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March 29, 2008
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James Madison and the Slavery Issue
The Revolutionary period of the United States was a time filled with much turmoil and confusion as to how this newly found nation, should be modeled. Many delicate issues were discussed and planned out to get the best outcome for all concerned. One of these issues that cast an ominous shadow over the new republic was the slavery issue. Some of the most prominent figures at the head of this nation wanted to bring about an end to it but continuously failed due to the inconvenience of finding a workable plan. The topic of this paper is a man who is thought to have little to do with the slavery issue but played a relatively large role. James Madison although a slave owner himself wanted to rid the nation of this constant nuisance to the one truth America was founded on, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Although he held many political offices, his opponents would contend that he did not take full advantage of them and should have been able to do more to eliminate the evil from society. In this paper, I plan to explain how James Madison was able to be very influential in the slavery issue.
James Madison's ideas of slavery being an evil and needing to be done away with are ideas that have an indefinite point of origin. Two evens that may have had a profound influence on these ideas happened only a few years before his birth. In June of 1737, a slave named Peter was found guilty by a court of Oyer and Terminer of murthering his said master, and sentenced to be hanged (Scott, p. 134). Afterwards, Peter was beheaded and his head placed on a pole near a creek for all to see. The creek was renamed Negrohead Run and noted as a familiar place frequented by Madison. In 1745, a black female slave named Eve was burned to death for poisoning her master, Peter Montague. The sheriff who carried out Eve's sentence was the great uncle of Madison, Thomas Chew. His father related this story to Madison. Although these events may not have had quite an effect on Madison, the efforts of his parents were very influential. During Madison's youth, slavery combined the personal ease of the master with a life long consideration for the servant, (Brant, 1:44). Clement Eaton, author of A history of the Old South, describes many southerners as having a guilty conscience over slavery. It is uncertain whether Madison suffered from this but he did respect the slaves owned by his family. This respect was carried by Madison throughout his life and is often pointed to in the writings of his personal servant, Paul Jennings. After Madison's death he wrote that,
[Mr. Madison] often told the story, that one day riding home from court with old Tom Barbour (father of Governor James Barbour) they met a colored man who took off his hat. Mr. M replied, I never allow a Negro to excel me in politeness, (Jennings, p.19-20).
Madison would often write home asking about the family which to him included the slaves. One of the first direct references to slavery in Madison's writings came in a letter to Joseph Jones. In this letter, Madison responds to Jones' idea of offering slaves as a bonus to those who fight in the war for independence. Madison responds by saying:
I am glad to find the legislature persist in their resolution to recruit their line of the army for the war, though without deciding on the expediency of the mode under their consideration, would it not be as well to liberate and make soldiers at once of the blacks themselves as to make them instruments for enlisting white soldiers? It would certainly be more constant to the principles of liberty which ought never to be loss sight of in a contest for liberty, (Hutchinson, 2:209).
Madison's solution offered liberty not only for the white men who enlisted, but opened a door for Negroes of the time, to fight for that same liberty. Madison felt that you could not fight honorably for your own liberty while holding others in bondage. He demonstrated these same ideas in the writing and signing of the Declaration of Independence. Madison was known for making frequent trips to Philadelphia in which he carried one of his educated slaves, Billey. Billey marveled at the document and the ideas behind freedom. Madison gathered that Billey had become too advanced to be held in captivity as a normal slave. Madison wrote his father saying:
I can not think of punishing him by transportation merely for coveting that liberty for which we have paid the price of so much blood, and have proclaimed so often to be that the right and worthy the pursuit, of every being, (Hutchinson, 7:304).
Billey's arrangements were set by Pennsylvania law and proved to be beneficial because after the first seven years of his freedom he became an associate correspondent for Madison's finances handling most of the families business.
