Slavery in the United States

Slavery in the United States was the legal institution of human slavery in the United States. Slaves were mostly sub-Saharan Africans and African Americans.  Slavery existed in British America from early colonial days.  It was legal in all Thirteen Colonies at the time of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.  Slavery existed in the United States of America in the 18th and 19th centuries.  It lasted in about half the states until 1865.  This was when it was banned in the entire country by the Thirteenth Amendment.

By the time of the American Revolution (1775–1783), slaves had been institutionalized as a racial caste. The caste associated with sub-Saharan African ancestry. When the United States Constitution was ratified in 1789, a small number of free people of color were able to vote. This was because they were men who owned property. During and shortly after the Revolutionary War, abolitionist laws were passed in most Northern states, and there was a movement created to end slavery. Slave states tried to extend slavery into new Western territories. They wanted to do this to keep their share of political power in the country. Southern leaders also wanted to annex Cuba as a slave territory. The United States became split over the issue of slavery. It was split into slave and free states. The Mason–Dixon line divided the country. The line divided (free) Pennsylvania from (slave) Maryland.

While Jefferson was president, Congress prohibited the importation of slaves, effective 1808.  Smuggling (illegal importing) through Spanish Florida was common.  Slave trading within the United States, continued at a fast pace.  This was because there was a need for labor due to the creation of cotton plantations in the Deep South.  New communities of African-American culture were created in the Deep South. There were 4 million slaves in the Southern United States before they were set free.Stephen D. Behrendt, David Richardson, and David Eltis, W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research, Harvard University. Based on "records for 27,233 voyages that set out to obtain slaves for the Americas". Introduction – Social Aspects of the Civil War , National Park Service.

Colonial America

The first Africans came to the New World with Christopher Columbus in 1492. An African crew member named Juan Las Canaries was on Columbus's ship. Shortly after, the first enslavement happened in what would later be the United States. In 1508, Ponce de Leon created the first settlement near present-day San Juan. He started enslaving the indigenous Tainos. In 1513, to supplement the decreasing number of Tainos people, the first African slaves were imported to Puerto Rico.

The first African slaves in the continental United States came via Santo Domingo to the San Miguel de Gualdape colony (most likely in the Winyah Bay area of present-day South Carolina). It was created by Spanish explorer Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón in 1526.

On August 28, 1565, St. Augustine, Florida was created by the Spanish conquistador Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles. He  brought three African slaves with him. During the 16th and 17th centuries, St. Augustine was the where a lot of the slave trade in Spanish colonial Florida happened. It was the first permanent settlement in the continental United States to have African slaves.

60 years later, in the early years of the Chesapeake Bay settlements, colonial officials found it difficult to convince people to come and work for them. This was because the weather and environment of the settlements was very harsh. There was a very high chance that people would die. Most people came from Great Britain as indentured laborers. They signed contracts that said they would pay with work for their transportation, their upkeep, and their training, usually on a farm. The colonies had agricultural economies. These people were often young people who wanted to become permanent residents. In some cases, convicted criminals were sent to the colonies as indentured laborers, rather than being sent to prison. These people were not slaves, but they were required to work for four to seven years in Virginia to pay for the cost of their transportation and maintenance.1.Deborah Gray White, Mia Bay, and Waldo E. Martin, Jr., Freedom on My Mind: A History of African Americans (New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013), 59. Many Germans, Scots-Irish, and Irish came to the colonies in the 18th century, settling in the backcountry of Pennsylvania and further south.Richard Hofstadter, "White Servitude" , n.d., Montgomery College. Retrieved January 11, 2012.

The first 19 or so Africans to reach the English colonies arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. They were brought by English privateers who had seized them from a captured Portuguese slave ship. Slaves were usually baptized in West Africa before sending them. As English custom then considered baptized Christians exempt from slavery, colonists treated these Africans as indentured servants. The African indentured servants joined about 1,000 English indentured servants already in the colony. The Africans were freed after a period of time. They were also given the use of land and supplies by their former masters. 

+ Slaves shipped to those regions that are part of the present-day United StatesDateSlaves1620–16508241651–167501676–17003,3271701–17253,2771726–175034,0041751–177584,5801776–180067,4431801–1825109,5451826–18501,8501851–1866476Total305,326

There were no laws about slavery in Virginia's early history. However, in 1640, a Virginia court sentenced John Punch, an African, to slavery. This was because he tried to run away from his service. He ran away with two white people. The two white people were sentenced only to one more year of their indenture, and three years' service to the colony. This is the first legal sanctioning of slavery in the English colonies. It was one of the first legal distinctions made between Europeans and Africans.

