1820, U.S. Census: total population, 9.64 million; slaves, 1.54 million (15.6%); free black, 234,000 (2.4%).
Overall U.S. population increased 33%, which included immigrants. The slave population increased more than 29%, despite a full decade of the U.S. ban on international slave imports.
Hybrids boost production.
1820, U.S. surpasses India to become world’s leading cotton producer. This is still mostly long-staple cotton grown in Carolina Low-Country estuaries.
But a Mexican-seed hybrid of short-staple cotton is developed in the 1820s, which proves considerably more productive per plant, per acre and per enslaved picker, and can be grown inland.
In 1833, Dr. Rush Nutt develops the still more-productive Petit Gulf hybrid, combining Mexican seed with an earlier Tennessee green. The new hybrid, named for the Mississippi river bend at Nutt’s Rodney, MS, plantation, is soon generating huge new volumes fed through Mississippi and Alabama cotton gins.
Henry Clay in Congress.
1820, Missouri Compromise passes Congress, signed by Pres. Monroe, March 6. Maine to enter union free, Missouri slave, with slavery prohibited north of 36 degrees 30” (except Missouri, which will also forbid free blacks and mixed-race people from entry). Henry Clay of Kentucky, the House speaker, negotiates the settlement.
1820, Maine enters Union as 23rd state of which 12, including Maine, are free.
1820, Pres. Monroe is re-elected with no real opposition, thus no campaign required. He takes 81% of the popular vote, and 231 of 232 electoral votes. He is last of the line of slave-holding Virginian presidents, beginning with Washington and interrupted only by John Adams’s single term.
1820, U.S. law equates slave trading with piracy, punishable by death, May 15. Only one slaver captain is actually tried, convicted and executed under the law: Nathaniel Gordon, hanged Feb. 21, 1862, in New York.
His ship, the Erie, is captured in 1860 off mouth of the Congo river by USS Mohican, with 897 slaves aboard. Slaves, originally bound for Cuba, are freed in Liberia.
1820, U.S. Navy dispatches four vessels to patrol the Caribbean and U.S. coast for slavers. This campaign lasts four years before cooperation with British is broken off and the American squadron recalled.
1821, Missouri joins Union as 12th slave state, compared to 12 free states.
U.S. takes control of Florida under terms of Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819, which requires U.S. to assume $5 million in claims of U.S. citizens against Spain.
Celebrating independence.
1821, In Mexico, disgruntled royalists join with insurgents, forcing Spain’s viceroy to sign the Treaty of Córdoba, April 24, recognizing the independence of New Spain. The Mexican republic is established by Santa Anna and Guadalupe Victoria in 1823.
Purchase of Cape Mesurado.
1821, American Colonization Society, supported by U.S. Navy’s Robert Stockton, negotiates purchase of Cape Mesurado and adjoining land from Dei and Bassa peoples. This will be site of Monrovia (Pres. Monroe is a member of the ACS) and the beginning of Liberia.
ACS transports 4,571 migrants between 1820 and 1843, but only 1,819 of them are alive in that latter year (thanks to disease and conflicts with local peoples). By 1867, ACS has assisted in 13,000 arrivals.
1821, Sequoyah introduces a written, syllabic Cherokee language. Cherokee develop judicial system and police force. They and other Southeast tribes acquire black slaves for farms (pre-European contact, these tribes enslaved war captives) and work to harmonize with the white culture.
They found New Echota in northwest corner of Georgia, which becomes their capital until their forced removal, 1838.
1821, Napoléon dies on Saint Helena Island, in the South Atlantic, where he has been held since October 1815, May 5. He was 51.
Trials held in jailhouse.
1822, Slave insurrection in Charleston is planned by Denmark Vesey, an ex-slave carpenter active in the large AME African Church. Plot is betrayed by two slaves. No whites are hurt. Militia patrols streets, arresting Vesey and other leaders. Closed-door courts sentence him and 34 others to hanging, and another 31 to deportation; 27 men are acquitted.
Charleston population: 24,780, of which only 10,653 are white. A majority of blacks are slaves, but a sizeable number are freed, like Vesey.
State legislature, worried about freed blacks, amends its Negro Seaman Act to jail visiting black sailors until their ships depart port. If captains fail to pay “lodging fees,” sailors to be sold into slavery.
1822, Independent Haiti (population +/-800,000, mostly ex-slaves and their descendants) peacefully takes over Santo Domingo (population 80,000 with few plantations and slaves), newly independent from Spain. Santo Domingo’s three or four thousand black slaves are declared emancipated.
This unified government continues to 1844, when Dominican Republic declares independence and successfully defends itself against Haitian armies.
