Editing African Americans (section)

===From the American Revolution to the Civil War===
{{Main|Slavery in the United States}}
[[File:Crispus Attucks.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Crispus Attucks]], the first "[[Martyr (politics)|martyr]]" of the [[American Revolution]]. He was of [[Black Indians in the United States|Native American and African American]] descent.]]
During the 1770s, Africans, both enslaved and free, helped rebellious American colonists secure their independence by defeating the British in the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/DIASPORA/REV.HTM |title=African Americans in the American Revolution |publisher=Wsu.edu:8080 |date=June 6, 1999 |access-date=January 20, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514085114/https://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/DIASPORA/REV.HTM |archive-date=May 14, 2011 }}</ref> Blacks played a role in both sides in the American Revolution. Activists in the Patriot cause included [[James Armistead]], [[Prince Whipple]], and [[Oliver Cromwell (American soldier)|Oliver Cromwell]].<ref>Benjamin Quarles, ''The Negro in the American revolution'' (1961).</ref><ref>Gary B. Nash, "The African Americans' Revolution" in ''The Oxford Handbook of the American Revolution'' ed. by Jane Kamensky and Edward G. Gray (2012) online at {{doi|10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199746705.013.0015}}</ref> Around 15,000 [[Black Loyalist]]s left with the British after the war, most of them ending up as free Black people in England<ref>{{cite book|last=Braidwood|first=Stephen|
year=1994|title=Black Poor and White Philanthropists: London's Blacks and the Foundation of the Sierra Leone Settlement, 1786–1791|publisher=Liverpool University Press|isbn=978-0-85323-377-0}}</ref> or its colonies, such as the [[Black Nova Scotians]] and the [[Sierra Leone Creole people]].<ref name="Duke Law">{{cite book |last=Finkelman |first=Paul |date=2012 |chapter=Slavery in the United States: Persons or Property? |editor-last=Allain |editor-first=Jean |title=The Legal Understanding of Slavery: From the Historical to the Contemporary |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=105–134 [116] |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199660469.003.0007 |chapter-url=https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/2709/ |isbn=978-0-19-174550-8 |access-date=April 18, 2023 |archive-date=April 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418120304/https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/2709/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Walker>{{cite book|last=Walker |first=James W. |year=1992 |chapter=Chapter Five: Foundation of Sierra Leone |title=The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783–1870 |location=Toronto |publisher=University of Toronto Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/blackloyalistsse0000walk/page/94 94]–114 |url=https://archive.org/details/blackloyalistsse0000walk |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-8020-7402-7}} Originally published by Longman & Dalhousie University Press (1976).</ref>

In the [[Spanish Louisiana]], Governor [[Bernardo de Gálvez]] organized Spanish free Black men into two militia companies to defend [[New Orleans]] during the American Revolution. They fought in the 1779 battle in which Spain captured [[Baton Rouge]] from the British. Gálvez also commanded them in campaigns against the British outposts in [[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]], [[Alabama]], and [[Pensacola]], Florida. He recruited slaves for the militia by pledging to free anyone who was seriously wounded and promised to secure a low price for ''coartación'' (buy their freedom and that of others) for those who received lesser wounds. During the 1790s, Governor [[Francisco Luis Héctor de Carondelet|Francisco Luis Héctor, baron of Carondelet]] reinforced local fortifications and recruit even more free Black men for the militia. Carondelet doubled the number of free Black men who served, creating two more militia companies—one made up of Black members and the other of [[pardo]] (mixed race). Serving in the militia brought free Black men one step closer to equality with Whites, allowing them, for example, the right to carry arms and boosting their earning power. However, actually these privileges distanced free Black men from enslaved Blacks and encouraged them to identify with Whites.<ref name="louisiana"/>