In 1641, Massachusetts became the first colony to allow slavery through law. Massachusetts passed the Body of Liberties. It banned slavery in many cases, but it allowed slaves to be held if they were prisoners of war, if they sold themselves into slavery or were bought somewhere else, or if they were sentenced to slavery as punishment by the government. The Body of Liberties used the word "strangers" to refer to people bought and sold as slaves; they were generally not English subjects. Colonists believed this term referred to Native Americans and Africans.

During most of the British colonial period, slavery existed in all the colonies. Slaves in the North usually worked as house servants, artisans, laborers, and craftsmen. Most were in cities. Many men worked on the docks and in shipping. In 1703, more than 42 percent of New York City households had slaves. New York City had the second-highest proportion of slaves of any city in the colonies after Charleston, South Carolina."Slavery in New York", The Nation, November 7, 2005 Slaves were also used as agricultural workers in farming communities. This included areas of upstate New York and Long Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey. By 1770 there were 397,924 Blacks in a population of 2.17 million. They were not spread out evenly. There were 14,867 in New England where they were 2.7% of the population; 34,679 in the mid-Atlantic colonies where they were 6% of the population (19,000 were in New York or 11%); and 347,378 in the five southern colonies where they were 31% of the population.Ira Berlin, Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves, 2003

The South developed an agricultural economy. It relied on commodity crops. Its planters quickly got more slaves. This was because its commodity crops were labor-intensive."The First Black Americans" , Hashaw, Tim; US News and World Report, 1/21/07

Revolutionary Era
 Origins and Percentages of Africansimported into British North Americaand Louisiana (1700–1820)Gomez, Michael A: Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South, p. 29. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 1998.  Amount %   (exceeds 100%) West-central Africa  (Kongo, N. Mbundu, S. Mbundu)  26.1 Bight of Biafra  (Igbo, Tikar, Ibibio, Bamileke, Bubi)  24.4 Sierra Leone  (Mende, Temne)  15.8 Senegambia  (Mandinka, Fula, Wolof)  14.5 Gold Coast (Akan, Fon)  13.1 Windward Coast  (Mandé, Kru)  5.2 Bight of Benin   (Yoruba, Ewe, Fon, Allada  and Mahi)  4.3 Southeast Africa  (Macua, Malagasy)  1.8

While there were some African slaves that were kept and sold in England, slavery in Great Britain had not been allowed by statute there. In 1772, it was made unenforceable at common law in England and Wales by a legal decision. The big British role in the international slave trade continued until 1807. Slavery continued in most of Britain's colonies. Many rich slave owners lived in England and had a lot of power.Padraic Xavier Scanlan, "Blood, Money and Endless Paper: Slavery and Capital in British Imperial History." History Compass 14.5 (2016): 218–230.

In early 1775 Lord Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia, wrote to Lord Dartmouth. He wrote he was going to free slaves owned by Patriots in case they rebelled. On November 7, 1775, Lord Dunmore issued Lord Dunmore's Proclamation which declared martial law. He promised freedom for any slaves of American patriots who would leave their masters and join the royal forces. Slaves owned by Loyalist masters, however, were not going to be freed by Dunmore's Proclamation. About 1500 slaves owned by Patriots ran away and joined Dunmore's forces. Most died of disease before they could do any fighting. Three hundred of these freed slaves made it to freedom in Britain.

Many slaves used the war to run away from their plantations. They would run into cities or woods. In South Carolina, nearly 25,000 slaves (30% of the total enslaved population) ran away, migrated, or died during the war. In the South, many slaves died, with many due to escapes.Peter Kolchin, American Slavery: 1619–1877, New York: Hill and Wang, 1994, p. 73. Slaves also escaped throughout New England and the mid-Atlantic, joining the British who had occupied New York.

Slaves and free blacks also fought with the rebels during the Revolutionary War. Washington allowed slaves to be freed who fought with the American Continental Army. Rhode Island started enlisting slaves in 1778. Rhode Island promised money to owners whose slaves enlisted and lived to gain freedom. During the course of the war, about one fifth of the northern army was black.Liberty! The American Revolution (Documentary), Episode II:Blows Must Decide: 1774–1776.  ©1997 Twin Cities Public Television, Inc.   In 1781, Baron Closen, a German officer in the French Royal Deux-Ponts Regiment at the Battle of Yorktown, estimated the American army to be about one-quarter black."The Revolution's Black Soldiers" by Robert A. Selig, Ph.D., American Revolution website, 2013–2014 These men included both former slaves and free blacks.

