Press Enter to search or select a section to narrow results

An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery

An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery

Steve Williams · Friday, November 14th 2014 at 6:14AM · 1617 views
An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, passed by the Pennsylvania legislature on 1 March 1780, was one of the first attempts by a government in the Western Hemisphere to begin an abolition of slavery.[1]

The Act prohibited further importation of slaves into the state, required Pennsylvania slaveholders to annually register their slaves (with forfeiture for noncompliance, and manumission for the enslaved), and established that all children born in Pennsylvania were free persons regardless of the condition or race of their parents.

Those enslaved in Pennsylvania before the 1780 law went into effect remained enslaved for life. Another act of the Pennsylvania legislature freed them in 1847.

Pennsylvania's "gradual abolition" — rather than Massachusetts's 1783 "instant abolition" — became a model for freeing slaves in other Northern states.

...

The 1780 Act prohibited further importation of slaves into Pennsylvania, but it also respected the property rights of PA slaveholders by not freeing slaves already held in the state. It changed the legal status of future children born to enslaved PA mothers from "slave" to "indentured servant," but required those children to work for the mother's master until age 28. To verify that no additional slaves were imported, the Act created a registry of all slaves in the state. Slaveholders who failed to register their slaves annually, or who did it improperly, lost their slaves to manumission.[2]

The 1780 Act specifically exempted members of the U.S. Congress and their personal slaves. Congress was then the only branch of the federal government under the Articles of Confederation, and met in Philadelphia.

...

Those enslaved in Pennsylvania before its 1780 Act became law continued to be lifelong slaves, unless manumitted. Also, the 1780 Act and its 1788 Amendment did not apply to fugitive slaves from other states or their children. Pennsylvania tried to extend rights to fugitive slaves through an 1826 personal liberty law, but it and the 1788 Amendment were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842).

Although slavery steadily declined in Pennsylvania, the state that had initially led the way toward abolition tolerated it for decades after it ended in New England. The 1840 U.S. Census listed 47,854 (99.87%) of the state's Blacks as free, and 64 (0.13%) as enslaved.[10] Legal slavery ended in Pennsylvania in 1847, when the several-dozen remaining slaves (the youngest, aged 67) were freed.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Act_for_...

About the Author

Steve Williams Coatesville, PA

Share This Article

Comments (28)

robert powell Friday, November 14th 2014 at 8:12AM


GRADUALLY your racistDNA will start to Leave American Soil with your reincarnation........

Steve Williams Friday, November 14th 2014 at 8:54AM

Robert, how did this Act impact the Pennsylvania iron industry?

Steve Williams Friday, November 14th 2014 at 7:09PM

You don't know, do you Robert?

robert powell Saturday, November 15th 2014 at 9:12AM


Since there NEVER were free 'blackMen OR whiteMen OR redMen OR yellowMEN' in PA, THE ONLY effect know by me in 2014 is ......... Pennsylvania was a slaveholding colony from its inception, and thru Mayor Frank Rizzo and the Republican Voter disenfranchisement of 2014 African American Voters MANY African Americans Would believe that Pennsylvania is STILL in 2014 a slaveholding colony......

robert powell Saturday, November 15th 2014 at 9:16AM

since ONLY paganChristian racistIgnorance has a History of belief in colorIdentification STRONGER than a Belief in the Creator of Adaam(as)

AND

since there were never any 'freeBlackMen OR freeWhiteMen OR freeRedMen OR freeYellowMen in PA or anywhere---THE ONLY Fact of the effect of this Act's impact the Pennsylvania iron industry is that ......Pennsylvania was a slaveholding colony from its inception, and thru Mayor Frank Rizzo and the Republican Voter disenfranchisement of 2014 African American Voters MANY African Americans Would believe that Pennsylvania is STILL in 2014 a slaveholding colony......

Steve Williams Saturday, November 15th 2014 at 10:26AM

So Robert, are you saying this 1780 Act was of no consequence?

Steve Williams Saturday, November 15th 2014 at 11:44AM

...Sampson fled Birdsboro Forge in January 1816, forcing his owners to send "to Phila. after him & other places at considerable expence, advertising him & c." In the fall Sampson, "at last came home of his own accord." For running away he earned nearly seven months in Reading's jail. Sampson bided his time at Birdsboro until he found a better way out. In 1821, he arose one day to make "an ankony & a bloom" and "waisted 6 or 8 baskets Coal" in doing it. That was the last straw for Matthew Brooke. He freed Sampson three months later, more than a year before his servitude was to have expired, and awarded him "customary wages in service of the estate for one year."

In freedom, Sampson enjoyed some relative advantages: he was a young man who knew how to handle a forge hammer. The skill he had learned in bondage offered him entry to the lucrative employment that many free black men had enjoyed for more than a generation...

