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History of the United States I / Unit 7   USH1 0911 short lesson, about 20 seconds

Gradual Emancipation in the North

Captions available

The idea

Massachusetts' seventeen eighty constitution technically freed all enslaved people, yet several hundred remained enslaved, and in the seventeen eighties individuals successfully sued for freedom.

In practice

About eleven hundred still enslaved in New England by eighteen hundred.

Where people slip

Over thirty-six thousand remained enslaved across the northern states, concentrated in New Jersey and New York, the last emancipated in the late eighteen twenties.

Your place on the trail

Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.

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