The southern colonies feared that Somerset would eventually apply to them and abolish their way of life. In their view, the only way to preserve slavery was to become independent of Britain.

Southerners’ fear of the impact of the Somerset decision was justified, because Britain abolished slavery in its colonies in 1833, more than 30 years before the end of the American Civil War.

The promise rang through the young British colonies: Any enslaved black person who could reach Florida, then under Spanish control, would be declared free if they immediately converted to ...

Though slavery in northern colonies differed from the southern colonies, it was still brutal. In New York, enslaved people couldn’t bear arms or testify in court.

The Southern colonies had no reason to put their lives, their families’ lives, their property and their legacy on the line until a single decision at the Court of King’s Bench in London on ...

A fifth-grade teacher held a mock slave auction, ... were cited by the school's superintendent for holding a mock slave auction and using racial slurs in lessons about southern colonies.

Little noted is when Thomas Jefferson produced the first draft of the Declaration, there was a 30th count that was dropped at the demand of convention delegates from the Southern colonies.

Slavery never took hold in the northern colonies as it did in the southern colonies mostly because there were no labor-intensive cash crops — no tobacco, indigo, rice or cotton.

The Southern colonies were dependent on slave labor, and they wouldn't have joined the union if they had banned it." He adds later in the video: "Our system is wonderful, and the Constitution is a ...

Slavery was a viciously brutal condition for many inhabitants of the southern colonies. Africans were brought to America to be slaves, sure, but their specific skill set helped change the ...

The Savage South” is an image that retired UNC-Chapel Hill Lineberger Professor of the Humanities at Fred Hobson thinks and writes about.