Pedro asserts sovereignty.
1822, Independence of Brazil is declared by Pedro, eldest son of Portugal’s King João VI, who previously returned to Lisbon in the wake of Napoléon’s defeat. After a brief war, Portugal recognizes Empire of Brazil, Aug. 29, 1825, with Britain mediating in favor of Brazil’s independence.
In return, Britain wins Brazil’s agreement to end importation of slaves and to allow Royal Navy ships to stop suspected slavers, effective 1830. Despite support of Emperor Pedro I, the Brazilian government fails to enforce its new law, leading to Britain’s Aberdeen Act of 1845.
1823, Supreme Court rules against any Indian rights to U.S. land after its “discovery” by European explorers, determining that Spain and Britain took possession upon discovering and claiming land. In Johnson vs. M’Intosh, court favors claim to a tract in Indiana bought from the U.S. (which “received” land from Britain), over claim to same land bought from Piankeshaw Indians.
Unanimous decision, written by Chief Justice John Marshal, traces “Doctrine of Discovery” back to Pope Alexander VI’s bull of 1493.
1823, Slavery abolished in Chile, whose enslaved population never reached more than 2% of the overall population. Indian peoples were the main source of forced labor under the encomienda system.
1823, Wilberforce, Clarkson and others launch Anti-Slavery Society (Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions), aimed initially at curbing the worst abuses rather than immediate emancipation, Jan. 31.
More than 70 “ladies associations” play vital role.
Uprising sweeps plantations.
1823, As many as 13,000 slaves from 87 coastal sugar plantations take part in uprising in the British colony of Demerara-Essequibo (now Guyana), Aug. 18-20. Rebels are reacting to rumor that colony’s governor is suppressing news of emancipation adopted in London. (In fact, new rules limiting slave work hours and prohibiting flogging of female slaves had been sent to colonies. They were announced in adjoining Berbice, but not in Demerara.)
Population breakdown: 2,500 whites, 2,500 freed blacks, 34,500 African-born slaves, 40,000 locally born slaves, and very few of mixed race. Sir John Gladstone of Liverpool is absentee owner of Success, one of the largest plantations (he acquires three more after rebellion).
Jack Gladstone (given the name of his faraway master) and his father, Quamina, skilled slaves, urge a peaceful strike. While manors are ransacked and some weapons taken, very few whites are killed or hurt. Sizeable military force quickly suppresses outbreak, killing perhaps 100 slaves. The great majority lay down arms. Twenty-seven executed by firing squad, including Quamina; their bodies are hung in chains.
Popular white missionary John Smith, also to be executed for “promoting discontent,” dies in jail before reprieve arrives from London. Jack Gladstone sold and deported to St. Lucia (Sir John may have requested clemency).
Note: This is the second of three West Indies uprisings that will help persuade Parliament to move toward abolition. The first was on Barbados, 1816; the third will be in Jamaica, 1831.
Also, John Gladstone’s teenaged son, William, will grow up to serve as Britain’s prime minister through four terms.
England-bound sugar cones.
1824, Wilberforce and other abolitionists declare John Smith to be the “Demerara Martyr” and generate a great outcry in Britain as people learn of the rebellion’s dimensions and brutal suppression. A mass boycott of sugar consumption follows.
1824, Britain and U.S. negotiate treaty, supported by Pres. Monroe, condemning slave trade as piracy and establishing joint procedures for its suppression. U.S. Senate, however, makes a series of amendments and British refuse to sign.
1824, Several hundred free blacks sail for Haiti from New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore at invitation of its president, Jean-Pierre Boyer, September. The venture is supported by the American Colonization Society.
Nearly 6,000 more blacks migrate over the next two years, but find few resources. Perhaps 2,000 eventually move back to the U.S.
1824, British Parliament consolidates and expands laws abolishing slave trade, June 24, closing many loopholes.
One new impact: Slaves escaping by boat from non-British possessions to British islands are deemed free and not returned.
Beginning in 1825, dozens of slaves annually flee Dutch Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten, and Danish Virgin Islands to freedom in nearby Saint Kitts, Anguilla and Tortola.
Bolívar, the Liberator.
1824, Independence of Peru, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador insured by the victory of Simón Bolívar’s forces under Gen. Antonio de Sucre over royalists at Ayacucho in Peru, Dec. 9
1824, Slavery abolished in Central America.
Ashanti stop expedition.
1824, On Gold Coast, British force of 500 (including 240 Fante allies) sets out from Cape Coast Castle to punish Ashanti (for a previous clash with Fante) and runs into army of 10,000, Jan. 21. British are all but wiped out. Dead include Gov. Charles MacCarthy; his skull ends up as a drinking mug lined with gold.
