History of slavery in Tennessee
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The history of slavery in Tennessee began when it was the old Southwest Territory and thus the law regulating slavery in Tennessee was broadly derived from North Carolina law, and was initially comparatively "liberal." However, after statehood, as the fear of slave rebellion and the threat to slavery posed by abolitionism increased, the laws became increasingly punitive: after 1831, "punishments were increased and privileges and immunities were lessened and circumvented."[2] Tennessee was one of five states that allowed slaves the right of a jury trial,[2] and one of three states that never passed anti-literacy laws,[3] although the punishment for forging a slave pass was up to 39 lashes.[2]
Tennessee had a ban on interstate slave trading beginning in 1827 but it was broadly flouted and repealed in 1854.[4] Memphis, Tennessee was one of the central hubs of the interstate slave trade, along with Washington, Richmond, Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans.[5] Key Memphis traders included Byrd Hill, the Bolton brothers, the Little brothers, and the Forrest brothers.[5] Nashville was a second-tier market, "advantageously situated for purchases in Kentucky and sales in northern Alabama and northeastern Mississippi....Much local and intra-state trading was a matter of course."[5] East Tennessee manifested early abolitionism and colonization-movement activism but slavery remained widespread in that region until emancipation.[6]