John Bezis-Selfa
Forging America

Steve Williams Sunday, November 16th 2014 at 1:40AM

Robert, are you saying the 1780 Act was a bad thing?

robert powell Sunday, November 16th 2014 at 8:50AM

thank you selfProfessed steveORadam for this Light of History

..........Robert, are you saying the 1780 Act was a bad thing?
Sunday, November 16th 2014 at 12:40AM
Steve Williams

...........So Robert, are you saying this 1780 Act was of no consequence?
Saturday, November 15th 2014 at 9:26AM
Steve Williams

the consequence of that act IS :

that the selfProfessed 2014 'whiteMan' can Attempt at an African American Family site to make the 'blacks' like him for HIS defining their racistlyIgnorant 'black' existence.......

EVERYONE that IS intelligent KNOWS that the ONLY way for IRON to be MADE and USED in America 1492-1864 was through the blood and sweat of AN AFRICAN slave.............

ALL preINDUSTRIAL High Technology WAS the blood and sweat of AN AFRICAN slave.............

The African slave WAS NOT just a dirty field TOOL, or a MAME in the kitchen BUT that African Slave WAS the HIGH TECHNOLOGY Wheel that DROVE the Wealth and Development of America

shatter you DISRESPECTFUL, racistlyIgnorant flatulent of American History......

****************AGAIN, for the 2,089,176 TIME.....

CAN YOU READ and COMPREHEND English?

1. 1780 Act was INSIGNIFICANT........COMPARED to the TRUTHFUL History, Scholarship and Science that PROVES that the African Slave WAS the HIGH TECHNOLOGY Wheel that DROVE the Wealth and Development of America

**********************DO YOU AGREE WITH THAT?

2. 1780 Act was INSIGNIFICANT........ , just LIKE your attempt at find a 'blackFriend' or some uncleTOM...that will enable your 'whiteSupremist' BIA agenda

Steve Williams Sunday, November 16th 2014 at 9:08AM

To your three part question:

Yes, I can read and comprehend English, please learn how to write it.

No, I don't think the 1780 Act was insignificant (of no consequence).

Yes, I agree that the black man powered the growth of America.

robert powell Sunday, November 16th 2014 at 11:39AM


.........Yes, I can read and comprehend English, please learn how to write it.

Yes, I agree that the black man powered the growth of America.

Sunday, November 16th 2014 at 8:08AM
Steve Williams

***********you CANNOT read or comprehend ENGLISH!

---- I NEVER have at BIA, written 'blackMan' to describe a human being

...'blackMan' is a PRODUCT of RACIST IGNORANCE that stole, raped, tortured and murdered the African slave of slaverAmericana 1492-1864(1964)

--- The same African that WAS the HIGH TECHNOLOGY Wheel that DROVE the Wealth and Development of America

can you reread my poetically jeniFa Mozell inspired BIA writing and ANSWER the QUESTION

1. 1780 Act was INSIGNIFICANT........COMPARED to the TRUTHFUL History, Scholarship and Science that PROVES that the African Slave WAS the HIGH TECHNOLOGY Wheel that DROVE the Wealth and Development of America

**********************DO YOU AGREE WITH THAT?

in the Words of your deacon noEnglish readingORWriting style-----YES or NO?

Steve Williams Sunday, November 16th 2014 at 4:38PM

No Robert I don't agree with that. Sampson was a person, not a race as you and Harry insist. It was not insignificant to Sampson.

Steve Williams Sunday, November 16th 2014 at 4:39PM

You should have listened to your Father about the blackman.

robert powell Sunday, November 16th 2014 at 7:20PM


1. 1780 Act; Sampson a person; my Father and your RACIST 'blackWhiteMan' was INSIGNIFICANT

........COMPARED to the TRUTHFUL History, Scholarship and Science that PROVES that the African Slave WAS the HIGH TECHNOLOGY Wheel that DROVE the Wealth and Development of America

**********************DO YOU AGREE WITH THAT?

in the Words of your deacon noEnglish readingORWriting style-----YES or NO?


Steve Williams Monday, November 17th 2014 at 7:35AM

Robert, the significance of Sampson IS truthful history, scholarship and science.

robert powell Monday, November 17th 2014 at 7:47AM


Robert, the significance of Sampson IS truthful history, scholarship and science.
Monday, November 17th 2014 at 6:35AM
Steve Williams

significant to YOU at BIA ONLY, NO other BIA African American has commented to agree with YOU

and AGAIN, since its just ME and You------

1. 1780 Act; Sampson a person; my Father and your RACIST 'blackWhiteMan' was INSIGNIFICANT

........COMPARED to the TRUTHFUL History, Scholarship and Science that PROVES that the African Slave WAS the HIGH TECHNOLOGY Wheel that DROVE the Wealth and Development of America

**********************DO YOU AGREE WITH THAT?

in the Words of your deacon noEnglish readingORWriting style--uncleTOMISM---YES or NO?


Steve Williams Monday, November 17th 2014 at 9:01PM

Right Robert, significant to me.

