The Slave Republic, 1789-1877

• Author: Jack Fruchtman
• Profession: Professor of Political Science and Director of the Program in Law and American Civilization at Towson University, Maryland
• Pages: 53-58

American Constitutional History: A Brief Introduction, First Edition. Jack Fruchtman.

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Slavery was prevalent throughout the years of the new republic, but

the debate over its continued existence took on new urgency after

1820. The heated dispute that erupted over its abolition culminated

in the secession of 11 states, a 5‐year brutal Civil War, and then

Reconstruction. In the southern colonies, slave populations repre-

sented a substantial proportion of the total number of inhabitants. In

1770, these included Maryland (32 percent), Virginia (41 percent),

North Carolina (35 percent), South Carolina (a whopping 61

percent), and Georgia (45 percent). In the Chesapeake region, tobacco,

a labor‐intensive crop, promoted slavery. Given the cost of the pro-

duction of tobacco, cost‐free labor only added to profits. Some

plantation owners like Thomas Jefferson and George Mason demanded

the retention of the institution, while philosophically condemning it.

They accepted slavery as a matter of economic necessity and moral

responsibility. Slaves, they argued, were so inferior that they lacked

the innate ability to survive without the paternalistic protection of the

superior white race. Abolition would be a personal and immoral

disservice to them. Worse, it would mean economic disaster for

plantation owners. They thus claimed that they alone should decide

how and when to end slavery without northern inter vention.

Northern colonies were not immune from slavery. Eighteenth‐

century New York had the highest percentage of slaves at 12 percent

of the population. Even Pennsylvania, despite its anti‐slavery Quaker

Part 2

The Slave Republic,

1789–1877