Involuntary Servitude Quotes
This quotation illustrates the strong abolitionist tendency in the Ohio Territory. Under this clause, escaped slaves from Southern states would not be returned by the state authorities. Even more insulting to the slave enthusiasts of the South, if a Southerner brought any slaves into Ohio with them as was common for Southerners traveling with their personal slaves or horse team drivers, those slaves would be free. An interesting aspect of this clause of the Ohio Constitution was that the beginning was, word for word, copied from the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. See {618100}.
This was one of the first opportunities that Congress had to legislate on the slavery issue. The Southerners were adamantly opposed to this article although by previous agreement the issue of slavery in the original 13 states could not be interfered with. Majority sentiment of the nation at the time was opposed to extending slavery into the territories. The second part of the quotation shows however, that the slavery in the Southern States would not be undermined by allowing fugitive slaves to escape into the territories, so there was a compromise of sorts that pushed the inevitable clash over slavery off. Compromise and struggle ensued for 70 years until it finally erupted as the Civil War.
He was the last Pope to hold temporal power. This defense of slavery was all the more surprising because America was fighting about the issue in the Civil War and nations like England had abolished slavery. 99 years later Vatican II altered Pius IX’s statement forever. See {612715}.
The Chinese laborers were slaves by most definitions of the word as they had been brought to South Africa on a system of indentured servitude. Slavery was illegal so the term had all kinds of political and legal significance. His statement was a masterpiece of admitting that it was almost slavery but leaving some wiggle room so as not to have classified it as such. Some use this as an example of Churchill’s capacity for hypocrisy.
In April, 1784, the Continental Congress passed a series of laws that Jefferson had drafted for the NorthWest territory—Ohio then being the west and the states that would develop there. However, the quotation is the clause that the Southern States blocked and hence did not become law, as the Soothers states cared little about the status of the area regarding slavery, but feared that the new states wold become a sanctuary for runaway slaves. It was another case where Jefferson attempted to end slavery. It also was yet another example of the unwieldiness of the Continental Congress to manage the new nation which led up to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Ironically, as a price for union, the Southern States demanded and obtained a disproportionate representation in the New House of Representatives by having 60 percent of their slaves counted inzallocating congressional seats. The senate also worked in their favor as there were enough Southern states to block any attack on slavery in the Senate. There was no democratic way to eliminate slavery and the Civil War resulted. However, Jefferson’s proposed law was passed by the last Continental Congress in June, 1787. The difference was that there was also added a proviso that required the return of all runaway slaves from the new territory and states which was lacking in the earlier attempt.