Slavery had been tacitly enshrined in the [[US Constitution]] through provisions such as Article I, Section 2, Clause 3, commonly known as the [[3/5 compromise]]. Due to the restrictions of [[Article One of the United States Constitution#Clause 1: Slave trade|Section 9, Clause 1]], Congress was unable to pass an [[Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves]] until 1807.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://abolition.nypl.org/print/us_constitution/ | title=The Abolition of The Slave Trade | publisher=New York Public Library | date=2007 | access-date=August 30, 2021 | author=Finkelman, Paul | archive-date=October 9, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181009202811/http://abolition.nypl.org/print/us_constitution/ | url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Fugitive slave laws in the United States|Fugitive slave laws]] (derived from the [[Fugitive Slave Clause]] of the Constitution—[[Article Four of the United States Constitution#Clause 3: Fugitive Slave Clause|Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3]]) were passed by Congress in both [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1793|1793]] and [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1850|1850]], guaranteeing the right of a slaveholder to recover an escaped slave anywhere within the US.<ref name="Fugitives">{{cite news |title=Fugitive Slave Laws |url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/fugitive-slave-laws/ |access-date=February 18, 2022 |work=Encyclopedia Virginia |archive-date=February 18, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220218075405/https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/fugitive-slave-laws/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Slave owners, who viewed enslaved people as property, ensured that it became a federal crime to aid or assist those who had fled slavery or to interfere with their capture.<ref name="Runaway"/> By that time, slavery, which almost exclusively targeted Black people, had become the most critical and contentious political issue in the [[Antebellum United States]], repeatedly sparking crises and conflicts. Among these were the [[Missouri Compromise]], the [[Compromise of 1850]], the infamous [[Dred Scott decision]], and [[John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry]].

[[File:Frederick Douglass by Samuel J Miller, 1847-52.png|thumb|upright|left|[[Frederick Douglass]], {{circa|1850}}]]

Prior to the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], eight serving presidents had owned slaves, a practice that was legally protected under the US Constitution.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Calore|first1=Paul|title=The Causes of the Civil War: The Political, Cultural, Economic and Territorial Disputes between North and South|date=2008|publisher=McFarland|page=10}}</ref> By 1860, the number of enslaved Black people in the US had grown to between 3.5 and 4.4 million, largely as a result of the [[Atlantic slave trade]]. In addition, 488,000–500,000 Black people lived free (with legislated limits)<ref name="ACS">[https://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=731&issue_id=75 "Background on conflict in Liberia"], Friends Committee on National Legislation, July 30, 2003 {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070214051143/https://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=731&issue_id=75|date=February 14, 2007}}</ref> across the country.<ref name="GomezPremdas">{{cite book|last1=Gomez|first1=Edmund Terence|last2=Premdas|first2=Ralph|title=Affirmative Action, Ethnicity and Conflict|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XU_XDHfO3jsC&pg=PA48|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-64506-5|page=48|access-date=September 26, 2015|archive-date=January 7, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107112637/https://books.google.com/books?id=XU_XDHfO3jsC&pg=PA48#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> With legislated limits imposed upon them in addition to "unconquerable prejudice" from Whites according to [[Henry Clay]].<ref>Maggie Montesinos Sale (1997). ''The Slumbering Volcano: American Slave Ship Revolts and the Production of Rebellious Masculinity'', Duke University Press, 1997, p. 264. {{ISBN|0-8223-1992-6}}</ref> In response to these conditions, some free Black people chose to leave the US and emigrate to [[Liberia]] in West Africa.<ref name="ACS"/> Liberia had been established in 1821 as a settlement by the [[American Colonization Society]] (ACS), with many abolitionist members of the ACS believing Black Americans would have greater opportunities for freedom and equality in Africa than they would in the US.<ref name="ACS"/>

Slaves not only represented a significant financial investment for their owners, but they also played a crucial role in producing the country's most valuable product and export: [[King Cotton|cotton]]. Enslaved people were instrumental in the construction of several prominent structures such as, the [[United States Capitol]], the [[White House]] and other [[Slavery in the District of Columbia|Washington, D.C.–based]] buildings.<ref>"[https://emancipation.dc.gov/page/ending-slavery-district-columbia Ending slavery in the District of Columbia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119044541/https://emancipation.dc.gov/page/ending-slavery-district-columbia |date=November 19, 2018 }}", consulted June 20, 2015.</ref> Similar building projects existed in the [[slave states and free states|slave states]].

[[File:Crowe-Slaves Waiting for Sale - Richmond, Virginia.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|''Slaves Waiting for Sale: Richmond, Virginia'', 1853. Note the new clothes. The [[domestic slave trade]] broke up many families, and individuals lost their connection to families and clans.]]