Two years later, British gather an army of 11,000, including Denkyira and other enemies of the Ashanti, to defend Accra. They repel Ashanti attack in bloody hand-to-hand fighting. An 1831 treaty ends this First Anglo-Ashanti war by declaring the Pra river to be the border.
John Quincy Adams.
1825, John Quincy Adams (Massachusetts) elected president by the House after Henry Clay swings support, February.
The 1824 election ended with none of the four candidates winning the necessary majority 131 electoral votes: Andrew Jackson, 99 electoral votes (and 153,544 popular votes); Adams, 84 (and 108,740); William Crawford of Georgia was third and Clay was fourth. Adams rewards Clay with appointment to be secretary of state.
Adams, the sixth U.S president, is the second of only two of the first 12 presidents never to have owned slaves; his father was the first.
Antelope sailing on Florida coast.
1825, The Antelope case: In 1820, a U.S. revenue cutter seizes Antelope, sailing under Venezuelan flag with 281 Africans, most taken earlier from other ships. Supreme Court issues unanimous opinion, March 15, declaring slave trade to be a violation of natural law.
However, John Marshall’s opinion fails to free all the Africans, holding that U.S. cannot prescribe law for other nations and noting that trade is legal in Spain, Portugal and Venezuela. Result: Ship restored to owners, along with 30 Africans ruled to be Spanish property. Of freed slaves, 127 are settled in Liberia in 1827.
1825, William Grimes, the Runaway Slave, Written by Himself is published in New York. Praises Constitution as “that charter of American liberty.”
Pres. Boyer of Haiti.
1825, France’s Charles X formally recognizes independence of Haiti, but only after Haitians agree to huge 150 million-franc compensation to ex-slaveholders (as a French fleet threatens Port-au-Prince). Haiti also promises to discount sugar shipments to France by 50 percent.
Debt cut back to 90 million francs in 1838, but Haiti’s economy, still struggling, is undermined for decades. Last of these loans is paid off in 1947.
1825, On Cuba, an uprising outside of Matanzas ends after plantations burned. The slave population has exploded thanks to vast expansion of sugar and coffee plantations, and to foreign slavers defying British patrols.
1825, Alexander von Humboldt publishes lengthy, detailed and influential profiles of Cuba and New Spain, laying out history, politics, culture and condemning slavery on Cuba.
Steam locomotive carrying passengers.
1825, World’s first public railway with steam locomotives begins operating on 25 miles of track between County Durham coalfields and Stockton-on-Tees via Darlington, Sept. 27. George and Robert Stephenson’s Locomotion No. 1 pulls 31 wagons of coal and 550 passengers.
Edward Pease, a prominent woolens manufacturer and a Quaker, is the main backer. His brother and son play leading roles in the abolitionist movement, the son, Joseph, becoming the first Quaker to be elected to and seated in Parliament, 1832, and voting for emancipation in 1833. Joseph’s daughter, Elizabeth, is a delegate to the World Anti-Slavery Conference, 1840.
1826, Pennsylvania passes law requiring slave masters to present documents and witnesses to support their claims in fugitive-slave cases, slowing enforcement of federal fugitive-slave laws.
Catherine Coffin.
1826, Levi and Catherine Coffin, Quakers from North Carolina, open their new home in Wayne County, IN, to runaway slaves from Kentucky and Virginia. As the system of similar safe houses and secret routes expands throughout the North, it becomes known as the Underground Railroad.
In 1847 the Coffins move to Cincinnati and develop new “stations” there. Their neighbor, Harriet Beecher Stowe, includes a Coffin-like couple in Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852). They are believed to have aided more than 3,300 escaping slaves over 20 years in Indiana and Cincinnati.
How many got away? Historians’ best guess is between 25,000 and 40,000 escaped to the North, to Canada, or to Mexico and Florida (while the latter was still Spanish) between 1800 and 1860, according to Henry Louis Gates, Jr. How many didn’t? In the 10 years leading up to the Civil War, as many as 50,000 blacks ran for freedom each year in the South. Most were young men striking out on their own, not families. Obviously, the great majority didn’t make it.
1826, All white male adults granted vote (no longer required to be taxpayers). Free male blacks also can vote IF they are state residents of at least three years, free of debt and hold at least $250 in property.
First black-owned newspaper.
1827, Blacks celebrate final emancipation in New York State with a parade through New York City, July 5. Freedom’s Journal, nation’s first black newspaper, launched in New York by Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm.
1827, Congress declares that black persons suspected of being fugitive slaves are liable to be sold into slavery if they cannot cover cost of their own detention and other legal fees.
