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70-603: Those who settled in Trinidad were generally from Virginia and Maryland, and Georgia and Spanish Florida, via Bermuda, where they were evacuated on British ships from the East Coast. Some were settled in Trinidad in 1815. Those African Americans who bore arms for the British in the second Corps of Colonial Marines , recruited from the younger of the total of 4,000 refugees, settled in Trinidad in 1816, where they became known as

140-653: A major issue in national politics , eventually boiling over into the Civil War . In the years that followed the Civil War, the war was romanticized by historical revisionists to protect three central assertions: that the Confederate cause was heroic, that enslaved people were happy and satisfied, and that slavery was not the primary cause of the war. This phenomenon has continued to the present day to contribute to racism , gender roles , and religious attitudes in

210-473: A Proclamation in partial implementation of instructions from his superiors. He made no explicit mention of slaves, although he presumed it would be read as encouraging them to join the British: Cochrane's proclamation made no mention of slaves, and it was widely misinterpreted by some American slaveholders as an incitement to violent revolt by their slaves. The flow of African-American refugees to

280-613: A community that retains its identity to the present day. Antebellum South The Antebellum South era (from Latin : ante bellum , lit.   ' before the war ') was a period in the history of the Southern United States that extended from the conclusion of the War of 1812 to the start of the American Civil War in 1861 . This era was marked by the prevalent practice of slavery and

350-545: A landmark study published in the Journal of Political Economy . Their arguments were further developed by Robert Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman , who argued in their 1974 book, Time on the Cross , that slavery was both efficient and profitable, as long as the price of cotton was high enough. In turn, Fogel and Engerman came under attack from other historians of slavery. As slavery began to displace indentured servitude as

420-581: A political issue between North and South, but as a social and economic system. He focused on the large plantations that dominated the South. Phillips addressed the unprofitability of slave labor and slavery's ill effects on the Southern economy. An example of pioneering comparative work was A Jamaica Slave Plantation (1914). His methods inspired the "Phillips school" of slavery studies, between 1900 and 1950. Phillips argued that large-scale plantation slavery

490-660: A series of raids. After the British failed to destroy the American Chesapeake Bay Flotilla at the Battle of St. Jerome Creek, they conducted coastal raids on the towns of Calverton, Huntingtown, Prince Frederick, Benedict and Lower Marlborough. On 15 June 1814, a force of 30 Colonial Marines accompanied 180 Royal Marines in 12 boats in a raid on Benedict. Nine days later, on 24 June, a force of Colonial and 180 Royal Marines attacked an artillery battery at Chesconessex Creek (although this failed to prevent

560-635: Is no doubt but the blacks of Virginia and Maryland would cheerfully take up arms and join us against the Americans." By the time that the Admiralty received the report, they had already decided to order Warren's successor, Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane , to encourage emigration of African-American slaves. As with the precedents of Lord Dunmore 's Proclamation of November 7, 1775, and the Philipsburg Proclamation , Cochrane issued

630-649: The Americas , at the behest of Alexander Cochrane . The units were created at two separate periods: 1808-1810 during the Napoleonic Wars ; and then again during the War of 1812 ; both units being disbanded once the military threat had passed. Apart from being created in each case by Cochrane, they had no connection with each other. The first Corps was a small unit that served in the Caribbean from 1808 to 12 October 1810, recruited from former slaves to address

700-687: The British possessions in North America or the West Indies". An historical precedent was Dunmore's Proclamation of 7 November 1775, although this offered freedom only to those who bore arms with British forces. By 10 May, Tangier Island off the Virginia coast had been occupied by the British and offered an accessible location for those seeking refuge. Male refugees were given the option "to become blue Jackets , take up arms or [to] join

770-607: The Chesapeake campaign ; in subsequent correspondence, Cockburn wrote that the recruits had behaved "unexpectedly well" in several engagements and had not committed any "improper outrages". Members of the Corps served alongside their shipborne Royal Marine counterparts from the Cockburn Chesapeake squadron (HM Ships Albion , Dragon , Loire , Jasseur and the schooner HMS  St Lawrence ), participating in

