Global InformationHistory of slavery in the United States by state information
Following the creation of the United States in 1776 and the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1789, the legal status of slavery was generally a matter for individual U.S. state legislatures and judiciaries (outside of several historically significant exceptions including the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the 1808 Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, the 1820 Missouri Compromise, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision of 1857, et al.) As such, slavery flourished in some states (mostly southern), and withered on the vine in others (mostly northern). On the whole, the former Thirteen Colonies abolished slavery relatively slowly, if at all, with several Northern states using gradual emancipation systems in which freedom would be granted after so many years of life or service. (Vermont and New York had clear and absolute freedom dates; Massachusetts and New Hampshire were de facto free states with total abolition from the American Revolution forward.)
For many years after the establishment of the republic, new states were admitted in pairs, so-called free state–slave state twins, so that some states entered the Union with guaranteed "free soil" while their twin permitted the continuation and expansion of America's peculiar institution. Fifteen states (in order of admission, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, Arkansas, Florida, and Texas) never sought to end slavery, and thus bondage and the slave trade continued in those places, and there was even a movement to reopen the transatlantic slave trade. With the admission of California, Oregon, and Iowa as free states, and the prospective admission of Kansas Territory (likely as a free state), with the commensurate increasing political power of free-state legislators in the United States Congress, the political status quo began to disintegrate. This shift convinced the Slave Power's most influential and vocal leaders that secession was the only way to retain long-term control of both their wealth held in slaves and their political power. (Under the Three-Fifths Compromise brokered at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, enslaved people were considered additional population for purposes of apportionment. The prospective end of slavery would have thus deprived slave owners of the disproportionate representation of their interests in the national legislature, relative not just the people they enslaved but to free white male voters in other states.) Ultimately, a massive and devastating four-year-long war resolved the interstate conflict over slavery, and when rebel state governments were finally overwhelmed by force of arms, various civilian and military representatives of the U.S. government emancipated those people who remained legally enslaved. Slavery in the United States was legally abolished nationwide within the 36 newly reunited states under the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, effective December 18, 1865.
The federal district, which is legally part of no state and under the sole jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress, permitted slavery until the American Civil War. For the history of the abolition of the slave trade in the district and the federal government's one and only compensated emancipation program, see slavery in the District of Columbia.
| State | Civil War allegiance | Date ratified 13th Amendment[1] | Prior state-wide abolition | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | CSA | December 2, 1865 | ||
| Arkansas | CSA | April 14, 1865 | ||
| California | USA | December 20, 1865 | September 9, 1850 (statehood)[2] | |
| Connecticut | USA | May 4, 1865 | 1848[3] | Connecticut passed partial abolition laws and time-delayed manumission laws beginning in 1784.[3] |
| Delaware | USA | February 19, 1901 | Delaware was a slave state but did not secede to the Confederacy. | |
| Florida | CSA | December 28, 1865 | ||
| Georgia | CSA | December 6, 1865 | ||
| Illinois | USA | February 1, 1865 | April 1, 1848[4] | Chattel slavery was prohibited in Illinois at statehood under the terms of the Northwest Ordinance; indentured servitude was not prohibited until the Second Illinois Constitution of 1848.[4] |
| Indiana | USA | February 6, 1865 | December 11, 1816 (statehood)[5] | |
| Iowa | USA | January 17, 1866 | December 28, 1846 (statehood)[6] | |
| Kansas | USA | February 7, 1865 | January 29, 1861 (statehood)[7] | |
| Kentucky | Dual government | March 18, 1976 | ||
| Louisiana | CSA | February 1865 | Louisiana ratified the Thirteenth Amendment on either Feb. 15 or 16. | |
| Maryland | USA | February 3, 1865 | November 1, 1864[8] | |
| Massachusetts | USA | February 7, 1865 | Massachusetts was for intents and purposes a free state with total abolition from the American Revolution forward.[9] | |
| Maine | USA | February 7, 1865 | March 15, 1820 (statehood)[10] | The pre-statehood District of Maine was legally a part of Massachusetts; Maine was admitted as Missouri's free-state "twin" under the Missouri Compromise. |
| Michigan | USA | February 2, 1865 | January 26, 1837 (statehood)[11] | |
| Minnesota | USA | February 23, 1865 | May 11, 1858 (statehood)[12] | |
| Missouri | Dual government | February 6, 1865 | ||
| Mississippi | CSA | February 7, 2013[13] | ||
| Nevada | USA | February 16, 1865 | October 31, 1864 (statehood)[a] | Nevada was admitted to the Union during the Civil War, thus its state nickname is Battle-Born. |
| New Hampshire | USA | June 30, 1865 | The legal status of slavery in New Hampshire has been described as "ambiguous,"[15] and abolition legislation was minimal or non-existent.[16] New Hampshire never passed a state law abolishing slavery.[17] That said, New Hampshire was a free state with no slavery to speak of from the American Revolution forward.[9] | |