In Virginia, Madison argued against proposals by Carter H. Harrison that would repeal a 1782 act allowing slave owners to voluntarily manumit their slaves. The delegates passed the act by a single vote. Madison looked at this as a backward step that would allow the freeing of all slaves to come sooner. He agreed with Thomas Jefferson that there should be a gradual freeing of the slaves. Madison voted with Jefferson on a bill that would call for the gradual emancipation of slaves. The bill failed to pass but a young French observer by the name of Marquis de Chastellux gave a profound insight into Madison's character. He wrote in his journal that Madison was, A young man [who] … Astonishes … his eloquence, his wisdom, and his genius, has had the humanity and courage (for such a proposition requires no small share of courage) to propose a general emancipation of the slaves… (Chastellux, p.653).
A key event plainly revealed Madison's feelings towards slavery. At the Federal Convention of 1787, Madison offered his treatise, vices of the Political System of the United States, before the convention. In it he wrote that, Where slavery exists the republican theory becomes still more fallacious,(Hutchinson, 9:351). He worked hard to keep the word slavery out of the Constitution realizing the problem was not a division between the little states and the big ones but rather the North against the South. He worked to cure the nation of its slave problem. Madison was opposed to the Twenty-Year Compromise but clearly saw that the south would never ratify the Constitution if slavery were immediately outlawed. Therefore, he had to agree with the compromise. When the question of tariffs on the importation of slaves was discussed,
Mr. Madison thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men. The reason of duties did not hold as slaves are not like merchandize, consumed… (Madison, p.532). Madison defends the Twenty Year Compromise in the Federalist Papers by saying, the importation of slaves is permitted by the new Constitution for twenty years; by the old it is permitted forever,(Hamilton, Madison, Jay, p.238).
Madison argued for the clause extending slavery until 1808 because it was the only way to keep the Southern States in the Union. If the southern States did not join, the consequences would have, dreadful effects in the future. Could Madison have foreseen the splitting of the nation and the prelude of a Civil War?
James Madison became a member of the New Congress soon after the ratification was complete. He continued to fight to bring slavery to an end through constitutional methods. He wanted to place a duty on the importation of the slaves. His main concern was that people would consider this as being inconsistent but he was not treating them as property but numbering them as merchandise for the purpose of taxation was acceptable.
Madison was forced to make a difficult decision while in Congress. As one of his last acts, Benjamin Franklin petitioned Congress to abolish slavery and the slave trade. Madison could either agree or support his true feelings on the issue or appease southern factions that would leave the union and scream sedition at such a measure. Franklin was strongly supported by Quakers from Philadelphia. Madison responded by saying he agreed with such a measure but it should be done in the future when it could be more timely and successful.
During this time period, Madison addressed the slave problem in more than his public activities. Madison began leaving instructions for overseers on his Montpelier estate for Kind and humane treatment of his slaves. It is at this time Madison focuses on his plan for the gradual emancipation of the slaves. In his Memorandum on an African Colony for Freed Slaves Madison says,
Without inquiring into the practicability or the most proper means of establishing a settlement of freed blacks on the coast of Africa, it may be remarked as one motive to the benevolent experiment that if such an asylum was provided, it might prove a great encouragement to manumission in the southern parts of the United States and even afford the best hope yet presented of putting an end to the slavery in which not less than 600,000 unhappy Negroes are now involved.
In all the Southern States of North America, the laws permit masters, under certain precautions to manumit their slaves. But the continuance of such permission in some of the states is rendered precarious by the ill effects suffered from freemen who retain the vices and habits of slaves. The same consideration becomes an objection with many humane masters against an exertion of their legal right of freeing their slaves. It is found in fact that neither the good of the society, nor the happiness of the individuals restored to freedom is promoted by such a change in condition.
In order to render this change eligible as well to the society as to the slaves … should result from the act of manumission. This is rendered impossible by the prejudice of the whites, prejudices which … must be considered as permanent and inseparable. It only remains then that some proper external receptacle be provided for the slaves who obtain their liberty, (Hutchinson, 14:163).
