An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery
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An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, passed by the Pennsylvania
legislature on 1 March 1780, was the first attempt by a government in the Western Hemisphere to begin an abolition of slavery.
The Act prohibited further importation of slaves into the state, required Pennsylvania slaveholders to annually register their slaves (with forfeiture for noncompliance, and manumission
for the enslaved), and established that all children born in Pennsylvania were free persons regardless of the condition or race of their parents .
Those enslaved in Pennsylvania before the 1780 law went into effect remained enslaved for life. Another act of the Pennsylvania legislature freed them in 1847.
Pennsylvania's "gradual abolition" — rather than Massachusetts's 1783 "instant abolition" — became a model for freeing slaves in other Northern states.
," but required those children to work for the mother's master until age 28. To verify that no additional slaves were imported, the Act created a registry of all slaves in the state. Slaveholders who failed to register their slaves annually, or who did it improperly, lost their slaves to manumission
.
The 1780 Act specifically exempted members of the U.S. Congress and their personal slaves. Congress was then the only branch of the federal government, and met in Philadelphia
.
The 1780 Act had allowed a non-resident slaveholder visiting Pennsylvania to hold slaves in the state for up to six months. But a loophole was soon identified and exploited: if the non-resident slaveholder took his slaves out of Pennsylvania before the 6-month deadline, it would void his slaves' residency. The 1788 Amendment prohibited this rotation of slaves in and out-of-state to subvert PA law.
and his Cabinet (executive branch)? Attorney General Edmund Randolph
lost his personal slaves to manumission due to his misunderstanding of the state law. He conveyed his advice to President George Washington
through the president's secretary, Tobias Lear:
Washington argued (privately) that his presence in Philadelphia was solely a consequence of the city being the temporary national capital, and that he remained a citizen of Virginia and subject to its laws on slavery. Still, he himself was careful not to spend six continuous months in Pennsylvania, which might be interpreted as establishing legal residency. Had he litigated the issue, it might have clarified his legal status and that of other slaveholding federal officials. But it also would have called attention to his slaveholding in the President's House
, and put him at risk of losing those slaves to manumission. Instead, he followed his Attorney General's advice, and knowingly and repeatedly violated the state's 1788 Amendment by rotating the enslaved Africans in his presidential household in and out of Pennsylvania.
There is no record of Washington having been challenged for this. According to Lear, the Pennsylvania Abolition Society seems to have turned a blind eye to the President's actions:
swore out an affidavit stating that he would eventually free his enslaved cook, James Hemings
, if Hemings would agree not take advantage of Pennsylvania's abolition law.
Philadelphia's hostile environment for slaveholders was one of the reasons that the U.S. Constitution was written to give Congress exclusive control "over such District ... as may ... become the seat of the government of the United States."
, but it and the 1788 Amendment were ruled unconstitutional by the federal Supreme Court in Prigg v. Pennsylvania
(1842).
Pennsylvania, the state that had initially led the way toward abolition, continued to tolerate slavery for decades after it ended in New England. Legal slavery did not end in Pennsylvania until 1847, when the fewer than 100 remaining slaves (the youngest, aged 67) were at last freed.
Excepting New Jersey, these states were not as conservative as Pennsylvania about slaveholders' property rights. Their gradual abolition laws freed future children at birth, and all slaves after a certain date or period of years.
New Jersey's gradual abolition law freed future children at birth, but those enslaved before its 1804 passage remained enslaved-for-life. The December 6, 1865 ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
ended slavery in the United States. New Jersey's legislature did not approve the Thirteenth Amendment until February 1866, two months after it had been ratified by a three-fourths majority of the states.
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
legislature on 1 March 1780, was the first attempt by a government in the Western Hemisphere to begin an abolition of slavery.
The Act prohibited further importation of slaves into the state, required Pennsylvania slaveholders to annually register their slaves (with forfeiture for noncompliance, and manumission
Manumission
Manumission is the act of a slave owner freeing his or her slaves. In the United States before the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished most slavery, this often happened upon the death of the owner, under conditions in his will.-Motivations:The...
for the enslaved), and established that all children born in Pennsylvania were free persons regardless of the condition or race of their parents .
Those enslaved in Pennsylvania before the 1780 law went into effect remained enslaved for life. Another act of the Pennsylvania legislature freed them in 1847.
