research paper about slavery

Slavery Research Paper Topics

Explore the rich history of slavery through our comprehensive guide on slavery research paper topics . This page is designed for history students seeking in-depth insights into various aspects of slavery, including ancient, medieval, Islamic, and modern periods. We present an extensive list of slavery research paper topics categorized into 10 sections, each comprising 10 thought-provoking topics. Additionally, our article on slavery delves into the historical context, impact, and legacies of slavery, offering students a broad perspective for their research endeavors. Furthermore, we provide valuable tips on selecting and crafting compelling research paper topics on slavery, empowering students to develop well-structured and impactful papers. To support students in their academic journey, iResearchNet offers specialized writing services, featuring expert degree-holding writers, in-depth research, and customized solutions. Embrace the opportunity to excel in your history studies!

100 Slavery Research Paper Topics

In the annals of history, few topics have been as impactful and poignant as the institution of slavery. From ancient civilizations to modern societies, slavery has left an indelible mark on humanity, shaping economies, societies, and cultures throughout the ages. For students of history, delving into the complexities of slavery through research papers offers a unique opportunity to explore this dark chapter of human history and its enduring legacies. In this comprehensive section, we present a curated list of slavery research paper topics, meticulously organized into 10 categories, each encompassing 10 diverse and thought-provoking subjects. Our aim is to provide students with a wide array of historical themes and perspectives, covering ancient slavery, medieval slavery, Islamic slavery, slavery in the United States, modern slavery, slavery and human rights, slavery and economics, slavery and social movements, slavery and cultural impact, and slavery and historical memory. As we embark on this journey, we seek to foster a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics of slavery and its profound implications on the past, present, and future.

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• The Role of Slavery in Ancient Civilizations: A Comparative Study
• Slavery in Ancient Greece: Social and Economic Impact
• Roman Slavery: From Captives to Household Servants
• Slavery in Ancient Egypt: Labor and Society
• Slavery in Mesopotamia: Legal Framework and Rights of Enslaved Individuals
• Slavery in Ancient China: Patterns of Enslavement and Liberation
• The Status of Slaves in Pre-Colonial Africa: A Case Study
• Slavery in the Indus Valley Civilization: Evidence and Interpretations
• The Treatment of Slaves in the Aztec Empire: Perspectives and Challenges
• Slavery in the Mayan Civilization: Myths and Reality
• Serfdom and Slavery in Medieval Europe: A Comparative Analysis
• Slave Trade in the Byzantine Empire: Routes and Impact
• Slavery in the Islamic Caliphates: Legal and Social Dimensions
• The Role of Slavery in Feudal Japan: Samurai and Peasants
• Slavery in Medieval China: Institutions and Reforms
• The Slave Trade in Medieval Africa: Regional Variations and Consequences
• Enslavement in the Viking Age: Raiding and Slave Markets
• Slavery in the Middle Ages: Church, State, and Social Norms
• The Experience of Slaves in Medieval Persia: Stories and Perspectives
• Slave Revolts and Resistance in the Medieval World: Causes and Outcomes
• Islamic Slavery and the Trans-Saharan Trade: Connections and Implications
• The Role of Slavery in the Ottoman Empire: Administration and Abolition
• Slavery in the Mamluk Sultanate: Military and Economic Contributions
• The Treatment of Slaves in Medieval Islamic Society: Rights and Restrictions
• Female Slaves in the Islamic World: Roles and Perceptions
• Slavery in Medieval India: Influence of Islamic and Hindu Traditions
• The African Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean: Trade Routes and Networks
• Slavery and Conversion to Islam: Examining the Impact on Enslaved Individuals
• The Experience of African Slaves in the Arab World: Cultural Identity and Resistance
• Slavery in the Maldives: Local Practices and Global Influences
• Slavery in the Southern Colonies: Labor Systems and Plantation Life
• The Experience of Enslaved Individuals in the Northern States: Urban vs. Rural
• Slave Trade and the Middle Passage: Trauma and Survival
• The Role of Free Blacks in the Antebellum South: Rights and Restrictions
• The Underground Railroad in the United States: Networks and Abolitionist Activity
• Slavery and Indigenous Peoples: Interactions and Conflicts
• The Economic Impact of Slavery on the United States: Cotton, Tobacco, and Beyond
• Slavery and the US Constitution: Legal Framework and Political Debates
• Slavery and the American Legal System: Court Cases and Precedents
• The Legacy of Slavery in US Society: Racial Inequality and Systemic Racism
• Slavery in the United States: From Colonial Times to the Civil War
• The Abolitionist Movement in the United States: Key Figures and Campaigns
• The Underground Railroad: Escaping Slavery and Freedom Seekers
• Slavery and the American Civil War: Causes, Consequences, and Legacies
• Slavery in Latin America: Plantations, Labor Systems, and Resistance
• The British Abolition of the Slave Trade: Policy and Impact
• The Transatlantic Slave Trade: Origins, Scale, and Aftermath
• Slavery in the Caribbean: Plantation Economies and Cultural Heritage
• The Impact of Slavery on African Societies: Continuity and Change
• Modern-Day Slavery: Human Trafficking and Forced Labor in the 21st Century
• Slavery and International Law: From Condemnation to Enforcement
• The Role of Slavery in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Slavery Reparations: Historical Injustices and Contemporary Debates
• The Legacies of Slavery: Intergenerational Trauma and Healing
• The Fight for Abolition: Social Movements and Civil Rights Activism
• Slavery in Modern Literature: Representation and Cultural Memory
• The Impact of Slavery on Identity and Belonging: Descendants of Enslaved Individuals
• Modern Slavery and Global Supply Chains: Corporate Responsibility and Accountability
• The Role of Museums and Memorials in Preserving Slavery’s History
• Slavery and Memory Studies: Commemoration and Remembrance
• The Economics of Slavery: Plantations, Labor, and Capital Accumulation
• The Impact of Slavery on Economic Development: Case Studies and Perspectives
• Slavery and Trade Routes: The Triangular Trade and Its Consequences
• Slavery and Industrialization: Labor Systems and Technological Advances
• Slavery and Urbanization: The Role of Enslaved Individuals in Building Cities
• The Economic Justifications for Slavery: Historical Debates and Perspectives
• Slavery and Wealth Inequality: Historical and Contemporary Patterns
• Slavery and Globalization: Connections and Disparities
• The Role of Slave Labor in Building Infrastructures: Roads, Canals, and Railways
• Slavery and Economic Migration: The Movement of Enslaved Individuals
• Slave Revolts and Rebellions: Causes, Strategies, and Outcomes
• Abolitionist Literature: Narratives of Freedom and Empowerment
• The Role of Religion in the Abolitionist Movement: Faith and Advocacy
• The Underground Railroad and Its Impact on African American Communities
• Slavery and Women’s Rights: Intersectionality and Activism
• The Role of Free African Americans in the Abolitionist Movement
• Slave Songs and Music: Expressions of Resistance and Identity
• Slave Codes and Laws: The Legal Framework of Enslavement
• Slavery and Education: Restrictions, Access, and Agency
• The Role of International Diplomacy in Abolitionist Efforts
• Slavery in Art and Literature: Representations and Interpretations
• The Influence of African Cultures on Slave Communities
• Slavery and Memory in Visual Culture: Museums, Monuments, and Memorials
• The Impact of Slave Narratives on Cultural Awareness and Empathy
• Slavery in Folklore and Oral Traditions: Stories of Survival and Resilience
• Slavery and Music: Contributions of Enslaved Africans to American Music
• The Legacy of Slavery in Language and Linguistics: Words and Expressions
• Slavery and Food: Culinary Traditions and Adaptations
• The Representation of Slavery in Films and Media: Stereotypes and Revisionist Narratives
• Slavery’s Influence on Fashion and Clothing: Textiles and Identity
• The Politics of Memory: Commemorating and Memorializing Slavery
• Slavery and Public History: Interpretation and Controversies
• The Role of Confederate Monuments in Shaping Historical Narratives
• Slavery and Heritage Tourism: Ethics and Responsibilities
• The Memory of Slavery in African American Communities: Cultural Expressions
• The Debate over Confederate Symbols and Names: Renaming and Removals
• Slavery and Education: Teaching Difficult Histories in Schools
• The Role of Historical Reenactments in Representing Slavery
• Slavery in Family Histories: Genealogy and Ancestral Connections
• The Future of Slavery Studies: Research Directions and Challenges

This comprehensive list of slavery research paper topics serves as a gateway for students to explore the multifaceted dimensions of slavery across different epochs and societies. From ancient civilizations to the present day, slavery has been a pervasive and deeply troubling institution that has shaped human history in profound ways. By examining these carefully selected topics, students can gain a deeper appreciation for the historical, social, economic, and cultural complexities surrounding slavery. Moreover, delving into these research paper ideas opens avenues for critical thinking, fostering empathy, and raising awareness about the enduring legacy of slavery in contemporary society. As we engage with these slavery research paper topics, it is crucial to approach them with sensitivity and a commitment to shedding light on the human experience, even in the darkest chapters of history.

Slavery: Exploring the History, Impact, and Legacies

Slavery stands as a harrowing chapter in human history, marked by its profound impact on societies, economies, and the lives of countless individuals. This article delves into the complex and troubling history of slavery, tracing its origins, evolution, and far-reaching consequences on both local and global scales. Additionally, it sheds light on the enduring legacies of slavery, as its shadows continue to cast a long and influential reach into the modern world. By examining the historical context of slavery and its multifaceted impact, we can better understand the challenges faced by enslaved people and the enduring repercussions felt across generations and continents.

The Origins of Slavery: Tracing the Roots

The history of slavery can be traced back to ancient civilizations, where individuals were subjected to forced labor and bondage. Exploring the origins of slavery illuminates the early forms of human exploitation and the development of slave systems in various societies, from Mesopotamia and Egypt to Greece and Rome. Understanding the earliest manifestations of slavery helps contextualize its transformation over time and its role in shaping societies.

Slavery in Medieval Times: Continuity and Change

As the world transitioned into the medieval period, the institution of slavery adapted and persisted. This topic examines the continuity of slavery in medieval Europe, Africa, and Asia, and delves into the changes and variations that occurred during this era. The rise of serfdom, indentured servitude, and chattel slavery all played significant roles in shaping the medieval world’s social, economic, and political landscape.

Islamic Slavery: Unraveling the Narrative

Islamic history also saw the presence of slavery, with a diverse range of experiences and practices within the Islamic world. This section explores the nuances of Islamic slavery, challenging misconceptions and providing a more nuanced understanding of its historical context. The discussion encompasses the role of slavery in Islamic societies, the treatment of enslaved people, and the Quranic teachings related to slavery.

Transatlantic Slave Trade: A Dark Era

One of the most infamous chapters in slavery’s history is the transatlantic slave trade, which forcibly transported millions of Africans to the Americas. This topic delves into the grim reality of the slave trade, analyzing its economic, social, and humanitarian ramifications. The harrowing journey of enslaved Africans, the brutal conditions of the Middle Passage, and the impacts on African societies are essential aspects of this exploration.

Slavery and Abolition Movements: Struggle for Freedom

The fight against slavery was met with resistance from enslaved individuals and abolition movements worldwide. This section examines the courageous efforts of abolitionists, enslaved rebels, and humanitarian activists in challenging the institution of slavery. The works of prominent figures such as Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, William Wilberforce, and Sojourner Truth are exemplars of the determination to end slavery.

Impact on Culture and Identity

Slavery profoundly influenced the cultural fabric and identities of both enslaved and enslaving societies. This topic investigates how cultural expressions, traditions, and identities were shaped by the institution of slavery, leaving indelible marks on the collective consciousness. From African cultural retentions in the Americas to the enduring legacy of slavery in shaping national identities, this section delves into the power of culture in preserving and challenging the past.

Slavery’s Economic Legacy: Prosperity Built on Exploitation

The economic impact of slavery cannot be underestimated, as it fueled the growth of industries and economies in different regions. This section delves into the economic repercussions of slavery, exploring its role in the accumulation of wealth and its lasting influence on global trade. The exploitative labor practices that underpinned the economies of plantation-based societies and their connection to contemporary economic systems are crucial aspects of this examination.

The Long Road to Emancipation: Legacies of Struggle

Even after the abolition of slavery, the legacy of oppression persisted through segregation, Jim Crow laws, and systemic racism. This topic examines the legacies of slavery’s aftermath and the ongoing struggles for equality and justice. The Civil Rights Movement in the United States and similar movements worldwide demonstrate the enduring efforts to dismantle the structures of racism and discrimination.

Slavery in the US: A Tumultuous History

Focusing on the United States, this category explores the unique history of slavery in the nation. From its early colonial beginnings to the Civil War and beyond, the United States grappled with the profound impact of slavery on its development. Examining slave narratives, the Underground Railroad, and the Emancipation Proclamation, this section highlights the complexities of slavery’s legacy in the US.

Slavery in the Modern World: Contemporary Forms of Exploitation

Despite its historical abolition, slavery has not been eradicated entirely. Modern slavery, including human trafficking and forced labor, continues to affect millions worldwide. This section sheds light on the modern manifestations of slavery and the challenges of combating this global issue. The examination includes efforts by international organizations, governments, and NGOs to address this ongoing human rights violation.

By examining these critical aspects of slavery, we can gain a deeper appreciation for the history, impact, and enduring legacies of this tragic institution. Through rigorous research and compassionate inquiry, we aim to honor the experiences of those who suffered under slavery while striving to create a more just and equitable world for all.

How to Choose Slavery Research Paper Topics

Choosing slavery research paper topics requires thoughtful consideration and a deep understanding of the historical, social, and cultural complexities surrounding this dark period in human history. While the topic selection process can be challenging, it is essential to find a subject that not only interests you but also allows for a comprehensive exploration of the issues related to slavery. Here are ten tips to guide you in selecting the most compelling slavery research paper topics:

• Conduct Preliminary Research : Before settling on a specific topic, conduct preliminary research to familiarize yourself with various aspects of slavery. Read books, scholarly articles, and historical accounts to gain insight into different angles and perspectives. This will help you identify gaps in the existing literature and potential areas for further exploration.
• Define Your Scope : Given the vastness of the subject, it is crucial to define the scope of your research paper. Consider the time period, geographic location, and specific themes you want to delve into. Whether you choose to focus on a particular region, a specific era, or a comparative analysis of different slave systems, defining your scope will provide clarity and direction.
• Explore Different Perspectives : Slavery has left an indelible mark on various societies and individuals. Consider exploring different perspectives, such as the experiences of enslaved individuals, the role of slaveholders, the impact on economies, and the cultural and social repercussions. This multi-faceted approach will enrich your research and foster a comprehensive understanding of the subject.
• Select a Specific Theme or Question : Rather than opting for a broad topic, narrow down your focus by selecting a specific theme or research question. For instance, you could investigate the resistance strategies employed by enslaved people, the economic motivations behind the transatlantic slave trade, or the role of women in slave societies. A focused approach will allow for in-depth analysis and a more cohesive research paper.
• Consult with Your Instructor or Advisor : If you are struggling to choose a research paper topic, don’t hesitate to seek guidance from your instructor or academic advisor. They can offer valuable insights, suggest potential slavery research paper topics, and provide feedback on the feasibility of your ideas.
• Consider Understudied Topics : Exploring less-discussed or understudied topics can be a rewarding endeavor. Look for aspects of slavery that have not received as much scholarly attention and consider shedding light on these lesser-known areas. This can contribute to the broader understanding of the subject and make your research paper stand out.
• Use Primary Sources : Incorporating primary sources in your research can add depth and authenticity to your paper. Letters, diaries, interviews, and official documents from the time of slavery provide firsthand accounts and perspectives, enriching your analysis and providing a more nuanced understanding of historical events.
• Stay Ethical and Sensible : Slavery is a highly sensitive and traumatic subject. When choosing a research paper topic, ensure that you approach it with sensitivity and respect for the individuals who suffered under this institution. Avoid trivializing the experiences of enslaved people or using offensive language in your research.
• Consider Comparative Studies : Comparing the experiences of enslaved people in different regions or exploring how slavery intersected with other historical events can yield fascinating insights. Comparative studies can highlight similarities and differences, providing a broader context for understanding the complexities of slavery.
• Follow Your Passion : Ultimately, choose a slavery research paper topic that genuinely interests you. A passionate approach to your research will drive your motivation, commitment, and enthusiasm throughout the writing process. Embrace a topic that ignites your curiosity and allows you to make a meaningful contribution to the field of historical research.

In conclusion, selecting a research paper topic on slavery requires careful consideration of various factors, including scope, perspective, and sensitivity. By conducting thorough research and defining a focused theme or question, you can explore the depths of this complex historical period and contribute to a deeper understanding of the enduring legacies of slavery. Remember to seek guidance from your instructor, utilize primary sources, and stay passionate in your pursuit of knowledge. With these tips, you can embark on a compelling research journey that sheds light on the history, impact, and ongoing relevance of slavery in our world.

How to Write a Slavery Research Paper

Writing a slavery research paper requires careful planning, extensive research, and a thoughtful approach to address the complex historical, social, and cultural dimensions of this topic. Here are ten essential tips to guide you through the process of writing an engaging and well-structured slavery research paper:

• Develop a Strong Thesis Statement : A compelling thesis statement is the foundation of your research paper. It should present a clear argument or claim that you will explore and support throughout your paper. Your thesis statement should be specific, concise, and indicative of the main focus of your research.
• Conduct In-Depth Research : Thoroughly research your chosen topic using both primary and secondary sources. Primary sources include historical documents, letters, diaries, interviews, and other firsthand accounts from the time of slavery. Secondary sources encompass scholarly books, articles, and analyses that provide context and interpretations of historical events.
• Organize Your Research : Organize your research material systematically to facilitate a coherent and logical structure for your paper. Create an outline that outlines the main sections and arguments you plan to cover. This will help you maintain a clear flow of ideas throughout your research paper.
• Provide Historical Context : Begin your research paper by providing essential historical context. Explain the background of slavery, its origins, evolution, and global impact. Offer insights into the economic, social, and political forces that influenced the growth and sustenance of slavery in different regions.
• Explore Various Perspectives : Dive into the multifaceted perspectives related to slavery. Consider the experiences of enslaved individuals, slaveholders, abolitionists, and the broader society. By exploring diverse viewpoints, you can present a well-rounded analysis of the complex issues surrounding slavery.
• Analyze Primary Sources Critically : When using primary sources, analyze them critically to identify biases, gaps, and limitations. Interrogate the perspectives of the authors and the context in which the sources were created. Critical analysis of primary sources strengthens the authenticity and credibility of your research paper.
• Utilize Comparative Analysis : Consider adopting a comparative approach to enrich your research. Compare and contrast different forms of slavery in various regions or analyze the impact of slavery on different social groups. Comparative analysis enhances the depth of your research and offers valuable insights.
• Address the Legacy of Slavery : Acknowledge the ongoing implications of slavery in the modern world. Examine how slavery has shaped contemporary social, economic, and political structures. Addressing the legacy of slavery demonstrates the relevance of this historical topic in today’s society.
• Cite Sources Properly : Ensure that you cite all your sources properly and adhere to the required citation style (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago). Accurate citation gives credit to the original authors, validates your research, and helps avoid plagiarism.
• Revise and Edit Thoroughly : The final step is to revise and edit your research paper thoroughly. Review the content for coherence, clarity, and logical flow of ideas. Check for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors. Consider seeking feedback from peers or instructors to gain different perspectives on your work.

In conclusion, writing a slavery research paper demands meticulous research, critical analysis, and careful consideration of the historical context and its impact on contemporary society. By developing a strong thesis statement, organizing your research, and exploring various perspectives, you can create an engaging and comprehensive research paper on this crucial aspect of human history. Remember to acknowledge the ongoing legacy of slavery and cite your sources accurately. With dedication and attention to detail, you can produce a research paper that sheds light on the complexities of slavery and its enduring significance.

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• Custom Formatting : Formatting a research paper in the appropriate citation style can be challenging. Rest assured, our writers are well-versed in various formatting styles, including APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, and Harvard. Your paper will adhere to the required guidelines and be formatted professionally.
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The Concept of Modern Slavery: Definition, Critique, and the Human Rights Frame

• Published: 07 December 2018
• Volume 20 , pages 229–248, ( 2019 )

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Modern slavery is a major topic of concern in international law and global governance, in civil society, and in academic debates. Yet, what does modern slavery mean, and can its highly different forms be covered in a single concept? This paper discusses these questions in three steps: First, it develops common definitions of modern slavery. Second, it discusses critical rejections of these definitions. The two camps that adhere to the definitions of modern slavery, and that reject them, respectively, face certain limits. In a third step, the paper takes up with the limits and the strengths of both. It suggests that the limits of definitions of modern slavery can be overcome by critical approaches; and that the limits of critical approaches can be overcome by definitions of modern slavery. The key is their integration into a human rights frame. Ultimately, the paper proposes an approach to modern slavery that neither relies on a binary distinction between slavery and non-slavery, nor does it strive for the abolishment of the concept of modern slavery. Rather, the paper calls for a normatively and contextually embedded approach within the human rights frame.

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Ancient slavery and modern ideologies: Orlando Patterson and M. I. Finley among the dons

Slavery and the Revival of Anti-slavery Activism

Modern Slavery in the Global Economy

For a discussion of the differences and similarities between former and contemporary forms of slavery, see Quirk 2006 . One major difference is the legal status of slavery. The concept of modern slavery as opposed to historical forms of slavery can refer to both illegal and legal forms of slavery, thus becoming more dynamic and ambiguous (Crane 2013 , p. 50). The paper refers to the concept of modern slavery to cover this heterogeneity.

Further documents are dedicated to parallel or sub-forms of modern slavery. One prominent issue area covers child trafficking and the worst forms of child labor. Another issue area is forced labor, defined in the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Convention no. 29 (1930) and no. 105 (1957). The Bellagio-Harvard Guidelines recognize forced labor as slavery only when “the control over a person tantamount to possession” (§ 8) is exercised. The same differentiation applies to other practices and institutions similar to slavery. In order to not get lost with the numerous parallel forms and sub-forms of slavery, this chapter focuses only on some of the key documents that more generally deal with (modern) slavery.

Interestingly enough, the focus on the movement of people mirrors the focus on slave trade in former abolition movements (Skinner 2009 , 35; Lawrance 2010 , 64, also cf. Wong 2011 ).

