DID YOU KNOW? 

The cotton industry's rapid expansion after the invention of the cotton gin greatly increased demand for slave labor, The total slave population in the South eventually reached four million. Much of the cotton was sent to New York City, enriching the white merchants there. 

After the Revolutionary War broke out, the British realized they lacked the manpower necessary to succeed in the war effort, so British commanders began issuing proclamations to Patriot-owned slaves, offering freedom if they fled to British lines and assisted the war effort. Such proclamations were repeatedly issued over the course of the conflict, which resulted in up to 100,000 American slaves joining British forces.
 

During most of the British colonial period, slavery existed in all the colonies. People enslaved in the North typically worked as house servants, artisans, laborers, and craftsmen, mostly in cities. Many men worked on the docks and in shipping. In 1703, more than 42% of New York City households held enslaved people in bondage, the second-highest proportion of any city in the colonies
 

Many of the Founding Fathers of the United States were plantation owners who owned large numbers of enslaved laborers; the original Constitution preserved their right to own slaves, and granted them a political advantage by so doing. Although the enslaved of the early Republic were considered non-sentient property, were not permitted to vote, and had no rights to speak of, they were to be enumerated in population censuses and counted as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of representation in the national legislature, the U.S. Congress.
 

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