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When, in 1842, the U.S. Supreme Court declared a Pennsylvania state law that forbade the seizure of fugitive slaves unconstitutional, there was indignation in the North.

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Cotton replaced tobacco as the South’s main cash crop and slavery became profitable again. Although most Southerners owned no slaves at all, by 1860 the South’s “peculiar institution” was inextricably tied to the region’s economy.

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Of the 22 states in the union in 1819, 11 slave states and 11 committed to freedom.

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When the North American continent was first colonized by Europeans, the land was vast, the work was harsh, and there was a severe shortage of labor. Men and women were needed to work the land. White bond servants, paying their passage across the ocean from Europe through indentured labor, eased but did not solve the problem.