History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 815 pages of information about History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1.

History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 815 pages of information about History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1.

     “That the migration or importation of such persons as any of
     the states now existing shall think proper to admit, can not
     be prohibited by congress prior to the year 1808.

“That congress have no right to interfere in the emancipation of slaves, or in the treatment of them, in any of the states, it remaining with the several states alone to provide any regulations therein which humanity and true policy require.
“That congress have authority to restrain the citizens of the United States from carrying on the African slave-trade for the purpose of supplying foreigners with slaves, and of providing by proper regulations for the humane treatment, during their passage, of slaves imported by the said citizens into the said states admitting such importation.

     “That congress have also authority to prohibit foreigners
     from fitting out vessels in any port of the United States
     for transporting persons from Africa to any foreign port.”

The census of 1790 gave the slave population of the States as follows:—­

          SLAVE POPULATION.—­CENSUS OF 1790.

Connecticut               2,759
Delaware                  8,887
Georgia                  29,264
Kentucky                 11,830
Maryland                103,036
New Hampshire               158
New Jersey               11,423
New York                 21,324
North Carolina          100,572
Pennsylvania              3,737
Rhode Island                952
South Carolina          107,094
Vermont                      17
Virginia                293,427
Territory south of Ohio   3,417

          Aggregate, 697,897.

Vermont was admitted into the Union on the 18th of February, 1791; and the first article of the Bill of Rights declared that “no male person born in this country, or brought from over sea, ought to be bound by law to serve any person as a servant, slave, or apprentice after he arrives at the age of twenty-one years, nor female, in like manner, after she arrives at the age of twenty-one years, unless they are bound by their own consent after they arrive at such age, or are bound by law for the payment of debts, damages, fines, costs, or the like.”  This provision was contained in the first Constitution of that State, and, therefore, it was the first one to abolish and prohibit slavery in North America.

On the 4th of February, 1791, Kentucky was admitted into the Union by Act of Congress, though it had no Constitution.  But the next year a Constitution was framed.  By it the Legislature was denied the right to emancipate slaves without the consent of the owner, nor without paying the full price of the slaves before emancipating them; nor could any laws be passed prohibiting emigrants from other states from bringing with them persons deemed slaves by the laws of any other states in the Union, so long as such persons should be continued as slaves in Kentucky. 

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History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.