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Student Blogger - #13Amend Live Blog: Keynote Address

Professor David Brion Davis is opening the conference with some background on the 13^th Amendment. It reads: "Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." The word "slave" is derived from the Latin word for Slav. The word applied to any infringement on freedom. One could be enslaved to alcohol or drugs. Government intervention into a person's activities was seen as enslavement.

Davis' address is mostly dedicating to explaining many of the obstacles to emancipation. African slaves and their descendents were indispensible to the prosperity of our country. Slavery allowed for a transatlantic market because the costs of production were so low. This was the first stage of a global economy. And contrary to the conventional wisdom, there is now evidence that the economic significance of slavery increased in the 19^th century, due to the increased demand for goods like sugar. New World slavery was symbiotic with the growth of the British industrial economy. In both Britain and America, there was a contradiction between economic self interest and anti-slavery sentiment. Two-thirds of the richest Americans in the mid 19^th century lived in slave-holding states. This nation, conceived in liberty and dedication to equal rights was built on slavery and after the British emancipation could no longer blame this on any other nation. Why were the freed slaves not welcomed into American white society? Obviously, there was a huge gap between American blacks and whites after slavery was abolished. How would the existing white population interact with the newly freed slaves? One worry was a drastic fall in white wages and an increase in crime. Some argued that the slaves were as helpless as children and freeing them would be inhumane. The 1840 census, which turned out to be severely distorted, reported that northern blacks were living in poverty, jails and mental institutions. This was used by slavery's proponents to argue that blacks were not capable of freedom. But others tied degradation to the impossibility of peaceful existence; true freedom would lead to peace. By March 2, 1861, when Congress passed, but never ratified, a 13^th Amendment preventing interference with slavery, it seemed that emancipation would never come.

Davis went on to discuss many of the failures of the British emancipation. The result was not anything resembling freedom, due very much to the fact that many believed that discipline and hard work must be forced onto the newly freed slaves. He closed by noting that our 13^th Amendment was more successful and the inclusion of the words "involuntary servitude" should, has and will allow it to be relevant and important in days and years to come.

 

Full post as published by The University of Chicago Law School Faculty Blog on April 17, 2009 (boomark / email).