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840-578: The First Seminole War . For their involvement in the conflict, two former auxiliary officers of the corps were executed in 1818 in what became known as the Arbuthnot and Ambrister incident . It is believed that former Colonial Marine refugees were among a group that escaped to the Bahamas in 1822 and founded, on the west coast of the island of Andros , Nicholls Town [ sic ],

910-633: The Merikins (also spelled as Merikens). During 1813 and the War of 1812 with the United States, Vice Admiral Warren was ordered to receive aboard his ships any blacks who might petition him for assistance. These he was to receive as free men, not as slaves, and send them to any of several of His Majesty's colonies. Captain Robert Barrie of HMS  Dragon reported to Admiral Warren "there

980-615: The Underground Railroad from the United States. Large numbers of Black refugees settled in North and East Preston, Nova Scotia , where their descendants still live. Many other Black refugees settled in smaller communities, such as Hammonds Plains , Beechville , Windsor and communities throughout the Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley . Some Black refugee families moved closer to Halifax for employment opportunities in

1050-623: The 17th and 18th centuries, but it was not until the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in the 1790s that slavery grew very profitable and that the large plantation system developed. In the 15 years between the invention of the cotton gin and the passage of the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves , an increase in the slave trade occurred, furthering the slave system in the United States. The Antebellum South saw large expansions in agriculture, while manufacturing growth remained relatively slow. The Southern economy

1120-653: The 1840s, forming the Halifax community of Africville . The migration included the religious leader and abolitionist Richard Preston , who established the first African Baptist church in Halifax; the parents of William Hall , one of Canada's first winners of a Victoria Cross ; and Benjamin Jackson , a decorated veteran of the American Civil War. The Black refugees in Nova Scotia were largely from Virginia and Maryland, and they brought basket-making skills from

1190-470: The 3rd Battalion, Royal and Colonial Marines were sent back to Britain. With their departure, the battalion was reformed as the 3rd Battalion, Colonial Marines, consisting of six infantry companies of Colonial Marines and a staff company of Royal Marines brought from Canada. They performed garrison duty at the Royal Naval Dockyard at Ireland Island , Bermuda and were carried from there in

1260-472: The American South in large numbers to support European demand. By 1670, more than half of all tobacco shipped to England was being re-exported to other countries throughout Europe at a premium. In similar ways Britain was able to profit from other American staple crops, such as cotton, rice, and indigo. As Russell Menard puts it, Britain's capitalizing on increased European demand for these crops "fueled

1330-534: The American colonies for economic gain was tobacco . When tobacco was first discovered as a recreational substance, there was a widespread social backlash in England, spearheaded by King James I himself. By the middle of the 17th century, however, Parliament had realized the revenue potential of tobacco and quickly changed its official moral stance towards its use. As a result, tobacco plantations sprung up across

1400-519: The British had already been considerable. Cochrane's action did no more than confirm what had been happening for over a year. Some years after the arrival in Nova Scotia of the Black refugees, a plan was proposed for them to be sent to the Colony of Freetown, Sierra Leone . Nearly 2,000 of their African-American brethren had relocated there in the late 18th century, but the plan was only partly fulfilled. For

1470-463: The British when promised that they would not be returned to their proprietors; by this means, the island was preserved under British control until the arrival of three companies of the 1st West India Regiment . Cochrane named the ex-slaves the Corps of Colonial Marines, which was enlarged with fugitive slaves from Guadeloupe. The Corps was paid from Marie Galante revenues, clothed from Royal Navy stores and commanded by Royal Marine officers. After

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1540-644: The Chesapeake Region. These are still practiced by their descendants. These baskets are very distinct in style from the existing Mi'kmaw and Acadian basket-making styles by other ethnic groups in the region. Corps of Colonial Marines 1808–1815 Second Corps: Guadeloupe Second Corps: Tangier Island / Cumberland Island Negro Fort Napoleonic Wars Second Corps: War of 1812 First Seminole War The Corps of Colonial Marines were two different British Marine units raised from former black slaves for service in

1610-648: The Colonial Marines during this action were one man killed and three wounded. On 3 September 1814, three companies of the Colonial Marines joined with three remaining companies of Royal Marines to form the 3rd Battalion, Royal and Colonial Marines. Later that month, all three companies fought at the Battle of North Point in Maryland . A fourth company was created in December 1814, and further recruitment