Cf. Research Network on the Legal Parameters of Slavery 2012 , §3; Bales 2013 , p. 283 f.; Choi-Fitzpatrick 2017 ; Cockayne et al. 2016 .

Similarly Bales 2013 , p. 284; Choi-Fitzpatrick 2012 , p. 16; Craig et al. 2007 , p. 12; Weissbrodt and Anti-Slavery International 2002 , p. 7; Herzfeld 2002 , p. 50; Moravcsik 1998 , p. 174.

I do not address the question, whether all forms of prostitution are a subordination of women, or whether sex workers need to be empowered in order to secure their working and living conditions, as it is being discussed extensively elsewhere (Kempadoo et al. 2012 ; Weitzer 2011 ; Quirk 2007 ; Ehrenreich and Hochschild 2004 ; Raymond and Hughes 2001 ).

These conditions include certain ways of perception and perception biases (Sikkink 2017 , p. 160ff.), public attention being a limited resource, and limited funding opportunities more generally.

I borrow this idea from Spivak’s strategic essentialism that she describes to be misunderstood when it neglects its own time limit, financial situation, context, dependence, and historicity (Spivak et al. 1993 ).

Also see Choi-Fitzpatrick 2017 for a nuanced discussion of how profiteers from slavery rationalize slavery.

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Mende, J. The Concept of Modern Slavery: Definition, Critique, and the Human Rights Frame. Hum Rights Rev 20 , 229–248 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-018-0538-y

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The History of the History of American Slavery

In an age when the White House is being asked if slavery was a good or bad thing, perhaps we should take a look at the history of the history of slavery.

Why are we still fighting over the history of slavery and the Civil War? One possible answer is that history is mutable. It is written, after all, by people who are intimately wrapped up in all the social and cultural ways of thinking of their times.

A century ago, the major American historian of the South supported slavery. His name was Ulrich B. Phillips, and his American Negro Slavery , first published in 1918, was “central to proslavery historiography.” So writes scholar Gaines M. Foster in his exploration of the history of the notion that Southern slaveholders felt guilt about slavery even as they maintained it.

Phillips was born in Georgia in 1877. He earned his doctorate at Columbia and taught at Tulane, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Michigan, and Yale. He was “a leader in systematically researching plantation records, census data, and other primary sources,” says the New Georgia Encyclopedia . He was not a proponent of what Foster calls the “guilt thesis,” which started being discussed in the academy in the mid-twentieth century. Instead, Phillips critiqued slavery as an unprofitable economic system, but one that had value in both civilizing “savage Africans” and training a white planter elite for leadership.

Foster reminds us that Phillips’s racist work remained “the standard text on slavery” into the early 1950s. In the ‘teens and twenties, allegedly “scientific” concepts were used to defend commonplace racism and eugenics. The South was busy putting up memorials to Confederates . Anti-radical and anti-immigrant hysteria led to restrictive immigration laws. Jim Crow and segregation were firmly entrenched. It’s little wonder that Phillips was not only read and lauded, but that he was so influential.

Foster writes that W.E.B. Du Bois , John Hope Franklin , and Richard Hofstadter, among others, all challenged Phillips’s dominant perspective. But according to Foster, it was Kenneth M. Stampp’s The Peculiar Institution (1955), which replaced American Negro Slavery “as the authoritative account of slavery.” After four decades of the Phillipsian take, Stampp “abandoned the benign view of slavery as a school for civilization and showed it to be a harsh institution that sought, but never fully achieved, the degradation of the slave.”

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Is it an accident that Stampp published at the beginning of the Civil Rights struggle? Probably not. As Foster says, “social as well as intellectual developments” play a role in the adoption of historical perspectives.

A larger question might be: since most Americans aren’t history majors, how does all this scholarly history actually filter through society? After all, Gone With the Wind probably had much more cultural influence than any academic text (both book and movie versions of GWTW certainly fit well into the Phillipsian worldview). The answer may be: how does historiography not permeate through the society it comes from? Historiography suggests we can’t separate the writers of history from their own history.

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Child modern slavery, trafficking and health: a practical review of factors contributing to children’s vulnerability and the potential impacts of severe exploitation on health

Laura c n wood.

Centre for Child & Family Justice Research, Lancaster University Department of Sociology, Lancaster, UK

Associated Data

Child trafficking is a form of modern slavery, a rapidly growing, mutating and multifaceted system of severe human exploitation, violence against children, child abuse and child rights violations. Modern slavery and human trafficking (MSHT) represents a major global public health concern with victims exposed to profound short-term and long-term physical, mental, psychological, developmental and even generational risks to health. Children with increased vulnerability to MSHT, victims (in active exploitation) and survivors (post-MSHT exploitation) are attending healthcare settings, presenting critical windows of opportunity for safeguarding and health intervention.

Recognition of child modern slavery victims can be very challenging. Healthcare providers benefit from understanding the diversity of potential physical, mental, behavioural and developmental health presentations, and the complexity of children’s responses to threat, fear, manipulation, deception and abuse.

Healthcare professionals are also encouraged to have influence, where possible, beyond the care of individual patients. Research, health insights, advocacy and promotion of MSHT survivor input enhances the collaborative development of evidence-based approaches to prevention, intervention and aftercare of affected children and families.

Key messages

• Child modern slavery and human trafficking (MSHT) is a global public health concern with profound risks to life-course health and development.
• Children from all ages, genders, homes, backgrounds and socioeconomic status may be exploited.
• Breakdown of social protective barriers (including migration), significant relational dysfunction or loss (including child abuse, removal from family) and economic stress can increase vulnerability to MSHT.
• Child MSHT victims are presenting in healthcare settings yet may remain undetected.
• Physical, mental, emotional, behavioural and developmental health presentations of child MSHT victims and survivors can be complex.
• Child MSHT victims may not have confidence in healthcare staff or systems—trust needs to be built.
• Health professionals from all disciplines are encouraged to engage in the development of evidence-based, survivor-informed approaches to the prevention, intervention and aftercare of children and families subjected to MSHT.

Introduction

‘Modern slavery’ is an umbrella term for criminal acts of severe human exploitation. 1 For victims under the age of 18 years, modern slavery in its myriad forms is considered violence against children (as defined by WHO 2 ), child abuse and a gross child rights violation compelling an urgent safeguarding and healthcare response.

Child trafficking, perhaps the most recognised form of child modern slavery is legally defined in the UK as the ‘recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt’ of a child (<18 years of age) for the purpose of exploitation. 3 Trafficking typically involves the deliberate relocation (once or multiple times) of a victim locally, nationally or internationally resulting in isolation, victim disorientation and dependence. For children exploited for sex, trafficking and generic child sexual exploitation (CSE) terminology may be inconsistently applied. 4 Children may be trafficked or enslaved for a range of purposes (detailed in table 1 ) that frequently overlap or occur on a continuum within and beyond childhood. In all nations, local regions also have trafficking and exploitation purposes unique or nuanced to local demand (such as child soldiers, 5 child camel jockeys, 6 fishing, 7 witchcraft practices, 8 forced surrogacy 9 and illegal adoption for exploitation) with directly associated health impacts.

Forms of modern slavery of children and adolescents with examples (global, non-exhaustive) 1 58

*In the UK, children may work limited hours in certain jobs from 13 years old, and full time from 16 years. The exception is children with performance licenses (acting, modelling etc). 59

Children of any nationality, legal status, gender and age can be at risk of trafficking. Risks increase when social protective networks are fractured secondary to intrafamilial or societal tensions, rejection of a child and aspects of their identity (including gender, sexuality, religion or disability), war or armed conflict, persecution, breakdown of the rule of law, climate emergencies and ensuing migration journeys. 10 Trafficking adds complexity to international child, refugee and asylee care and the safeguarding of children accused of criminal activity. Vulnerable families may also be trafficked as a unit, requiring consideration of parental context when child abuse concerns are raised. 11

Global estimates of slavery and trafficking victim numbers are higher now than at any prior point in human history, with over 40 million individuals directly impacted, 1 in 4 of whom are children. Millions more are affected indirectly, including children of a trafficked parent. 12

Accurate child trafficking statistics are notoriously difficult to ascertain, and official figures may be misrepresentative of victim numbers, diversity and lived experience of slavery. Data collection challenges are numerous and include the complex, covert, hostile and highly lucrative nature of the crime (second only to the illegal drugs trade), with significant imbalances of power, wealth and impunity perpetuating it. Modern slavery practices function to suppress help-seeking behaviour through psychological and physical means, distancing victims from recognition, support and research. 13 Accurate victim identification by authorities may also be hindered by distracting stereotypes of victim vulnerability and presentation. Discriminatory practices (particularly where victim identification and immigration status are interlinked) have also been raised as concerns within government victim-identification and support mechanisms. 14 Additionally, disparities in trafficking definition use, inconsistencies in data collection methodologies, recording and analysis hamper precise measurement. 15 16

In the UK, recent Home Office National Referral Mechanism statistics continue to demonstrate a rising trend in referrals of potential victims. Between 1 July and 30 September 2019, 2808 potential victims were referred of whom 40% claimed exploitation as a minor. These figures represent a 61% increase in overall victim referrals from the same quarter in 2018. Ninety-one nationalities of origin were represented, with British nationals denoting 26% of potential victims. Labour exploitation (which includes criminal exploitation) is the dominant detected exploitation format for both adults and children. 17

Children with increased vulnerability to modern slavery and human trafficking (MSHT), victims (in active exploitation) and survivors (post-MSHT exploitation) are attending healthcare settings, offering critical windows of opportunity for safeguarding and intervention in the trajectory of potential severe health harm. 18 19 Victimised children may present with their traffickers or associates (who may be family members) when a health need impacts their ability to work or earn. 20 Other children may seek support unaccompanied, in crisis, in conjunction with police, emergency service or immigration authority action. The status of the child as a trafficked person may be known at the time of presentation for healthcare or may be identified at some point in generic health services, mental health and addiction support, sexual health, maternity or foster care. Modern slavery also has significant intersectionality with other forms of community, familial and interpersonal violence. Health and social care professionals should consider exploitation in such presentations, as the concept and articulation of slavery or trafficking is frequently not used or understood by victims.

Health and social care staff should recognise that trafficked children may not hold any automatic trust of staff or healthcare systems. International victims particularly may have little experience with doctors, dentists or other staff and may poorly understand their roles, trustworthiness or UK patient-engagement styles. Children may have previously experienced exploitation or been disbelieved by other adults who held a position of trust or authority, including those in health, social care, immigration or other systems designed to protect. 21

While recognition and care of potential child victims can be challenging, health professionals from all disciplines are encouraged to build on their pre-existing safeguarding, healthcare and interpersonal skills to become astute to potential markers of slavery, exploitative abuse and trauma. Children are unable to consent to exploitation 22 and a child’s apparent complicity or criminal intent, normalisation of their abusive situation or emotional attachment to perpetrators should be viewed through a trauma-informed, non-judgemental lens.

Vulnerabilities rooted in pretrafficking experiences

Research regarding pre-trafficking vulnerabilities remains very limited. Simplified push and pull factor models of understanding why certain children are trafficked may mask complex and fluid interactions of cultural, societal, familial, economic and intrinsic vulnerabilities. However, due to the significant intersectionality between trafficking and more researched fields of abuse and trauma such as domestic violence, CSE, children in state care and refugee health, the consideration of trafficking risks can be cautiously expanded. Given the diverse origin countries of trafficked children in the UK, this article takes a global lens on health risks and recognises that trafficking experiences must be considered in the context of the whole life course of the child. Equally, while this article focusses on vulnerabilities pertaining to the child, no blame is placed on the victim and the location of the child in a much wider system of inadequate protection is recognised. 21

Many children who are subjected to slavery have experienced family situations of economic stress. 23 While it is important not to assume economic stress leads to a negative childhood, it can be associated with detrimental social, health and developmental circumstances beginning in the preconception environment, through in utero growth, infancy and childhood. 24 Challenges may include lack of antenatal care, low birth weight, lack of medical and preventative healthcare (including vaccinations), food insecurity, poor nutrition and suboptimal housing environments (ie, exposure to waste, hazardous chemicals and reduced air quality). Children may have difficulties accessing education and engaging in learning due to fatigue, reduced concentration, stress and behavioural expressions of unmet need. Illiteracy, innumeracy and fewer years of school attendance heighten trafficking vulnerability. 25 Severe carer stress and generational poverty factors may also impact parenting ability and availability, health, life choices, expectations and opportunities. 24

Deeply embedded issues of stigmatisation, honour, shame and survival threat can compound situations of poverty leading to complex views on the value and expectations of male and female children, personal sacrifice and the acceptability of risking the well-being of a child (or a child risking their own well-being) in the pursuit of employment, money, it's culturally associated values and survival. 26 Traffickers frequently exploit those in dire circumstances by offering hope of work, finance, food, shelter, love, personal independence, education, opportunity and honour to those who see no other option and to whom a fragment of hope is irresistible. With a double effect, when the victim realises their abusive trap they may feel further shame and responsibility for their situation, compounding the challenges of seeking help. For international victims whose family are engaged in the trafficking scenario (wittingly or unwittingly), traffickers may have also extracted relatively large sums of money, touted to be for visas, flights or documents and be demanding a large payment of high-interest debt for the arrangement of the child’s ‘new job’. Families may have taken bank loans or loan shark finances to facilitate this and the victim will be aware that the family will be crippled by debt or assaulted should money not be provided. 27 In many countries, such trafficking and exploitation of the poor is further compounded by police and justice system corruption and perpetrator impunity. 28 In contrast with many media portrayals of child trafficking, the kidnapping or abduction of children for the purpose of exploitation is significantly less common, although these methods may peak in certain circumstances, such as forced recruitment of child soldiers by rebel groups. 29

Children who have experienced child abuse, forms of violence, familial dysfunction, relational loss and removal into foster care represent a disproportionate percentage of trafficked children. 30 Children in these circumstances have often been exposed to significant relational trauma leading to complex attachment difficulties and a sense of worthlessness and shame. 31 Additionally, there is a higher prevalence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and in utero substance exposure in this population. 32 All of this early adversity may contribute to developmental problems, educational and relational difficulties, decreased danger awareness and increased vulnerability to manipulation. 33

Grooming for exploitation

Traffickers are able to observe the vulnerable child directly, or online, and apply grooming techniques to gain trust. Such tactics often appear to address the unmet needs of a child—praise, flattery, value and worth, the promise of romance, love, adventure and a good future, provision of material goods and gifts that may secondarily enhance status and the pride of feeling ‘hand-picked’ and accepted in an aspired-to peer group. 34 Tactics also deliberately seek to isolate the child from existing carers, friends, support networks and to vilify police or other potentially helpful authorities.

Traffickers may use deception and manipulation to build complex psychological scaffoldings around a child for a short period of time before beginning insidious psychological abuse (may include spiritual abuse), blackmail, overt abuse, violence and exploitation which may continue to be layered with expressions of love, value or sole provision for basic human needs. In doing so, powerful survival response trauma-bonds are created between victim and trafficker that may negate the need for physical restraint. 35 Trafficking should also be considered in the context of gang activity, violence and the illegal drugs trade. 36 Trafficking can also be a significant component of radicalisation practices. 37

Unclear status: victim, offender or both?

Determining the boundary between the child as ‘crime victim’ and the child as ‘crime perpetrator’ can present an incredibly complex challenge at multiple levels. Key examples include the ongoing criminalisation of ‘child prostitutes’ (including in the USA 38 ) and children within the illegal drugs trade. While a detailed discussion of this topic is outside the margins of this review, it is pertinent to recognise the significant level to which child victimhood and criminality (perceived or legally evidenced) is bound to our differing global and individual sociologies of childhood, expectations of children and conceptualisations around ‘childhood innocence’, ‘good children’, ‘bad children’ and ‘bad families’. Child criminalisation can be painfully and tortuously tied to attitudes (overt or surreptitious) of racism, xenophobia, negative stereotyping and scapegoating of people groups from individual to state level. As health professionals of all disciplines, it is vital to prioritise and advocate for the health and well-being of children across all legal categories and processes. Children in the criminal justice system have often faced significant earlier life challenges and are especially likely to feel unsafe, with survival response behaviours and stress more readily triggered and potentially misunderstood. 39 Attuned health professionals can play a significant role in justice and rehabilitation.

Self-identification as a victim and acceptance of help

When a potentially victimised child is detected, they may also struggle to identify as trafficked even when terminology is explained. Reasons may include a lack of insight into their exploitation; for example, a young person may be groomed to believe that selling sexual acts and giving money to their ‘boyfriend’ is acceptable in exchange for a relationship, or that missing school to earn fast money selling drugs is the glamourous lifestyle they desire. 40 Victims may also be unable or embarrassed to relate to the classic media portrayals of a victim (typically a young, helpless, ‘innocent-looking’ female being trafficked for sex). Immigration complications and a sense of personal blame regarding their situation may also significantly impact engagement with safe adults. 21

Staff need to actively build trust with potential victims, exploring how their unique world view and experience may influence their health presentation and decisions. For example, a victim from a culture where a child is perceived to dishonour their parents by not providing for them financially, or accepting comfort while their family suffer, may determine to remain with traffickers in the hope of sending money home. A child who views the involvement of their parent(s) or romantic partner in the trafficking process as a kind action to help them escape poverty may be very distressed by the portrayal of these individuals as abuse perpetrators and criminals, particularly if the child believes they did not know the trafficking realities that lay ahead, or they do not perceive their situation as abusive. 41 Issues of honour and shame can be particularly connected to sexual abuse. For families or communities where extramarital or same-sex sexual activity is considered taboo (regardless of abusive context), the victim/survivor may be deemed punishable by ostracisation, abandonment, violence, denial of future marriage or even death. 42 Such complexities can lead to frustration or misunderstandings if children respond in unexpected ways to actions designed to help them. High numbers (27%) of potential trafficking victims go missing from care, particularly in the first 48 hours, many of whom are never found. 43 It is important to recognise that status as a victim or survivor of trafficking does not negate a child having capacity, opinions and agency. Children should be involved in decisions regarding their care whenever possible. Health disciplines and social care need to continue working together to provide strategic, individualised safeguarding responses.

Avoidance of stereotyping

Stereotyping of trafficking practices, victim and perpetrator demographics, presentation and characteristics have been profoundly harmful to victims. It is important that professionals are not blinkered by fixed mindsets or emotive ideas of the ‘perfect victim’ or the ‘perfect rescue’. The background, presentation and needs of trafficked children are diverse. Abuse risks span the socioeconomic gradient and victims may be from affluent families, attending fee paying schools and recruited for their non-stereotypical appearance. 44 Children from loving, nurturing families can also be exploited, with perpetrators abusing the inherent vulnerability of the developing child and immature brain. Safeguarding and the development of patient trust should be promoted in all child health encounters.

Acting on concerns

All children suspected of being trafficked or subjected to modern slavery or abuse (including children of potentially trafficked or exploited parents) must be managed in line with your organisation’s child safeguarding policy. Details of additional support through the Modern Slavery Helpline (UK only) are available in box 1 .

Safeguarding children at risk

All patients suspected to be at risk of trafficking, modern slavery or abuse must be managed in line with your organisation’s child safeguarding policy.

For further advice please contact the Modern Slavery Helpline (UK only):

UK MODERN SLAVERY HELPLINE: 08000 121 700

https://www.modernslaveryhelpline.org/

Health risks associated with child trafficking

Trafficked children may be deprived of the basic provisions for healthy growth and development including adequate restorative sleep, exercise, balanced nutrition, clean water, clean air, appropriate clothing, shoes, basic hygiene, sanitary products, shelter, safety and crucially, healthy relational nurture. 45 46 Living conditions may be highly inappropriate with victims in prolonged physical and mental distress secondary to hunger, thirst, exhaustion, extremes of temperature and an atmosphere of unpredictable violence. Children will respond to such atmospheres in order to survive but will be unable to thrive.

Physical health

Health presentations will vary dependent on individual circumstances of abuse including whether the child remains in their family home, country of origin/prior residence, journey risks, chronological and developmental age, abuse formats, level of psychological trauma and survival responses. The child may have developed mechanisms to mask distress or disengage, trained not to draw attention to their needs. 47 Astute healthcare providers may also recognise multiple children presenting with similar patterns of health need, skin markings or stories suggestive of local trafficking activity. Health presentations alone are not diagnostic of trafficking and may have origins unrelated to trafficking or abuse.

Box 2 demonstrates key general indicators of potential MSHT. Table 2 highlights potential MSHT health presentations by body system. Injuries are considered in table 5. All tables are designed to complement standard history taking, physical examination and consideration of health presentations common to all children.

Potential indicators of child modern slavery and human trafficking—general (non-exhaustive) 40 45 60–62

• Inappropriately dressed for age, time of day or weather. Unkempt appearance or presence of unusually expensive items.
• Unusual behaviour including marked wariness, agitation, aggression, belligerence, sexualised manner, fear, timidity or submission.
• May be with an accompanying person who appears controlling or who insists on speaking for the child. Accompanying individual may show particularly ‘charming’ behaviour to staff or appear very attentive to child.
• Healthcare attendance in association with police or social services response to social concern or criminal activity.
• Healthcare attendance related to alcohol, illegal substance or inappropriate medication use.
• Delayed presentation with advanced or severely complicated health needs that would have been readily resolved as minor issues if help provided at an early stage.
• Child appearing unusually tired, sallow or sleep deprived.
• Child homeless or unsure of home address, current location or contact numbers of responsible adults.
• Not registered with general practitioner or school.
• Child has no or limited local language skills.
• Child asking for help and safety (verbally or non-verbally).
• Carer requesting help due to child’s behaviour deterioration, missing episodes, drug use.

Example potential indicators of child MSHT—body systems (non-exhaustive)

MSHT, modern slavery and human trafficking.

Skin, Dental & Sensory Systems

Depending on the child’s lived experiences of MSHT, reflections of chronic or underlying malnourishment and maltreatment may be evidenced on thorough examination of the child—the detection of one concerning feature prompting further assessment. The tattooing of children and women has been particularly prevalent within sexual exploitation. Table 3 highlights potential indicators of MSHT in the skin, dental and sensory systems.

