Slavery in the United States was not abolished at the federal level until after the Civil War. However, on May 18, 1652, the first anti-slavery law in North America was passed in what is now the state of Rhode Island. This regulation only applied to whites and blacks, while in 1676, natives were also included in the ban. However, the situation was not as simple as it seemed.
First, although the relatively young colony of Rhode Island had begun to question slavery and sought ways to differentiate itself from neighboring Massachusetts, regulation remained very limited. In fact, the law only prohibited lifetime ownership of slaves. For periods of ten years or less, possession of another person, as an indentured servant, was still permitted. But in most cases – if not all – even ten years after the regulation was passed, the owners refused to grant free status to their slaves.
One possible reason the law was not enforced as it should be is that Rhode Island could not afford to enforce the prohibition of slavery. The colony dominated the North American slave trade, with Newport being the largest port. At the same time, the region served as a supplier for the West Indies and the region’s large slave population. In exchange for food and household goods sent from North America to the West Indies, New England, the northeastern region of the United States, imported molasses, which it used to distill rum. In this way, Rhode Island managed to emerge as the largest exporter of rum. Therefore, it is more likely not that the particular law was not properly enforced, but that it was never enforced.
Moreover, in many cases, the laws of the time tended to contradict each other, as there was no uniform slave code that the colonies had to follow. For the remainder of the 17th century, the colonies were in the process of modernizing slavery laws, in some cases through negotiations with enslaved Native Americans and in others using a system of indentured servitude common in Europe. By the 18th century, many colonial officials were exploiting a system of slavery based on race. Thus, the law of May 18, 1652 was replaced by another in 1703, which was passed by the General Assembly and legally recognized slavery. By 1750, Rhode Island would have the highest percentage of slaves in New England, reaching – and according to some scholars exceeding – 10% of the colony’s total population.
The final abolition of slavery in the territory did not begin until the Rhode Island legislature passed a plan for gradual emancipation in February 1784. All slaves born after March 1, 1784 were to be freed: girls at 18 and boys at 21 years. By 1800 there were 384 slaves in the colony. Forty years later the number of slaves in the area was only five.
Column editor: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigoni-Despina Poimenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis
