Research Question: How did the slavery trade coming into Philadelphia impact the economy of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia?
Description: In this project I am going to be looking into how the slave trade that came into Philadelphia affected the economies of both Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. When people think of the slave trade, they think of slave ships coming into southern states not a state devoted to freedoms. The Philadelphia slave trade started later than most of the southern slave trades. Most slaves that were bought by Pennsylvanians were brought up from southern states not directly from Philadelphia ports. In my project I am going to explore how this slave trade impacted the economies of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. I want to know what the slaves brought into Philadelphia did. I want to find out how they were spread across the state and how they worked in places such as Philadelphia. Philadelphia was a hub for many abolitionist organizations such as the Pennsylvania Society who was a group dedicated to abolishing slavery.
Format: I want to do either an Instagram infographic gallery or a 1000-1250 word op-ed.
Sources:
Primary:
This is a primary source that was an address at the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Colonization Society. The address describes the horrors of the slave trade and why the citizens of Pennsylvania should be against it. It seems they cared more about being good Christians than actually seeing slaves as equals. However, this is still beneficial for my argument because it illustrates why the slave trade coming through Philadelphia came to an end.
Gurley, R. R. Address at the Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Colonization Society. Philadelphia, PA: Herman Hooker, 1839.
This source is a primary source that is a letter from one man to another about the differences between slave and free states’ economies. In the letter he compares the economies of Virginia (a slave state) and Pennsylvania (a free state). This letter is useful in making my argument because it describes Pennsylvania’s economy and why it moved away from slave labor.
Hodgson, Adam. A Letter to M. Jean Baptiste Say, on the Comparative Expense of Free and Slave Labour. Liverpool, England: Hatchard and Son, 1823.
This is a primary source about the Pennsylvania Society. It is a helpful source for my argument because it discusses the history of slavery and abolitionists in Pennsylvania. It gives detailed descriptions of the Pennsylvania Society fighting slavery and also details the fights that they lose to proslavery community members. It gives important details on why the slave trade ended in Philadelphia.
Needles, Edward. An Historical Memoir of the Pennsylvania Society, For Promoting the Abolition of Slavery; The Relief of Free Negroes Held in Bondage and For Improving the Condition of the African Race . Philadelphia , PA: The Pennsylvania Society, 1848.
Secondary:
This is a secondary source that details the slave trade coming into Philadelphia. This source describes the slave trade coming into Philadelphia during 1759-1765, which was the height of the Philadelphia slave trade. This is an important source for my argument because it describes the impact that the slave trade during this time.
Wax, Darold D. “Africans on the Delaware: The Pennsylvania Slave Trade, 1759–1765.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 50, no. 1 (1983): 38-49. Accessed February 22, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27772875.
This is a secondary source that describes the Quakers in Pennsylvania’s fight against slavery in Pennsylvania. The Quakers were a religion who believed in freedom and fought for the abolition of slavery. The article is beneficial for my argument because it illustrates the reason why the Quakers moved so strongly away from slavery and that is because it started to lose profitability.
Daniels, Jason. “Protest and Participation: Reconsidering the Quaker Slave Trade in Early Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 85, no. 2 (2018): 239-265. muse.jhu.edu/article/688855.
Comments