Example potential indicators of MSHT—skin, dental and sensory systems (non-exhaustive) 45 65 70–72

Sexual & Reproductive Health

The sexual abuse of children of all genders is known to occur within the settings of MSHT, when children are trafficked for the core purpose of sexual exploitation and alongside all other MSHT formats. Child sexual abuse within MSHT may be violent, repetitive and without provision of contraception, disease protection or treatment. Sexual abuse carries profound risks to the mental, physical, emotional, behavioural and developmental health of children which may be lifelong ( table 4 ).

Example potential indicators of MSHT—sexual and reproductive health systems (non-exhaustive) 45 68

Violence, Torture & Degradation

Children may have experienced violence on a wide spectrum of severity and frequency. Violence may be at the hands of sex buyers, work managers, gang members, traffickers, carers or others. Violence which may amount to state or non-state torture may also be perpetrated against children. 48

Violence and degradation are used to subjugate victims and instil a sense of hopelessness, helplessness and fear. In complex cases (including ritual abuse), severe violence may be used to deliberately develop dissociative identity disorders. 49 Recognised severe abuse methods include the holding of children in dark, small cages to ‘break their will’ prior to sexual exploitation, 50 chaining and beating of children, painful stress positions and sexual torture. In cases where trafficking victim’s physical appearance is important, torture forms that leave minimal physical markings may be employed. All forms of severe abuse and torture have profound psychological, developmental and health impacts on victims and specialist advice should be sought. 48 table 5 highlights potential physical injury indicators of MSHT.

Example potential indicators of MSHT—physical injury and torture (non-exhaustive)

Addiction, Alcohol Dependency & Substance Misuse

Victims may have struggled with addiction prior to trafficking, begun using substances as a coping mechanism or have been forced to use alcohol or substances by traffickers to increase dependency and compliance. 51 Children are exposed to significant physical, mental and developmental harm through substance abuse, improper use of prescription and contraceptive drugs, psychoactive herbal or traditional substances and forced internal carriage of illegal drugs (as indicated in tables 3–5 ). 52 Children may present intoxicated, high, withdrawing or in poisoning or overdose states.

Psychological Violence, Trauma & Mental Health

The negative health impact of severe psychological violence within the trafficking process and across the life course of a victimised child must not be underestimated. Children’s brains, even in utero, adapt to an environment of danger around them, enhancing the protective pathways of the brain and body through release of stress hormones, enabling the ‘fight, flight, freeze or submit’ physiological responses. For children experiencing severe, prolonged and compounded forms of violence (particularly in the absence of restorative relational support) the child’s neurological pathways appropriately remain primed for danger and self-preservation. The child’s brain development moulds to the environment of threat, prioritising survival over all other higher functions, damaging learning, executive function, relational and communication skills. 53

Psychological violence is experienced and expressed in the physical body. The Adverse Childhood Experiences studies have evidenced clear links between childhood abuse and poor adult physical, mental and relational health. Chronic stress hormone pathway dysregulation leads to cellular damage and epigenetic adaptations, increasing the relative risk of a host of diseases including cancer, respiratory disease, liver, cardiac and immune system dysfunction. 54 Risks are compounded by increased neurological drive for substances or activities that stimulate the reward and pleasure region of the brain including alcohol, drug, carbohydrate or behavioural addictions with their associated health harms. Psychological responses to belittlement, degradation, loss of agency and rejection include powerful, consuming feelings of shame, guilt and worthlessness. Such responses hold some protective value in keeping the victim withdrawn, hidden, compliant and dependent yet are catastrophic for healthy development and psychological internal working models from which to understand the world, others, relationships and self. 53 Victims may experience significant fear and guilt regarding the perceived placing of family members or friends in danger, with traffickers frequently using the threat or practice of violence against a victim’s loved ones, particularly their children, to enforce control. 55

Mental health disorders and trauma symptoms are frequently detected in child trafficking survivors and include post-traumatic stress disorder (often complex), severe affective disorders (including anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder), severe stress and adjustment disorders. 40 Symptoms may be highly intrusive and be associated with other health risks including sleep disorders, nightmares, flashbacks, collapse, trauma-memory-associated body pain (with or without conscious memory of abuse), dissociation, palpitations and breathing difficulties ( table 6 ).

Potential indicators of child MSHT—mental health (non-exhaustive) 40 70 77

Supporting parenting & moving forward with experiences of MSHT

The physical, psychological and mental health consequences of child trafficking form a challenging landscape for healthcare providers, potentially leading to long-term impacts on healthy development. A small but growing body of survivor stories and research is evidencing the impact of childhood trauma on parenting. While parental mental ill health or trauma survivorship should never be assumed to lead to detrimental parenting, there is the potential for impact on the next generation when parents remain with high distress, unmet needs and inadequate professional encouragement and support. 56 Investment in the health, well-being and trauma recovery (not only symptom management) of trafficked children and parents is paramount.

Child trafficking victims demonstrate remarkable strength, tenacity, endurance and survivorship during their exploitation, the developmental trajectories of their brain responding to their environment. To recover, heal and move forward from abuse, children must first be supported into circumstances of physical, psychological and genuine relational safety, love and acceptance. From a basis of felt security, the function of physiological stress pathways can be stabilised and the child (or then adult) can access higher thought functions and work therapeutically to address, manage and heal deep psychological responses to trauma. 57 Some survivors demonstrate remarkable post-traumatic growth and go on to thrive, others live with severely limiting psychological and health sequelae.

Child trafficking is an aggressive form of violence against children and a growing global public health problem. Healthcare providers play a crucial role in combating modern slavery and trafficking by advocating for healthy, nurturing childhoods (vulnerability reduction), recognition of child victims when they present to healthcare and the provision of trauma-informed, survivor-informed, timely healthcare and safeguarding responses. The health impacts of child modern slavery and trafficking are numerous and compounding, particularly severe due to the impact of psychological and physical violence on the developing brain and body. There is a critical need for further education, advocacy, research and health expertise regarding child pretrafficking vulnerabilities, victim recognition, effective interventions and recovery pathways. The pathways from early childhood to perpetration of trafficking and exploitation also require urgent research.

Supplementary Material

Acknowledgments.

The author wishes to thank Jordan Greenbaum and Sarah Boutros for their support in manuscript development.

Twitter: @DrLauraCN

Funding: This study was funded by Economic and Social Research Council 1+3 PhD Studentship.

Competing interests: LCNW is the Child and Family Modern Slavery Lead for VITA, an organisation seeking to advance the public health response to modern slavery.

Patient consent for publication: Not required.

Provenance and peer review: Commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

Data availability statement: No data are available.

Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery

On April 26, 2022, Harvard President Larry Bacow released the Report of the Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery, accepted the committee’s recommendations in full, and announced a historic commitment of $100 million to fund their implementation.

The first phase of the initiative’s work was to uncover the truth of Harvard’s ties to slavery through deep research guided by a committee of distinguished faculty drawn from across the University. This research provides a strong foundation for our next phase: the process of reckoning and repair.

Addressing Our Legacy

Sara Bleich, vice provost for special projects, charts the course for implementing recommendations from the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery report.

Report of the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery

The report of the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery documents the University’s ties to slavery—direct, financial, and intellectual—and offers seven recommendations that will guide the work of reckoning and repair now beginning.

A Legacy of Leadership

Early African American alumni of Harvard and Radcliffe

Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery: Tour Experience

Explore Harvard University’s entanglements with the institution of slavery and the history of Black leadership through a 10-stop tour in Cambridge, MA.

Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery: Film

This short film offers an introduction to the first phase of the initiative's work—the history—which undergirds the presidential committee's seven recommendations for action.

Telling the Truth about All This: Reckoning with Slavery and Its Legacies at Harvard and Beyond

Over the past two decades, universities around the world have begun to engage with their legacies related to slavery. With this history uncovered, we now ask: What must institutions of higher education do? What types of repair work can and should we undertake? We explore these questions through discussions about a range of topics, including engagement with descendant communities, legacies of slavery in libraries and museums, and novel public engagement and educational opportunities.

Responsibility and Repair: Legacies of Indigenous Enslavement, Indenture, and Colonization at Harvard and Beyond

This conference, “Responsibility and Repair”—led by Harvard University’s Native American Program in collaboration with Harvard Radcliffe Institute—brought together Native and university leaders to advance a national dialogue, expand research, and establish and deepen partnerships with Indigenous communities. Activists, scholars, Native leaders, tribal historians, and others explore the responsibility of universities to confront their past and recommended steps toward repair that is often centuries overdue.

Explore our program archives: Watch videos of past events

Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery: Reckoning with the Past to Understand the Present

Beyond “Fair Harvard”: Perspectives from Black Alumni

Reckoning with Echoes of the Past: A South African Story

Prejudice and Power: Stratification Economics, a General Theory of Intergroup Inequality

Book Talk with Tiya Miles

The Enduring Legacy of Slavery and Racism in the North

The Time of Slavery: History, Memory, Politics, and the Constitution

Oklahoma and a Blacker America?

Universities and Slavery: Bound by History

Feeding the Nation: Michael W. Twitty on American Foodways and the History of Enslavement

Who Is Policing the Police?

Book Talk with Clint Smith

Medical Racism from 1619 to the Present: History Matters

Racial Inequity and Housing Instability in Boston: Past, Present, and Future

Obesity, COVID-19, and Systemic Racism

The Impact of 2020 on Higher Education: Colleges, COVID-19, and a Time of Racial Reckoning

Vision & Justice

Opening Discussion for Brown II

Naming Racism

The Intentional Museum

Perfecters of This Democracy: A Conversation with Nikole Hannah-Jones

To Lifted Voices: Harvard College Opera

American Policing and Protest

Stay Connected

Subscribe to our monthly digital newsletter to receive updates on the Presidential Initiative on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery.

News & Ideas

An Expanded Historical Narrative

"Working … to Give People Back Their Stories"

Student Spotlight: Nicole Yapp JD ’23

How Student Led Protests to Open College Dorms to Black Freshmen

HBCU Library Alliance and Harvard Team Up to Expand Access to Black History

The New York Times

Magazine | a brief history of slavery that you didn't learn in school, a brief history of slavery that you didn't learn in school.

By MARY ELLIOTT and JAZMINE HUGHES AUG. 19, 2019

Four hundred years after enslaved Africans were first brought to Virginia, most Americans still don’t know the full story of slavery.

Curated by Mary Elliott All text by Mary Elliott and Jazmine Hughes Aug. 19, 2019

Sometime in 1619, a Portuguese slave ship, the São João Bautista, traveled across the Atlantic Ocean with a hull filled with human cargo: captive Africans from Angola, in southwestern Africa. The men, women and children, most likely from the kingdoms of Ndongo and Kongo, endured the horrific journey, bound for a life of enslavement in Mexico. Almost half the captives had died by the time the ship was seized by two English pirate ships; the remaining Africans were taken to Point Comfort, a port near Jamestown, the capital of the English colony of Virginia, which the Virginia Company of London had established 12 years earlier. The colonist John Rolfe wrote to Sir Edwin Sandys, of the Virginia Company, that in August 1619, a “Dutch man of war” arrived in the colony and “brought not anything but 20 and odd Negroes, which the governor and cape merchant bought for victuals.” The Africans were most likely put to work in the tobacco fields that had recently been established in the area.

[ Read our essay on why American schools can’t teach slavery right .]

Forced labor was not uncommon — Africans and Europeans had been trading goods and people across the Mediterranean for centuries — but enslavement had not been based on race. The trans-Atlantic slave trade, which began as early as the 15th century, introduced a system of slavery that was commercialized, racialized and inherited. Enslaved people were seen not as people at all but as commodities to be bought, sold and exploited. Though people of African descent — free and enslaved — were present in North America as early as the 1500s, the sale of the “20 and odd” African people set the course for what would become slavery in the United States.

Slavery, Power and the Human Cost

1455 - 1775.

In the 15th century, the Roman Catholic Church divided the world in half, granting Portugal a monopoly on trade in West Africa and Spain the right to colonize the New World in its quest for land and gold. Pope Nicholas V buoyed Portuguese efforts and issued the Romanus Pontifex of 1455, which affirmed Portugal’s exclusive rights to territories it claimed along the West African coast and the trade from those areas. It granted the right to invade, plunder and “reduce their persons to perpetual slavery.” Queen Isabella invested in Christopher Columbus’s exploration to increase her wealth and ultimately rejected the enslavement of Native Americans, claiming that they were Spanish subjects. Spain established an asiento, or contract, that authorized the direct shipment of captive Africans for trade as human commodities in the Spanish colonies in the Americas. Eventually other European nation-states — the Netherlands, France, Denmark and England — seeking similar economic and geopolitical power joined in the trade, exchanging goods and people with leaders along the West African coast, who ran self-sustaining societies known for their mineral-rich land and wealth in gold and other trade goods. They competed to secure the asiento and colonize the New World. With these efforts, a new form of slavery came into being. It was endorsed by the European nation-states and based on race, and it resulted in the largest forced migration in the world: Some 12.5 million men, women and children of African descent were forced into the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The sale of their bodies and the product of their labor brought the Atlantic world into being, including colonial North America. In the colonies, status began to be defined by race and class, and whether by custom, case law or statute, freedom was limited to maintain the enterprise of slavery and ensure power.

Queen Njinga

In 1624, after her brother’s death, Ana Njinga gained control of the kingdom of Ndongo, in present-day Angola. At the time, the Portuguese were trying to colonize Ndongo and nearby territory in part to acquire more people for its slave trade, and after two years as ruler, Njinga was forced to flee in the face of Portuguese attack. Eventually, however, she conquered a nearby kingdom called Matamba. Njinga continued to fight fiercely against Portuguese forces in the region for many years, and she later provided shelter for runaway slaves. By the time of Njinga’s death in 1663, she had made peace with Portugal, and Matamba traded with it on equal economic footing. In 2002, a statue of Njinga was unveiled in Luanda, the capital of Angola, where she is held up as an emblem of resistance and courage.

Means of Control

“The iron entered into our souls,” lamented a formerly enslaved man named Caesar, as he remembered the shackles he had to wear during his forced passage from his home in Africa to the New World. Used as restraints around the arms and legs, the coarse metal cut into captive Africans’ skin for the many months they spent at sea. Children made up about 26 percent of the captives. Because governments determined by the ton how many people could be fitted onto a slave ship, enslavers considered children especially advantageous: They could fill the boat’s small spaces, allowing more human capital in the cargo hold. Africans were crammed into ships with no knowledge of where they were going or if they would be released. This forced migration is known as the Middle Passage. As Olaudah Equiano, the formerly enslaved author, remembered, “I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life: so that, with the loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste anything. I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me.” Overheating, thirst, starvation and violence were common aboard slave ships, and roughly 15 percent of each ship’s enslaved population died before they ever reached land. Suicide attempts were so common that many captains placed netting around their ships to prevent loss of human cargo and therefore profit; working-class white crew members, too, committed suicide or ran away at port to escape the brutality. Enslaved people did not meekly accept their fate. Approximately one out of 10 slave ships experienced resistance, ranging from individual defiance (like refusing to eat or jumping overboard) to full-blown mutiny.

Cultivating Wealth and Power

The slave trade provided political power, social standing and wealth for the church, European nation-states, New World colonies and individuals. This portrait by John Greenwood connects slavery and privilege through the image of a group of Rhode Island sea captains and merchants drinking at a tavern in the Dutch colony of Surinam, a hub of trade. These men made money by trading the commodities produced by slavery globally — among the North American colonies, the Caribbean and South America — allowing them to secure political positions and determine the fate of the nation. The men depicted here include the future governors Nicholas Cooke and Joseph Wanton; Esek Hopkins, a future commander in chief of the Continental Navy; and Stephen Hopkins, who would eventually become one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

All children borne in this country shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother.’

Race Encoded Into Law

The use of enslaved laborers was affirmed — and its continual growth was promoted — through the creation of a Virginia law in 1662 that decreed that the status of the child followed the status of the mother, which meant that enslaved women gave birth to generations of children of African descent who were now seen as commodities. This natural increase allowed the colonies — and then the United States — to become a slave nation. The law also secured wealth for European colonists and generations of their descendants, even as free black people could be legally prohibited from bequeathing their wealth to their children. At the same time, racial and class hierarchies were being coded into law: In the 1640s, John Punch, a black servant, escaped bondage with two white indentured servants. Once caught, his companions received additional years of servitude, while Punch was determined enslaved for life. In the wake of Bacon’s Rebellion, in which free and enslaved black people aligned themselves with poor white people and yeoman white farmers against the government, more stringent laws were enacted that defined status based on race and class. Black people in America were being enslaved for life, while the protections of whiteness were formalized.

A Deadly Commodity

Before cotton dominated American agriculture, sugar drove the slave trade throughout the Caribbean and Spanish Americas. Sugar cane was a brutal crop that required constant work six days a week, and it maimed, burned and killed those involved in its cultivation. The life span of an enslaved person on a sugar plantation could be as little as seven years. Unfazed, plantation owners worked their enslaved laborers to death and prepared for this high “turnover” by ensuring that new enslaved people arrived on a regular basis to replace the dying. The British poet William Cowper captured this ethos when he wrote, “I pity them greatly, but I must be mum, for how could we do without sugar or rum?” The sweetening of coffee and tea took precedence over human life and set the tone for slavery in the Americas.

Continual Resistance

Enslaved Africans had known freedom before they arrived in America, and they fought to regain it from the moment they were taken from their homes, rebelling on plantation sites and in urban centers. In September 1739, a group of enslaved Africans in the South Carolina colony, led by an enslaved man called Jemmy, gathered outside Charleston, where they killed two storekeepers and seized weapons and ammunition. “Calling out Liberty,” according to Gen. James Oglethorpe, the rebels “marched on with Colours displayed, and two Drums beating” along the Stono River, entreating other members of the enslaved community to join them. Their goal was Spanish Florida, where they were promised freedom if they fought as the first line of defense against British attack. This effort, called the Stono Rebellion, was the largest slave uprising in the mainland British colonies. Between 60 and 100 black people participated in the rebellion; about 40 black people and 20 white people were killed, and other freedom fighters were captured and questioned. White lawmakers in South Carolina, afraid of additional rebellions, put a 10-year moratorium on the importation of enslaved Africans and passed the Negro Act of 1740, which criminalized assembly, education and moving abroad among the enslaved. The Stono Rebellion was only one of many rebellions that occurred over the 246 years of slavery in the United States.

Memory and Place-Making

Enslaved black people came from regions and ethnic groups throughout Africa. Though they came empty-handed, they carried with them memories of loved ones and communities, moral values, intellectual insight, artistic talents and cultural practices, religious beliefs and skills. In their new environment, they relied on these memories to create new practices infused with old ones. In the Low Country region of the Carolinas and Georgia, planters specifically requested skilled enslaved people from a region stretching from Senegal to Liberia, who were familiar with the conditions ideal for growing rice. Charleston quickly became the busiest port for people shipped from West Africa. The coiled or woven baskets used to separate rice grains from husks during harvest were a form of artistry and technology brought from Africa to the colonies. Although the baskets were utilitarian, they also served as a source of artistic pride and a way to stay connected to the culture and memory of the homeland.

The Limits of Freedom

1776 - 1808.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” So begins the Declaration of Independence, the document that eventually led to the creation of the United States. But the words point to the paradox the nation was built on: Even as the colonists fought for freedom from the British, they maintained slavery and avoided the issue in the Constitution. Enslaved people, however, seized any opportunity to secure their freedom. Some fought for it through military service in the Revolutionary War, whether serving for the British or the patriots. Others benefited from gradual emancipation enacted in states like Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. In New York, for example, children born after July 4, 1799, were legally free when they turned 25, if they were women, or 28, if they were men — the law was meant to compensate slaveholders by keeping people enslaved during some of their most productive years.

[ How was slavery taught in your school? We want to hear your story. ]

Yet the demand for a growing enslaved population to cultivate cotton in the Deep South was unyielding. In 1808, Congress implemented the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, which terminated the country’s legal involvement in the international slave trade but put new emphasis on the domestic slave trade, which relied on buying and selling enslaved black people already in the country, often separating them from their loved ones. (In addition, the international trade continued illegally.) The ensuing forced migration of over a million African-Americans to the South guaranteed political power to the slaveholding class: The Three-Fifths Clause that the planter elite had secured in the Constitution held that three-fifths of the enslaved population was counted in determining a state’s population and thus its congressional representation. The economic and political power grab reinforced the brutal system of slavery.

A Powerful Letter

After the Revolutionary War, Thomas Jefferson and other politicians — both slaveholding and not — wrote the documents that defined the new nation. In the initial draft of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson condemned King George III of Britain for engaging in the slave trade and ignoring pleas to end it, and for calling upon the enslaved to rise up and fight on behalf of the British against the colonists. This language was excised from the final document, however, and all references to slavery were removed, in stunning contrast to the document’s opening statement on the equality of men. Jefferson was a lifelong enslaver. He inherited enslaved black people; he fathered enslaved black children; and he relied on enslaved black people for his livelihood and comfort. He openly speculated that black people were inferior to white people and continually advocated for their removal from the country. In 1791, Benjamin Banneker, a free black mathematician, scientist, astronomer and surveyor, argued against this mind-set when he wrote to Jefferson , then secretary of state, urging him to correct his “narrow prejudices” and to “eradicate that train of absurd and false ideas and opinions, which so generally prevails with respect to us.” Banneker also condemned Jefferson’s slaveholding in his letter and included a manuscript of his almanac, which would be printed the following year. Jefferson was unconvinced of the intelligence of African-Americans, and in his swift reply only noted that he welcomed “such proofs as you exhibit” of black people with “talents equal to those of the other colors of men.”

She Sued for Her Freedom

In the wake of the Revolutionary War, African-Americans took their cause to statehouses and courthouses, where they vigorously fought for their freedom and the abolition of slavery. Elizabeth Freeman, better known as Mum Bett, an enslaved woman in Massachusetts whose husband died fighting during the Revolutionary War, was one such visionary. The new Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 stated that “All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties.” Arguing that slavery violated this sentiment, Bett sued for her freedom and won. After the ruling, Bett changed her name to Elizabeth Freeman to signify her new status. Her precedent-setting case helped to effectively bring an end to slavery in Massachusetts.

‘If one minute’s freedom had been offered to me, and I had been told I must die at the end of that minute, I would have taken it.’