1680-599: The Corps was stationed at St. Augustine on the Atlantic coast, with a smaller body occupying the future Negro Fort , on the Apalachicola River in remote northwest Florida . Recruits were accepted from among escaped slaves who had already gained their freedom on coming into British hands and who were unwilling to join West India Regiments. The establishment of the force sparked controversy at

1750-564: The Florida unit remained in settlements around the Fort which had become a symbol of slave insurrection. Southern plantation owners considered the presence of a group of armed fugitive slaves, even in a remote and sparsely-populated area of Spanish Florida, an unacceptable danger; this led, under the leadership of General Andrew Jackson , to the Battle of Negro Fort in July 1816 and the beginning of

1820-476: The Fort was destroyed in the Battle of Negro Fort of 1816, the former Marines joined the southward migration of Seminoles and African Americans escaping the American advance. Members of the Colonial Marine battalion who were deployed on the Atlantic coast withdrew from American territory. They continued in British service as garrison-in-residence at Bermuda until 1816, when the unit was disbanded and

1890-820: The Gulf coast at Prospect Bluff on the Apalachicola River in Spanish East Florida which attracted Redstick Creek Indians and Black Seminoles . George Woodbine and a detachment of Royal Marines were landed from HMS Orpheus in May 1814 with gifts, two thousand muskets and blankets for the Indians. A fort was constructed, and Cochrane sent Edward Nicolls to oversee the operations at Prospect Bluff. Nicolls left Bermuda with 112 Royal Marines, 3 field pieces, 300 uniforms and 1,000 muskets for recruits to his corps. On 26 August 1814 Nicolls issued his first "order of

1960-491: The Merikins and their villages, established by members of different companies, still exist. The Black refugees make up the largest single source of ancestors for Black Nova Scotians and formed the core of African Nova Scotian communities and churches that still exist today. But an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 refugees arrived individually or in small family groups during the antebellum years, seeking freedom from slavery along

2030-467: The North, which more eagerly embraced women and child labor in its factories to push forward industrialization due to their relative value to Northern agriculture being lesser than in Southern agriculture. While the South still attracted immigrants from Europe, the North attracted far more during the early-to-mid 1800s, such that by the time of the American Civil War, the population of the North far exceeded

2100-453: The South in a precarious economic situation. This was the subject of the highly influential 1857 book The Impending Crisis of the South : How to Meet It , by Hinton Rowan Helper . Following the end of the Civil War and into Reconstruction era (1865–1877), the South experienced economic devastation. Some states that relied less heavily on the plantation system managed to fare better following its downfall. Ulrich Bonnell Phillips contends that

2170-479: The South included land- and slave-owners and slaves, various strata of social classes existed within and between the two. In examining class relations and the banking system in the South, the economic exploitation of slave labor can be seen to arise from a need to maintain certain conditions for the existence of slavery and from a need for each of the remaining social strata to remain in status quo. In order to meet conditions where slavery may continue to exist, members of

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2240-476: The South, and to a lesser extent the rest of the country. In the 18th century, the Atlantic slave trade brought enslaved Africans to the South during the colonial period as a source of labor for the harvesting of crops. There were almost 700,000 enslaved persons in the U.S. in 1790, which equated to approximately 18 percent of the total population or roughly one in every six people. This would persist through

2310-485: The Southern domestic market consisted primarily of plantations, Southern states imported sustenance commodities from the West and manufactured goods from England and the North. The plantation system can be seen as the factory system applied to agriculture, with a concentration of labor under skilled management. But while the industrial manufacturing-based labor economy of the North was driven by growing demand, maintenance of

2380-402: The associated societal norms it cultivated. Over the course of this period, Southern leaders underwent a transformation in their perspective on slavery. Initially regarded as an awkward and temporary institution, it gradually evolved into a defended concept, with proponents arguing for its positive merits , while simultaneously vehemently opposing the burgeoning abolitionist movement . Society

2450-403: The concentration of landholding and slave holding, which were highly correlated, six percent of landowners ended up commanding one-third of the gross income and an even higher portion of the net income. The majority of landowners, who had smaller scale plantations, saw a disproportionately small portion in revenues generated by the slavery-driven plantation system. While the two largest classes in

