392 CHAPTER 13|CIVIL RIGHTS
the Constitution was ratifi ed. Indeed, equality and civil rights in the United States
have been a continually evolving work in progress.African Americans
From the early nineteenth century, with the abolitionists’ eff orts, until the mid-
twentieth century and the civil rights movement, the central focus of civil rights
was on African Americans. Other groups received attention more gradually. For
example, starting in the mid-nineteenth century women began their fi ght for equal
rights, and over the next century the civil rights movement expanded to include
groups such as Native Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans. Most recently,
attention has turned to the elderly, the disabled, and the LGBT community (les-
bian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people). The most divisive civil rights issue
with the greatest long-term impact, however, has been slavery and its legacy.SLAVERY AND ITS IMPACT
Slavery was part of the American economy from nearly the beginning of the
nation’s history. Dutch traders brought 20 slaves to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619,
a year before the Puritans came to Plymouth Rock. Between 1619 and 1808, when
the importation of slaves was banned, about 600,000 to 650,000 slaves were forc-
ibly brought from Africa to the United States (and about 75,000 to 100,000 more
were brought from Africa but died in transit).^5
It is impossible to overstate the importance of slaves to the southern economy.
The 1860 census shows that there were 2.3 million slaves in the Deep South, con-
stituting 47 percent of its population, and nearly 4 million slaves overall. Most
slaves worked on plantations, but others labored as shipyard workers, carpenters,
bakers, stone masons, millers, spinners, weavers, and domestic servants. In the
states that later seceded from the Union, 30.8 percent of households owned slaves.
The economic benefi ts of slavery for the owners were clear. By 1860, the per capita
income for whites in the South was $3,978; in the North it was $2,040. The South
had only 30 percent of the nation’s free population, but it had 60 percent of the
wealthiest men.^6
Abolitionists worked to rid the nation of slavery as its importance to the South
grew, setting the nation on a collision course that would not be resolved until the
Civil War. The Founders largely ducked the issue (see Chapter 2), and subsequent
legislatures and courts did not fare much better. The Missouri Compromise of
1820, which limited the expansion of slavery and kept the overall balance between
slave states and free states, eased tensions for a while, but the issue persisted.
Slave owners became increasingly frustrated with the success of the Under-
ground Railroad, which helped some slaves escape to the North. The debate over
admitting California as a free state or a slave state (or making it half free and half
slave) threatened to split the nation once again. Southern states agreed to admit
Ca lifornia a s a free state, but on ly if Cong ress pa ssed the Fug itive Slave Act, which
required northern states to treat escaped slaves as property and return them to
their owners. Soon after, Congress enacted the Compromise of 1850, which over-
turned the Missouri Compromise and allowed each new state to decide for itself
whether to be a slave state or a free state.
All possibility of further compromise ended when the misguided Dred Scott
v. Sandford decision of 1857 ruled that states could not be prevented from allow-Missouri Compromise An
agreement between pro- and
antislavery groups passed by Con-
gress in 1820 in an attempt to ease
tensions by limiting the expansion
of slavery while also maintaining a
balance between slave states and
free states.