The Spread of Slavery in America

The end of the Atlantic slave trade, however, did not end slave trading altogether. An important aspect to American slavery was the demographic movements of slaves themselves. Slaves became an increasingly important commodity for trading within and between states, and were even occasionally bred for this purpose. At first limited to the southern portions of the original thirteen colonies, slavery soon spread as new states entered the union. The Atlantic states led by Virginia were the largest exporters of slaves, and the average number of slaves exported from these states through the interstate trade was around 25,000 per year.

Originally aimed at the Kentucky/Alabama region, after the War of 1812 the main target region became Missouri, and following 1850 Texas and the Panhandle. Between 1820 and 1860 each decade averaged a movement of 200,000 slaves, or approximately 10% of the upper South's entire slave population. This movement meant that slave culture was generally fluid in nature, and that cultural expressions such as music and dance occurred across a broad spectrum of the American South.

American slavery contained many regional differences; for example, the Louisiana slave system was notorious for being among the most brutal and for using a higher content of non-American born slaves. There were also differing forms of slavery itself, such as plantation, urban, and small family slavery. But despite the many differences, slavery throughout America - through its brutality, inhumanity, and disregard for the value of human life - created enough shared experiences to bequeath a traceable cultural heritage to later generations of African-Americans. The shared experience of slavery is no where better represented than in the music of slave society, the precursor of the blues.

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