2520-536: The considerable number of African Americans who had arrived earlier. In total, about 4000 Africans escaped to the British by way of the Royal Navy, the largest group emancipation of African Americans prior to the American Civil War . About 2000 settled in Nova Scotia and about 400 settled in New Brunswick. Together they were the largest single source of African-American immigrants, whose descendants formed

2590-504: The core of African Canadians. Black refugees in Nova Scotia were first housed in the former prisoner-of-war camp on Melville Island . After the War of 1812, it was adapted as an immigration facility. From Melville Island, they moved to settlements around Halifax and in the Annapolis Valley. These settlements were given as licensed property for the refugees entering Nova Scotia. While it was not land they owned completely, it gave

2660-696: The day" for his "battalion". It remains uncertain how many men Nicolls had under his command at that time, since muster and pay records have not been found. More escaped slaves were recruited in Pensacola (to the chagrin of the Spanish), but they were forced to return to Prospect Bluff in November after the American capture of Pensacola . The war ended in February 1815, and the three European companies of

2730-541: The description "Colonial Marine" until mid-1815. Cochrane, by now a Vice Admiral, assumed his position as Commander-in-Chief of British forces on the North Atlantic station in April 1814 and ordered the recruitment of a body of Colonial Marines as he had done six years earlier on Marie Galante. Rear Admiral George Cockburn , Cochrane's second-in-command on the Atlantic coast, implemented Cochrane's order recruiting

2800-482: The end of the War of 1812 , as the British post in Florida was evacuated, the Corps' Florida detachment was paid off and disbanded. Although several men accompanied the British to Bermuda , the majority continued to live in settlements around the fort the Corps had garrisoned. This legacy of a community of armed fugitive slaves with a substantial arsenal was unacceptable to the United States of America . After

2870-548: The escape of the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla, which left St. Leonard's Creek two days later). The arrival on 19 July of a battalion of Royal Marines , which had left Bermuda on 30 June, enabled the squadron to mount further expeditions ashore. After a series of diversionary raids, the Marines were again landed at Benedict on 19 August accompanied by recently-arrived Peninsular War army veterans. The battalion

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2940-583: The ex-Marines resettled on Trinidad . Rear Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane raised the first Corps of Colonial Marines in 1808 while commander-in-chief of British naval forces on the Leeward Islands station during the Napoleonic Wars . The British had captured the island of Marie Galante earlier that year, but the French governor of Guadeloupe attacked the island on hearing that illness had weakened its British garrison. Marie Galante slaves assisted

3010-476: The expansion of the American plantation colonies, transformed the Atlantic into an English inland sea, and led to the creation of the first British Empire ." Many claim that being a part of the British mercantilist system was in the best economic interest of the American colonies as well, as they would not have been able to survive as independent economic entities. Robert Haywood, in his article "Mercantilism and South Carolina Agriculture, 1700–1763", argues that "it

3080-430: The land was formally recognised. The community of descendants retains its identity and commemorates its roots in an annual celebration. The detachment in Florida, which had grown to about 400 men, was paid off and disbanded when the British post was evacuated at the end of the war. A small number of men went to Bermuda with the British as part of a refugee group, rejoining the main body of Colonial Marines. Others from

3150-423: The large plantation owner's wealth, often reflected in the number of slaves they owned, afforded them considerable prestige and political power." Phillips contended that masters treated enslaved persons relatively well; his views on that issue were later sharply rejected by Kenneth M. Stampp . His conclusions about the economic decline of slavery were challenged in 1958 by Alfred H. Conrad and John R. Meyer in

3220-405: The master class (e.g., white, landowning, slave-owning) had to compete with other members of the master class to maximize the surplus labor extracted from slaves. Likewise, in order to remain within the same class, members of the master class (and each subsumed class below) must expand their claim on revenues derived from the slave labor surplus. Mercantilist ideologies largely explain the rise of

3290-670: The most part the Black refugees remained in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. A small group responded to a related invitation to move to Trinidad. To a limited extent like the Black Loyalists, some of the Black refugees' names were recorded in a document called the Halifax List: Return of American Refugee Negroes who have been received into the Province of Nova Scotia from the United States of America between 27 April 1815 and 24 October 1818 . This list took no account of

