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→Revolution and early republic: 1775-1840: add abolition
==Revolution and early republic: 1775-1840==
==Revolution and early republic: 1775-1840==
The Declaration of Independence of 1776 said that all men are born free. Acting on that prinsiple, all the northern states abolished slavery between 1776 and 1805--these were the first places in the world where the government abolished slavery. (Britain abolished slavery in the 1830s.) However, with the cotton gin in the 1790s, slavery became highl;y profitable in the South and was not abolished. Indeed, it expanded rapidly due to demographic growth. In 1808 it became illegal to buy or sell slaves from abroad, but inside the U.S. South the trade was legal and flourished.
By 1800 most slaves had become Christians. However few followed the Episcopal or Presbyterian affiliations of most masters; rather by the 1830s most had become Baptists or Methodists, but with a distinctive difference. Genovese (1974) identified the key features of the black version of Christianity as its raucous emotionalism, an absence of a sense of original sin or depravity, an emphasis on the role of Moses (who at times rivaled in importance Jesus), and an uneasy comingling with magic and conjuring. Genovese argued religion was increasingly central to the lives and self-identity of the slaves. "The religion practiced in the quarters gave the slaves the one thing they absolutely had to have if they were to resist. . . . It fired them with a sense of their own worth before God and man."<ref> Eugene Genovese, ''Roll Jordan Roll'' (1974) p. 283</ref>
By 1800 most slaves had become Christians. However few followed the Episcopal or Presbyterian affiliations of most masters; rather by the 1830s most had become Baptists or Methodists, but with a distinctive difference. Genovese (1974) identified the key features of the black version of Christianity as its raucous emotionalism, an absence of a sense of original sin or depravity, an emphasis on the role of Moses (who at times rivaled in importance Jesus), and an uneasy comingling with magic and conjuring. Genovese argued religion was increasingly central to the lives and self-identity of the slaves. "The religion practiced in the quarters gave the slaves the one thing they absolutely had to have if they were to resist. . . . It fired them with a sense of their own worth before God and man."<ref> Eugene Genovese, ''Roll Jordan Roll'' (1974) p. 283</ref>