January 1 1863 – The Emancipation Proclamation Takes Effect
Halfway through the war that literally divided the United States of America, President Abraham Lincoln issued an executive order on January 1, 1863 that would come to define his legacy. The Emancipation Proclamation, first threatened against the Confederacy in late September 1862, outlawed slavery in those states still fighting against the Union. When the country knitted itself back together after the American Civil War, it would be a nation built upon freedom — if not justice — for all. The question of slavery haunted the US from its inception. When the Constitutional Convention gathered in Philadelphia during the spring and summer months of 1787, fierce debate raged about how to calculate each state’s population for the purposes of representation, a problem solved by the Three-Fifths Compromise — three of every five slaves would be counted. With the practice of importing workers from Africa or the Caribbean banned as of 1808, influential politicians such as Thomas Jefferson believed the practice would soon end on its own. As the 19th century wore on, however, the possibility seemed increasingly unlikely. Following the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which forced states entering the rapidly-expanding nation to prohibit slavery if located above roughly the 36th Parallel, the ideological conflict between pro-slavery and abolitionist factions became much worse. Slave uprisings and riots incited by committed individuals — John Brown at Harper’s Ferry in 1859, for one — became more commonplace and, sadly, more brutal.
January 1 1808 – Importing Slaves To The US Is Banned
In March 1807, the American Congress passed an act prohibiting the importation of slaves into any American port or to any place within the jurisdiction of the United States…”from any foreign kingdom, place, or country.” No new slaves were to be allowed into the country from the following year. The law went into effect on January 1, 1808, and though loosely enforced, it marked a turning point in the demand for human rights and establishment of a modern social order based on multiracial values. Slavery itself, however, continued in the US till about the end of the Civil War and the adoption of the 13thAmendment to the Constitution. The earliest consignment of African slaves to North America arrived at Jamestown, Virginia, in August 1619. In the earlier decade of the 17th century, the import of African slaves to the US was not very significant in number. A number of European indentured servants were imported into the North American British colonies. Towards the last two decades of the 17thcentury and through the 18thand early 19thcenturies, African slaves replaced the indentured servants, leading to an explosion in slave trade in the 13 colonies. Through the Colonial Era, planters and traders from the southern states regularly traded in slaves and New England and New York slave merchants booked handsome profits. The American Revolution was the first time that slavery and the trade were seriously threatened. Along with a ban on import of goods from Britain and the rest of Europe, import of slaves was banned too.
