Inspired by excellent work by Pat Young and fellow collaborators on his timelines I wanted to start building out a timeline of the discussion of slavery in regards to secession and contemporary sources.
To start, some rough ground rules if you want to contribute
* This is not a debate about slavery being the/a cause of the Civil War. The assumption is that slavery played a significant role and documenting that role. Anyone can of course create another thread documenting anything not to do with slavery.
* Discussion about the contemporary material is fully welcome, not every post needs to be a source and info. Please keep civil and please let's not get into debating anything beyond the scope of the contemporary comments themselves or something directly relevant.
* I will be linking a timeline, the posts here are welcome and intended to be more thorough, I plan to link to the Civil War posts in the timeline.
* https://www.sutori.com/story/slavery-and-csa-secession
* When posting a contemporary source please follow the below example with the requested format
* Start with a bold date and author (potentially a title of some sort either made up by you are from the document cited, etc), further technically correct citing standards are up to you, this is just to get a high level view easier
* Please don't put too many sources in a single post, will be easier to link back to, potentially even one post per source or at least a cluster of relevant sources only
* Link your sources unless there is no link and then please include full citation information
* Include contextual commentary, at least a few sentences around, a full paragraph etc... please no single cherry-picked sentence. On the timeline I will likely do so but again will link back here.
* Anything else is up to personal preference, quotes, custom quote formatting, etc
December 24, 1860
Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union
https://www.civilwar.org/learn/primary-sources/declaration-causes-seceding-states#South_Carolina
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The Constitution of the United States, in its fourth Article, provides as follows: "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due."
This stipulation was so material to the compact, that without it that compact would not have been made. The greater number of the contracting parties held slaves, and they had previously evinced their estimate of the value of such a stipulation by making it a condition in the Ordinance for the government of the territory ceded by Virginia, which now composes the States north of the Ohio River.
The same article of the Constitution stipulates also for rendition by the several States of fugitives from justice from the other States.
The General Government, as the common agent, passed laws to carry into effect these stipulations of the States. For many years these laws were executed. But an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the General Government have ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution. The States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, have enacted laws which either nullify the Acts of Congress or render useless any attempt to execute them. In many of these States the fugitive is discharged from service or labor claimed, and in none of them has the State Government complied with the stipulation made in the Constitution. The State of New Jersey, at an early day, passed a law in conformity with her constitutional obligation; but the current of anti-slavery feeling has led her more recently to enact laws which render inoperative the remedies provided by her own law and by the laws of Congress. In the State of New York even the right of transit for a slave has been denied by her tribunals; and the States of Ohio and Iowa have refused to surrender to justice fugitives charged with murder, and with inciting servile insurrection in the State of Virginia. Thus the constituted compact has been deliberately broken and disregarded by the non-slaveholding States, and the consequence follows that South Carolina is released from her obligation.
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To start, some rough ground rules if you want to contribute
* This is not a debate about slavery being the/a cause of the Civil War. The assumption is that slavery played a significant role and documenting that role. Anyone can of course create another thread documenting anything not to do with slavery.
* Discussion about the contemporary material is fully welcome, not every post needs to be a source and info. Please keep civil and please let's not get into debating anything beyond the scope of the contemporary comments themselves or something directly relevant.
* I will be linking a timeline, the posts here are welcome and intended to be more thorough, I plan to link to the Civil War posts in the timeline.
* https://www.sutori.com/story/slavery-and-csa-secession
* When posting a contemporary source please follow the below example with the requested format
* Start with a bold date and author (potentially a title of some sort either made up by you are from the document cited, etc), further technically correct citing standards are up to you, this is just to get a high level view easier
* Please don't put too many sources in a single post, will be easier to link back to, potentially even one post per source or at least a cluster of relevant sources only
* Link your sources unless there is no link and then please include full citation information
* Include contextual commentary, at least a few sentences around, a full paragraph etc... please no single cherry-picked sentence. On the timeline I will likely do so but again will link back here.
* Anything else is up to personal preference, quotes, custom quote formatting, etc
December 24, 1860
Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union
https://www.civilwar.org/learn/primary-sources/declaration-causes-seceding-states#South_Carolina
----
The Constitution of the United States, in its fourth Article, provides as follows: "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due."
This stipulation was so material to the compact, that without it that compact would not have been made. The greater number of the contracting parties held slaves, and they had previously evinced their estimate of the value of such a stipulation by making it a condition in the Ordinance for the government of the territory ceded by Virginia, which now composes the States north of the Ohio River.
The same article of the Constitution stipulates also for rendition by the several States of fugitives from justice from the other States.
The General Government, as the common agent, passed laws to carry into effect these stipulations of the States. For many years these laws were executed. But an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the General Government have ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution. The States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, have enacted laws which either nullify the Acts of Congress or render useless any attempt to execute them. In many of these States the fugitive is discharged from service or labor claimed, and in none of them has the State Government complied with the stipulation made in the Constitution. The State of New Jersey, at an early day, passed a law in conformity with her constitutional obligation; but the current of anti-slavery feeling has led her more recently to enact laws which render inoperative the remedies provided by her own law and by the laws of Congress. In the State of New York even the right of transit for a slave has been denied by her tribunals; and the States of Ohio and Iowa have refused to surrender to justice fugitives charged with murder, and with inciting servile insurrection in the State of Virginia. Thus the constituted compact has been deliberately broken and disregarded by the non-slaveholding States, and the consequence follows that South Carolina is released from her obligation.
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