God Wouldn’t Want Segregated Sanctuaries

Black people, both free and enslaved, relied on their faith to hold onto their humanity under the most inhumane circumstances. In 1787, the Rev. Richard Allen and other black congregants walked out of services at St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia to protest its segregated congregations. Allen, an abolitionist who was born enslaved, had moved to Philadelphia after purchasing his freedom. There he joined St. George’s, where he initially preached to integrated congregations. It quickly became clear that integration went only so far: He was directed to preach a separate service designated for black parishioners. Dismayed that black people were still treated as inferiors in what was meant to be a holy space, Allen founded the African Methodist Episcopal denomination and started the Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church. For communities of free people of color, churches like Allen’s were places not only of sanctuary but also of education, organizing and civic engagement, providing resources to navigate a racist society in a slave nation. Allen and his successors connected the community, pursued social justice and helped guide black congregants as they transitioned to freedom. The African Methodist Episcopal Church grew rapidly; today at least 7,000 A.M.E. congregations exist around the world, including Allen’s original church.

The Destructive Impact of the Cotton Gin

The national dialogue surrounding slavery and freedom continued as the demand for enslaved laborers increased. In 1794, Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin, which made it possible to clean cotton faster and get products to the market more quickly. Cotton was king, as the saying went, and the country became a global economic force. But the land for cultivating it was eventually exhausted, and the nation would have to expand to keep up with consumer demand. In 1803, Thomas Jefferson struck a deal with Napoleon Bonaparte, the Louisiana Purchase: In exchange for $15 million, the United States gained almost 830,000 square miles of land, doubling the size of the country and expanding America’s empire of slavery and cotton. Soon after this deal, the United States abolished the international slave trade, creating a labor shortage. Under these circumstances, the domestic slave trade increased as an estimated one million enslaved people were sent to the Deep South to work in cotton, sugar and rice fields.

Describing the Depravity of Slavery

“Benevolent men have voluntarily stepped forward to obviate the consequences of this injustice and barbarity,” proclaimed the Rev. Peter Williams Jr. in a historic speech about the end of the nation’s involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. “They have striven assiduously to restore our natural rights; to guaranty them from fresh innovations; to furnish us with necessary information; and to stop the source from whence our evils have flowed.” A free black man who founded St. Philip’s African Church in Manhattan, Williams spoke in front of a white and black audience on Jan. 1, 1808 — the day the United States ban on the international slave trade went into effect. The law, of course, did not end slavery, and it was often violated. Williams forced the audience to confront slavery’s ugliness as he continued, “Its baneful footsteps are marked with blood; its infectious breath spreads war and desolation; and its train is composed of the complicated miseries of cruel and unceasing bondage.” His oration further defined a black view of freedom that had been building since the foundation of the country, as when the formerly enslaved poet Phillis Wheatley noted in 1774,“for in every human Breast, God has implanted a Principle, which we call love of Freedom; it is impatient of Oppression, and pants for Deliverance.”

A Slave Nation Fights for Freedom

1809 - 1865.

As demand for cotton grew and the nation expanded, slavery became more systemic, codified and regulated — as did the lives of all enslaved people. The sale of enslaved people and the products of their labor secured the nation’s position as a global economic and political powerhouse, but they faced increasingly inhumane conditions. They were hired out to increase their worth, sold to pay off debts and bequeathed to the next generation. Slavery affected everyone, from textile workers, bankers and ship builders in the North; to the elite planter class, working-class slave catchers and slave dealers in the South; to the yeoman farmers and poor white people who could not compete against free labor. Additionally, in the 1830s, President Andrew Jackson implemented his plan for Indian removal, ripping another group of people from their ancestral lands in the name of wealth. As slavery spread across the country, opposition — both moral and economic — gained momentum. Interracial abolition efforts grew in force as enslaved people, free black people and some white citizens fought for the end of slavery and a more inclusive definition of freedom. The nation was in transition, and it came to a head after Abraham Lincoln was elected president; a month later, in December 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union, citing “an increasing hostility on the part of the nonslaveholding states to the institution of slavery” as a cause. Five years later, the Civil War had ended, and 246 years after the “20 and odd Negroes” were sold in Virginia, the 13th Amendment ensured that the country would never again be defined as a slave nation.

A Woman Bequeathed

Rhoda Phillips’s name was officially written down for the first time in 1832, in the record of her sale. She was purchased when she was around 1 year old, along with her mother, Milley, and her sister Martha, for $550. The enslaver Thomas Gleaves eventually acquired Rhoda. He bequeathed her to his family in his will, where she is listed as valued at $200. She remained enslaved by them until the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Afterward, Rhoda is believed to have married a man and had eight children with him. When she died, the Gleaves family ran an obituary in The Nashville Banner that showed the family still could not see the inhumanity of slavery. “Aunt Rhody,” the obituary said, “was raised by Mr. Gleaves and has lived with the family all her life. She was one of the old-time darkies that are responsible for the making of so many of their young masters.” In this daguerreotype of Rhoda, she is about 19, and in contrast to the practice at the time, Rhoda appears alone in the frame. Typically, enslaved people were shown holding white children or in the background of a family photo, the emphasis placed on their servitude. Rhoda’s story highlights one of the perversities of slavery: To the Gleaves, Rhoda was a family member even as they owned her.

By Black People, for Black People

On March 16, 1827, the same year that slavery was abolished in New York, Peter Williams Jr. co-founded Freedom’s Journal, the first newspaper owned and operated by African-Americans. A weekly New York paper, it was edited by John Russwurm and Samuel Cornish, who wrote in their first editorial , “We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us. Too long has the publick been deceived by misrepresentations.” Russwurm and Cornish wanted the paper to strengthen relations among newly freed black people living in the North and counter racist and hostile representations of African-Americans in other papers. At its peak, the paper circulated in 11 states and internationally. Although it folded in 1829, Freedom’s Journal served as inspiration for other black newspapers, and by the start of the Civil War, there were at least two dozen black-owned papers in the country. The renowned abolitionist and scholar Frederick Douglass used his newspapers to call for and to secure social justice.

Generations of Enslavement

On March 7, 1854, Sally and her three daughters, Sylvia, Charlotte and Elizabeth, were sold for $1,200. Sally was able to remain with her children, at least for a short time, but most enslaved women had to endure their children being forcibly taken from them. Their ability to bear children — their “increase” — was one of the reasons they were so highly valued. Laws throughout the country ensured that a child born to an enslaved woman was also the property of the enslaver to do with as he saw fit, whether to make the child work or to sell the child for profit. Many enslaved women were also regularly raped, and there were no laws to protect them; white men could do what they wanted without reproach, including selling the offspring — their offspring — that resulted from these assaults. Many white women also served as enslavers; there was no alliance of sisterhood among slave mistresses and the black mothers and daughters they claimed as property.

‘Brethren, arise, arise! Strike for your lives and liberties. Now is the day and the hour. ... Let your motto be resistance!’

Liberation Theology

In 1831, Nat Turner, along with about 70 enslaved and free black people, led a revolt in Southampton County, Va., that shook the nation. Turner, a preacher who had frequent, powerful visions, planned his uprising for months, putting it into effect following a solar eclipse, which he interpreted as a sign from God. He and his recruits freed enslaved people and killed white men, women and children, sparing only a number of poor white people. They killed nearly 60 people over two days, before being overtaken by the state militia. Turner went into hiding, but he was found and hanged a few months later. It was one of the deadliest revolts during slavery, a powerful act of resistance that left enslavers scared — both for their lives and for the loss of their “property.” The Virginia resident Eleanor Weaver reflected on the events, stating in a letter to family members: “We hope our government will take some steps to put down Negro preaching. It is those large assemblies of Negroes causes the mischief.” More stringent laws went into effect that controlled the lives of black people, free or enslaved, limiting their ability to read, write or move about.

The Slave Patrols

In 1846, Col. Henry W. Adams, of the 168th Regiment, Virginia Militia, started a slave patrol in Pittsylvania County, Va., that would “visit all Negro quarters and other places suspected of entertaining unlawful assemblies of slaves ... as aforesaid, unlawfully assembled, orany others strolling from one plantation to another, without a pass from his or her master or mistress or overseer, and take them before the next justice of the peace, who if he shall see cause, is hereby required to order every such slave ... aforesaid to receive any number of lashes, not exceeding 20 on his or her back.” Slave patrols throughout the nation were created by white people who were fearful of rebellion and were seeking to protect their human property. While overseers were employed on plantation sites as a means of control, slave patrols — which patrolled plantations, streets, woods and public areas — were thought to serve the larger community. While slave patrols tried to enforce laws that limited the movement of the enslaved community, black people still found ways around them.

Growing National Tension

In 1850, Congress passed a new Fugitive Slave Act, which required that all citizens aid in the capturing of fugitive enslaved black people. Lack of compliance was considered breaking the law. The previous act, from 1793, enabled enslavers to pursue runaway enslaved persons, but it was difficult to enforce. The 1850 act — which created a legal obligation for Americans, regardless of their moral views on slavery, to support and enforce the institution — divided the nation and undergirded the path to the Civil War. Black people could not testify on their own behalf, so if a white person incorrectly challenged the status of a free black person, the person was unable to act in his or her own defense and could be enslaved. In 1857, Dred Scott, who was enslaved, went to court to claim his freedom after his enslaver transported him into a free state and territory. The Supreme Court determined his fate when Chief Justice Roger B. Taney stated that no black person, free or enslaved, could petition the court because they were not “citizens within the meaning of the Constitution.” By statute and interpretation of the law, black people in America were dehumanized and commodifiedin order to maintain the economic and political power supported by slavery.

Enlisting in a Moral Fight

It is unclear whether Jacob Johns was enslaved, recently freed or a free man when he enlisted in the Union Army as a sergeant in the 19th United States Colored Troops Infantry, Company B. His unit fought in 11 battles, and 293 of its men were killed or died of disease, including Johns. When the war began in 1861, enslaved African-Americans seized their opportunity for freedom by crossing the Union Army lines in droves. The Confederate states tried to reclaim their human “property” but were denied by the Union, which cleverly declared the formerly enslaved community as contraband of war — captured enemy property. President Abraham Lincoln initially would not let black men join the military, anxious about how the public would receive integrated efforts. But as casualties increased and manpower thinned, Congress passed the Second Confiscation and Militia Act in 1862, allowing Lincoln to “employ as many persons of African descent” as he needed, and thousands enlisted in the United States Colored Troops. Jacobs was one of nearly 180,000 black soldiers who served in the U.S.C.T. during the Civil War, a group that made up nearly one-tenth of all soldiers, fighting for the cause of freedom.

Always on Your Person

A free black man living in Loudoun County, Va., Joseph Trammell created this small metal tin to protect his certificate of freedom — proof that he was not enslaved. During slavery, freedom was tenuous for free black people: It could be challenged at any moment by any white person, and without proof of their status they could be placed into the slave trade. Trammell, under Virginia law, had to register his freedom every few years with the county court. But even for free black people, laws were still in place that limited their liberty — in many areas in the North and the South, they could not own firearms, testify in court or read and write — and in the free state of Ohio, at least two race riots occurred before 1865.

One Family’s Ledger

Slaveholding families kept meticulous records of their business transactions: buying, selling and trading people. A record of the Rouzee family’s taxable property includes five horses, 497 acres of land and 28 enslaved people. Records show the family enterprise including the purchase and sale of African-Americans, investment in provisions to maintain the enslaved community and efforts to capture an enslaved man who ran toward freedom. From one century to the next, the family profited from enslaved people, their wealth passing from generation to generation. As enslaved families were torn apart, white people — from the elite planter class to individuals invested in one enslaved person — were building capital, a legacy that continues today.

‘I shall never forget that memorable night, when in a distant city I waited and watched at a public meeting, with 3,000 others not less anxious than myself, for the word of deliverance which we have heard read today. Nor shall I ever forget the outburst of joy and thanksgiving that rent the air when the lightning brought to us the Emancipation Proclamation.’

Freedom Begins

On Sept. 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, stating that if the Confederacy did not end its rebellion by Jan. 1, 1863, “all persons held as slaves” in the states that had seceded would be free. The Confederacy did not comply, and the proclamation went into effect. But the Emancipation Proclamation freed only those enslaved in the rebelling states, approximately 3.5 million people. It did not apply to half a million enslaved people in slaveholding states that weren’t part of the Confederacy — Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Delaware and what would become West Virginia — or to those people in parts of the Confederacy that were already under Northern control. They remained enslaved until Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox in April 1865. The freedom promised by the proclamation — and the official legal end of slavery — did not occur until the ratification of the 13th Amendment on Dec. 6, 1865. Only then was the tyranny of slavery truly over. Nevertheless, the Emancipation Proclamation was deeply meaningful to the community of formerly enslaved African-Americans and their allies. Annual emancipation celebrations were established, including Juneteenth; across the country, African-American gathering spots were named Emancipation Park; and the words of the proclamation were read aloud as a reminder that African-Americans, enslaved and free, collectively fought for freedom for all and changed an entire nation.

‘The story of the African-American is not only the quintessential American story but it’s really the story that continues to shape who we are today.’

Mary Elliott is curator of American slavery at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, where she co-curated the ‘‘Slavery and Freedom’’ exhibition. Jazmine Hughes is a writer and editor at The New York Times Magazine.

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Dual message of slavery probe: Harvard’s ties inseparable from rise, and now University must act

Alvin Powell

Harvard Staff Writer

President and Corporation dedicate $100 million to implementation of recommendations

A new report shows that Harvard’s ties to slavery were transformative in the University’s rise to global prominence, and included enslaved individuals on campus, funding from donors engaged in the slave trade, and intellectual leadership that obstructed efforts to achieve racial equality.

The report of the Presidential Committee on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery , released Tuesday, describes a history that began with a Colonial-era embrace of slavery that saw more than 70 people enslaved by Harvard presidents and other leaders, faculty, and staff. The report offers a series of recommendations — already accepted by Harvard President Larry Bacow — that amount to a reckoning with the University’s history. A $100 million fund established by the Harvard Corporation to implement the recommendations includes resources both for current use and to establish an endowment to sustain the work in perpetuity.

“Veritas is more than our motto,” Bacow said in a video accompanying the report’s release. “It’s our reason for being. We’re committed to truth for the sake of our community and for the sake of our nation. The truth is that slavery played a significant part in our institutional history.”

Harvard’s slavery ties extended beyond abolition in Massachusetts, in 1783, through the pre-Civil War period, when wealthy donors boosted the University with funds earned through slave trading and slavery-dependent businesses, such as Caribbean sugar and Southern cotton. The effects carried into the post-slavery era and the 20 th century, as prominent faculty members promoted eugenics, discrimination tainted admissions and housing, and Harvard became one of the nation’s most prestigious institutions by catering to America’s white, wealthy upper class. Despite recent efforts to address this history, legacies of slavery persist today.

“There is no statute of limitations on facing the past and determining what it might mean for the present and future,” said committee member Tiya Miles.

File photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

The report is the result of a nearly 2½-year effort by a faculty committee led by the legal scholar and historian Tomiko Brown-Nagin, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. In addition to highlighting the institution’s ties to slavery, the committee notes Harvard’s connection to prominent abolitionists and African American leaders. The scholar, author, and civil rights pioneer W.E.B. Du Bois was a graduate of the College and the first African American to earn a Harvard Ph.D. Harvard-educated Black lawyers Charles Hamilton Houston, William Hastie, and William Coleman worked against segregation, paving the way for the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which marked the beginning of the end of “separate but equal” in the U.S.

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“The committee thought that it was important to lay bare the difficult aspects of Harvard’s history, but also speak to the resistance that is very much a part of Harvard’s legacy,” Brown-Nagin said. “I am aware that the history we trace in this report is deeply troubling. But it would be a great disservice to our community if the only message that we took away was one of shame. We must acknowledge the harm that Harvard has done. But it is also important that we do not — as has been done in the past — bury stories of Black resistance, excellence, and leadership. These women and men are also part of our history — also part of our legacy.”

Much of this resistance defied an official attitude toward equality that well into the 20th century could be described as “a half-opened door,” according to an author cited in the report. It wasn’t until the 1960s that the University initiated a period of slow reform.

“What I think is the most powerful finding is that slavery permeated almost everything about Harvard’s early history,” said Sven Beckert, Laird Bell Professor of History and a member of the faculty committee. “The second thing is the long legacy of this history of enslavement and the importance of Harvard in permeating ideas of racial difference, and also having policies that were based on such beliefs, namely excluding African American students from the University for an extremely long time.”

“There is no doubt that infusions of slavery-tainted money put the School on the path to becoming the institution that we know today: one of the premier universities in the world,” said committee member Annette Gordon-Reed.

Courtesy photo

The report is the latest step in a wider movement. In addition to findings at Georgetown and Brown University , more than 80 institutions have joined a consortium called Universities Studying Slavery . Harvard’s effort has its roots in a 2007 history seminar in which Beckert asked students to plumb the archives for a full accounting of the extent to which the University benefited from slavery. The findings of that report led President Drew Faust in 2016 to erect a plaque outside of Wadsworth House honoring four enslaved people known only by their first names — Titus, Venus, Bilhah, and Juba — who worked for two of Harvard’s slave-owning presidents, Benjamin Wadsworth and Edward Holyoke. Harvard Law School subsequently wrestled with the legacy of a key donor, Isaac Royall, who was deeply involved in Caribbean slavery.

“There is no statute of limitations on facing the past and determining what it might mean for the present and future,” said committee member Tiya Miles, Michael Garvey Professor of History, Radcliffe Alumnae Professor, and director of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History. “The present moment seems especially urgent, though, for conducting and sharing research of this kind. The U.S. has been embroiled in a divisive debate about race and the historical legacies of slavery over the last few years. By engaging with the history of our University as it intersects with these issues, we join our collective and institutional voice to a pressing national conversation.”

Donors and slave money

Among the report’s findings is that more than a third of the funds donated or pledged to Harvard in the first half of the 19th century came from five men whose fortunes derived from slavery in some form: James Perkins, Benjamin Bussey, John McLean, Abbott Lawrence, and Peter Brooks.

“Any effort to confront and reckon with the past requires knowing the past and knowing the legacies of the past into the present,” said committee member Martha Minow.

File photo by Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

The gifts supported Harvard’s expansion from a regional institution that had educated Boston’s elite for a century and a half into a national one. The mark of slavery was clear. Perkins was directly involved in Caribbean slave trading. Bussey was a sugar, coffee, and cotton merchant, crops dependent upon slave labor. McLean conducted business along two legs of the infamous triangular trade, sending wood and food to the Caribbean and bringing the region’s main export, slave-grown sugar, to Europe and the U.S. Abbott Lawrence operated cotton textile factories that depended on slave-produced Southern cotton. And Brooks became New England’s richest man by insuring ships that plied the trade between New England and Caribbean slave islands.

“We can’t say that Harvard would not have existed in some form without donations from enslavers and slave traders,” said Annette Gordon-Reed, the Carl M. Loeb University Professor and a member of the committee. “But there is no doubt that infusions of slavery-tainted money put the School on the path to becoming the institution that we know today: one of the premier universities in the world.”

Gordon-Reed said the report’s significance lies not just in its facts — some of which have been previously published — but in the totality of the picture it paints. It’s also important to understand, she said, that though Harvard today proudly points to its abolitionists and civil rights pioneers, in their time these scholars often felt unwelcome at the institution that would later celebrate them.

“We often take credit for the fact that people who spoke against slavery and for racial equality were at the school, but we don’t talk enough about how they — I’m thinking of Du Bois’ experiences — were treated when they were here,” she said. “Because those people are now admired, Harvard gets the benefit of their courageous moral stances. I think the power of the report is in the accretion of all of the information about the various ways that slavery and white supremacy shaped life at Harvard and shaped the institution.”

“What I think is the most powerful finding is that slavery permeated almost everything about Harvard’s early history,” said committee member Sven Beckert.

The depth of Harvard’s connections to slavery is evident in the familiarity of some of the names in the report. They adorn buildings and are prominent in the University’s lore: Winthrop, Perkins, McLean, Lawrence, Bussey, Atkins, Greenleaf, Agassiz, Holmes, Warren, Eliot, and Lowell.

“The report reveals that Harvard was not an ivory tower set apart from the dirty dynamics of racial prejudice and racial animus,” Miles said. “It was, and still is, caught up in the struggles of the country and wider world. Harvard has a big history that includes grave mistakes and inspiring triumphs. We can become a more reflective, more intentional, and ultimately stronger community if we recognize both these truths.”

Moving forward  

In a message to the community on Tuesday, Bacow noted that legacies of slavery, at Harvard and across the nation, have contributed to inequality in education, health, income, and social mobility. The $100 million commitment, he said, is a response to the profound harm documented in the report.

“I recognize that this is a significant commitment, and for good reason. Slavery and its legacy have been a part of American life for more than 400 years. The work of further redressing its persistent effects will require our sustained and ambitious efforts for years to come.”

Committee member Martha Minow, Three Hundredth Anniversary University Professor and former dean of Harvard Law School, said that the persistence of Harvard’s efforts will be key. “Success here will not happen next week, it is about the long haul,” said Minow, who will chair a committee overseeing implementation of the report’s recommendations.

The recommendations include identifying and offering support to direct descendants of slaves who worked on campus or were owned by Harvard leadership, faculty, or staff. Engagement will include educational support, information-sharing, programming, and relationship-building. Descendant communities affected by Harvard’s practices, either directly or indirectly, are another focus of the recommendations, which suggest establishing “close and genuine partnerships” with relevant schools, community groups, tribal colleges, universities, and nonprofits. Efforts would touch areas such as teacher training, early childhood development, and STEM education.

Redressing Harvard’s links to slavery “will require our sustained and ambitious efforts for years to come,” said President Larry Bacow.

File photo by Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

The report also recommends that Harvard establish long-term partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities, including through visiting faculty appointments and a “Du Bois Scholars Program.” Another potential collaboration would focus on libraries and the preservation and digitization of African American history.

On campus, Harvard should honor enslaved people through memorialization, including “a permanent and imposing physical memorial, convening space, or both,” the report says.

“The commitment to truth, truth-seeking, truth-telling — the watchword of Harvard and the guiding light of a research university — requires facing the truths and facing the actual history,” Minow said. “Any effort to confront and reckon with the past requires knowing the past and knowing the legacies of the past into the present. This is foundational work for the work to come.”

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The Problem of Slavery in Africa Research Paper

Introduction, dimensions of slavery, acquisition of slaves, roles of slaves, effects of slavery in africa, works cited.

