Episode 29: The Contradiction

While the American Revolution provided a voice to a people who longed to break free from the toke of the British Government. However, while they decried the slavery they faced from the King, hundreds of thousands of men, women and children remained in chains. This contradition was well understood, but the response to this knowledge did not provide a clear path towards its remedy. It would take nearly a century for this moral stain to begin to be addressed.

As has been discussed in previous eras, slavery in the American colonies did not have a universal character even if it was universally accepted as an institution. In each region, the relations between owners and slaves, slaves and free blacks, and slaves themselves reflected those differences. This would have a profound impact on how slavery was viewed as an institution as disruptions from the war settled in.

In some new states, emancipation came easier the language of the revolution made it clear that slavery had no place. However, even in these northern states, pragmatism often won out, thus postponing the death of slavery into the next century. In the south, principles were used in the opposite direction to ensure the institution thrived. With each of these argumenst, men would twist in knots trying to recocile their own calls for liberty while depriving others of theres.

Throughout it all, blacks, free and in bondage, dealt with the constantly changing winds to find any path towards freedom possible. Whether it was through escape, the courtroom, or paying for one’s own freedom, slaves throughout the colonies found freedom. But they were few when compared to those who remained, and those who just arrived. Depsite the blatant contradiction, slavery was no closer to ending than before the war.

Just like last episode, my highschool notes cover the broad changes in this era, but is lacking any detail. So, there are many missing pages to fill in…

Join me on my journey through American History. Help fill in those missing pages.

Music

Intro: Fractured Timeline - Sémø

Outro: With the Earth - Narrow Skies

Sources

Many Thousands Gone - Ira Berlin

Death or Liberty - Douglas R. Egerton