3360-476: The northern and western states, much of the social spectrum was dominated by a wide range of different laboring classes. The conclusion that, while both the North and the South were characterized by a high degree of inequality during the plantation era, the wealth distribution was much more unequal in the South than in the North arises from studies concerned with the equality of land, slave, and wealth distribution. For example, in certain states and counties, due to

3430-428: The plantation "sadly restricted the opportunity of such men as were of better industrial quality than was required for the field gangs." Essentially, men who would have been otherwise capable of performing other skilled jobs were nonetheless relegated to field work because of the nature of the system. A 1984 journal article by Claudia Goldin and Kenneth Sokoloff suggested that the South misallocated labor compared to

3500-491: The plantation economic system depended upon slave labor, which was abundant and cheap. The five major commodities of the Southern agricultural economy were cotton, grain, tobacco, sugar, and rice, with cotton the leading cash crop . These commodities were concentrated in the Deep South (Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana). The leading historian of the era was Ulrich Bonnell Phillips , who studied slavery not so much as

3570-455: The plantation system in the United States. In the 16th and 17th centuries under mercantilism, rulers of nations believed that the accumulation of wealth through a favorable balance of trade was the best way to ensure power. As a result, several European nations began to colonize the Americas to take advantage of rich natural resources and encourage exports. One example of England utilizing

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3640-478: The plantation system, largely agricultural. With the exception of New Orleans , Charleston , and Richmond the slave states had no large cities, and the urban population of the South could not compare to that of the Northeast , or even that of the agrarian West. This led to a sharp division in class in the southern states, between the landowning "master" class, yeoman farmers, poor whites , and slaves; while in

3710-490: The potential loss in investment of owning slaves from death, disability, etc. was much greater for small plantation owners. Accentuated by the rise in price of slaves seen just prior to the Civil War , the overall costs associated with owning slaves to the individual plantation owner led to the concentration of slave ownership seen at the eve of the Civil War. Much of the Antebellum South was rural, and in line with

3780-450: The principal supply of labor in the plantation systems of the South, the economic nature of the institution of slavery aided in the increased inequality of wealth seen in the antebellum South. The demand for slave labor and the U.S. ban on importing more slaves from Africa drove up prices for slaves, making it profitable for smaller farms in older settled areas such as Virginia to sell their slaves further south and west. The actuarial risk, or

3850-610: The refugees the chance to start communities of their own. The passengers on the shipwrecked HMS Atalante (1808) included twenty American refugee slaves from the James River in Virginia. They were among the first of the Black refugees of the War of 1812 to reach Canada. Other Black refugees were settled in Trinidad, most having served in the Corps of Colonial Marines . They included around 200 refugees from Louisiana and East and West Florida. The community in Trinidad became known as

3920-532: The repossession of Guadeloupe Cochrane maintained the Corps, and on 12 October 1810 redistributed the men: 70 among the ships of the squadron , 20 to 30 to the battery at the Saintes (a group of small islands south of Guadeloupe) and 50 remaining in the Marie Galante garrison. They saw no further action as a distinct body, but were listed in ships' musters among supernumeraries for wages and victuals under

3990-431: The second Corps of Colonial Marines. It served as part of the British forces on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States during the War of 1812. On 2 April 1814, Cochrane issued a proclamation to all persons wishing to emigrate. Any persons would be received by the British, either at a military outpost or aboard British ships; those seeking sanctuary could enter His Majesty's forces, or go "as free settlers to

4060-669: The shortage of military manpower in the Caribbean. The locally-recruited men were less susceptible to tropical illnesses than were troops sent from Britain. The Corps followed the practice of the British Army's West India Regiments in recruiting former slaves as soldiers. In the previous year, the Mutiny Act 1807 emancipated all slaves in the British Army and, as a result, subsequently enlisted slaves were considered free on enlistment. The second, more substantial, Corps served from 18 May 1814 until 20 August 1816. The greater part of