Madison was concerned with slave labor and his involvement with the institution. HE was quoted as writing Edmund Randolph and saying that he wished to depend as little as possible on the labor of slaves, (Madison II, 2:154).
Madison's marriage to Dolly Payne Todd, a Quaker widow, is thought to have had had a considerable amount of influence on his thoughts towards slavery. Upon moving to Philadelphia, her family freed their slaves allowing her to grow up in an anti-slave environment. There is no concrete evidence of such but she may have helped Madison clarify his own plan.
Madison showed a reluctance to accept African Americans in the country after they were freed in 1800. He did however allow Christopher McPherson to visit with an introduction letter from Thomas Jefferson. A gap can be found in his letters from 1790's to 1808 in which there is no mention of the slave trade or slavery, Historian Matthew T. Mellon explains this on the grounds that no problems existed at this time. The Constitution had made the slave trade illegal in Georgia and the Carolinas, and the rest of the states were awaiting it to be done away with all together (Melon, p129). The slave trade was done away with in 1808 but abuses were still common. In 1816, Madison, as president, petitioned Congress to make a total suppression of the slave trade.
Edward Coles, Madison's private secretary, prodded Madison to take a tougher stand against slavery.
One day 'seeing a gang of Negroes, some in irons, on their way to a southern market,' Coles taunted the president, 'by congratulating him as the chief of our great republic, that he was not then accompanied by a Foreign Minister and thus saved the deep mortification of witnessing such a revolting sight in the presence of the representative of a nation, less boastful perhaps of its regard for the rights of men, but more observant of them, (Ketchum, p.551).
Coles freed his slaves after Madison's retirement from the presidency. He prepared them for emancipation by giving them each some land in Illinois. Their future freedom depended on Madison who wished Coles could change the color of the skin of his freed slaves; for without that they seemed destined to a privation of that moral ranks and those social participation which gives to freedom more than half its value, (Madison, 8:455).
Even after his presidency, Madison continued to give advice about bringing slavery to an end. The Missouri crisis of 1819-1821 put his convictions on slavery to a test. In a letter to the president, Madison denied that Congress had power to attach an antislavery condition on a new state or control migration of slaves within the several states. Madison tries to reveal the founding fathers intentions in the Constitution's clause that states, the migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, (Constitution, art. sec.9). Madison says as a matter of compromise the northern states agreed to extend the slave trade for twenty years, because the southern states never would have agreed to ratify the plan that ended importation. Madison felt that the term migration meant exclusively from other countries and not within the states. He reiterated this point to his successor, James Monroe.
Madison and Jefferson surmised that the real issue in the Missouri debates was not the spread of slavery across the Mississippi, but rather the creation of a sectional party by disguised Federalist who wanted to appeal to northern antislavery sentiments in order to divide and conquer the Republicans. Madison and Jefferson both warned the ultimate price of injecting slavery into national politics would be the eventual disruption of the union, (Meyers, p.319-320). Though numerous visitors came to Montpelier for advice about the slavery issue and the Missouri Compromise, Madison refused to be drawn into the issue.
Before Madison's death, he was concerned with a workable plan that would slowly emancipate slaves. He felt that the slaves were not able to handle neither freedom all at once nor the owners willing to surrender their property. The American Colonization Society offered a means for the colonization of the free blacks. Madison saw a major problem in that it did not provide any means of emancipating and colonizing the enslaved blacks. He expressed these concerns in a letter to General Marquis de Laffyette saying,
The Negro slavery is as you justly complain, a sad blot on our free country, though a very ungracious subject of reproaches from the quarter which has been the most lavish of them. No satisfactory plan has yet been devised for taking out the stain, (Negro history, p.85).
