-
Founding of Georgia
When Nathaniel Oglethorpe founded the colony of Georgia in 1732, his vision included the ban of alcohol and slavery. Oglethorpe had visions of constructing a colony based on Enlightenment ideals, but the colonists settling in Georgia had other plans. Georgia grew to be a large, profitable agricultural colony whose economy depended on slaves. -
Stono Rebellion
In September 1739, a slave near the Stono River in South Carolina led a large group of African slaves in an armed ambush against white colonists. A number of colonists were killed before militia could act and subdue the slaves in a battle that killed both militiamen and slaves. The remaining slaves who survived the rebellion were either executed or sold to the West Indies. -
Redcoats Recruit Southern Slaves
The British also played a significant role in freeing slaves during the Revolutionary War. In November 1775, the royal governor of Virginia Lord Dunmore promised freedom to slaves who would join “His Majesty's Troops...for the more speedily reducing the Colony to a proper sense of their duty...." In response to his proclamation, the Virginia Assembly responded “all negro or other slaves, conspiring to rebel or make insurrection, shall suffer death…” . -
Revolutionary Manumission
By 1778, many states, including Virginia, granted freedom to slaves who served in the Revolutionary war. As a result of the Revolution, a surprising number of slaves were manumitted, while thousands of others freed themselves by running away. In Georgia, more than 5000 slaves, a third of the colony's pre-revolution total, escaped to the northern colonies or to local Indian tribes. -
Three-Fifths Compromise
The Three-Fifths Compromise stated that “Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding the whole number of free persons … and three-fifths of all other persons.” -
Constitutional Convention
At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the word “slavery” was never written in the Constitution, but slavery did in fact receive important protection from the federal document. At the convention, it was also written into The Constitution the prohibition of Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years. The fugitive slave clause forced the return of runaway slaves to their owners by law.
