Page 10 - The Civil War booklet_Neat
P. 10
Slavery and Reconstruction
Slavery is woven into the history of our nation.
ERed Grooms. Old Times Not Forgotten, 2009 1807, the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1797 and
nslaved people were brought to 1850 sought to preserve slavery and the
Jamestown, Virginia as early as 1619 position of slaveholders in the face of the
by Dutch traders to help produce lu- growing reservations of residents in some
crative crops, like tobacco. Slavery became Northern states.
a legally recognized institution in all 13 At the onset of the Civil War in
colonies. In 1776 the Declaration of Inde- 1861 there were 3.5 million slaves in the
pendence asserted that, All men are created South, out of a total population of nearly 9
equal, but this was not the case. Slave codes million. Roughly one third of the South’s
enacted by colonial assemblies continued to families counted human beings among
restrict the liberty of enslaved peoples and their property holdings. By the end of the
protect slavery. Our early leaders left the war, approximately 200,000 African Amer-
problem for subsequent generations, unsure icans had served in the Union’s Army and
how to resolve the issue. Thomas Jefferson, Navy. Reflecting on their military service,
himself a slaveholder, said, …as it is, we African American social reformer, Frederick
have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither Douglass, an abolitionist, orator, writer, and
hold him, nor safely let him go. While a ban statesman, who had himself escaped slavery
on the importation of slaves was passed in
10
