From 1790 to 1860 the enslaved population increased by about

This collection of maps shows the change in population of slaves from 1790 to 1860 in the United States. I used Social Explorer, which takes United States census data and creates maps based on different demographics, to analyze the movement of slavery. In 1790, much of the slave population settled in southern colonies such as Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The most dense slave populations during this decade occurred on the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia. This makes sense because the slave migration across the Atlantic went to coastal cities and southern colonies utilized African Americans for labor in their economy. In 1830, slave population density grew intensely throughout the states and expanded westward to new colonies that were established. The density of slaves in coastal areas increased to 70+ percent in the south. Additionally, the mainland of all the colonies grew in slave density, apart from the very most North colonies (Maine, New York, New Hampshire, etc). This shift illustrates that after American Independence from Great Britain, the slavery movement in the United States became more prominent and southern states grew immensely dependent on slaves for labor in their agricultural economy. In 1860, the colonies continued to expand west and the movement of slaves continued to spread across the nation. The density of the slave population was extremely large along the Mississippi River with densities of 90+ percent in certain areas. What I wonder is why African Americans migrated to the Mississippi River? What was the reasoning for their accumulation along the water? Altogether, it is incredibly evident that instead of slavery becoming abolished after American independence, the institutionalized servitude heightened throughout the 1800’s, as illustrated through the varying maps that I created.

Progress has different meanings for different people. And for people of African descent, the cotton gin was not progress. It was a further entrenchment of enslavement. And for African Americans, the Industrial Revolution, those technological advances in the textile industry, did not mean progress. It meant slavery.

- Margaret Washington, historian

From 1790 to 1810, close to 100,000 slaves moved to the new cotton lands to the south and west. From 1810 until the Civil War, 100,000 slaves were forced westward each decade -- a half million in total. As cotton cultivation spread, slaveholders in the tobacco belt, whose crop was no longer profitable, made huge profits by selling their slaves. This domestic slave trade devastated black families. American-born slaves were torn from the plantations they had known all their lives, placed in shackles and force-marched hundreds of miles away from their loved ones. In 1781, Thomas Jefferson wrote his only book, Notes on the State of Virginia. His description of the state included controversial statements about the inferiority of blacks
Some in Britain, where slavery had now been abolished, found the issue of slavery in America highly entertaining. English actor Charles Mathews used the Jim Crow character in "A Trip to America," his one-man show in black-face in 1822, and Northern abolitionists were lampooned in an English newspaper in 1830.

Jim Crow
William McLean: "Offended Dignity".

Since the 1790s, abolitionists had been demanding that the United States put an end to its international slave trade. The Pennsylvania Abolition Society, the Quakers in New York, and other organizations presented anti-slave trade memorials to Congress. In January 1800, free black people in Philadelphia petitioned Congress to end the trade. In the meantime, though, the cotton boom spurred slaves imported from Africa: 20,000 came to Georgia and South Carolina in 1803 alone. Finally, on January 1, 1808, Congress did officially ban the international slave trade, a right granted it under the terms of the U.S. Constitution. Black communities throughout the country celebrated the long-awaited event. Absalom Jones gave a sermon at Philadelphia's African Church, commemorating the day as one of thanksgiving. Even following the ban, however, an illegal international slave trade continued.

• Jones's sermon on the abolition of the international slave trade

The cotton boom and the resulting demand for slaves brought increased danger for northern free blacks: the possibility of being kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South. The practice of kidnapping was frighteningly widespread. The 1793 Fugitive Slave Act enabled any white person to claim a black person as a fugitive, unless another white person testified otherwise. Blacks were not allowed to testify against whites in court according to southern law. Absalom Jones petitioned Congress for the protection of free blacks, to no avail. Children were highly vulnerable to kidnapping rings. Often indentured and living away from their parents, they could disappear without anyone noticing, since their employers assumed they had gone to their families. And since children changed so much as they grew, there was little likelihood of their being recognized and rescued after years of slavery. Many southern slaveowners took a "no questions asked" approach to purchasing slaves. Kidnapped free blacks joined the slaves who had been imported into the lower South, where they were work conditions were difficult and unhealthy.

How many slaves were there in 1790?

What was the black population in 1790?

Why was slavery declining in 1790?

What factors account for the tremendous growth in cotton cultivation from 1790 to 1860?