In the 18th century, Britain became the world's biggest slave trader. Starting in 1777, the Patriots made importing slaves illegal state by state. They all acted to end the international trade. However, it was later reopened in South Carolina and Georgia. In 1807 Congress acted on President Jefferson's advice and made importing slaves from other countries a federal crime, as the Constitution permitted, starting January 1, 1808.

1790 to 1860
"Fancy ladies"
In the United States in the early nineteenth century, owners of female slaves could freely and legally use them as sexual objects. This is similar to the free use of female slaves on slave ships by the crews.

"Fancy" was a code word that meant the girl or young woman was able to be used for or trained for sexual use. Sometimes, children were also abused like this. The sale of a 13-year-old "nearly a fancy" is documented.

Furthermore, females who were able to become pregnant were supposed to be kept pregnant, so they could make more slaves to sell. The differences in skin color found in the United States make it obvious how often black women were impregnated by whites. For example, in the 1850 Census, 75.4% of "free negros" in Florida were described as mulattos, of mixed race. Nevertheless, it is only very recently, with DNA studies, that any sort of reliable number can be provided, and the research has only begun.  Light-skinned girls, who contrasted with the darker field workers, were preferred.

Blacks who owned slaves
Some slave owners were black. An African former indentured servant who settled in Virginia in 1621, Anthony Johnson, became one of the earliest documented slave owners in the American colonies. This was documented when he won a civil lawsuit to own a man named John Casor. In 1830, there were 3,775 black slave owners in the South. They owned a total of 12,760 slaves. 80% of the black slave owners lived in Louisiana, South Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland.

Last slaves and freedom (1865)
In 1865 general Gordon Granger of the Union Army led a military occupation army into Galveston, Texas and set the last slaves free.

19th century
Historian J. David Hacker of the University of Minnesota estimates that about 80% of all enslaved people who ever lived in what is now the United States (from 1619 onward, including all territories that became part of the nation) were born or brought into the country during the 1800s. Enslaved labor powered the Southern economy, but slaveholding—and the removal of Native Americans from their land—also formed the core of American white supremacy. Historian Walter Johnson notes that owning slaves was seen as something that made a household “white,” meaning that whiteness itself gained value through the ability to buy and control enslaved Black people.

Slavery in the U.S. changed constantly, driven by the violent pursuit of greater and greater profit. Although slavery is often associated with plantation field work on crops like cotton or sugar, enslaved people worked in nearly every skilled trade. A study of 1,200 runaway slave ads in Tennessee listed enslaved blacksmiths, carpenters, shoemakers, cooks, musicians, ministers, engineers, dressmakers, bricklayers, boat builders, and many others—even a fortune teller and a racehorse trainer. Slavery was complex, but historians emphasize that it was not a training program or path to future independence.

In 1853, Harriet Beecher Stowe explained what American slavery was—and what it was not. She wrote that it was not apprenticeship, guardianship, education, or anything aimed at improving the lives of enslaved people. Instead, she quoted Judge Ruffin: the purpose of slavery was the master’s profit, security, and the protection of the public order. Stowe concluded that slavery was a complete and unrestrained form of despotism.

Colonization movement
In the early 1800s, several groups formed to debate what should happen to Black Americans. Some believed free Black people should leave the United States and settle elsewhere, where they could have more freedom. A few supported sending them to Africa, while others promoted emigration to places like Haiti.

During the 1820s and 1830s, the main group pushing for African colonization was the American Colonization Society (ACS). Its members were mostly Quakers and slaveholders—two groups with very different motives who nevertheless agreed on the idea of “repatriation.” But this term was misleading: by then, most Black Americans had been born in the United States and had no desire to leave. They argued they were no more African than white Americans were British. Instead, they wanted equal rights in the country where their families had lived for generations.

In 1822, the ACS and its state branches founded what eventually became the colony of Liberia in West Africa. They helped thousands of freed and free-born Black Americans move there, though the government limited how many could go. Many white Americans preferred this option to granting freedom and equal rights within the United States. Henry Clay, a founder of the ACS and a slaveholding politician from Kentucky, argued that deep racial prejudice made it impossible for Black and white people to live together as equals, so he believed Black Americans should be “drained off” to Africa.

Supporters of deportation also saw it as a way to prevent uprisings or revenge attacks against former slaveholders. Their fears were fueled by the 1804 massacre in Haiti, which had created widespread panic among white Americans about possible Black retaliation—an anxiety known as “Haitianism.”

