The history of slavery in Tennessee began when it was the old Southwest Territory and thus the law regulating slavery in Tennessee was broadly derived from North Carolina law, and was initially comparatively "liberal." However, after statehood, as the fear of slave rebellion and the threat to slavery posed by abolitionism increased, the laws became increasingly punitive: after 1831, "punishments were increased and privileges and immunities were lessened and circumvented."[2] Tennessee was one of five states that allowed slaves the right of a jury trial,[2] and one of three states that never passed anti-literacy laws,[3] although the punishment for forging a slave pass was up to 39 lashes.[2]
Tennessee had a ban on interstate slave trading beginning in 1827 but it was broadly flouted and repealed in 1854.[4] Memphis, Tennessee was one of the central hubs of the interstate slave trade, along with Washington, Richmond, Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans.[5] Key Memphis traders included Byrd Hill, the Bolton brothers, the Little brothers, and the Forrest brothers.[5] Nashville was a second-tier market, "advantageously situated for purchases in Kentucky and sales in northern Alabama and northeastern Mississippi....Much local and intra-state trading was a matter of course."[5] East Tennessee manifested early abolitionism and colonization-movement activism but slavery remained widespread in that region until emancipation.[6]
^"Alfred Jackson". The Hermitage. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
^ abcMooney, Chase C. (1971) [1957]. Slavery in Tennessee. Indiana University Publications, Social Science Series No. 17 (Reprint ed.). Westport, Conn.: Negro Universities Press. pp. 22 (jury trial), 28 (TN slavery law). OCLC 609222448 – via HathiTrust.
^Wallenstein, Peter (2007). "Antiliteracy Laws". In Rodriguez, Junius P. (ed.). Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 172. ISBN 9781851095490. OCLC 123968550.
^Schermerhorn, Calvin (2020). "Chapter 2: 'Cash for Slaves' The African American Trail of Tears". In Bond, Beverly Greene; O'Donovan, Susan Eva (eds.). Remembering the Memphis Massacre: An American Story. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 9780820356495.
^ abcBancroft, Frederic (2023) [1931, 1996]. "XII. Memphis: The Boltons, The Forrests and Others". Slave Trading in the Old South (Original publisher: J. H. Fürst Co., Baltimore). Southern Classics Series. Introduction by Michael Tadman (Reprint ed.). Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-64336-427-8. LCCN 95020493. OCLC 1153619151.
^Goodstein, Anita S. (2017). "Slavery". Tennessee Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2023-08-26.
and 25 Related for: History of slavery in Tennessee information
[1976, 1989]. "Chapter 3: The Defender ofSlavery". Andrew Johnson and the Negro. Knoxville: University ofTennessee Press. pp. 54–55. ISBN 978-0-87049-584-7...
The historyofslaveryin Mississippi began when the region was still Mississippi Territory and continued until abolition in 1865. The U.S. state of Mississippi...
institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America...
The historyofslaveryin Missouri began in 1720, predating statehood, with the large-scale slaveryin the region, when French merchant Philippe François...
local historians examining Tennessee's unique Emancipation Day traditions began researching the topic of Andrew Johnson and slavery. Researcher Randi Nott...
Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Due to its complex history, Louisiana had a very different pattern ofslavery compared to the rest of the United States.[citation...
The historyofslaveryin Arkansas began in the 1790s, before the Louisiana Purchase made the land territory of the United States. Arkansas was a slave...
Tennessee is one of the 50 states of the United States. What is now Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, and later part of the Southwest Territory...
trade or were their descendants. The institution of chattel slavery was established in North America in the 16th century under Spanish colonization, British...
Slavery was legally practiced in the Province of North Carolina and the state of North Carolina until January 1, 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln issued...
The historyofslaveryin Kentucky dates from the earliest permanent European settlements in the state, until the end of the Civil War. In 1830, enslaved...
The historyofslaveryin California began with the enslavement of Indigenous Californians under Spanish colonial rule. The arrival of the Spanish colonists...
stayed in the region after emancipation and the abolition ofslavery. Historically there have been much smaller Black populations in the Middle Tennessee and...
neighboring Virginia, slavery declined in Maryland as an institution earlier, and it had the largest free black population by 1860 of any state. The early...
The Tennessee Constitutional Amendment: 3, commonly known as Amendment 3 or the Remove Slavery as Punishment for Crime from Constitution Amendment, is...
The abolition ofslavery occurred at different times in different countries. It frequently occurred sequentially in more than one stage – for example...
Open slavery existed in the region of Palestine until the 20th-century. The slave trade to Ottoman Palestine officially stopped in the 1870s, when the...
movement to end slavery and liberate slaves around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was France in 1315, but it was later used in its colonies...
Slaveryin Indiana occurred between the time of French rule during the late seventeenth century and 1826, with a few traces ofslavery afterward. Opposition...
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location...
The historyofslaveryin Nebraska is generally seen as short and limited. The issue was contentious for the legislature between the creation of the Nebraska...
slave trader ofTennessee and Mississippi prior to the American Civil War. Byrd Hill has been described as one of the "big four" slave traders in the centrally...