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Edited on Thu Aug-02-07 01:09 AM by happyslug
Sorry, but I had to write the above. Slavery in the US changed over time, becoming more brutal and harsh from 1800 till 1865. In many states it was illegal even to teach your own slaves to Read and Write starting about the 1830s. This had to do with the various slave revolts that people blamed on educated slaves and Free blacks. Some states even made it illegal to free a slave. Missouri for one made it even illegal to be a Free black. Mark Twain in Huckleberry Finn addressed this with Hunk's father complaining about a free Black man living in Missouri, but because the Free black man had NOT yet lived for six months in Missouri he was NOT a Missouri resident and could not yet be grabbed by the Sheriff and sold (this story takes place in the 1830s).
Maroons, escaped black slaves, were common throughout the South, both in the colonial period and post colonial period, but seem to have died out as you come to the pre-Civil war period. We have reports of Maroons hiding out in inaccessible parts of the south for years at a time (The reports we have of Maroons, generally are of attacks on such Maroons "towns" when they were located), but these fall in number as one gets closer to the Civil war. The longest period a Maroon town survived seems to have been about 10 years, but such Maroon towns died out in the two decades before the Civil War, do to less tolerance of such settlements from the white slave owning community. This reflected the harsher attitude the South had to blacks, both free and slave, that the south Adopted in the Decades before the Civil war.
Further Changes included bans on educating blacks, increase punishments on blacks (Both free and Slave) and even greater allowance of the the "Patrols" to kill blacks. Now the Patrols was a common law institution, but fell into disuse, other then the South, with the decline of the Militia with the end of any real danger from the Indians with the defeat of Tecumseh in 1814. In the South the Patrol survived for it was part of the mechanism to keep the blacks and slaves in their place. Every adult white male member of the Community had to serve on the Patrol. The day was set by the Sheriff. This date varied for each member of the patrol so that the roads were covered every day of the month. In colonial days it was tied in with the Militia, even in the North, but with the defeat of the Indians as a serious threat the Militia and the patrol seems to have died out (In the North the fine for NOT attending the monthly drill of the Militia was slowly lowered so that the more people would prefer to pay the fine than show up for the drill, by the 1830s most Northern states had replaced the fine with a head tax for some people preferred to show up for the drill then pay the fine).
The South, with its slave population, needed the Patrol to keep the Slaves from escaping, thus kept the Militia and its related institution the Patrol. In the 1850s the Militia and the Patrol was actually STRENGTHENED in the South do to fear of the Slave revolt (and by the desire of the Southern "fire-eaters" to leave the union after the adoption of the Compromise of 1850).
My point was how hard the South made it to be a Slave in the decades before the Civil War. Slavery was made WORSE over these years. Thus it is surpassing that a black female could read and write (or had someone write the letter for her). The situation was getting so bad something had to give and it ended up being Civil War.
One last comment, the history of the Militia. During the Colonial time period and till the 1820s the best Militia in the US (and probably in the world at that time) was the New England Militia. It was what drove the British out of Boston in 1776 and defeated the British at Saratoga a few years later (And had been the key to defeating the French between 1689 and 1763, the four wars that made up what is called the "French and Indian Wars"). The Middle States were not as good (Pennsylvania only forming its in 1750s do to pressure from the French). The south had the worse, more concern about slave revolts then fighting the French or Spanish (Through good enough to massacre Indians when called on to do such actions).
Thus after the Indians were defeated in 1810s the New England Militia went into rapid decline, the middle colonies were not that much behind them for it was deem no longer needed. The South kept its Milita and kept it in the tradition the Southern Militia always had, one of keeping the blacks down.
I mention the above because a lot of right wing opposition to Gun Control sites the Militia clause of the US. The right wing like citing the New England Militia, but most of the Right Wing are ideological descendent's of the Southern Militia not the New England Militia. I always like pointing out one of the first Orders issued By George Washington to the New England Militia when he took Command of them in 1775. He wanted all blacks disarmed. The blacks left the militia units AS DID MOST OF THE WHITES. George had to give in on this Order, but George came from the South and its Militia Tradition, and was facing the New England Militia where EVERYONE SERVED and the Militia was NOT intended to keep a set of the population down (Massachusetts would become the first State to abolish Slavery, an act considered radical at that time, becoming the ONLY STATE TO HAVE ABOLISH SLAVERY AT THE TIME THE US CONSTITUTION WAS WRITTEN in 1787). Just a comment on Gun Control and the Militia and Slavery.
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