Slavery and Four Years of War, Vol. 1-2 | Page 8

The States formed out of the territory "Northwest of the River Ohio" cannot be said to have ever been slave States. The sixth section of the Ordinance of 1787 prohibited slavery forever therein. The slaves reported in such States were only there by tolerance. They were free of right. The Constitution of Illinois, as we shall presently see, did not at first abolish slavery; only prohibited the introduction of slaves.
The rebellion of the thirteen colonies in 1776 and the war for independence did not grow out of slavery; that war was waged neither to perpetuate nor to abolish it. The Puritan and Cavalier, the opponents and the advocates of slavery and the slave trade, alike, fought for independence, and, when successful, united in the purpose to foster and build up an American Republic, based on the sovereignty of individual citizenship, but ignoring the natural rights of the enslaved negro.
The following table, compiled from the United States Census Reports, may be of interest.
It shows the number of slaves reported in each State and Territory of the United States at each Federal census.( 9)
North 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 Cal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conn. . . . 2,759 951 310 97 25 17 . . . . . . Ills. . . . . . . . . . 168 917 747 331 . . . . . . Ind. . . . . . . 135 237 190 3 3 . . . . . . Iowa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 . . . . . . Kansas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Maine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 . . . . . . . . . Mass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . . . Mich. . . . . . . . . . 24 . . . 32 . . . . . . . . . Minn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Neb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 N. H. . . . 158 8 . . . . . . 3 1 . . . . . . N. J. . . . 11,423 12,422 10,851 7,557 2,254 674 236 18 N. Y. . . . 21,324 20,343 15,017 10,088 75 4 . . . . . . Ohio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3 . . . . . . Oregon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Penn. . . . 3,737 1,706 796 211 403 64 . . . . . . R. I. . . . 952 381 108 48 17 5 . . . . . . Utah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 29 Vermont . . 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 . . . . . . ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ Totals . 40,370 35,646 27,510 19,108 3,568 1,129 262 64
/South/ 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 D. C. . . . . . . . . . 3,244 5,395 6,377 6,119 4,694 3,687 3,185 Ala. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41,879 117,549 253,532 342,844 435,080 Ark. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,617 5,476 19,935 47,100 111,115 Del. . . . . . . 8,887 6,153 4,177 4,509 3,292 2,605 2,290 1,798 Florida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16,501 25,717 39,310 61,745 Ga. .