Other matters
Many consider a significant starting point to slavery in America to be 1619, when the privateer The White Lion brought 20 enslaved Africans ashore in the British colony of Jamestown, Virginia. The crew had seized the Africans from the Portuguese slave ship São João Bautista. Yet, enslaved Africans had been present in regions such as Florida, that are part of present-day United States nearly one century before. Throughout the 17th century, European settlers in North America turned to enslaved Africans as a cheaper, more plentiful labor source than Indigenous populations and indentured servants, who were mostly poor Europeans.
Existing estimates establish that Europeans and American slave traders transported nearly 12.5 million enslaved Africans to the Americas. Of this number approximately 10.7 million disembarked alive in the Americas. During the 18th century alone, approximately 6.5 million enslaved persons were transported to the Americas. This forced migration deprived the African continent of some of its healthiest and ablest men and women.

Slavery in Plantations and Cities
In the 17th and 18th centuries, enslaved Africans worked mainly on the tobacco, rice and indigo plantations of the southern Atlantic coast, from the Chesapeake Bay colonies of Maryland and Virginia south to Georgia.Slavery in America Retrieved 5 February 2025
In the 17th and 18th centuries, enslaved Africans worked mainly on the tobacco, rice and indigo plantations of the southern coast, from the Chesapeake Bay colonies of Maryland and Virginia south to Georgia. Starting 1662, the colony of Virginia and then other English colonies established that the legal status of a slave was inherited through the mother. As a result, the children of enslaved women legally became slaves.
Before the rise of the American Revolution, the first debates to abolish slavery emerged. Black and white abolitionists contributed to the enactment of new legislation gradually abolishing slavery in some northern states such as Vermont and Pennsylvania. However, these laws emancipated only the newly born children of enslaved women.Slavery in Plantations and Cities Retrieved 5 February 2025

But after the end of the American Revolutionary War, slavery was maintained in the new states. The new U.S. Constitution tacitly acknowledged the institution of slavery, when it determined that three out of every five enslaved people were counted when determining a state's total population for the purposes of taxation and representation in Congress. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, European and American slave merchants purchased enslaved Africans who were transported to the Americas and forced into slavery in the American colonies and exploited to work in the production of crops such as tobacco, wheat, indigo, rice, sugar, and cotton. Enslaved men and women also performed work in northern cities such as Boston and New York, and in southern cities such as Charleston, Richmond, and Baltimore.Slavery in Plantations and Cities Retrieved 5 February 2025
By the mid-19th century, America’s westward expansion and the abolition movement provoked a great debate over slavery that would tear the nation apart in the bloody Civil War. Though the Union victory freed the nation’s four million enslaved people, the legacy of slavery continued to influence American history, from the Reconstruction to the civil rights movement that emerged a century after emancipation and beyond.Slavery in Plantations and Cities Retrieved 5 February 2025

Cotton Gin
In the late 18th century, the mechanization of the textile industry in England led to a huge demand for American cotton, a southern crop planted and harvested by enslaved people, but whose production was limited by the difficulty of removing the seeds from raw cotton fibers by hand. But in 1793, a U.S.-born  schoolteacher named Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, a simple mechanized device that efficiently removed the seeds. His device was widely copied, and within a few years, the South transitioned from the large-scale production of tobacco to that of cotton, a switch that reinforced the region’s dependence on enslaved labor.
Slavery was never widespread in the North as it was in the South, but many northern businessmen grew rich on the slave trade and investments in southern plantations. Although gradual abolition emancipated newborns since the late 18th century, slavery was only abolished in New York in 1827, and in Connecticut in 1848. Though the U.S. Congress outlawed the African slave trade in 1808, the domestic trade flourished, and the enslaved population in the United States nearly tripled over the next 50 years. By 1860 it had reached nearly 4 million, with more than half living in the cotton-producing states of the South.Cotton Gin Retrieved 5 February 2025

When Did Slavery End
On September 22, 1862, President Lincoln announced that he would free enslaved people in the rebel states. On January 1, 1863, he made this official. He said that all enslaved people in states fighting against the Union would be free forever. This freed about 3 million enslaved people and weakened the Confederate states because they lost much of their labor force. It also made other countries support the Union. The Emancipation Proclamation did not end all slavery in the United States. Slavery officially ended later, in 1865, when the 13th Amendment was passed. About 186,000 Black soldiers joined the Union Army, and around 38,000 of them died.When Did Slavery End? Retrieved 5 February 2025