Like in other continents, slavery forms a major component of the African history. Encompassed with a myriad of intertwined factors, slavery in Africa was viewed from different perspectives. With several decades having passed since the abolition of slavery in most parts of the world, historians carry the historic memories of slavery in Africa.

Ranging from slave trade to child slavery, Africa witnessed countless atrocities, which were mainly perpetuated by powerful countries from Europe and among African communities. In understanding slavery in Africa, it is important to consider its origin and its greatest impact on the continent. This research paper analyses slavery in Africa, detailing its causes, dimensions and abolition among other major aspects of the slavery.

Europe started exploring ways of establishing relationships with Africa through trade between 800 and 1500 AD. It was during this time that Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and English traders sailed to access many countries in Africa to find market for their products which they bought from Europe and Asia.

In their initial efforts, Europeans were interested in the trading of gold, ivory tusks, feathers and other metals that were considered valuable (Claude 23). During this commercial interaction, many European countries discovered that African leaders were willing to exchange some of their people as slaves for other supplies.

Several trade routes were also established by colonies in the Atlantic to facilitate trade between several points. According to historic revelation, 1535 AD was the year when the first group of people left Africa for Americas in exchange for several business commodities (Manzo 394).

In exchange for slaves, European countries supplied ammunition, riffles and other goods to African kings. After an agreement was reached between Europeans and African leaders, slaves were packed in huge sailing boats and taken to different American colonies and to the Caribbean Island. While in these Islands, the slaves were traded for molasses, tobacco, sugar and cotton before they exchanged what they received back for guns from Europe (Claude 21).

This was the origin of what was later to be known as the Triangle Trade Route which contributed to the sale of at least ten million people from Africa. This practice continued and spread around Africa and other parts of the world before several countries joined efforts in illegalizing slave trade.

For the case of the United States, the country had to engage in the famous Cold War until 1865 AD when the trade was officially illegalized. It is for this reason that there are men and women in South and North America of African descent (Miers and Kopytoff 11).

Although there has been no consensus on the actual factors that led to the rise of slavery in Africa, many scholars concur that the need for agricultural labor was a major reason that contributed to the rise and escalation of slave trade in Africa. As it shall be noted later, other people have postulated the role of commerce and politics as key players in African slavery.

To the contrary, some anthropologists have argued that there were no sufficient reasons to support African slavery, having in mind that most people depended on gathering and hunting as a major source of food. From all directions, Africa as a continent was connected with slavery to the rest of the world as they were key players in the civilization process (Manzo 398).

In the northern part of Africa, slavery was mainly practiced in Sahara desert and in those lands which bordered it to the south together with the current Western Sahara, Algeria and Morocco. In addition, Tuaregs practiced slavery in the Central Sahara. The institution of slavery was also common among the Ethiopians, Sudanese, Egyptians and among the Somalis. Slavery was also known in several states from West Africa.

There were two main dimensions that were directly linked to slavery and slave trade in Africa. These were external and internal dimensions. In general, the external dimension involved the trading of slaves across the Sahara, Red Sea, Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean worlds (Marcus 66). Although this trade commenced in ancient times, history reveals that it continued after colonial periods.

During early years, African slaves were found working in Greece, Rome, Europe and in the Islamic world among other places. The capture of Constantinople by Ottoman in 1453 led to a stop of the movement of slaves from the Balkans and the Black Sea region. This resulted into disconnection of the Mediterranean from its principal source of slaves, leaving the region with no other option but Africa, which became its new source of slaves (Marcus 66).

The last period of the external slave trade took place between the 15 th to the 19 th centuries, involving Atlantic, Oriental and the Islamic worlds. Notably, the Islamic world was sophisticated and selective as slavery served both economic and social functions. Due to this complexity of the market, African slaves were not as valuable as those from Georgia and Circassia.

Although these girls were on high demand in most parts of the world including Morocco, they were scarce and expensive (Marcus 67).Arabs valued Ethiopian slaves more than any other man because they were believed to be refined and intelligent and therefore they were not suited for heavy duties.

On the other hand, external slave trade was mainly conducted within the African continent. The trade was divided into sections; North Africa traded with West Africa while the Southern part of Africa traded mostly with Central and Eastern regions.

Ghana was a key player during this period and was highly valued because of its richness in gold that was found in Offin and Pra rivers, which had a high concentration of this valuable mineral. A part from gold, Ghana was also a source of ivory and kola nuts. The Savanna region was a major source of millet, ostrich feathers, sorghum, ivory, wheat, slaves, livestock, cloth and gum (Marcus 68).

Slaves in Africa were basically acquired through fives ways which were: warfare, raiding and kidnapping, pawning, market supply and tribute paying. The main slavery output emanated from prisoners of war (Marcus 68).Warfare was quite common among the forest and Savanna states of East, West, South and Central Africa. Jihads were also influential as they enslaved people ranging from the Red Sea in the east to the Senegambia in the West.

On the other hand, slave markets were established depending of the sizes of the regions and members of royalties as they were allowed to move freely to any part of the markets and purchase slaves. Caravan routes offered the best sites for the establishment of these markets, while West and North Africa considered Trans-Saharan routes to be imperative during slave trade (Marcus 70).

Similarly, raiding and kidnapping were common practices used to acquire slaves from a particular region. It is believed that these practices were well institutionalized in the Bambara Society while the Berbers and Tuaregs were well known for raiding their neighbors who were found to the south.

This method of slave procurement was also utilized by the Damagaram, inhabitants of Northern Nigeria. However, in other regions like Sokoto Caliphate and Nilotic Sudan, the exercise was considered to be a state affair (Miers and Kopytoff 12).

Many other slaves were obtained through paying of tribute (Miers and Kopytoff 171). Yoruba of Nigeria are extensively known for having employed this method. Additionally, the Sokoto Caliphate always ordered tribute from subjects and this was only honored using slaves as the key commodity recognized by leaders and empires.

The last method applied in slave acquisition was pawning. This referred to cases where a slave was given out to serve as security for borrowed money. The pawn therefore served as a commitment to settle the debt and was expected to work for the creditor and be taken care of by the host until the debt was cleared. Although pawning was not a direct form of slavery, non-redeemed pawns ended up serving as slaves for the rest of their lives and were common in Ghana, Nigeria among the Igbo and in Mozambique among the Sena (Marcus 67).

Slaves were mainly needed as a major source of labor in agriculture, industry and trade. However a few slaves were employed in administration of the state, empires and kingdoms. Other slaves were used to perform domestic duties, in the military and for personal satisfaction.

Agriculture, Trade and Industry

Slave labor was necessary for several economic activities among African communities. These activities included hunting, fishing, farming and animal rearing among others. Slaves were also played a major role in collection of food plants like coconuts, shea butter, oil palm and kola nuts (Marcus 70).

With regard to trade, slaves mainly served as trading agents, merchants or porter, working for the state and also for individuals. In some cases, slaves took charge of trade roots and were expected to collect taxes as directed by the authority. In addition, slaves worked in several industries including gold mining, cloth weaving, iron working, art and craft industries and salt making.

Administration and Military

Slaves were highly needed to provide security to kingdoms and empires as well as to serve during warfare. Others served as bodyguards to chiefs and kings whereas a few trusted slaves were entrusted with command responsibilities during battles. During entertainment, slaves were horn blowers and drummers and served as caretakers of the Royal Mausoleum. They also engaged in other departments like finance and kitchen among others (Marcus 71).

Domestic chores

Both male and female slaves performed domestic roles in shrines, palaces and individual households, engaging in washing, cooking, cleaning, sweeping and fetching of water and firewood. Other slaves were sacrificed mainly during major functions and ceremonies in accordance with traditional beliefs and practices. This was also common as occasioned by death of prominent personalities (Marcus 67).

Slavery in Africa had numerous effects ranging from positive to negative, with the latter dominating. The first effect of slavery revolves around the manner in which most slaves were procured by communities and empires. As a key method of acquiring slaves, raiding propagated hostility among villages and other attacking groups (Nunn 139).

As a result of this animosity, involved parties had to break alliances, agreements, trading relations among other forms of association. Consequently, conflicts between communities were common as each fought towards protecting their own interests.

As mentioned before, slavery in Africa presented itself in two dimensions, involving slavery activities within and outside the continent. The trans-Atlantic trade which has deeper roots in African Slavery led to the exportation of at least ten million people from Africa to Europe and other continents.

Notably, this number does not account for countless slaves who died during raids or during long journeys to the coast before they were shipped and ferried to various European destinations (Nunn 139 It therefore suffices to mention that these practices turned against different communities as they became impediments towards economic development and social strengthening.

Ethnic Fractionalization

Raiding and kidnappings, which were core methods of capturing slaves, had detrimental impact on most African societies. Since the attacks happened among African communities, the continent felt the entire impact of slavery (Nunn 141).

Accordingly, hostility rose as every community wanted to domineer and protect its people against unauthorized slavery. Several contacts that had promoted peace between communities got broken by insecurity, banditry, and massive suspicion whose main origin was slavery that had escalated to every part of the continent during the 19 th century.

This discouraged the formation of larger communities and identities and explains why Africa as a continent is fragmented into countless ethnic groups, some of which do not have broader identities. Viewed from a development point of view, ethnic fragmentation significantly hampered development in most African ethnic communities that was contributed by raids and insecurity (Nunn 141).

Weakening of states

High level of insecurity among communities resulted into high demand for weaponry like knives, firearms and swords for the defense of communities. These items were only found in Europe, forcing African kings to export slaves in exchange of these devices that were considered to be very important. The “gun slave cycle” continued as acquisition of firearms increased both insecurity and the need for high-level security protection (Nunn 142).

There was heightened animosity among states as Europeans benefitted from the supply of slaves to meet their needs, causing political instability of not only ethnic groups but also the entire state. In extreme cases of political instability and increased cases of insecurity, governments disintegrated and got replaced by weak and smaller kingdoms.

There is documented evidence about the existence of well established political structures, which stagnated and collapsed at the arrival of the Portuguese in the 15 th century. In addition, this fragmentation further determined ethnic and language homogeneity among African communities (Nunn 142).

Besides these factors, deterioration of legal institutions as people adopted enslavement to be the main method of enforcing the law. Traditional methods like punishment, exiles and compensation were substituted with slavery through paying of tributes (Miers and Kopytoff 171).

With slavery having dominated Africa for years, the nurtured society led to a prevalent predatory behavior among most communities that was accompanied with low production. People believed in raiding and forceful acquisition of wealth, which can be linked to continued war in some parts of the continent. On the other hand, some historians argue that slavery led to the introduction of better breeds of animals and crop varieties that promoted high food production (Nunn 143).

With reference to the above analysis of slavery in Africa, it is clear that these practices had significant impact on the entire African society with some of the effects being felt today. From disintegrated governments to collapsed judicial system, Africa suffered severely in the hands of slavery which was promoted by both external and internal factors. With most societies having been left under insecure governments and unstable social structure, Europe highly benefited from the slavery as it dominated the trans-Atlantic Trade.

Claude, Melliassoux. “The slave trade and development.” Diogenes 45.3 (1997): 23-30.

Manzo, Kate. “Exploiting West Africa’s children: trafficking, slavery and uneven development.” Area 37.4 (2005): 393-401. Print.

Marcus, Colchester. “Slave and enclave.” Ecologist 23.5 (1993): 66-74.

Miers, Suzanne, and Kopytoff Igor. Slavery in Africa: historical and anthropological perspectives . Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1979. Print.

Nunn, Nathan. “The Long-Term Effects of Africa’s Slave Trades.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 1.1 (2008): 139-176.

Townsend, Cummins. “Keeping score: Winners and losers in the transatlantic slave trade.” Reviews in American History 21.3 (1993): 379-405.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, April 8). The Problem of Slavery in Africa. https://ivypanda.com/essays/slavery-in-africa-research-paper/

"The Problem of Slavery in Africa." IvyPanda , 8 Apr. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/slavery-in-africa-research-paper/.

IvyPanda . (2024) 'The Problem of Slavery in Africa'. 8 April.

IvyPanda . 2024. "The Problem of Slavery in Africa." April 8, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/slavery-in-africa-research-paper/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Problem of Slavery in Africa." April 8, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/slavery-in-africa-research-paper/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Problem of Slavery in Africa." April 8, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/slavery-in-africa-research-paper/.

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African American Heritage

American Slavery, Civil Records

The following is information found in the records of the National Archives and Records Administration. It identifies the record group and series, with brief descriptions and locations. It does not provide actual documents. Some of the records are microfilmed, and have been noted. For further insight, see Walter B. Hill Jr.'s Prologue article on this topic.

• Table of Contents
• I. Congressional Records
• RG 29: Records of the Bureau of the Census (crop schedules)
• RG 36: Records of the United States Customs Service, 1745 - 1982
• RG 48: Records of the Office of the Secretary of the Interior
• RG 55: Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands
• RG 59: General Records of the Department of State

Part I: A to H

• Part II: I to Q
• Part III: R to Z
• RG 60: General Records of the Department of Justice
• RG 69: Records of the Work Projects Administration
• RG 76: Records of Boundary and Claims Commissions and Arbitration
• RG 206: Records of the Solicitor of the Treasury
• RG 217: Records of the United States General Accounting
• RG 287: Publications of the U.S. Government, 1790-1979
• RG 366: Records of Civil War Special Agencies of the Treasury Department
• III. Military Records
• IV. Judicial Records

RG 29 Records of the Bureau of the Census (crop schedules) RG 36 Records of the United States Customs Service, 1745 - 1982 Congress created the Custom Service on July 31, 1789 and made it a part of the Department of Treasury (September 1789). The service assisted other agencies in the enforcement of the slave trading laws that were passed between 1794 to 1820. In particular, the 1807 law prohibited the transportation of slaves after 1808, and section 9 required that all vessels of 40 tons or more carrying slaves in the coastwise trade file duplicate manifests (ports of origin and destination) showing name, age and description of each slave, the name and residence of exporter and consignee, and pledge that the slave had not been imported after 1807. Manifest records exist for four ports.

• Records of Customhouses
• Philadelphia, 1790 - 1840 (1/4 in.)
• New Orleans, 1819 - 52 and 1860 - 61 (15 ft.)
• Mobile, 1822 - 1860 (4 ft.)
• Savannah, 1801 - 60 (6 ft.)

By an act of Congress, March 3, 1849, the Department of Interior consolidated in one department the General Land Office (under the Secretary of Treasury), Commissioner of Indian Affairs and Office of the Commissioner of Pensions (under the Secretary of War), Patent Office (under the Secretary of State), Commissioner of Public buildings, and assumed the jurisdiction over census taking, marshals and court officers, charitable and penal institutions in the District of Columbia. Records Relating to the Suppression of the African Slave Trade and to Negro Colonization, 1854-72 Several laws were passed in the 19th century for the suppression of the African slave trade and for support of the colonization of recaptured and free Africans. In 1861, the Interior Department assumed responsibility of administering the anti-slave trade laws and those providing for the colonization of recaptured and free Africans in Liberia and other countries. The Secretary of Interior accumulated much correspondence related to a variety of issues and subjects surrounding the suppression of the trade from the President, Congress, various executive departments, 1858-72, and from U.S. agents for liberated Africans in Liberia, 1860-65.

• Register of Letters Received, 1858-1872. LOC: 150/7/16/05, 1 vol. ent 375
• Letters Received and Other Records, 1854-1872. LOC: 150/7/16/06, bxes 1-5, ent. 376
• Letters Sent, 1856 - 1872, vol. 1 LOC: 150/7/16/06, ent. 377
• Press Copies of letters sent, 1861 - 1869, box 1 LOC: 150/7/16/06, ent. 378
• Weekly Returns USS Atlanta, 1858-1859, vol. 1 LOC: 150/7/16/06, ent. 379

These records were established in the Department of the Navy, effective upon the formal transfer of sovereignty over the Danish West Indies from Denmark to the United States, March 28, 1917, under authority of an act of March 3, 1917 (39 Stat. 1132). The United States purchased the islands from Denmark by treaty signed August 14, 1916, ratified by the Senate, September 7, 1916. The islands had originally been administered by the Danish West India and Guinea Company, 1672-1754, succeeded by the Danish Crown, 1754-1917, except for periods of British occupation in 1801 and 1807-1815. Records Relating Directly to Slavery and Emancipation

Reports Received from the Governor's Committee Appointed to Sound Out the Planters Concerning the Ceding of a Free Day Off to the Laborers, 1840. 1 inch, Box 124, entry 60.

Papers concerning the Plan for the Organization of the Free Colored, 1830-1831. 1 inch, Box 133, entry 71.

Letters Received by the Governor in which the Planters Express Their Views on Gradual Emancipation, 1840. 1 inch, Box 133, entry 72.

Free Coloreds on St. Croix, 1848. Box 304, entry 82.

List of Slaves Involved in 1848 Rebellion. Box 310, entry 82.

Plantation Inventories; Slave Emancipation Claims, 1853. Box 317, entry 82.

Papers relating to Free Persons of Color, 1801-43. Box 319, entry 82.

Slave Lists, 1835, 1847. Box 322, entry 82.

Freedom Charters: A Register of the Free Colored and the Documents Proving their Status. 2 vol., 2 inches, entry 171.

Registers of Free Coloreds, 1803, 1831-32. Boxes 583-586, 12 vols., entries 214-215.

Proceedings [investigating the riots of 1848]. Box 586, 1 vol., entry 226.

Records of the Compensation Commissions, 1853-62. Boxes 587-589, plus 3 vols., entries 227-230.

Power of Attorney to Receive Payments from Compensation Bonds Issued as a Result of the 1848 Emancipation of the Slaves, 1854-56. Box 732, ¼ inch, entry 334 [MISSING].

Case Papers Concerning Contested Slave Ownership, 1803. Box 755, ¼ inch, entry 383.

Register of Colored Communicants..., 1819-1835. Box 880, 1 vol., entry 478.

Lists of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials of the Colored Inhabitants, 1820-1841. Box 880, ¼ inch, entry 479.

List of Slave Owners and Former Slaves, 1853-54. Box 1904, 1 vol., ½ inch, entry 723.

Records of Court Martial Following the Revolt of 1848. Box 2024, 1 vol., entry 854.

Annual Reports Concerning the Increase or Decrease in Number of Royal Negroes, 1765-73. Box 2377, ½ inch, entry 1062.

Records Concerning Negro Loans, 1793-1805. Box 2461, 4 vols., entries 1133- 1136.

Announcements, Ordinances, Orders, Resolutions, etc., 1672-1840. Boxes 568- 577, plus 19 vols., entries 187-197.

Announcements, etc., 1688-1727. Box 923, 2 vols., entries 520-522.

Privy Council Proceedings, 1745-55. Box 1, 1 inch, entry 1.

Records of the Office of the Governor and Government Secretary 1770-1848. Boxes 1-5, including 8 vols., entries 2-9.

Records of the Governor and Government Secretary, 1830-1917. Boxes 924-934, 936-941, 39 vols., entries 523, 525-531, 534-538.

Records of the Colonial Councils, 1780-1947. 62 Boxes, entries 1161-1163.

By an act of Congress, July 27, 1789, ( 1Stat.28), the President approved establishing the first executive department of the Federal Government. Designated the Department of Foreign Affairs, (an Act of September 1789 changed the name to the Department of State), the new Department was established to help the President carry out his constitutional responsibility for conducting the U.S. relations with foreign governments. Domestic functions were assigned to the Department, but with the expansion of the Government most of these were passed to other agencies.

