History Of Slavery In Pennsylvania
When the Dutch and Swedish established colonies in the Delaware Valley, they quickly imported African slaves for workers, or transported them from New Netherland; slavery was documented as early as 1639. William Penn and the colonists who settled Pennsylvania tolerated slavery, but the Quakers and later German immigrants were among the first to speak out against it. Many Methodists and Baptists also opposed it on religious grounds and urged manumission during the Great Awakening. High British tariffs in the 18th century discouraged the importation of additional slaves, and encouraged the use of white indentured servants and free labor.
After the American Revolutionary War, Pennsylvania passed the Gradual Abolition Act (1780), the first such law in the new United States. Vermont abolished slavery in its constitution of 1777. Pennsylvania's law established as free those children born to slave mothers after that date. They had to serve lengthy periods of indentured servitude until age 28 before becoming fully free as adults. Emancipation proceeded and, by 1810 there were fewer than 1,000 slaves in the Commonwealth. None appeared in records after 1847.
Read more about History Of Slavery In Pennsylvania: British Colony, Resistance and Abolition, Decline of Slavery
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