During the time in which this narrative was received, there was a lot happening in the United States of America. The Fugitive Slave Laws of 1793 were in effect and by the 1820's, they were a hot topic in Congress. Furthermore, The United States was expanding greatly. In the West, the country had acquired a vast amount of land from Mexico and a few other countries. Manifest Destiny, The Oregon Trail, and the California Gold Rush were all in full effect by the 1840's. Regarding slavery, and interesting case was the Amistad case of 1841. John Quincy Adams argued for a group of slaves that violently took over a cuban schooner and ended up off the coast of the U.S.A. The courts ruled in favor of the Africans and they returned home in 1842. Abolitionists and the Abolitionist movement saw this as a huge victory at the time. The 19th Century saw a vast expansion of land, but also a vast increase in abolitionists. Popular abolitionist works included "The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" (1845) and "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl," which was written by Harriet Jacobs. Plantation life for slaves during the 1840's was still common and though the slave trade had been abolished, slavery was still going strong. Beatings and atrocities were being carried out every day against blacks and life was extremely hard for slaves in the U.S.A. Other historical happenings of this time period include the US-Mexican War, the annexation of Texas, and earlier the Missouri Compromise directed much of the nations policy towards whether new states would be free or allowed to have slaves. Presidents of the 1840's included William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James Polk, and Zachary Taylor. Also, In the 1840's there were over 2 million slaves and this number grew to over 4 million by 1860!
Sources:
Freehoff, Francis. "War of 1812: Battle of the Thames."
Military History Magazine: October, 1996. Print.
Tise, Larry E. "Proslavery: A History of the Defense of Slavery in America"
University of Georgia Press. Athens, Georgia: 1987. Print.
Graham, W.H. "Review of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass."
New York Tribune,10 June 1845. docsouth.unc.edu: Accessed 19, Nov. 2009.
I am interested in the case you mention about the slaves who took over the schooner and ended up off the coast of America. It seems strange that the slaves could win their case, considering their violent actions would probably incite fear among slave onwers like Nat Turner's rebellion. Like you said, this would certainly be a big victory for abolitionists. How did the slaves win and do you know if any of the arguments they used in their case were used later on with any success?
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