• Kansas Territory, 1854-1861, Conflict between proslavery and antislavery factions. Publication: M218, DP.
• Orleans Territory, 1764-1823, The importation of slaves from West Indies, fugitive slaves seeking refuge in Texas. Publication: T260
• Correspondence With the President and Congress Miscellaneous Letters from Congressional Committees. 1830-1861, Censuses of slaves. entry 144
• Miscellaneous Petitions and Memorials Proclamations Addressed to President Lincoln by Antislavery Societies. 1862- 1864. entry 160

Index to United States Documents Relating to Foreign Affairs 1828-1861

• Abbot Devereux, Slaver (Myers), p7
• Aberdeen, Lord (George Hamiliton Gordon), p9
• Abreo (Antonio Rodrigo), Slave Dealer, p9
• Adams (John Quincy), of Mass., pp11-14
• Adams Gray, Amer. Slaver Brigantine, p15
• Addington (Henry Unwin), p16
• Advance, Amer. Slaver Schr., p17
• Albert, Amer. Slaver Brig (Woodberry), p21
• Alecto, H.B.M. Sloop (Hunt), p23
• Alicia, Slaver, p24
• Alienage, Citizenship, Naturalization, p31
• Amistad, Spanish Schr., pp49-51
• Anaconda, Amer. Slaver Schr. (Knight), p52
• Anderson (John), Fugitive Slave, p53
• Anderson (W.E.), Witness Against Slave Dealers, p54
• Andover (Mass.) Citizens, p54
• Appleton (John), of Me., p58
• Archer (William S.) of Va., p62
• Ardennes, Amer. Slaver Bank (Marsh), p64
• Argaiz (Pedro Alcantara), p65
• Armstrong (Mass.) Citizens, p71
• Arteta (Domingo), Master Amer. Slaver Schr. Rebecca; see Rebecca
• Asp, Amer. Schr. (Weems), pp73-74
• Augusta Religious Anti-Slavery Conv., p76
• Bacon (J.), Master Amer. Slaver Schr. Mary Anne Cassard; see Mary Anne Cassard
• Bacon (John F.) of N.Y., p80
• Bagley (Arthur P.), of Ala., p81
• Baptiste (Manuel), Deponent in Case of Slaver Bark Fame; see Fame
• Barclay (Anthony), of Nova Scotia, p90
• Barksdale (William), Repr. From Miss., p90
• Bayard (James A. Jr.), Sen. From Del., p99
• Beaver Co. (Pa.) Citizens, p102
• Bedinger (Daniel), p102
• Bell (Charles H.), of N.Y., p104
• Bell (John), p105
• Benjamin (Judah Peter), p107
• Bentinotti (Miguel), Slave Dealer, p108
• Benton (Thomas H.), pp108-109
• Berrien (John McPherson), p110
• Berry (James), Master Slaver Bark Pons; see Pons
• Beverly (Mass.) Citizens, p112
• Birch (Thomas F.), Comdr. H.B.M. Brig Wizard, p116
• Black (Jeremiah S.), of Penn., p117
• Blythe (Andrew K.), of Miss., p122
• Bonham (Milledge L.), Repr. From S.C., p126
• Boxer, U.S. Brig, p132
• Bradford (Mass.) Citizens, p133
• Bradford Co. (Penn.) Citizens, p134
• Branch (John), Secy. Navy, U.S.A., p135
• Branch (Lawrence O'B.), Repr. From N.C., p135
• Brand, Mater Amer. Slaver Brig Peerless; see Peerless
• Braxton Co. (Va.) Citizens, p136
• Brazil, Slaver Brig (Bevans, Faulkner), p143
• Bremen, Amer. Slaver Brigantine (Forest), p144
• Bright (Jesse D.), Sen. From Ind., p147
• Brookfield (Ut.) Citizens, p150
• Brown (Albert Gallatin), p152
• Brown (James), of La., p152
• Bruce (Henry W.), Rear-Admiral, H.B.M. Navy, p155
• Buchanan (James), of Penn., P161-163
• Buckingham Co. (Va.) Citizens, p163
• Bucks Co. (Pa.) Citizens, p164
• Bulwer (Sir Henry Lytton), p166
• Burbank, Master Slaver Brig Chatsworth; see Chatsworth
• Burges (Tristam), Repr. From R.I., p167
• Burnett (Henry C.), Repr. From Ky., p168
• Butler (Andrew Pickens), Sen. From S.C., p170
• Byfield (Mass.) Citizens, p175
• Caballero, Amer. Slaver Brig (Huffington), p175
• Cabarga (Antonio), Slave Dealer, p175
• Cabo Verde, Port. Schr., p175
• Cacique, Amer. Slaver Str., p176
• Caire (F.C. Paul), p176
• Calderon de la Barca (Angel), p176-178
• Calhoun (John Caldwell), of S.C., pp179-180, 182
• Calhoun, Amer. Slaver (Gordon), p187
• Calhoun, Amer. Ship (Fales), p182
• Camargo, Amer. Slaver (Gordon), p187
• Camden (N.Y.) Citizens, p188
• Camilla, Amer. Slaver Schr., p188
• Campbell (A.), H.B.M. Consul at Lagos, p188
• Camperdown, Slaver, p191
• Canal (Francisco), Master Amer. Slaver Schr. Delores; see Delores
• Canning (Stratford), p202
• Capture, etc., of Property: Cases, pp204-205
• Carlos Sp. Slaver, p208
• Carmen, Braz. Schr., Slaver, p208
• Carnahan (A.M.), et al., p208
• Case (Charles), Repr. From Indiana, p212
• Cass (Lewis), of Mich., pp216-218, 220-224
• Castlereagh (Viscount), Robert Henry Stewart, Afterwards 2nd Marquess of Loudonderry, p227-228
• Catherine, Amer. Slaver Bark (Stodder), p228
• Catherine, Amer. Slaver Schr. (Peterson), p228
• Ceres, Slaver, p294
• Chancellor, Slave Ship (Freeman), p296
• Charles, Amer. Slaver Bark, of Baltimore, p298
• Charles C. Perkins, Amer. Slaver Brig (Brown), p299
• Charleston Colonization Society, p299
• Charlotte, Amer. Slaver Brig (Lockhail), p300
• Chase (John, Jr.), Master Amer. Slaver Schr. William Ridgway; see William Ridgway
• Chase (Salmon P.) Sen. From O., p301
• Chatsworth, Amer. Slaver Brigantine (Burbank), p302
• Chauncey (Mark) and William Winn, p302
• Chesapeake Claims, p304
• Chester (Vt.) Citizens, p304
• Christiansburg (O.) Citizens, p363
• Cincinnati (O.) Citizens, p364
• City of Norfolk, Slaver, p364
• Clapp (J.), Master Amer. Slaver Bark Panther; see Panther
• Clara, Amer. Slaver (Hooker), p365
• Clara, French Gov't. Contract Slaver-Bark, p365
• Clara, Slaver, p365
• Clara B. Williams, Amer. Slaver Bark, pp365-366
• Clay (Henry), of Ky., pp370, 373-375
• Clay (James Brown), of Ky., p375
• Clayton (John Middleton), of Del., pp382-384
• Clingman (Thomas L.) of N.C., pp387-388
• Cobb (Howell), of Ga., p289
• Cochrane (Clarke B.), Repr. From N.Y., p390
• Cockburn (Sir Francis), Gov. of Bahamas, p390
• Coke (Richard, Jr.), Repr. From Va., P391
• Collamer (Jacob), p392
• Colonization Society of Fredericksburg, O., p396
• Comet, Encomium, Enterprise, pp398-400
• Concha (Jose Guttierrez de la:, Capt. Gen. of Cuba, p401
• Conhocton (N.Y.) Citizens, p402
• Conover (Thomas A.), of N.J., p404
• Constitucao, Portuguese Slaver Schr. (Roberto), p406
• Constitution, Amer. Schr. (Johnson), p406
• Convention for Formation of Anti-Slavery Society of Pa., p411
• Cooper (James), Sen. From Penn., p417
• Cortez, Amer. Schr. (Durand), p422
• Corthell (Loring), p422
• Costa Lima Biana (Jose de), Slave Dealer, p424
• Courtenay (R. W.), p425
• Cowper (H. Augustus), H.B.M. Cons. At Pernambuco, p425
• Cowperthwait (Josesph), of Phila., p425
• Craig (Robert), Repr. From Va., p427
• Crampton (John Fiennes Twisleton), p428
• Cranotick (Vincent D.), Master Amer. Slaver Schr. Mary E. Smith; see Mary E. Smith
• Craven (Thomas T.), of N.Y., p431
• Crawford (Joseph T.), H.B.M. Cons. Gen. for Cuba, p431
• Crawford (Martin J.), Repr. From Ga., p431
• Creole, Amer. Brig (Ensor), p432-433
• Crimean, Slaver Schr., p434
• Crittenden (John Jordan), of Ky., p438
• Crowninshield (Benjamin Williams), p440
• Cunha Reis (Manuel Basilia) Da, Slave Dealer, pp457-458
• Curtin (W.), Amer. Vice-Cons. at Jamaica, p459
• Cushing (Caleb), of Mass., p460
• Cyclops, H.B.M. Str. (Hastings), p466
• Dale, U.S. Sloop, pp472-473
• Dallas (George Mifflin), of Penn., pp474-475
• Dalrymple (C.J.), H.B.M. Comr. At Havana Under Mixed Commission for Suppression of Slavetrade; see Slavetrade. Cuban Waters
• Danville (Ky.) Citizens, p477
• Darke Co. (O.) Citizens, p477
• Dauphin Co. (Pa.) Citizens, p478
• Davis (Jefferson), of Miss., pp481-482
• Davis (John), of Mass., p483
• Dayton (William Lewis), of N.J., p485
• De Kalb Co. (Ind.) Citizens, p488
• Delaware Co. (O.) Citizens, p490
• Delicia, Slaver Brig, p491
• Dickinson (Daniel S.), Sen. From N.Y., p502
• Dickson (John), Repr. From N.Y., p503
• Diligente, Portuguese Brig, p504
• Dix (John A.), Sen. From N.Y., p506
• Dolcinea, Port. Slaver Schr. (Da Luz Cavalho), p509
• Dolores, Amer. Slaver Schr. (Canal), p509
• Dolores, Br. Slaver Schr., p510
• Dolphin, H.B.M. Brig (Holland), p510
• Dolphin, U.S. Brig,, p510
• Doolittle (James R.), Senator From Wisconsin, p513
• Dorset, Amer. Slaver Schr., p513
• Douglas (Stephen Arnold), pp515-516
• Douglas, Amer. Brig (Baker), p517
• Douglass (George H.), Mastr Amer. Slaver Brig Kentucky; see Kentucky
• Dowdll (James F.), Repr. From Ala., p518
• Driscoll (Cornelius F.), Master Amer. Slaver Brig Hope, p520
• Duer (John K.), p522
• Durkee, Master Amer. Slaver Brig Two Friends, p525
• Eagle, Amer. Slaver Schr. (Littig), p526
• East Lyme (Conn.) Citizens, p528
• Easton (Pa.) Citizens, p528
• Echavarria (Jose Ignacio de), Gov. of Havana, p529
• Echo, Slaver Brig, p529
• Edwin, Amer. Brig (Dayley), p531
• Egea (Jose), Slave Trader, p531
• El Dorado, U.S. Mail Str., p532
• Eleanor, Amer. Bark, p533
• Electra, H.B.M. Str. (Morris), p533
• Eliza Jane, Amer. Slaver, p534
• Elliot (George), Comdr. H.B.M. Sloop Columbine, p535
• Elliott (Jesse D.), of Penn., p535
• Ellsworth (Henry L.), Officer of Amer. Colonization Soc'y, p539
• Emanuel, Amer. Slaver Schr., p539
• Emma Lincoln Slaver, p540
• Enterprise, Amer. Slaver Schr. (Robinson), p544
• Enterprise, U.S. Brig, p544
• Erie, Amer. Slaver (Gordon), p544
• Erie Co. (O.) Citizens, p545
• Erving (George W.), of Mass., p546
• Esperanza, Amer. Slaver Schr., Formerly The Mary Reed; see Chauncey (M.) and Winn (W.)
• Espiegle, H.B.M. Sloop (Hancock), p547
• Essex Co. Anti-Slavery Society, Mass., p548
• Euphrates, Amer. Slaver Schr. (Molan), p548
• Evans (George R.), of Me., p550
• Evansville (Ind.) Citizens, p550
• Everett (Alexander Hill), of Mass, pp551-552, 555-556
• Ewing (Andrew), Representative From Tenn., p559
• Excellent, Brigantine Slaver, p559
• "Expedition for Africa", p560
• Extradition, pp563-566
• Fairy, Amer. Slaver Sloop, p571
• Falcon, H.B.M. Ship (Fitz Roy), p571
• Falmouth (Mass.) Citizens, p572
• Fame, Amer. Slaver Bark (Marks), p573
• Fenix, Span. Slaver Schr., p578
• Fernandez, Slave Dealer, p579
• Ferroz Africano, Port. Slaver; see Diligente
• Fessenden (William Pitt), p580
• Figaniere E Morao (Joaquinn Cesar de), p581
• Fish (Samuel), p586
• Fitzgerald (Charles), Comdg. H.B.M. Brigantine Buzzard, p587
• Flournoy (J.J.), p529
• Flying Eagle, Slaver, p592
• Fonseca (Manuel Pinto) de, Slave Dealer, p593
• Foote (Henry Stuart), pp594-595
• Foote (John), Comdr. H.B.M. Sqdn. W. Coast of Africa, p595
• Ford (Richard), Master Amer. Slaver Brig William D. Miller; see William D. Miller
• Forest (Tom), Master Amer. Slaver Bremen; see Bremen
• Forester, H.B.M. Brig (Norcock), p597
• Formosa, Slaver Schr., p598
• Forsythe (John), of Ga., pp599-601, 605, 608
• Fox (Henry Stephen), pp610-611
• Framingham (Mass.) Citizens, p612
• Frances Ann, Amer. Slaver Schr., p640
• Fraser (Daniel), Colored Br. Subject, p642
• Freedmen; see Negroes, Colonization of; Liberia
• Freeman, Master Slaver Ship Chancellor; see Chancellor
• Friends, Society of, p646
• Fronte (Raimond), Master Amer. Slaver Schr. Sarah Anne; see Sarah Anne
• Gabriel (Edmund), H.B.M. Comr. Mixed Commission for Suppression of Slavetrade, Loanda; see Slavetrade, Loanda; see Slavetrade. African Coast
• Gabriel, Slaver Brig; see Two Friends
• Gallatin (Albert), of Penn, p651
• Gantois and Pailhet, p652
• Garcia (Carlos), p652
• Geeren (John H.), Settler of Key Biscayne, Fla., p657
• General de Kalb, Amer. Slave Vessel, p662
• General Pickney, Slaver (Pierce), p663
• Genesee Co. (N.Y.) Citizens, p664
• George William Jones, Amer. Slaver Brig, p665
• Georgetown (D.C.) Mayor, Aldermen, and Council, p665
• Georgetown (Mass.) Citizens, p665
• Georgia, p665
• Germantown, U.S. Sloop, p666
• Gertrudes, Sp. Slaver, p666
• Gettysburg (Pa.) Citizens, p666
• Gibbs (Howard), Amer. Cons. Agt. Nuevitas, p667
• Giddings (Joshua R.) of Ohio, p669
• Gillmer (John S.), of Md., p670
• Gilpin (H. D.), Atty. Gen. U.S.A., p671
• Glamorgan, Amer. Slaver Brig, p671
• Gloucester (Mass.) Citizens, p672
• Gooch (Daniel W.) Repr. From Mass., p675
• Goodrich, Master Amer. Slaver Brig Yankee; see Yankee
• Goodrich (Edmund) [sic], H.B.M. Comr. Brit. and Portuguese Mixed Commission for Suppression of Slavetrade Under Treaty of 1842; see Slavetrade. African
• Gordon (Nathaniel), Master Amer. Slaver Camargo; see Camargo
• Gordon (Nathaniel), Master Amer. Slaver Erie; see Erie
• Graham (John), Master Barque Pons; see Pons
• Graham (William A.), of N.C., p680
• Grampus, U.S. Schr., p681
• Great Britain, pp684, 687-689
• Green (James S.), of Missouri, p693
• Greene Co. (O.) Citizens, p693
• Gregory XVI, p694
• Grey (Frederick W.), p695
• Grey Eagle, Amer. Slaver Brig, p695
• Groesbeck (William S.), of Ohio, p697
• Grundy (Felix), of Tenn., p698
• Guadaloupe, Slaver, p698
• Guerediaga (Ramon De), Slave Dealer, p713
• Guerrero, Span. Slaver Brig, p713
• Guimaraes (Isidoro Francisco), Gov. of Macao, p714
• Guimaraes (Manuel Antonio); Involved in Case of Slaver Herald; see Herald
• Gurley (R.R.), Secy. Amer. Colonization Society, p714
• Gwin (W.M.), Sen. From Calif., p717
• Hackley (William R.), U.S. Atty. So. Distr. Fla., p718
• Hagan (John), et al., p718
• Haidee, Slaver, p718
• Haiti, p720
• Hale (John Parker), pp722-723
• Hale (Matthew), Master Amer. Slaver Brig Sophia; see Sophia
• Hall (Christopher J.), Master Amer. Brig Kremlin. Deposition; see Fenix, Span. Slaver
• Hall (James), p724
• Hallett (Benjamin F.), U.S. Distr. Atty., Mass., p725
• Hamilton (Hamilton), H.B.M.E.E. and M.P., p726
• Hamilton Co. (O.) Citizens, p727
• Hamlin (Edward S.), Repr. From O., p727
• Hamlin (Hannibal), of Me., pp727-728
• Hammond (James H.), Sen. From S.C., p729
• Hanna, Master Amer. Slaver Bark Orion; see Orion
• Hantsman (Henry), Master Span. Slaver Schr. Laura; see Laura
• Hardesty (Samuel), p734
• Harlan (James), Sen. From Iowa, p735
• Harlequin, H.B.M. Sloop Russell), p735
• Harriet, Amer. Slaver, p736
• Harris (Isham G.), Repr. From M.D., p736
• Hastings (George F.), Senior Officer So. Div. H.B.M. Forces S.W. Coast of Africa, p741
• Haverhill (Mass.) Citizens, p743
• Hayne (Robert Y.), Sen. From S.C., p747
• Hecate, H.B.M. Ship (Burgess), p749
• Helm (Charles J.), of Ky., p750
• Hemphill (John), Sen. From Texas, p751
• Henley (John D.), of Md., p751
• Henry Co. (Ind.) Citizens, p752
• Herald, Amer. Slaver (Barker), pp752-753
• Hermosa, Amer. Schr. (Chattin); Claim vs. Gr. Br., p753
• Hero, Amer. Schr. (O'Connell), p735
• Hesketh (Robert), British Consul at Rio de Janeiro, p755
• Highland Co. (O.) Citizens, p758
• Hill, Master Amer. Slaver Brig Pilgrim; see Pilgrim
• Hill (Joshua), of Ga., p758
• Hill (Stephen J.), Gov. of Sierra Leone, p758
• Hillsboroug (Ind.) Citizens, p759
• Hillyer (Junius), p759
• Himmaleh, Amer. Slaver Brig, p760
• Hodges (Benjamin), Claimant, p762
• Holabird (W.S.), U.S. Atty. Dist. Conn., P765
• Holland (Wm. T.), Clerk to Amer. Cons. at Rio de Janeiro, p766
• Honore, Slave, p770
• Hook (L.), p770
• Hooker (Samuel B.), Master Amer. Slaver Clara; see Clara
• Hoover (Frederick), p770
• Hope, Amer. Slaver Brig (Driscoll), p770
• Horatio, Slaver Brig, pp771-772
• Hound, Amer. Slaver Schr., p772
• Hubbard (Henry), Repr. From N.H., p778
• Hudson, Amer. Slaver Brig, p779
• Huffington, Master Amer. Slaver Brig Caballero; see Caballero
• Hunt (James), Comdr. H.B.M. Sloop Alecto, p786
• Hunt (Thomas W.), Master Amer. Slaver Schr. Shakespeare; see Shakespeare
• Hunter (Robert M.T.), pp787-788
• Hunter (William), of R.I., p789
• Hunter (William, Jr.) of R.I., p789
• Huntington (E.), Master Amer. Slaver Schr. Ontario; see Ontario
• Huron Co. (O.) Citizens, p791
• Hyde de Neuville (Jean Guillaume), p793

