:15:21.600 --> 00:15:28.160 In contrast to the Army, the American Navy, continental, state and privateer, welcomed 108 00:15:28.160 --> 00:15:34.120 Negro sailors from the very beginning of the conflict, partly because Negro sailors were 109 00:15:34.120 --> 00:15:37.240 already familiar to colonial America. 110 00:15:37.240 --> 00:15:43.240 They were often used as pilots, and even the South Carolina and Georgia navies used Negro 111 00:15:43.240 --> 00:15:44.240 sailors. 112 00:15:44.240 --> 00:15:50.120 By no means all of the Negro soldiers and sailors of the Revolution received their freedom 113 00:15:50.120 --> 00:15:58.020 Many were enlisted involuntarily by their masters, but the vast majority, several thousand 114 00:15:58.020 --> 00:16:02.040 Negroes, were set free by the enlistment process.