| New Jersey | USA | January 23, 1866 | April 18, 1846[18] | New Jersey had some gradual manumission laws prior to 1846, resulting in a "continuum" of servitude statuses that persisted until the Civil War.[18] |
| New York | USA | February 3, 1865 | July 4, 1827[19] | |
| North Carolina | CSA | December 4, 1865 | ||
| Ohio | USA | February 10, 1865 | February 19, 1803 (statehood) | |
| Oregon | USA | December 11, 1865 | February 14, 1859 (statehood)[20][b] | |
| Pennsylvania | USA | February 8, 1865 | March 1, 1780[21] | Pennsylvania's gradual emancipation system meant that enslavement and indentured servitude continued until 1847.[21] |
| Rhode Island | USA | February 2, 1865 | 1843[22] | Rhode Island passed gradual emancipation laws after the American Revolution.[9] |
| South Carolina | CSA | November 13, 1865 | ||
| Tennessee | CSA | April 7, 1865 | October 24, 1864 (Moses speech declaration by military governor of Tennessee Andrew Johnson),[23] and state constitutional amendment certified February 27, 1865[24] | |
| Texas | CSA | February 17, 1870 | June 19, 1865 (Juneteenth declaration by U.S. Army)[25] | |
| Vermont | USA | March 9, 1865 | March 4, 1791 (statehood)[26] | Constitution of the Vermont Republic abolished slavery effective July 2, 1777.[26] |
| Virginia | CSA | February 9, 1865 | ||
| West Virginia | Dual government | February 3, 1865 | The Appalachian counties of Virginia separated from the rest of the state during the Civil War. Gradual emancipation was written in West Virginia state constitution of 1863.[27] | |
| Wisconsin | USA | February 24, 1865 | May 29, 1848 (statehood) |
- ^ U.S. Government Printing Office, 112th Congress, 2nd Session, SENATE DOCUMENT No. 112–9 (2013). "The Constitution of the United States Of America Analysis And Interpretation Centennial Edition Interim Edition: Analysis Of Cases Decided By The Supreme Court Of The United States To June 26, 2013s" (PDF). p. 30. Retrieved 2014-02-17.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "California Admission Day September 9, 1850". CA State Parks. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
- ^ a b Menschel, David (October 2001). "Abolition without Deliverance: The Law of Connecticut Slavery 1784–1848". The Yale Law Journal. 111 (1): 183–222. doi:10.2307/797518. JSTOR 797518.
- ^ a b Jaffe, Logan (June 19, 2020). "Slavery Existed in Illinois, but Schools Don't Always Teach That History". ProPublica. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
- ^ IHB (December 15, 2020). "Being Black in Indiana". Indiana Historical Bureau. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
- ^ "Making of Iowa, Chapter 30, Iowa and Slavery". iagenweb.org. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
- ^ "When Kansas Became a State Spring 1961 (Vol. 27, No. 1), pages 1 to 21 Transcribed by Jim Scheetz; digitized with permission of the Kansas Historical Society". www.kshs.org. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
- ^ Floyd, Joni. "Research Guides: Slavery & Freedom in Maryland: Home". lib.guides.umd.edu. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
- ^ a b c Paul Finkelman (2008). "Regulating the African Slave Trade". Civil War History. 54 (4): 379–405. doi:10.1353/cwh.0.0034. ISSN 1533-6271.
- ^ "History of Maine (part 5)". www.maine.gov. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
- ^ "Timeline of Michigan History" (PDF).
- ^ "Minnesota Secretary Of State – Admission of Minnesota into the Union 1858". www.sos.state.mn.us. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
- ^ Waldron, Ben (February 19, 2013). "Mississippi Officially Abolishes Slavery, Ratifies 13th Amendment". ABC News. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
- ^ Ford, Matt (April 24, 2014). "Why Nevada, Home of Cliven Bundy, Abolished Slavery Twice". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
- ^ Fernald, Jody (January 1, 2007). "Slavery in New Hampshire: Profitable godliness to racial consciousness". Master's Theses and Capstones.
- ^ "1779 Petition for Liberation from Slavery". NH Radical History. April 28, 2021. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
- ^ "Slavery Persisted in New England Until the 19th Century". HISTORY. July 12, 2023. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
- ^ a b Gigantino, James J. (2014). ""The Whole North Is Not Abolitionized": Slavery's Slow Death in New Jersey, 1830–1860". Journal of the Early Republic. 34 (3): 411–437. doi:10.1353/jer.2014.0040. ISSN 0275-1275. JSTOR 24486906. S2CID 143925591.
- ^ "Assembly Passes Legislation Recognizing Abolition Commemoration Day and Juneteenth in New York State". nyassembly.gov. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
- ^ "State of Oregon: Black in Oregon – National and Oregon Chronology of Events". sos.oregon.gov. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
- ^ a b Owens, Cassie (February 27, 2019). "Pennsylvania officially abolished slavery in 1780. But many black Pennsylvanians were in bondage long after that". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
- ^ "In 1843, slavery was banned in Rhode Island". Newport Daily News. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
- ^ ""The Moses of the Colored Men" Speech – Andrew Johnson National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
- ^ "Tennessee". The Recorder. March 6, 1865. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-28.
- ^ "The Historical Legacy of Juneteenth". National Museum of African American History and Culture. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
- ^ a b "July 2, 1777: Vermont Officially Abolished Slavery". Zinn Education Project. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
- ^ Wills, Matthew (February 14, 2023). "Emancipation Comes to West Virginia". JSTOR Daily. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
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