Slaves Heading South.
1828, Firm of Franklin and Armfield organized. It becomes largest slave-trading enterprise in the South, operating out of Alexandria, VA, and Natchez, MS.
They move an estimated 1,000 slaves annually by foot or ship over their 10 years of business. Each partner accumulates a fortune in excess of a half-million dollars.
Over the next 30 years leading up to the Civil War, Virginia “exports” more than 300,000 slaves, and North Carolina about 100,000, most going to plantations opening in new Lower South and western states.
Andrew Jackson.
1828, In a rematch, Andrew Jackson (Tennessee) defeats Pres. Adams in a landslide, Dec. 2. John C. Calhoun (South Carolina) is elected vice president.
Election marks the wide expansion of vote to most white men, with many states dropping property requirements.
1828, Eight years after suffering the worst fire in U.S. history to that date (463 buildings destroyed), Savannah expands its volunteer fire department to 178 enslaved men, 96 free men of color, 17 whites, eight fire engines and 2,000 feet of hose.
Enslaved men receive 12½ cents an hour plus a dollar to the first man reporting to the engine house upon an alarm.
Black Joke in pursuit.
1828, HMS Black Joke embarks, Jan. 5, on first series of patrols in which she captures a large pirate vessel and runs down 11 slave ships, resulting in freedom for perhaps 2,700 African men, women and children.
Ship was built in Maryland as a two-masted Baltimore clipper, favored by slavers seeking to outrun naval patrols. In 1825, new Brazilian owners named her Henriqueta and ran 3,040 slaves to Bahia in six voyages before her capture by HMS Sybille, with 569 slaves, Sept. 6, 1827.
Royal Navy renames her Black Joke and assigns her to anti-slave patrol, mainly in Bight of Benin. Largest captures: Vengador with 645 slaves, most ever captured by British on a single ship, May 16, 1828; El Almirante with 466, Feb. 1, 1829; Marinerito with 496 off Fernando Po, April 25, 1831. Most captives taken to freedom in Sierra Leone.
When decommissioned in 1832, Black Joke is praised as the ship “which has done more towards putting an end to the vile traffic in slaves” than any other of the station.
River ward burns.
1829, Blacks, runaway slaves and many freed people living in Cincinnati river ward are attacked by white mob of 200-300 (mostly Irish immigrants). Hundreds of blacks eventually move to Canada, some to Wilberforce Colony near London, ON.
Cincinnati is on the free side of the Ohio river; opposite slave-state Kentucky.
Rioting breaks out again in 1836 (abolitionist editor Birney a target; black neighborhood burns, several die). Third Cincinnati riot erupts in 1841 when blacks seek to celebrate anniversary of Britain’s Slavery Abolition Act of 1833.
Miners work Cherokee land.
1829, Reports of gold draw thousands of miners to North Georgia ancestral lands of the Cherokee who resent “Great Intrusion.”
This latest illegal transgression leads, in part, to Indian Removal Act, forced migration of Cherokee and sale of their land by state of Georgia in 40-acre lots to gold prospectors.
More than a million dollars worth of gold is delivered to Philadelphia mint through 1838 when a branch mint is opened in new town of Dahlonega, GA (the Cherokee word for “yellow”).
One of the most productive mines is developed on land bought by Sen. Calhoun of South Carolina and managed by his son-in-law, Thomas Green Clemson (whose will establishes Clemson Agricultural College in 1889 on Calhoun’s old South Carolina cotton plantation).
1829, David Walker, a free black (born to a slave father and free mother in Wilmington, NC) and the Boston contributor to Freedom’s Journal, publishes “An Appeal to the Coloured People of the World,” which advocates an immediate and, if necessary, violent end to slavery. Passionate essay inspires and radicalizes abolitionists.
Vicente Guerrero.
1829, Vicente Guerrero, a hero of war to liberate Mexico, becomes its second president, April 1. He is a son of an Afro-mestizo father (who supported the viceroyalty) and an Indian mother.
During presidency, Mexican forces under his supporter, Santa Anna, defeat the Barrada Expedition at Tampico, the last Spanish attempt at reconquest, July 26-Sept. 10.
Guerrero follows up with decree abolishing slavery throughout Mexico, Sept. 16. Because slavery in most provinces has faded away through decades of inter-marriage (and because black slavery here never reached U.S. dimensions), the main impact is on American slaveholders settling in Texas.
Guerrero is challenged by rebels (supported by establishment landowners) in December and after months of fighting is betrayed to them by an Italian sea captain who kidnaps him in Acapulco. Executed by firing squad, Feb. 13, 1831.