Pennsylvania's "gradual abolition" — rather than Massachusetts's 1783 "instant abolition" — became a model for freeing slaves in other Northern states.
1780 Act
The 1780 Act prohibited further importation of slaves into Pennsylvania, but it also respected the property rights of PA slaveholders by not freeing slaves already held in the state. It changed the legal status of future children born to enslaved PA mothers from "slave" to "indentured servantIndentured servant
Indentured servitude refers to the historical practice of contracting to work for a fixed period of time, typically three to seven years, in exchange for transportation, food, clothing, lodging and other necessities during the term of indenture. Usually the father made the arrangements and signed...
," but required those children to work for the mother's master until age 28. To verify that no additional slaves were imported, the Act created a registry of all slaves in the state. Slaveholders who failed to register their slaves annually, or who did it improperly, lost their slaves to manumission
Manumission
Manumission is the act of a slave owner freeing his or her slaves. In the United States before the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished most slavery, this often happened upon the death of the owner, under conditions in his will.-Motivations:The...
.
The 1780 Act specifically exempted members of the U.S. Congress and their personal slaves. Congress was then the only branch of the federal government, and met in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
.
1788 Amendment
An Amendment, created to explain and to close loopholes in the 1780 Act, was passed in the Pennsylvania legislature on 29 March 1788. The Amendment prohibited a PA slaveholder from transporting a pregnant enslaved woman out-of-state so her child would be born enslaved; and from separating husbands from wives, and children from parents. It required a PA slaveholder to register within six months the birth of a child to an enslaved mother. It prohibited all Pennsylvanians from participating in, building or equipping ships for, or providing material support to the Slave Trade.The 1780 Act had allowed a non-resident slaveholder visiting Pennsylvania to hold slaves in the state for up to six months. But a loophole was soon identified and exploited: if the non-resident slaveholder took his slaves out of Pennsylvania before the 6-month deadline, it would void his slaves' residency. The 1788 Amendment prohibited this rotation of slaves in and out-of-state to subvert PA law.
President Washington's dilemma
The 1780 Act had exempted personal slaves owned by members of Congress. But by 1790, when Philadelphia became the temporary national capital for a 10-year period, there were three branches of the federal government under the U.S. Constitution. There was confusion about whether or not the Pennsylvania law extended to all federal officials — members of Congress (legislative branch) remained exempt, but what about justices of the U.S. Supreme Court (judicial branch), and the President of the United StatesPresident of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
and his Cabinet (executive branch)? Attorney General Edmund Randolph
Edmund Randolph
Edmund Jennings Randolph was an American attorney, the seventh Governor of Virginia, the second Secretary of State, and the first United States Attorney General.-Biography:...
lost his personal slaves to manumission due to his misunderstanding of the state law. He conveyed his advice to President George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
through the president's secretary, Tobias Lear:
"This being the case, the Attorney General conceived, that after six months residence, your slaves would be upon no better footing than his. But he observed, that if, before the expiration of six months, they could, upon any pretense whatever, be carried or sent out of the State, but for a single day, a new era would commence on their return, from whence the six months must be dated for it requires an entire six months for them to claim that right."
Washington argued (privately) that his presence in Philadelphia was solely a consequence of the city being the temporary national capital, and that he remained a citizen of Virginia and subject to its laws on slavery. Still, he himself was careful not to spend six continuous months in Pennsylvania, which might be interpreted as establishing legal residency. Had he litigated the issue, it might have clarified his legal status and that of other slaveholding federal officials. But it also would have called attention to his slaveholding in the President's House
President's House (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
The President's House in Philadelphia at 524-30 Market Street was the third Presidential mansion. It was occupied by President George Washington from November 1790 to March 1797 and President John Adams from March 1797 to May 1800....
, and put him at risk of losing those slaves to manumission. Instead, he followed his Attorney General's advice, and knowingly and repeatedly violated the state's 1788 Amendment by rotating the enslaved Africans in his presidential household in and out of Pennsylvania.
There is no record of Washington having been challenged for this. According to Lear, the Pennsylvania Abolition Society seems to have turned a blind eye to the President's actions:
"That the Society in this city for the abolition of slavery, had determined to give no advice and take no measures for liberating those Slaves which belonged to the Officers of the general Government or members of Congress. But notwithstanding this, there were not wanting persons who would not only give them (the Slaves) advise, but would use all means to entice them from their masters."