Living Conditions of Enslaved People
About one-third of the population in the antebellum South was enslaved. Most enslaved people lived on plantations or small farms, and many enslavers owned fewer than 50 people. Enslavers used strict laws and rules to control enslaved people and make them fully dependent. Enslaved people were usually not allowed to learn to read or write, and their movement and behavior were tightly controlled. Many enslavers abused enslaved women, rewarded obedience, and harshly punished resistance. Enslavers also created divisions among enslaved people by giving higher status to house workers and skilled laborers, which made it harder for them to unite. Enslaved marriages were not legally recognized, but many couples formed families. Although enslavers often encouraged families, they frequently broke them apart by selling family members.Living Conditions of Enslaved People Retrieved 5 February 2025

Kansas-Nebraska Act
After the Mexican-American War, the U.S. tried to make deals to avoid fighting over slavery. Those deals didn’t last. A new law let people in new territories vote on whether to allow slavery, which led to violent fighting in Kansas. Many Northerners were so angry that they formed a new political party called the Republican Party. Then the Supreme Court ruled that slavery could spread everywhere, even in places where it had been banned before.Kansas-Nebraska Act Retrieved 5 February 2025

John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry
In 1859, an abolitionist named John Brown led a violent attack on a government weapons site to try to end slavery. People across the country reacted very differently: many in the North saw him as a hero, while people in the South saw him as a dangerous criminal. The event showed how deeply divided the nation was over slavery.John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry Retrieved 5 February 2025
Civil War 
In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president, and the South finally broke away. Southern states left the Union and formed their own country. At first, Lincoln did not fight the war to end slavery—he fought to keep the country together. Ending slavery became a goal later, as the war went on and enslaved people escaped to Union lines.John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry Retrieved 5 February 2025Civil War Retrieved 5 February 2025

Other cases
The Legacy of Slavery
The 13th Amendment, approved on December 18, 1865, officially ended slavery in the United States. However, life for freed Black people in the South was still very difficult after the war, and they faced many problems during the Reconstruction period. Formerly enslaved men and women were given citizenship and equal protection under the law by the 14th Amendment, and the right to vote by the 15th Amendment. But these rights were often ignored or broken. Many Black people struggled to make a living because of unfair laws called Black codes and unfair systems like sharecropping. Even though more Black people took part in politics than ever before, Reconstruction was disappointing for many African Americans. By 1877, white supremacy had returned in the South, and racist groups like the Ku Klux Klan became powerful. Almost 100 years later, people continued to fight racism and discrimination. This led to the civil rights movement in the 1960s, which brought major social and political improvements for Black Americans. Ana Lucia Araujo is a historian who studies slavery and the slave trade. She edited and helped write this article. She is a professor at Howard University and works with UNESCO on projects about the history of enslaved people. She has written several books about slavery and its history.The Legacy of Slavery Retrieved 5 February 2025

Native American slaves
After the first enslaved Africans were brought to Virginia in 1619, most people in the country were still white. They mainly used Native American slaves and European workers who had to work for a set time. The transatlantic slave trade did not strongly affect the American colonies until the late 1600s.400 years since slavery: a timeline of American history Retrieved 5 February 2025

1661
The first law banning interracial marriage was passed in Maryland in 1661, soon after enslaved people arrived in the colonies. By the 1960s, 21 states—mostly in the South—still had these laws. Alabama was the last state to remove its ban on interracial marriage, in 2000.1661 Retrieved 5 February 2025

Related pages
Black History Month

References

Other websites

 "How Slaves Built American Capitalism", CounterPunch, December 18, 2015
 "Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936–1938", Library of Congress
 "Voices from the Days of Slavery", audio interviews of former slaves, 1932–1975, Library of Congress
 Report of the Brown University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice
 "Slavery and the Making of America" , WNET (4-part series)
 "Slavery in the United States", Economic History Encyclopedia, March 26, 2008
 North American Slave Narratives, Documenting the American South, Louis Round Wilson Library
 "Slavery and Civil War digital collection", scanned original documents, Grand Valley State University 
 "How Slavery Really Ended in America", New York Times Magazine, April 1, 2011
 "The Color Line", 6-page lesson plan for high school, Zinn Education Project
 "The First Slaves", 15-page teaching guide for high school, Zinn Education Project
 "Not Your Momma's History", historical education about slavery and the 18th and 19th-century African experience in America
 "Harvesting Cotton-Field Capitalism: Edward Baptist's New Book Follows the Money on Slavery", The New York Times, October 3, 2014
 "5 Things About Slavery You Probably Didn't Learn In Social Studies: A Short Guide To 'The Half Has Never Been Told'", HuffPost, October 25, 2014
 9 Facts About Slavery They Don't Want You to Know
 "Slavery" maps in the U.S. Persuasive Cartography collection, Cornell University Library
 The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database has information on almost 36,000 slaving voyages


Category:African-American history