Volume 12 , Issue 13

Events Leading To Civil War

The events leading to Civil War (1861-1865) take us back to 1619 - when English settlers in Virginia purchased 20 Africans from a Dutch ship. The Africans were sold as indentured servants, not slaves. The distinction being an indentured servant may ultimately become free for working for some number of years. It was not long before all Africans arriving were treated as slaves, bought and sold into a lifetime of slavery for them and their descendents.

What followed in the next few years was the following:

• 1641 - Massachusetts Bay Colony legalizes slavery.
• 1660 - Virginia legalizes slavery.
• 1663 - Maryland becomes the first colony to enact laws that recognize slavery for life. Under prior English law slaves who became Christians were granted freedom.
• 1667 - Virginia passes a law revoking the prior English law that allowed for slaves that converted to Christianity to become free.
• February 1688 - The first organized protest against slavery in the new world was drafted by a group of Quakers in Germantown, PA. Known as the "Germantown Protest," it argued that Christians should do as they would want to be done to them, that slavery was essentially theft as you were buying something stolen and that adultery is wrong yet slave traders/owners forced adultery on men and women by breaking up marriages when they resold husbands and wives to different owners. How could as Christians, could such actions be condoned?

You can view more of the Timeline of Events Leading To Civil War by clicking this link.
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