The Compromise of 1850

Support for States Rights before the Civil War

Photo Credit: Sutori

Issue #82 American History July 12, 2022

As those of us of study and learn all of American History know, slavery was an issue in the United States since the founding of the country. The institution of slavery was protected by law in all 13 American colonies even as they declared their independence from Britain in 1776.

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How Slavery was Viewed in the 18th Century

The Founders were born into a slaveholding society where the moral issue of owning slaves was rarely questioned.

• A majority of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were slave owners.

• Almost half of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention were slave owners.

• Four of the first five presidents were slave owners.

The colonists primarily discussed slavery in the context of their fear of becoming “enslaved” to the British. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, many of the Northern states started abolishing slavery while the Southern states relied on slavery to build their economies.