isa-normaladvance-1913-00060

Description:	60THE NORMAL ADVANCEplayed a major part in the election of 1816,and was debated in the convention, which metin 1816 to form a state constitution. Lack ofspace forbids that that part of the story betold. That convention incorporated the following in the state constitution: Thereshall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in this state, otherwise than for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shallhave been duly convicted. Nor shall any indenture of any negro or mulatto hereaftermade and executed out of the bounds of thisstate be of any validity within the state.The negroes that had been brought into Indiana under the indenture and apprenticelaws, and those brought in in violation of alllaw, were still held as slaves even after thestate constitution of 1816 forbade both slaveryand indentured servants. In the eastern counties it was generally considered that slaves andservants were emancipated, and masters actedon that theory, though still feeling themselvescharged with the care of keeping their oldservitors from want * * * * In the westerncounties a few masters removed their slavesfrom the state, and some of these were afterwards released by the courts of southernstates * * * * The great majority however,simply continued to hold their slaves in Indiana,13In 1800 there were 28 slaves in Indiana. According to the United States census, in 1810there were 237 in 1820, 190 in 1830, 3 in1840, 3. But the census of 1830 was not correct, for in 1830 there were 32 slaves at Vincennes alone. Very likely other census records for Indiana have not taken full accountof the number of slaves.In 1823 perhaps the last organized effortswere made to have the system of slavery legalized in the state. An attempt was made tocall a convention with the avowed purpose ofhaving the constitution so ammended as topermit the holding of slaves. The popularvote easily foiled this attempt—for the convention, 2,601 against it, 11,991. But nearlyhalf the counties neglected to make returns,the majority being so overwhelming that, perhaps, it was not thought wrorth the trouble ofdoing it,16 It seems that this attempt mayhave had some effect on the slavery questionin Illinois. The contemporaneous report says:This decided expression of the public feelingcannot fail of having effect in Illinois, by thepeople of which a similar question will be decided in August, 1824.16 This vote in Indiana may have influenced Governor EdwardColes of Illinois, for he is called the anti-slavery governor of Illinois, who successfullyresisted the establishment of slavery in thatstate in the years 1823-24, by a scheme of organized border ruffianism akin to that whichin later years came so near making Kansas aslave state.17Although slavery probably died out in the40s, yet proslavery sentiment lived on. Evenas late as 1856 antislavery speakers were nottolerated in the half of the state south ofRichmond, Indianapolis and Terre Haute, andit was not till the institution of slavery itselfdied out that the proslavery sentiment disappeared.18 In fact, it has not yet entirely diedout, for in many towns of the southern counties of the state negroes are not allowed tolive.Bibliographical note: The best account orslavery in Indiana can be found in J. P.Dunns Indiana, A Redemption From Slavery. This is an interesting and masterlywork of 500 pages. In the Indiana HistoricalSociety Publications, Vol. II, No. 12, can befound the slavery petitions and resolutionssent to Congress from 1796 to 1807 from theNorthwest, together with the congressional reports on them. The part that proslavery politics played in Indiana during the Civil Waris ably discussed by J. A. Woodburn, of Indiana University. His thesis can be found inthe American Historical Association Reports,1902, Vol. I, pp. 223-251.13Ibid, p. 431.Ibid, p. 441.Niles Register, Jan. 24, 1824, p. 324.Ibid, Sept. 20, 1823, p. 39.Ind. Hist. Soc. Pub., Vol. II, 233.18Amer. Hist. Assn. Rep., 1902. Vol. 1, p. 226
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/34505
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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