By 1815, the [[Slavery in the United States#Domestic slave trade and forced migration|domestic slave trade]] had become a significant and major economic activity in the United States, continuing to flourish until the 1860s.<ref name="CUP">Marcyliena H. Morgan (2002). [https://books.google.com/books?id=mhJcsiydNe8C&pg=PA20 ''Language, Discourse and Power in African American Culture''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107112637/https://books.google.com/books?id=mhJcsiydNe8C&pg=PA20#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=January 7, 2024 }}, p. 20. Cambridge University Press, 2002.</ref> Historians estimate that nearly one million individuals were subjected to this forced migration, which was often referred to as a new "Middle Passage". The historian [[Ira Berlin]] described this internal forced migration of enslaved people as the "central event" in the life of a slave during the period between the American Revolution and the Civil War. Berlin emphasized that whether enslaved individuals were directly uprooted or lived in constant fear that they or their families would be involuntarily relocated, "the massive deportation traumatized Black people" throughout the US.<ref>Berlin, ''Generations of Captivity'', pp. 161–162.</ref> As a result of this large-scale forced movement, countless individuals lost their connection to families and clans, and many ethnic Africans lost their knowledge of varying tribal origins in Africa.<ref name="CUP" />

The 1863 photograph of [[Wilson Chinn]], a branded slave from Louisiana, along with the famous image of [[Gordon (slave)|Gordon]] and his scarred back, served as two of the earliest and most powerful examples of how the newborn medium of photography could be used to visually document and encapsulate the brutality and cruelty of slavery.<ref>{{cite news|last=Paulson Gage|first=Joan|title=Icons of Cruelty|url=http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/05/icons-of-cruelty/|newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 5, 2013|access-date=February 16, 2022|archive-date=August 23, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130823025616/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/05/icons-of-cruelty/|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Auction and negro sales 1864.jpg|thumb|left|Slave trader's business on Whitehall Street [[Atlanta]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], 1864 during the American Civil War with a [[Union Army|Union]] corporal of the [[United States Colored Troops]] sitting by the door.]]

Emigration of free Blacks to their continent of origin had been proposed since the Revolutionary war. After [[Haiti]] became independent, it tried to recruit African Americans to migrate there after it re-established trade relations with the United States. The Haitian Union was a group formed to promote relations between the countries.<ref name="Nikki">Taylor, Nikki M. ''Frontiers of Freedom: Cincinnati's Black Community, 1802–1868.'' Ohio University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|0-8214-1579-4}}, pp. 50–79.</ref> After riots against Blacks in [[Cincinnati]], its Black community sponsored founding of the [[Wilberforce Colony]], an initially successful settlement of African American immigrants to Canada. The colony was one of the first such independent political entities. It lasted for a number of decades and provided a destination for about 200 Black families emigrating from a number of locations in the United States.<ref name="Nikki"/>

In 1863, during the [[American Civil War]], President [[Abraham Lincoln]] signed the [[Emancipation Proclamation]]. The proclamation declared that all slaves in Confederate-held territory were free.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Emancipation Proclamation|website=Featured Documents|publisher=[[National Archives and Records Administration]]|access-date=June 7, 2007|url=https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607051115/https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/|archive-date=June 7, 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref> Advancing Union troops enforced the proclamation, with Texas being the last state to be emancipated, in 1865.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.juneteenth.com/history.htm|title=History of Juneteenth|publisher=Juneteenth.com|year=2005|access-date=June 7, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070527081441/https://www.juneteenth.com/history.htm|archive-date=May 27, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Harriet Tubman c1868-69 (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Harriet Tubman]], {{circa|1869}}]]
Slavery in a few border states continued until the ratification of the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]] in December 1865.<ref>[https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=013/llsl013.db&recNum=803 Seward certificate] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721102957/https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=013/llsl013.db&recNum=803 |date=July 21, 2018 }} proclaiming the Thirteenth Amendment to have been adopted as part of the Constitution as of December 6, 1865.</ref> While the [[Naturalization Act of 1790]] limited US citizenship to Whites only,<ref name="Schultz">{{cite book|last=Schultz|first=Jeffrey D.|title=Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics: African Americans and Asian Americans|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WDV40aK1T-sC&pg=PA284|page=284|year=2002|publisher=Oryx Press|access-date=October 8, 2015|isbn=9781573561488|archive-date=February 4, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230204144206/https://books.google.com/books?id=WDV40aK1T-sC&pg=PA284|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Sato">Leland T. Saito (1998). "Race and Politics: Asian Americans, Latinos, and Whites in a Los Angeles Suburb". p. 154. University of Illinois Press</ref> the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|14th Amendment]] (1868) gave Black people citizenship, and the [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|15th Amendment]] (1870) gave Black men the right to vote.<ref>{{cite news |title=Black voting rights, 15th Amendment still challenged after 150 years |url=https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/02/03/black-voting-rights-15th-amendment-still-challenged-after-150-years/4587160002/ |access-date=November 19, 2020 |work=USA Today |archive-date=April 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200425165501/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/02/03/black-voting-rights-15th-amendment-still-challenged-after-150-years/4587160002/ |url-status=live }}</ref>