Manumission During The Antebellum Period

If correct, Buckingham’s argument would deal a fatal blow to the southern, pro-slavery argument that was based on Leviticus 25:44-46. During the antebellum period, manumission proved to be a very controversial subject that sparked fear in the hearts of most southerners. Prior to 1800, restrictions on manumission in the southern United States were minimal if not nonexistent. Much of this was due to the concepts of liberty and freedom that had grown out of the American Revolution. So great was this Revolutionary sentiment that manumissions rates increased in several states. Additionally, some states such as Kentucky even considered the prospect of emancipation for its slaves. However, shortly after 1800 many southern states began to enact substantial
Much of the southern change in attitude regarding manumission came in response to the increasing importance of cotton to the southern economy. In the words of scholar Peter Kolchin, “The peculiar institution owed much of its persistence in the antebellum years to cotton, a crop only grown in very limited quantities in the colonial period.” In 1790, annual cotton production amounted to roughly 3,138 bales of cotton. In just 20 years’ time, annual production had risen to roughly 177,824 bales of cotton. As the century progressed, annual production of cotton would continue to see significant increases. By 1820, production was up to 334,728 bales of cotton and by 1840, it had skyrocketed to 1,347,640 million bales. Finally, by the eve of the Civil War annual cotton production was up to 4,490,586 million bales per year. In time, as the South became more and more dependent on cotton to sustain its economy in the nineteenth century, the demand for slave labor was solidified in the
Efforts by such states as South Carolina to restrict and even prohibit manumission reflect well the attitude of the South towards manumission during this period. In the year 1800, South Carolina passed the first of three acts designed to restrict and eventually prohibit manumission. Act No. 1745 titled An Act Respecting slaves, Free Negroes, Mulattoes, and Mestizoes; For enforcing the More Punctual Performance of Patrol Duty; And to Impose Certain Restrictions on the Emancipation of Slaves began the trend of restricting manumission in South Carolina. The act called for those slave owners who wished to emancipate a slave to report to a justice of the quorum and prove before this justice of the quorum and five freeholders that the slave was of a good character and able to gain a living by an honest means. The Act states the