Part II: I to Q I     J     K     L     M     N     O     P     Q

• Iago, Amer. Schr. (Dupony), p795
• Illonois, p795
• Illinois, Amer. Slaver Schr. (Swift), p796
• Imogene, Amer. Bark, p796
• Indiana, pp799-800
• Ingersoll (Charles J.), pp800-801
• Ingersoll (Ralph I.), of Conn., p803
• Inman (William), of N.J., pp804-805
• Intervention and Mediation, p809
• Iris, H.B.M. Ship (Tucker); see Illinois, Amer. Slaver Schr.
• Isturiz (Franciso Javier), p811
• Iverson, p812
• J. Harris, Slaver, p813
• J.J. Cobb, Amer. Bark (Vent), p813
• Jackson (George) and Gabriel (Edmund), p815
• Jackson Co. (O.) Citizens, p816
• James Buchanan, Slaver Schr., p817
• Jamestown, Slaver Brig, p818
• Janet, Slaver, p819
• Jasper, Amer. Slaver Bark (Young), pp820-821
• Jefferson, Master Slaver schr. H.N. Gambril; see H.N. Gambril
• Jefferson (Thomas), of Va., p822
• Jenifer (Daniel), of Md., p823
• Jiro (Manuel Francisco), Deponent; see Senator, Amer. Slaver Brig
• John Adams, Slaver Brigantine, p829
• John Adams U.S. Sloop, p829
• Johnson (Reverdy), p831
• Johnson (William), Judge Supreme Court of S.C., p833
• Johnstown (N.Y.) Citizens, p833
• Jones (George W.), Repr. From Tenn., p835
• Jones (John J.), Repr. From Ga., p836
• Jones (Hohn W.), p836
• Jones (William), Sr. Officer Br. Forces W. Coast of Africa, p838
• Joseph H. Record, Slaver, p840
• Josephine, Slaver Brig, p840
• Julia Dean, Amer. Bark, p840
• Juliana, Amer. Slaver Brig, p840
• Juliet, Amer. Slaver Brig, p840
• Jupiter, Amer. Slaver Schr., p841
• Keitt (Lawrence M.), Repr. From S.C., p846
• Kellett (Arthur), Lieut. Comdg. H.B.M Brig Brisk, p846
• Kelly (John), Master Slaver Brig Senator; see Senator
• Kendall (Amos), Fourth Auditor U.S. Treasury Dept., p847
• Kennedy (J.), Br. Comr. at Havana Under Mixed Commission for Suppression of Slave Trade; see Slave Trade. Cuban Waters.
• Kennedy (John P.) of Md., p848
• Kent (Edward), p849
• Kentucky, p849
• Kentucky, Amer. Slaver Brig (Douglass), p850
• Kerr (John L.) Repr. From Md., p851
• King (William), Master Slaver Schr. Anaconda, p859
• Koeler (George C.), Deponent in Case of Slaver Senator; see Senator
• Kremlin, Amer. Brig; see Fenix, Span. Slaver
• Kroomen, p866
• Lafayette (Ind.) Citizens, p869
• Lake (John, Jr.), Master Slaver Bark Louisa; see Louisa
• Laporte Co. (Ind.) Citizens, p873
• Lara (Jose), p873
• Lark, Span. Slaver Schr. (Solomon), p873
• Larkin, Master Slaver Schr. Merchant; see Merchant
• Lasher (Nicholas), Master Amer. Slaver Brig Solon; see Solon
• Latrobe (John H. B.), p875
• Laura, Span. Slaver Schr. (Hantsman), p875
• Laura Anna, Slaver, p875
• Laurens, Amer. Slaver Bark, p876
• Laurenson (William); Deponent in Case of Slaver Brig Senator; see Senator
• Lawrence (Abbott), of Mass., p878
• Lawrence, Amer. Brig; Claim vs. Gr. Br., p880
• Leach (De Witt C.), Repr. From Mich., p880
• Leake (Shelton Farrar), Repr. From Va., p880
• Leal, Port. Brig, Slaver, p880
• Leda, Amer. Schr. (Pearce ), p881
• Leeds (Mark H.); Deponent in Case of Slaver Brig Sooy; see Sooy
• Legare (Hugh Swinton), of S.C., pp882-883
• Letcher (John), Repr. From Va., p888
• Letcher (Rober P.), of Ky., p888
• Levin Lank, Amer. Schr.; Claim vs. Gr. Br., p889
• Lewis (Addin), U.S. Customs Collector, Port of Mobile, p891
• Lewis (I. N.), p891
• Lewis (Israel) and Cresup (Thomas), Agrs. for Free People of Color in O., p891
• Lewis (Walter W.), Br. Comr. at Sierra Leone Under Mixed Commission for Suppression of Slave Trade; see Slave Trade. African, etc.
• Liberia, pp892-898
• Lima (Joao Jose Claudio de), Claim for Loss of Slave; see Pantheon, Amer. Barque
• Lind (Mather), Master Slaver Brig Ellen; see Ellen
• Lindsay (Robert), Admx. of, Claimant, p900
• Lis (Manuel Beltran) de, p901
• Littlefield (James), Deponent in Case of Pons; see Pons
• Livingston (Taliaferro), p907
• Loanda, p908
• Lockhail (I.), Master Slaver Brig Charlotte; see Charlotte
• Lockport (N.Y.) Citizens, p908
• Locomotora, Port. Slaver Schr. (Souza), p909
• London (England), p910
• Lorain Co. (O.) Citizens, p911
• Louis, French Slaver, p912
• Louis McLane, Amer. Slaver, p912
• Lovett, Master Slaver Brig Malaga; see Malaga
• Lucas, Slave Dealer, p917
• Lucy Ann, Amer. Brig, p918
• Lucy Penniman, Amer. Slaver, p918
• Lydia Gibbs, Amer. Slaver Schr. (Watson), p919
• Lyme (Conn.) Citizens. Memorials; see Slave Trade
• Lyme (O.) Citizens, p919
• Lynx, U.S. Schr., p919
• Lyons (Richard Bickerton Pemell), Lord, p920
• Lyra, Slaver Bark (Dickey), p921
• Macaulay (H.W.), Br. Comr. at Sierra Leone Under Mixed Commission for Suppression of Slave Trade; see Slave Trade. African
• Macaulay (Zachary), p922
• McBlair (William) of Md., p922
• MacCauley (Daniel Smith), of Penn., p925
• McIntosh (James McKay), of Ga., p933
• McKeever (Isaac), of Penn., p935
• McKeon (John), of N.Y., p935
• McRae (J. J.), Repr. From Miss., p945
• Madden (R. R.), Br. Comr. at Havana Under Mixed Commission for Suppression of the Slave Trade; see Slave Trade. Cuban Waters. Commission, etc.
• Madison Co. (Ill.) Citizens, p946
• Maffit (John N.), of Ga., p947
• Magoun, Amer. Ship (Russell), p947
• Mahoning Co. (O.) Citizens, p948
• Malaga, Amer. Slaver Brig (Lovett), p950
• Mallory (Stephen R.), of Fla., pp951-952
• Malmesbury (James Harris), Third Earl of, pp952-953
• Maloney (Walter C.) U.S. Marshal, So. Distr. Fla., p954
• Mann (Ambrose Dudley), of Ohio, p956
• Manning (Cornelius), Claimant, p957
• Marcolino (Joze), Master Port. Slaver Schr. Violante; see Violante
• Marcy (William Larned), of NY., pp960-962, 966, 968
• Maria Primeira, Port. Slaver, p969
• Mariana, Amer. Slaver, p970
• Marion, U.S. Sloop, p970
• Marsden (George), Citizen of U.S., p972
• Marsh (Thomas), Master amer. Bark Ardennes; p975
• Martha, Slaver Ship, p979
• Martin (Hugh), of Del., p979
• Marvin (William H.), U.S. Judge, So. Distr. Fla., p982
• Mary Cushing, Amer. Slaver Schr. (Reynolds), p984
• Mary E. Smith, Amer. Slaver Schr. (Cranotick), p984
• Mary Elizabeth, Amer. Brig (Henry), p984
• Mary Hooper, Amer. Schr. (Bergstiand), p985
• Mary Jane Peck, Amer. Slaver Schr., p985
• Maryland Citizens, p985
• Maryland Colonization Society; see Negroes (Colonization)
• Mason (James M.), of Va., pp986-988, 991-994
• Mason (John Y.), of Va., pp995-996
• Massachusetts, p997-998
• Matson (H. J), Lieut. Comdg. Br. Brig Waterwitch, p1000
• Mayo (Isaac), of Md., p1002
• Meade (Hugh K.), p1002
• Medina Co. (O.) Citizens, p1009
• Mello (Francisco Cordova de), Slave Dealer, p1010
• Mercer (C. F.), Repr. From Va., p1012
• Meriwether (James A.), p1013
• Merritt (William Hamilton), p1013
• Metcalfe (Thomas), Repr. From Ky., p1014
• Methodist Episcopal Church, U.S.A., p1014
• Methuen (Mass.) Citizens, p1014
• Mexico, p1051, 1067
• Michel (Colin), Execr. Of D. Nagle and Antonio de Frias, Subjects of King of Spain, p1084
• Milanden, Amer. Slaver Bark, p1087
• Miles (William Porcher), of S.C., p1087
• Miller, Master Slaver Brig Wizard; see Wizard, p1087
• Miller (B.) Slave Dealer p1088Miller (Jacob W.), Sen. From N.J., p1088
• Millson (John S.), Repr. From Va., p1089
• Minot, Me., Citizens, p1090
• Miranda (Joao Antonio de), Slave Dealer; see Pons, Amer. Bark
• Mississippi, p1091
• Missouri, p1092
• Mixed Commissions, p1093
• Mohawk, U.S. Str., p1093
• Monroe (James), of Va., p1098
• Monroe Co. (N.Y.), p1099
• Monte Christo, Slaver, p1101
• Montes (Pedro), Arrest of; see Amistad, Sp. Schr., p1101
• Montevideo, Amer. Slaver Brig (Pendleton), p1101
• Moore (Laban T.), Repr. From Ky., p1105
• Morae (Ignacio Jose), Brazilian Consul at Loanda, p1106
• Moreno (Fernando J.), U.S. Marshal, so. Distr. Of Florida, p1107
• Morgan (Thomas), Master Amer. Slaver Bark Orion; see Orion
• Morgan (Thos.), Chief Officer Amer. Bark Orion, p1108
• Morse (Freeman H.), p1112
• Motta (Joaquin Gaspar de), Slave Dealer, p1113
• Mougham (Matthias), p1113
• Moulatto, Slaver, p1113
• Mowry (Sylvester), Lieut. Comdg. Fort Yuma, p1114
• Murphy (William S.), of O., p1117
• Myers (Thomas) Master Amer. Slaver Abbot Devereux; see Abbot Devereux
• N. Hand, Amer. Slaver Brigantine (Stevenson), p1119
• Nancy, Amer. Slaver Brig, p1119
• Nancy, Amer. Brig (Williams), p1120
• Napier (Francis) Lord, pp1121-1122
• Natchez, U.S. Sloop, p1124
• Neat (George); Deponent in Case of Slaver bark Pons; see Pons
• Negroes, p1126
• Nelson (John), of Md., p1127
• Neptune, Br. Slaver Brig, p1128
• Nesbitt (C.R.), Colonial Secy. At Nassau, N.P., Bermudas, p1128
• New Albany (Ind.) Citizens, p1139
• New Jersey, p1142
• New Orleans (La.), p1142
• New York City, p1144
• New York State, p1147
• New York State Colonization Socy., p1149
• Newcomb (W.E.), Deponent in Case of Brig Sophia; see Sophia
• Niagara, Amer. Slaver Schr. (Disney), p1151
• Nichols (Matthias H.) Repr. From O., p1152
• Nicholson (John), Claimant; Admr. Of A.L. Duncan, p1152
• Nicholson (John), U.S. Marshal, New Orleans, p1152
• Nile, Amer. Schr., p1153
• Niles (John Milton), of Conn., p1153
• Noble Co. (Ind.) Citizens, p1155
• Norway (N.Y.) Citizens, p1199
• Nueva Constitution, Sp. Slaver, p1199
• Nueva Paz, Amer. and Br. Brig, Slaver, p1199
• Oake (J.), Comdr. H.B.M. Sloop Ferret, p1200
• Ogilby (William), H.B.M. Cons., S.C., p1204
• Ohio, pp1204-1206
• Ohio Co. (Va.) Citizens, p1207
• Olds (Edson B.), Repr. From Ohio, p1207
• Olinda, Braz. Brig-of-War, p1207
• Oneida Co. (N.Y.) Citizens, p1208
• Onis (Luis de), p1208
• On-Ka-Hy-E, U.S. Schr. (Purchased), p1209
• Ontario, Amer. Slaver Schr. (Martinez; Huntingdon), p1209
• Onward, Amer. Slaver Brig, p1209
• Oregon Territory, p1210
• Oregon, Amer. Slaver Schr., p1211
• Orion, Amer. Slaver Bark (Hanna), pp1211-1212
• Ormond (James), Claimant, p1212
• Oswego Co. (N.Y.) Citizens, p1215
• Paine (John Stone), of Me., p1220
• Palmella, Conde, Later duque de, p1221
• Palmesrston (Henry John Temple), Third Viscount, pp1223-1226
• Pamelia, Amer. Slaver Brig (Pratt), p1226
• Pamphilia, Amer. Slaver, p1226
• Panchita, Amer. Bark (Sladden), p1227
• Pantheon, Amer. Slaver Bark p1227
• Panther, Amer. Slaver Bark (Clapp), p1227
• Paqueta de la Boverde, Port. Brig; see Diligente
• Parks Gorham, p1245
• Parks (Harvey C.), Seaman, Deponent in Case of Bark Jasper; see Jasper
• Patterson (William), Deponent in Case of Brig Kentucky; see Kentucky
• Patuxent, Slaver, p1248
• Paulding (James K.), of N.Y., p1249
• Paulo Rodriguez (Joao Antonio de), Slave Dealer, p1250
• Paz, Amer. Slaver, p1250
• Peerless, Amer. Slaver Schr. (Brand), p1253
• Pelican, H.B.M. Sloop (Popham), p1253
• Pendleton, Master Amer. Slaver Brig Montivideo; see Montivideo
• Pennsylvania, pp1258-1260
• Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, p1260
• Pennsylvania Socy. for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, p1260
• Perry (Matthew Calbraith), of R.I., pp1263-1265
• Perry, U.S. Brig, p1270
• Perry Spencer, Amer. Slaver Schr. (Monroe), p1270
• Persian, H.B.M. Ship (Quin), p1270
• Petrel, Amer. Slaver Bark p1276
• Petrie (Peter), Master Br. Vessel Marmion, p1276
• Pezuela (Juan Manuel), Capt. Gen. of Cuba, p1278
• Phelps (John Smith), Repr. From Mo., p1279
• Phelps (Samuel Shethar), p1279
• Philadelphia (Penn.), p1281
• Phillips (Philip), p1282
• Phillips (William M.), Master Amer. Slaver Venus; see Venus
• Philomel, H.B.M. Ship (Skene), p1282
• Phipp (Elias), Deponent in Case of Amer. Ship Herald; see Herald
• Picao, Brazilian Slaver (Joaquin), p1283
• Pickens (Francis W.), p1283
• Pierce (Franklin), of N.H., p1285
• Pike (John W.), Lieut. Comdg. H.B.M.S. Antelope, p1286
• Pike (Nicolas), of N.Y., p1286
• Pike Co. (O.) Citizens, p1287
• Pilgrim, Amer. Slaver Brig (Hill), p1287
• Piracy, pp1289-1290
• Pizarro, Span. Man-of-War, p1290
• Pleasants (B.F.), Actg. Solicitor Treasury, U.S., p1291
• Pluto, H.B.M. Str. (Simpson); see Amer. Bark Orion
• Polk (James Knox), of Tenn., pp1297-1298
• Polk (Trusten), p1299
• Pons, Amer. Slaver Bark (Graham; Berry), p1301
• Pontifical States, p1302
• Porpoise, Amer. Brig (Libby), p1303
• Porpoise, U.S. Schr., p1304
• Porter (Augustus S.), Sen. From Mich., p1306
• Porter (Edward), H.B.M. Consul at Bahia, p1307
• Porter (James M.), p1307
• Porter (John), Lieut. Comdg. U.S. Brig Boxer, p1307
• Powell (Lazarus W.), Sen. From Ky., p1313
• Powell (Levin M.), of Va., p1313
• Pratt, Master Amer. Slaver Brig Pamelia; see Pamelia
• Pratt (Thomas G.), of Md., p1314
• Preston (William Campbell), of S.C., p1320
• Privateering, p1323
• Prometheus, H.B.M. Sloop (Hope), p1326
• Prometheus, U.S. Brig, p1326
• Prova, Port. Slaver Schr. (Dias), p1326
• Providence (R.I.) Citizens, p1326
• Pryor (Roger A.), Repr. From Va., p1327
• Pugh (George E.), Sen. From O., p1328
• Purvis (J.B.), Comdr. H.B.M. Ship Alfred, p1328
• Putnam (Ind.) Citizens, p1329
• Pylades, H.B.M. Schr. (Castle), p1329
• Quintuple Treaty, p1331