Madison worked with the Colonization Society of Virginia but he saw no hope of any state action to abolish slavery because Virginia turned down a request for public money to aid the Colony of Liberia. The Nat Turner revolt cast a shadow on most abolitionist movement. Four months later, new hopes of colonization were announced that pleased Madison. They were presented before the fifthteenth anniversary of the American Colonization Society. Much confusion was over the cause of the south's financial woes. Madison felt that this was due to slavery. It led to poor farming practices and the exploitative development of the land. Madison saw northern abolitionist and others who thought the south's problems were being caused by other sources as the reason for southerners defense of slaver.
As Madison drew up his will, he pondered the fate of his slaves. He offered no clause for his slave's emancipation; it read:
I give and bequeath my ownership in the Negroes and people of color held by me to my dear wife but it is my desire that none of them should be sold without his or her consent or in case of their misbehavior except that the infant children may be sold with their parent who consents for them to be sold, (McCoy, p.318).
Following Madison's death in 1836, Dolly Madison returned to Washington to live her last years. Financial reasons forced her to sell Montpelier in two parts. She sold the slave families together but retained some of them for her use in Washington. They were freed upon her death (Slaughter, p.73).
James Madison worked throughout his life to end the peculiar institution of slavery. Once he found a plan that suited him, he stayed with it only to see it fail because it was impractical. Madison often refereed to African-Americans as being peculiar and being peculiar was the reason that they could not be emancipated without being removed to territory beyond white inhabitation. Although Madison's plan failed, it set up the beginnings of an improved effort to end slavery gradually in the states.
Bibliography
Bibliography
Chastelllux, Marquis de. Travels in North America the years 1780, 1781, and 1782, 2vols. Howard C. Rice, ed. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Hamilton, Alexander, James Madison, and John Jay. The Federalist Papers. Clinton Rossiter, ed. New York: New American Library, 1961.
Ingersol, Charles. Visit to Mr. Madison, Washington Globe. 12 August 1836.
James Madison's Attitude toward the Negro: Advice given Negroes a Century Ago. The Journal of Negro History. VI (January, 1921): 74-102.
Jennings, Paul. A Colored Man's Reminisces of James Madison. Brooklyn: George C. Beadle, 1865.
Madison, James. The Papers of James Madison. Hutchinson, William T. et als, eds. Chicago and Charlottesville: University of Chicago press and University Press of Virginia, 1962.
Madison, James. The Writings of James Madison, Vols VII-IX. New York: G.P. Putman's Sons, 1908-10.
Madison, James. Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, Fourth President of the United States, Published by the order of Congress. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott &Co., 1865.
Madiosn, James . Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787,Reported by James Madison. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1865.
Martineau, Harriet. Retrospect of Western Travel, 2 vol. London: Saunders and Otley, 1838.
Miller, Ann L., ed. Visitors to Mr. Madison: Accounts of Early Nineteenth Century Visitors to Montpelier.
Secondary Sources:
Alexander, Archibald. A History of Colonization on the Western Coast of Africa. Philadelphia: William S. Martain, 1869.
Berkley, Edmund, Jr. Prophet Without Honor: Christopher Mcpherson, Free Person of Color. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 77 (April 1969): 180-90.
Brant, Irving. James Madison, Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., 1941-61.
Eaton, Clement. A History of the Old South: The Emergence of a Reluctant Nation, Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press, 1975.
Grinnan, A.G. The Burning of Eve. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 3 (January, 1896): 308-10.
Ketchum, Ralph. James Madison: A Biography. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1971.
Koch, Adrienne. Madison's 'Advice to My Country. Princeton: University Press, 1966.
McCoy, Drew R. The Last of the Founding Fathers: James Madison and the Republican Legacy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Mellon, Matthew. Early American Views on Negro slavery; From the Letters and Papers of the Founders of the Republic. Boston: Meador Publishing Company, 1934.
Meyers, Marvin, ed. The Mind of the Founder: Sources of the Political Thought of James Madison. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1981.
Peterson, Merrill D., ed. James Madison: A biography in His own Words. New York: News Week, 1974.
Slaughter, Philip. The Virginian History of African Colonization. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1970.
Word Count: 2878
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