Federal officials
Other slaveholding officers of the executive and judicial branches faced a similar dilemma. Secretary of State Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
swore out an affidavit stating that he would eventually free his enslaved cook, James Hemings
James Hemings
James Hemings was an American mixed-race slave owned and freed by Thomas Jefferson. He was an older brother of Sally Hemings and is said to have been a half-sibling of Jefferson's wife Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson because their father was John Wayles...
, if Hemings would agree not take advantage of Pennsylvania's abolition law.
Philadelphia's hostile environment for slaveholders was one of the reasons that the U.S. Constitution was written to give Congress exclusive control "over such District ... as may ... become the seat of the government of the United States."
Freed in 1847
Those enslaved in Pennsylvania before its 1780 Act became law continued to be lifelong slaves, unless manumitted. And the 1780 Act and its 1788 Amendment did not apply to fugitive slaves from other states or their children. Pennsylvania tried to extend rights to fugitive slaves through an 1826 personal liberty lawPersonal liberty laws
.....The personal liberty laws were a series of laws passed by several U.S. states in the North in respone to the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850.-Origins:...
, but it and the 1788 Amendment were ruled unconstitutional by the federal Supreme Court in Prigg v. Pennsylvania
Prigg v. Pennsylvania
Prigg v. Pennsylvania, , was a United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that the Federal Fugitive Slave Act precluded a Pennsylvania state law that gave procedural protections to suspected escaped slaves, and overturned the conviction of Edward Prigg as a result.-Federal Law:In June...
(1842).
Pennsylvania, the state that had initially led the way toward abolition, continued to tolerate slavery for decades after it ended in New England. Legal slavery did not end in Pennsylvania until 1847, when the fewer than 100 remaining slaves (the youngest, aged 67) were at last freed.
Other states
- 1783 - Massachusetts Supreme Court rules slavery illegal based on the 1780 Massachusetts ConstitutionMassachusetts ConstitutionThe Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the fundamental governing document of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, one of the 50 individual state governments that make up the United States of America. It was drafted by John Adams, Samuel Adams, and James Bowdoin during the...
. All Massachusetts slaves instantly freed.- Maine is part of Massachusetts in 1783, all slaves instantly freed. It enters the Union as a free state in 1820.
- 1783 - New Hampshire begins a gradual abolition of slavery.
- 1784 - Connecticut begins a gradual abolition of slavery.
- 1784 - Rhode Island begins a gradual abolition of slavery.
- 1791 - Vermont enters the Union as a free state.
- 1799 - New York State begins a gradual abolition of slavery.
- 1804 - New Jersey begins a gradual abolition of slavery.
Excepting New Jersey, these states were not as conservative as Pennsylvania about slaveholders' property rights. Their gradual abolition laws freed future children at birth, and all slaves after a certain date or period of years.
New Jersey's gradual abolition law freed future children at birth, but those enslaved before its 1804 passage remained enslaved-for-life. The December 6, 1865 ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. It was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, passed by the House on January 31, 1865, and adopted on December 6, 1865. On...
ended slavery in the United States. New Jersey's legislature did not approve the Thirteenth Amendment until February 1866, two months after it had been ratified by a three-fourths majority of the states.
See also
- History of slavery in PennsylvaniaHistory of slavery in PennsylvaniaSlavery existed in the Dutch and Swedish colonies of the Delaware Valley, and is documented as early as 1639. William Penn and the colonists who settled Pennsylvania were at first tolerant of slavery, but Quakers and German immigrants were among the first to speak out against it...
- Abolition of slavery timelineAbolition of slavery timelineAbolition of slavery occurred as abolition in specific countries, abolition of the trade in slaves and abolition throughout empires. Each of these steps was usually the result of a separate law or action.-Ancient times:...
- Personal liberty law
- Prigg v. PennsylvaniaPrigg v. PennsylvaniaPrigg v. Pennsylvania, , was a United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that the Federal Fugitive Slave Act precluded a Pennsylvania state law that gave procedural protections to suspected escaped slaves, and overturned the conviction of Edward Prigg as a result.-Federal Law:In June...