Steve Williams Tuesday, November 18th 2014 at 10:48AM

Your question doesn't make sense Robert. Sampson is part of history so he can't be insignificant compared to the history he is part of. I grew up here just outside of Philadelphia. I'm surrounded by history, but not all true history. I live on the Brandywine where further south the Battle of Brandywine was fought. Birdsboro is a short drive from here as is Hopewell Furnace. People here talk about the Underground Railroad but I don't remember anyone ever talking about Hopewell Furnace having been built by the Blackman and Blackwoman. I don't remember ever hearing about the 1780 Act as part of this history. So yes, it is significant to me compared with the history that Is taught.

robert powell Tuesday, November 18th 2014 at 6:57PM


AGAIN, since its just ME and You------

LOWER your 'whitePrivilided' ---- WILL NOT answer to an African Asian Man

1. 1780 Act; Sampson a person; my Father and your RACIST 'blackWhiteMan' was INSIGNIFICANT

........COMPARED to the TRUTHFUL History, Scholarship and Science that PROVES that the African Slave WAS the HIGH TECHNOLOGY Wheel that DROVE the Wealth and Development of America

**********************DO YOU AGREE WITH THAT?

in the Words of your deacon noEnglish readingORWriting style--uncleTOMISM---YES or NO?

SHATTER, you RACIST ebolaEvil Disease of BIA..............

Steve Williams Tuesday, November 18th 2014 at 7:58PM

Robert, do you think an abstract concept is more important than any human being? Is that what you are asking me to agree with?

robert powell Wednesday, November 19th 2014 at 8:09AM


ANOTHER unanswered QUESTION

BUT do you believe this statement is 'abstractConcept'?

1. 1780 Act; Sampson a person; my Father and your RACIST 'blackWhiteMan' was INSIGNIFICANT

........COMPARED to the TRUTHFUL History, Scholarship and Science that PROVES that the African Slave WAS the HIGH TECHNOLOGY Wheel that DROVE the Wealth and Development of America

**********************DO YOU AGREE WITH THAT?

Steve Williams Wednesday, November 19th 2014 at 2:50PM

It's not my fault Robert if you can't express yourself clearly. It looks like you are saying Sampson, a person, was insignificant. I said no, I don't agree with that.

Steve Williams Wednesday, November 19th 2014 at 2:52PM

The abstract concept is "truthful history".

robert powell Wednesday, December 10th 2014 at 7:18PM


An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery

SUBJECT

The abstract concept is "truthful history".
Wednesday, November 19th 2014 at 1:52PM
Steve Williams

ab·stract

adjective

: relating to or involving general ideas or qualities rather than specific people, objects, or actions

LYING, as always! and ignora MISCONCEPTION

----- NO abstract by definition can be truthful ANYTHING




Steve Williams Thursday, December 11th 2014 at 5:11AM

Truth is a general idea or quality and therefore is abstract.

robert powell Thursday, December 11th 2014 at 7:58AM


An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery

SUBJECT

............Truth is a general idea or quality and therefore is abstract.
Thursday, December 11th 2014 at 4:11AM
Steve Williams

Is it an abstract IDEA that you are a Man?

Is it an abstract IDEA that your sole/soul mate sweetIrma was a Woman and has died?

IS IT AN abstractIdea that colorIdentification of Mankind is racistly I G N O R A N T?

Is it an abstract IDEA that this wwwebsite is BIA, an African American Family site to Shatter the Misconceptions of 'whiteSupremacy' PRODUCED in slaverAmericana?

Is it an abstract IDEA that slaverAmericana 1492-1864(1964) was a paganChristian European EVIL, given to the aboriginal People of America and the African Asian?

Is it an abstract IDEA that the Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery in Pennsylvanic in 1780 was Nonsense?

and FINALLY

is ab·stract an adjective: relating to or involving general ideas or qualities rather than specific people, objects, or actions?

Steve Williams Thursday, December 11th 2014 at 8:57AM

truth (n.)
Old English triewð (West Saxon), treowð (Mercian) "faith, faithfulness, fidelity, loyalty; veracity, quality of being true; pledge, covenant," from triewe, treowe "faithful" (see true (adj.)), with Proto-Germanic abstract noun suffix *-itho (see -th (2)).

Sense of "something that is true" is first recorded mid-14c. Meaning "accuracy, correctness" is from 1560s. English and most other IE languages do not have a primary verb for "speak the truth," as a contrast to lie (v.). Truth squad in U.S. political sense first attested in the 1952 U.S. presidential election campaign.
At midweek the Republican campaign was bolstered by an innovation--the "truth squad" ..., a team of senators who trailed whistle-stopping Harry Truman to field what they denounced as his wild pitches. ["Life," Oct. 13, 1952]


Let [Truth] and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter. [Milton, "Areopagitica," 1644]

robert powell Friday, December 12th 2014 at 8:10AM


English and most other IE languages do not have a primary verb for "speak the truth," as a contrast to lie (v.).

Thursday, December 11th 2014 at 7:57AM
Steve Williams

TOTAL AGREEMENT from RobertPowell to steveAdam on this Definition of European racistIgnorance

Post a Comment

Please log in to post comments.