Part III: R to Z R     S     T     U     V     W     Y     Z    

• Racer, H.B.M. Brig (Reed), p1333
• Rachel P. Brown, Amer. Slaver Schr., p1333
• Ramos (Jose Peres), and Costales (I. Manuel), Deponents in Case of Jasper; see Jasper
• Ramsay (William W.), of Va., p1336
• Randolph Co. (Ill.) Citizens, p1337
• Randolph Co. (Ind.) Citizens, p1338
• Ranger (Francis), Master Amer. Slaver William Clarke; see William Clarke
• Raritan, U.S. Frigate, p1338
• Rauch (Charles), Master Amer. Slaver Brig Uncas; see Uncas, p1338
• Reagan (John H.), Repr. From Texas, p1339
• Rebecca, Amer. Slaver Schr. (Watson, Arteta), p1340
• Rebecca, Amer. Ship (Carter), p1340
• Recognition, p1383
• Redfield (Hemon J.), Collector of Customs, New York City, p1384
• Reed (Archibald), Comdr. H.B.M. Ship Racer, p1384
• Reeve (John), Comdr. H.B.M. Sloop Lily, p1388
• Reform Convention, Annapolis, p1389
• Rego (Jose Ricardo de Sa), p1389
• Rendall (John), H.B.M. Consul at Boa Vista, Cape Verde, p1391
• Reynolds (John H.), Repr. From N.Y., p1394
• Rezende (Manoel Jose de), Slave Dealer, p1394
• Rhode Island, p1395
• Rhoderick Dhu, Amer. Bark (Sims), p1396
• Richard Cobden, Amer. Ship (Black), p1399
• Rives (William Cabell), of Va., p1408
• Roach, Master Slaver Uncas; see Uncas
• Roarer, Amer. Slaver, p1409
• Robert McClelland, U.S. Revenue Cutter (Morrison), p1410
• Robert Wilson, Slaver Schr., p1410
• Roberts (J.J.), p1411
• Robertson (Joseph W.), p1413
• Robertson (William H.), of La., pp1413-1415
• Robinson (Ann), Claimant, p1416
• Robinson (C.W.), Master Amer. Slaver Schr. Enterprise; see Enterprise
• Roderick, Master Slaver Brig Nancy; see Nancy
• Rodeur, Fr. Slaver, p1419
• Rosa, Slaver, p1423
• Ross, Co. (O.) Citizens, p1424
• Rudd (Edward), Claimant, pp1425-1426
• Rufus Soule, Amer. Brigantine (Anderson; Davis), pp1426-1427
• Rush (Richard), of Penn, p1428
• Rush Co. (Ind.) Citizens, p1428
• Rusk (Thomas Jefferson), of Texas, p1429
• Russell (John) Lord, p1431
• Russwurm (John B.), Agt. Md. State Colonization Society, p1433
• Ruverosa Y Urgellis (Francisco), p1434
• Ryan (Albert F.), Master Amer. Slaver Schr. Swift; see Swift
• Sa (Bernardino da), Slave Dealer, p1434
• St. Andrews, Amer. Slaver Brigantine, p1435
• St. Joseph's Co. (Ind.) Citizens, p1436
• Salisbury (Mass.) Citizens, p1440
• San Antonio, Port. Slaver Brig, p1442
• San Joseph, Spanish Slaver, p1443
• Sandy Bay (Mass.) Citizens, p1447
• Sappho, H.B.M. Sloop (Moresby); see Moresby (F.); see also Panchita, Amer. Bark; Charles Slaver
• Sarah Anne, Amer. Slaver Schr. (Fronte), p1450
• Sartiges (Etienne Gilbert Eugene), p1453
• Saucy Jack, Amer. Privateer, Slaver, p1453
• Savage (Thomas), pp1455-1456
• Sawyer (William), Repr. From O., p1457
• Schenck (Robert C.), of O., p1458
• Schrnley (Edward W.H.), p1459
• Sea Eagle, Amer. Brig (Smith), p1464
• Seddon (James A.), Repr. From Va., p1466
• Sedgwick (Thomas), Counsel for Africans On Board Amistad; see Amistad
• Semmes (Benedict I.), Repr. From Md., p1467
• Senator, Amer. Slaver Brig (Kelly), p1468
• Seneca Co. (N.Y.) Citizens, p1468
• Serrano (Francisco), Capt. Gen. of Cuba, p1469
• Sete de Avril, Port. Schr. Martinho), p1469
• Sevier (Ambrose H.), of Ark., P1471
• Seward (James L.), Repr. From Ga., pp1471, 1473-1474
• Seys (John), U.S. Agt. For Liberated Africans, p1475
• Shakspeare, Amer. Slaver Schr. (Hunt), p1476
• Sharkey (W.L.), of Miss., p1477
• Sharpshooter, H.B.M. Str., p1477
• Shelby Co. (Ind.) Citizens, p1478
• Sheldon (Daniel, Jr.), of Conn., p1478
• Sherman (John) of O., p1480
• Sierra de Pillar, Por. Brig of War (Rodoralho), p1486
• Silenus, Amer. Slaver Brig, p1487
• Silva, Don, Slave Dealer, p1487
• Silva Paranhos (Jose Maria da), Visconde do Rio Branco, p1487
• Simmons (James F.), Sen. From R.I., p1488
• Simonds (Lewis E.), of Mass., p1488
• Singleton (Otho R.), of Miss., p1490
• Skene (John D.), Comdr. H.B.M. Ship Philomel, p1490
• Slacum (George W.), of D.C., p1490
• Slave Dealers, p1493
• Slave Trade, pp1493-1519
• Slidell (John), of La., pp1519, 1521
• Smith (Benjamin Everett), of Md., p1524
• Smith (William), of Va., p1531
• Soares (Joao), Slave Dealer, 1533
• Solomon (T.M.), Master Span. Slaver Schr. Lark; see Lark
• Solon, Amer. Slaver Brig (Lasher), p1534
• Sooy, Amer. Slaver Brig (Leeds), p1535
• Sophia, Amer. Slaver Brig (Hale), p1535
• Soule (Pierre), of La., pp1536-1537
• South Carolina, p1541
• Southern (Henry), H.B.M.E.E. and M.P. in Brazil, p1542
• Sovereignty, p1543
• Spain, pp1554-1556
• Spaulding (Eldridge G.), of N.Y., p1558
• Speight (Jesse), p1559
• Spencer (William A.), of N.Y., p1559
• Spitfire, Slaver Schr., p1560
• Splendid (Or, Velha Annita), Slaver Bark (Rich), p1561
• Spy, H.B.M. Brigantine (Raymond), p1526
• Stanly (Edward), of N.C., p1565
• Stanton (Frederick P.), of Tenn., p1567
• Staples (S.P.), Counsel for Africans On Board Amistad; see Amistad, p1567
• Star, H.B.M. Brig, p1567
• Stevens (A.H.), p1570
• Stevens (Lucius), Deponent in Case of Brig Creole; see Creole
• Stevenson (Andrew), of Va., pp1571-1572
• Stevenson (Michael) Master Slaver Schr. N. Hand; see N. Hand
• Stewart (James A.), Repr. From Md., p1574
• Storm King, Amer. Slaver Brigantine, p1577
• Stowe (Vt.) Citizens, p1578
• Strange (Robert), Sen. From N.C., p1578
• Suiters (Joseph), p1581
• Sumner (G.W.); see Sophia, Amer. Brig, p1582
• Susan, Amer. Brig (Wilford), pp1583-1584
• Susquehannah Co. (Penn.) Citizens, p1585
• Swift (Benjamin), Sen. From Vt., p1587
• Swift (J.), Master Amer. Slaver Schr. Illinois; see Illinois
• Swift, Amer. Slaver Schr., Late Conchita (Ryan), p1587
• Taney (Roger Brooke), p1590
• Taylor (Miles), p1593
• Taylor (Zachary), p1594
• Tazewell (Littleton Walker), of Va., p1594
• Teazer, H.B.M. Str. (Grubbe), p1595
• Tejedor (Gregorio), Slave Dealer, p1595
• Temerario, Brazilian Slaver Brig, p1595
• Temple (William), Deponent in Case of Slaver Brig Senator; see Senator
• Termagant, H.B.M. Brig (Seagram), p1597
• Texas (Republic), pp1603-1606, 1608-1609, 1611, 1621, 1625
• Texas (State), p1633
• Thomas (John Addison), of N.Y., p1637
• Thompson (J.), p1639
• Thompson (Jacob), p1640
• Tigris, Amer. Brig (Frye), p1644
• Tilden (Daniel R.), Repr. From O., p1645
• Timas (Antonio Soares), p1645
• Titi, Amer. Brig, p1646
• Tod (David), of O., pp1650-1651
• Toombs (Robert), of Ga., p1653
• Topham (George W.), Deponent in Case of Sooy; see Sooy
• Toreado (Peter), Slave Dealer, p1654
• Totten (Benjamin J.), of N.Y., p1656
• Toucey (Isaac), of Conn., pp1657-1658
• Treaty, Amer. Slaver, p1659
• [Trenchard (Edward)], of N.J., p1659
• Trescot (William H.), of S.C., p1660
• Trist (Nicholas P.), of Va., pp1661-1664
• Triton, H.B.M. Ship (Burton), p1664
• Triton, Slaver, p1664
• Triuphante, Slaver, p1664
• Trousdale (William), of Tenn., p1665
• Trumbull (Lyman), Sen. From Ill., p1665
• Truxton, U.S. Brig, p1666
• Tuck (Amos), Repr. From N.H., p1666
• Tucker (William), Senior Officer, H.B.M. Navy, W. Coast of Africa, p1667
• Tudor (John), Comdr. H.B.M. Str. Firefly, p1667
• Tudor (William, Jr.), of Mass., p1669
• Turner (Daniel), of R.I., p1675
• Turney (Hopkins L.), Sen. From Tenn., p1676
• Two Friends, Late The Gabriel, Amer. Slaver Brig (Durkee), p1677
• Tyler (Alexander H.), of Md., p1679
• Tyler (John), of Va., pp1680-1681
• Tyler (William J.), Master Slaver Brig Sooy; see Sooy
• Uncas, Slaver Brig (Roach), p1682
• Underwood (Joseph R.), of Ky., pp1682-1683
• United States of America, pp1766, 1770
• Upshur (Abel P.), of Va., pp1857-1859
• Usher (George M.), Owner of Slaver Magoun p1861
• Vail (Aaron, Jr.) of N.Y., pp1861-1862
• Valedes (Jose Antonio), Secy. Mixed Court Justice, Havana, p1863
• Van Buren (Martin), pp1865, 1867
• Van Dyke (James C.), U.S. Distr. Atty., Eastern Distr. Penn., p1869
• Vandalia, U.S. Sloop, p1877
• Vaughan (Charles Richard), p1879
• Velha Aunto, Slave Str; see Splendid
• Venable (Abraham W.), Repr. From N.C., p1880
• Venganza, Slaver, p1881
• Venus, Late Duquesa de Braganza, Amer. Slaver Corvette (Wallace; Phillips), p1882
• Venus, Amer. Slaver Bark, p1882
• Venus Havannera, Sp. Slaver, p1882
• Vermont, pp1883-1884
• Vernon (Conn.) Citizens, p1884
• Vernon (N.Y.) Citizens, p1884
• Vesey (Charles), Comdr. H.B.M. Str. Styx, p1884
• Vessels, p1886
• Vesta, Amer. Slaver, p1886
• Victoria, Port. Slaver Brig (Alfonso), p1887
• Vintage, Amer. Slaver Brig, p1889
• Violante, Port. Slaver Schr. (Marcolino), p1889
• Viper, Amer. Slaver Schr., p1889
• Viper, H.B.M. Ship (Hodgkinson; Hewett), p1889
• Visit and Search, pp1890-1898
• Vixen, U.S. Str., p1898
• Volador, Spanish Slaver Brig, p1898
• Volusia, Amer. Brigantine; Claim vs. Gr. Br., p1898
• W.D. Miller, Amer. Slaver Brig; see William D. Miller
• Walker (Isaac P.), Sen. From Wisc., p1902
• Walker (Robert J.), p1903
• Wallace (William), Master Amer. Slaver Venus; see Venus
• Walton (N.Y.) Citizens, p1906
• Wanderer, Slaver Yacht, p1906
• Warren, U.S. Sloop, p1911
• Washington (D.C.), p1911
• Washington (Penn.) Citizens, p1911
• Washington Amer. Slaver Bark (Neill); see Senhora da Boa Viagem, Port. Schr.
• Washington's Barge, Amer. Slaver Brig (Matson), p1915
• Watson (Artate), Master Amer. Slaver Schr. Rebecca; see Rebecca
• Webster (Daniel), of Mass., pp1919-1922, 1925
• Webster (Daniel Fletcher), of Mass., p1929
• Weems (Wilson L.), Master Slaver Asp; see Asp
• Weetman, Br. Subject, p1930
• Whig, Amer. Slaver Brig, p1943
• Whitcomb (James), p1943
• Whitley Co. (Ind.) Citizens, p1945
• Wigfall (Louis T.), Sen. From Tex., p1947
• Wildfire, Slaver, pp1947-1948
• William, Amer. Slaver Bark (Weston, Alias Symmes), p1949
• William Clarke, Amer. Slaver (Ranger), p1950
• William D. Miller, Amer. Slaver Brig (Ford, Abarroa), p1950
• William Ridgway, Amer. Slaver Schr. (Chase), p1950
• Williams (Mary L.), p1952
• Williams (Nathaniel), U.S. Atty. For Distr. of Md., p1952
• Willis (John G.), Amer. Coml. Agt. St. Paul de Loanda, p1954
• Wilmot (Arthur P.E.), Comdr. H.B.M. Sloop Harlequin, p1955
• Wilmot (David), Repr. From Penn., p1955
• Wilson (Edmund), Comdr. H.B.M. Brig Cygnet, p1955
• Wilson (Henry), Sen. From Mass., pp1955-1956
• Wilson (James P.), of Md., p1956
• Windward, Amer. Slaver Schr., p1957
• Winthrop (Robert C.), pp1958-1959
• Wise (Charles A.), Comdr. H.B.M. Naval Forces, African Station, p1960
• Wise (Henry A.), pp1960-1961
• Wise (Henry A.), Legal Repr. Of J.J. Wise, p1962
• Wittich (William), Prof. at London University, p1962
• Wizard, Slaver Brig (Miller), p1963
• Wolverine, H.B.M. Sloop (Tucker), p1963
• Wood (Edmond), Deponent in Case of St. Andrews, p1964
• Woodbury (Charles Levi), Comr. Circ. Ct. U.S. Distr. Mass., p1965
• Woodside (William), Deponent in Case of Creole; Creole
• Wyoming, Amer. Slaver Brigantine (Christopher; Edwards), pp19711-1972
• Yankee, Amer. Slaver Brig (Goodrich), p1972
• York Springs (Penn.) Anti-Slavery Socy., p1975
• Yorktown, U.S. Sloop, p1975
• Young (James), Claim vs. Gr. Br., p1975
• Young (Samuel), Master Amer. Slaver Bark Jasper; see Jasper
• Young Men's Anti-Slavery Society of Philadelphia, p1976
• Yulee (David Levy), p1978
• Zenobia, Amer. Slaver Schr., p1980
• Zephyr, Amer. Slaver, p1980
• No. 26 Negroes, Introduction of into the U.S.; seizure under the laws of the U.S. and Georgia, March 31, 1818.
• No. 29 When vessels having Negroes on board may be lawfully seized under act of 2nd March 1807, April 16,1819.
• No. 53 Run-away slaves, conveyance of, one State to another by captain of a vessel, August 29, 1819.
• No. 57 Introduction of Slaves into States in violation of act of 20 April 1818, Sept. 8, 1819.
• No. 64 Bond from foreign vessels clearing out of US for Africa under Act of 22 March 1794, Oct. 8, 1819.
• No. 68 Slave Laws of the U.S.A , King's Case
• No. 70 Officer's share of a forfeiture under the Slave Laws of the U.S., Archibald Clark's case, Dec.16, 1819.
• No. 76 Manner of disposing of Negroes unlawfully brought into the United States prior to the act of March 3, 1819, Feb. 2, 1820.
• No. 77 Right of Officers to monies of forfeiture under the slave laws - Act 1807, Case of the "Carmelita," Feb. 5, 1820.
• No. 105 Seizure of a vessel suspected of being equipped for the slave trade, Case of the Camelion, May 19, 1820.
• No. 146 Examination of the charges against General Mitchell of having unlawfully introduced Slaves into the U.S.A., Jan. 20, 1821.
• No. 166 Joseph F. Smith's application for pardon for breech of Slave-laws, Apr. 25, 1821.
• No. 183 Servants of Color introduced into U.S.A. by Passengers of Brig Cannon, August 16, 1821.
• No.192 Case of William J. Rogers. Transportation of Negroes Coastwise, October 11, 1821.
• No 198 Servants taken from U.S by Persons going to travel in foreign countries not within the Act 0f 1818, Nov. 5, 1821.
• No. 200 Case of the "La Jeune Eugenie" (captured slaver), Nov. 7, 1821.
• No. 201 Case of the Schooner "Farmer's Fancy" Nov. 7, 1821
• No. 203 Case of Joseph F.Smith convicted of violations of the Slaves' Laws, Nov. 7, 1821.
• No. 204 Cases of the "St.Stephens" and the "Susan"(carrying slaves coastwise), November 7, 1821.
• No. 205 Are Free persons of Color in Virginia, citizens of the U.S. States within the meaning of the acts of Congress regulating the trade of the U.S.A., (can free blacks command vessels), Nov. 7, 1821
• No. 218 Application by French Minister of France for restoration of a French vessel having Africans on board, Case of "La Pensee", Jan. 22, 1822.
• No. 234 Georgia claims, questions of Interest, June 11, 1822. (see also No.240.)
• No. 245 A slave, the property of a Danish subject, brought to the port of New York from St. Croix by Thomas Disney, Master of the American Ship, "Elias Burger." Have we the power or we under any obligation to restore said slave on the demand of the Danish Government? Sept.27, 1822.
• No. 265 Construction of several acts of Congress, as to the intention of Congress, to incorporate Negroes and people of colour within the army of the United States, March 27, 1823
• No. 285 Claims of the Marshall of the state of Georgia for the support of Negroes constituting the cargo of the Spanish vessel, Ramirez, Dec.30, 1823.
• No. 299 Free Negroes and persons of colour - Construction of the Legislative Acts of South Carolina, December 20, 1820, -touching their seizure, and confinement when brought in said State, May 8,1824.
• P. 48 Georgia Claims, Creek Nation treaty with USA. Slave property involved, July 28, 1828.
• P. 86 Negroes claimed under Spanish Treaty, D. Nagles Case, March 31, 1829.
• P. 248 Free Negroes carried into South Carolina, March 25, 1829.
• P. 2 Pardon Petition for slave Donnelly, March 1, 1832.
• P. 165 Murder, Negroes slaves of white men, in Indian country, not triable in an Indian court, but must be tried in United States court, December 26, 1834.
• P. 243 Ms.Thornton case, for pardon of her slave accused of attempted murder, February 25, 1836.
• P. 200 The President has no Constitutional authority to direct apprehension of slaves in the Indian Country, August 30, 1838.
• P. 280 Case of the "Amistad" and African Negroes, November, 1839.
• P. 296 Case of the "Amistad", April 11, 1840.
• P. 298 Transportation of slaves on the coastlines April 16, 1840.
• P. 297 Slaves killed by Indians, April 15, 1840.
• P. 347 Transportation of slaves on the coastline, July 29, 1840.
• P. 366 Case of the "Amistad", December 14, 1840.
• P. 491 Case of the "Amistad", April 6, 1842.
• P. 57 Colonization Society and reception of transported Africans, December 24, 1842.
• P. 62 Free people of colour entitled to benefit of preemption Act of 1841, March 15, 1843.
• P.121 Case of Jenkins, a Negro, distinction between slave and free, August 25,1843.
• P. 124* Slave Trade Acts: Exposition of terms, and of the rights and responsibilities of ship owners selling vessels deliverable on the Coast of Africa, August 29, 1843. 1) March 22, 1794; 2) May 10, 1800; 3) Feb.28, 1803; 4) May 2, 1807; 5) Apr. 20, 1818, ch 18; 6) Mar 3, 1819, ch 224; 7) May 15, 1820. (March 2, 1807, 2 Stat 426), Congress prohibited the importation of slaves into the U.S. of America after January 1, 1808)
• P. 144 Complaint of Portugese Minister over the abduction of slave by American vessel from the Cape Verde islands, November 2, 1843.
• United States v. Africans of the Antelope
• U.S. v. Brig Mary Ann
• U.S. v. Brig Emily, February, 1824
• U.S. v. Brig Caroline, February, 1824
• U.S. v. Schooner Catherine, December, 1839
• U.S. v. Schooner Elmira Cornelius, December 1865
• U.S. v. Schooners Merino, Constitution, Louisa, and African Slaves, 1818
• U.S. v. Cornelius Coolidge, 1816
• Lewis Cruger, Administrator of Charlles Murray, v. Wm. C. Daniel, Bill of Complaint
• Bill of Complaint of Lewis Cruger, In Chancery.
• U.S. v. the cargo of the "Brig Diana", 1814
• U.S. v. Schooner Fenix, Sept. 1831
• U.S. v. Ship Gavoune, 1836
• U.S. v. John Gooding, 1826
• U.S. v. Antonio Huertas, 1834
• U.S. v. Bark Kate, 1864
• U.S. v. Schooner L'Epine, 1816
• The Life and Fire Insurance Company of New York v. The Heirs of Nicholas Wilson, in the State of Louisiana, 1834
• The Brig Mary Anne v. U.S, 1818
• U.S. v. Mulvey (Africans of the "Ramirez), 1825
• U.S. v. brig, Nancy
• U.S. v. The "Panther," 1845
• U.S. v. Schooner St. Jago de Cuba, 1820
• U.S. v. Brig Josepa Segunde, 1807
• U.S. v. Francis Sorrell ("Antelope" and "Ramirez"), 1822
• U.S. v. The Barque "Weathergage," 1860

RG 69 Records of the Work Projects Administration

The Works Projects Administration, established May 6, 1935, was responsible for the Governments work relief program. It succeeded both the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Civil Works Administration, which were established in 1933. The WPA was officially abolished June 30, 1943 These records are located at Archives II in College Park, Maryland

Records of the Federal Theater Project Living Newspaper Research Materials Relating to Specific Topics, 1936-39 Loc: 530/69/10/5

• Negro Living Newspaper Play. Entry 965
• Leonard E. Strong, Negroes in Wars. Brief account of African-Americans in Revolutionary War, Civil War, and WWI
• Robert Whittington, Negro Troops in Civil War. List of battles in which African-Americans fought with a listing of Negro soldiers who received medals for their actions in the Civil War. Oct. 1938.
• Robert Whittington, Negro Troops in the Civil War List of battles in which African-Americans fought with date of battle accompanied by the number of troops used and killed. Oct. 1938.
• H. Radin, Benjamin Franklin and Slavery. Cop of November 9, 1978 "An Address to the Public from the Pennslvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes, Unlawfully Held in Bondage" by Benjamin Franklin. Oct 1938.
• Arthur Ambrose, Negro Soldiers in the Civil War - Their Bravery and Skill - Pertinent Quotes. Excerpts from The Negro in the War of the Rebellion and History of the Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865 by George Washington Williams. Oct. 1938.
• Arthur Ambrose, Negro Soldiery and Valor in Civil War. Instances of Negro valor found in History of Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865 by George W. Williams. Oct. 1938.
• H. Radin, Benjamin Franklin and Slavery. Benjamin Franklin's plans for improving the condition of free African- Americans. Oct. 1938.
• Charles Mulligan, Reactions to Assassination of Lincoln. Quotes from Myths After Lincoln by Lloyd Lewis concerning feelings about the severity of Reconstruction. Oct. 1938.
• Charles Mulligan, Lincoln Assassination V. Union Labor Reaction. Excerpts from Social History of America by Herman Schluter concerning addresses sent to America by the International Workingmen's Association. Oct. 1938.
• Charles L. Mulligan, Lincoln Assassination I: The South. Excerpts from various books concerning reactions to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Oct 1938.
• Charles L. Mulligan, Lincoln's Assassination II: The Case Against Jeff Davis. Excerpts and summaries of sections from Why Was Lincoln Murdered? By Louis Eisenschiml. Oct. 1938.
• Chas. L. Mulligan, Lincoln Assassination III: The Case Against Andrew Johnson. Excerpts and summaries of sections from Why Was Lincoln Murdered? By Louis Eisenschiml. Oct. 1938.
• Chas. L. Mulligan, Lincoln Assassination IV: Stanton. Excerpts and summaries of sections from Why Was Lincoln Murdered? by Louis Eisenschiml concerning the possible involvement of Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Oct. 1938.
• Robert Whittington, Ku Klux Klan Testimony. Testimony by Joint Select Committee into affairs in the late insurrectionary states concerning the testimony of a Mr. Samuel White forced by the Klan to renounce his political faith in the Republican party. May 1938.
• Catherine A. Durkin, Newspaper Comments During Reconstruction. Description of a plot in Canada by a man from Mississippi to infect Union occupying forces through clothes. Oct. 1938.
• Catherine A. Durkin, Newspaper Comments During Reconstruction. Newspaper articles concerning Negro suffrage, remembrances of Lincoln, and President Johnson's terms of pardon for the rebels. Oct. 1938.
• Mathieu Smith, Character Sketch of Thaddeus Stevens. July 1938.
• Cooper, No Title. Discussion of effect of slavery on economic prosperity based on Notes on Political Economy by N. Ware. N.d.

Following arbitration by the Emperor of Russia in 1822, a mixed claims commission was provided for in a convention signed to settle U.S. claims against Great Britain concerning slaves and property lost during the War of 1812. Because of difficulties faced by the commission, a new convention was signed in 1826 in which Great Britain agreed to pay a sum in satisfaction of all claims awarded under the arbitration of the Emperor. A domestic claims commission was established by an act in 1827 to handle the disbursement of awards. In 1853, another mixed claims commission was established to settle claims presented to either government since December 24, 1814. There are several series that pertain to the business of the mixed claims commissions and the domestic claims commission. These records are located at Archives II in College Park, Maryland.

• Minutes of the Mixed Commission. Aug. 25, 1823-Mar. 26, 1827, 1 vol., entry 181.
• Docket of 1822 Commission. Ca. 1825-26, 1 vol. entry 183
• Index to Miscellaneous Records, N.d. 3 in., entry 184
• Miscellaneous Records. Ca. 1814-28, 7 vols., entry 185
• Records Relating to Detained American Vessels. Ca. 1812-19, 17 ft., entry 186
• Minutes of the Domestic Claims Commission. July 10, 1827-Aug. 31, 1828, 3 vols., entry 187.
• List (Docket) of Claims. 1826, 1 vol., entry 188.
• Index to Claimants. N.d. 16 in., entry 189.
• Case Files. Ca. 1814-28, 3.5 ft., entry 190.
• List of Awards. Ca. 1827-28, 1 vol., entry 191.
• Definitive List of Slaves and Property. N.d. 1 vol., entry 192.
• Slave Lists. N.d. 2 vols., entry 193.
• Minutes of the Commission. Sept. 15, 1853-Jan. 15, 1855, 1 vol., entry 195.
• Index to Case Files of American and British Claims. N.d. 9 in., entry 196.
• Index to Miscellaneous Claims. N.d. 4 in., entry 200.
• Miscellaneous Claims. Ca. 1797-1853, 6 in., entry 201.
• The Case of the Vessel "Jehossee." Ca. 1860, 1 in., entry 203.

RG 206 Records of the Solicitor of the Treasury

Letters received by the Solicitor of the Treasury from U.S. district attorneys, marshals, and clerk of court, 1801-1898 The Office of the Solicitor of the Treasury (1830-1934) was created in the Department of the Treasury to supervise all legal proceedings involving the collection of debts due the United States. This record group includes letters relative to suits for the forfeiture of vessels involved in the slave trade. These records are located at Archives II in College Park, Maryland.

Index to Letters Received, September 1, 1865 - January 9, 1911

Volume 1 entry 2

Volume 2 entry 2

Established within the Department of Treasury by an act of 1817 that authorized four additional auditors and an comptroller. The 1789 Act that established the Treasury provided for a comptroller to superintend the adjustment and preservation of the public accounts and auditor to supervise disbursements. There are several series that account for the Department of Treasury involvement with the African slave trade. These records are located at Archives l in Washington, D.C. Settled Accounts of Claimants and Disbursing Officers of the First Auditor. 1790-1894. Claims case files include: African shipping;the bounty on Blacks illegally imported;the support of captured Africans illegally entering the United States; bounty for the capture of illegal slave ships; expenditures of the American Colonization Society in support of persons of African descent. Abstract of Accounts for Bounty for the capture of ships in the Slave Trade. 1857-60, 1 vol. Gives name of the claimant, name of captured and capturing ships, and name of the payee. There is a list of vessels captured for engaging in the slave trade, 1857-60, date of seizure, names of vessels making seizure, the squadron, and the locality of the capture. Records of the Board of Commissioners for the Emancipation of Slaves in the District of Columbia, 1862-63 An act of April 12, 1862 (12 Stat.376) abolished slavery in the District of Columbia. The President was authorized to appoint a board of commissioners to examine petitions for compensation from former owners of freed slaves in the District. Petitions disclosed name of petitioner, slaves, and value of slaves claimed in the petition. Bound volumes also show summary of action taken, number of the petition, amount awarded, and signature of the claimant. These records are microfilmed under Microfilm Number 520. There are 6 rolls.

RG 287 Publications of the U.S. Government, 1790-1979

This record group is a collection of selected publications of U.S. Government agencies, arranged according to a classification system (SuDoc System) devised by the Office of the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office (GPO). The core collection is a library that was maintained by GPO's Public Documents Division during the period 1895-1972, and whose contents were arranged according to the SuDoc System. The library began in 1895 following the establishment of GPO of the position of Superintendent of Documents by an act of January 12, 1895 (28 Stat. 601), with responsibility for the cataloging, slae, and distribution of Federal Government publications. By 1972, when the National Archives acquired the library, it included official publications dating from the early years of the government. After January 1, 1808, slave trading by American citizens became illegal

Annual Reports

Annual Reports of the Secretary of the Navy

An Act of July 13, 1862, (12 Stat. 257) prohibited commercial intercourse between people residing in the seceded states and citizens of the United States and provided that merchandise transported for commercial purposes from or to the Confederacy would be forfeited to the United States. The Treasury Department received control over commercial intercourse, and Special Agents under the Special Agency system were given authority to supervise trade and commerce in areas of the Confederacy occupied by Union forces. Under Treasury Department regulations of July 29, 1864, it established "freedmen's home colonies" to provide employment and welfare to assistance to freed slaves. Nine Special Agencies were ultimately established in the Confederate States, each responsible for a prescribed geographical boundary.

• Records of the First Special Agency, Mississippi Valley (includes St. Louis, south-east portions of Illinois, Kentucky, western Tennessee, eastern Arkansas and Louisiana, Mississippi and western Alabama); LOC: 450/79/32-34, entries 1 - 115.
• Records of the Second Special Agency, (includes parts of Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana); LOC:450/79/34 - 80/04, entries 116 - 411.
• Records of the Third Special Agency, (includes parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, and Florida); LOC: 450/80/04 - 09, entries 412 - 555.
• Records of the Fourth Special Agency, (Texas); LOC: 450/80/09/01-04, entries 558 - 570.
• Records of the Fifth Special Agency, (includes parts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida); LOC: 450/80/09/04-10/02, entries 571 - 620.
• Records of the Sixth Special Agency, (North Carolina); LOC: 450/10/02/04, entries 622-653.
• Records of the Seventh Special Agency, (includes Virginia and North Carolina); LOC: 450/80/02/04 - 11/04, entries 655-739.
• Records of the Eighth Special Agency, (includes parts of South Carolina and Georgia); amended Treasury Department's general regulation, April 25, 1865, LOC: 450/80/11/04, entries 740-748.
• Records of the Ninth Special Agency, (Florida and Alabama); amended Treasury Department's general regulation, April 24, 1865, LOC: 450/80/11/04 - 12/04, entries 749-774