4130-407: The southwestern territories of the U.S. Part of the Corps joined the successful British attack on Fort Point Peter . The corps occupied Camden County and Cumberland Island , aiding the emigration of an estimated 1,485 slaves from southeast Georgia. In addition to British outposts on the Atlantic coast at Tangier Island (Virginia) and Cumberland Island (Georgia), there was a similar outpost on

4200-486: The time, as the arming of former slaves was a psychological as well as military threat to the slave-owning society of the United States. As a consequence, the two senior officers of the Corps in Florida, George Woodbine and Edward Nicolls , were demonised by Americans such as Hezekiah Niles in his Baltimore publication, the Weekly Register for their association with the Corps and inducing slave revolt. At

4270-519: The transport Lord Eldon to be disbanded in Trinidad on 20 August 1816. Near what is now known as Princes Town , the former Colonial Marines formed a free farming community, known as the Merikens (sometimes spelled Merikins) , under the supervision of their former non-commissioned officers. Households had 16-acre (6.5 ha) plots. These settlements were successful, and in 1847 their ownership of

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4340-459: The winter of 1814 killed the surgeon and 69 men from the battalion. The strength of the corps is mentioned as having risen to about 200 men whilst on Tangier Island in the autumn. The Corps' last tour during the War of 1812 was in Georgia from December to March 1815. Admiral George Cockburn seized the southern U.S coast to disrupt trade, communication, and transportation of troops to the Gulf of Mexico, where Admiral Cochrane's forces planned to take

4410-443: The working party" constructing Fort Albion and its infrastructure. The Corps was embodied on 18 May 1814 and made its combat debut in the raid on Pungoteague Creek on 30 May 1814 where, in a skirmish known as the Battle of Rumley's Gut, it helped capture an American artillery battery. James Ross, captain of HMS  Albion , later described their involvement as "a most excellent specimen of what they are likely to be. Their conduct

4480-408: Was begun along the Georgia coast during the first quarter of 1815. The number of enlistments allowed two more companies to be raised, with sergeants taken from companies recruited in the Chesapeake. Although the Corps suffered some combat losses during its Chesapeake campaign actions in 1814, its greatest losses arose from disease due to poor conditions on Tangier Island. An outbreak of dysentery in

4550-458: Was characterized by a low level of capital accumulation (largely slave-labor-based) and a shortage of liquid capital, which, when aggravated by the need to concentrate on a few staples, the pervasive anti-industrial and anti-urban ideology, and the reduction of Southern banking, led to a South dependent on export trade. This was in contrast to the economies of the Northern and Western U.S., which relied primarily on their own domestic markets. Since

4620-420: Was inefficient and not progressive. It had reached its geographical limits by 1860 or so, and therefore eventually had to fade away (as happened in Brazil ). In The Decadence of the Plantation System (1910), he argued that slavery was an unprofitable relic that persisted because it produced social status, honor, and political power . "Most farmers in the South had small-to-medium-sized farms with few slaves, but

4690-414: Was marked by great spirit and vivacity, and perfect obedience". One, a soldier named Michael Harding, was killed early in the battle but "it did not daunt or check the others, but on the contrary animated them to seek revenge". Cockburn's initial impressions were positive; he observed that the new recruits were "getting on astonishingly" and were "really fine fellows". After this, the Corps participated in

4760-417: Was stratified, inegalitarian, and perceived by immigrants as lacking in opportunities. Consequently, the manufacturing base lagged behind that of the non-slave states. Wealth inequality grew as the larger landholders took the greater share of the profits generated by enslaved persons, which also helped to entrench their power as a political class. As the country expanded westward , slavery's propagation became

4830-416: Was to accompany the Colonial Marines in attacks on Bladensburg and Washington in August 1814. A company fought at the Battle of Bladensburg , and the other two companies took part in the burning of Washington . One of the firing parties was led by Second Lieutenant Lewis Agassiz (1793–1866); for his part in the battle, his family was later granted a coat of arms depicting a torch. Casualties suffered by

4900-403: Was unthinkable that any trade could prosper in the straight-jacket of regimented and restricted international trade, without the guiding hand of a powerful protecting government." The plantation system created an environment for the South to experience an economic boom in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. However, reliance on both the plantation system and more widespread slave labor, left

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