According to Clay Jenkinson, Jefferson tried to introduce anti-slavery legislation on a few occasions in Virginia, never at the national level. I'm not sure when.
If people from Pennsylvania and New York, where the largest slave populations in the North existed, could do that, the Virginians were on rather thin bases to claim it was outside their power.
In his book 1493, Charles Mann presents a theory I had never heard; malaria. Big problem in the South, not so much in the North (too cold). The border of the malarial skeeter breeding ground was essentially marked by the Mason-Dixon line.
As indentured servants arrived in early colonial times, up to 70 percent croaked in the south. Those that survived the year-long acclimation to the disease served their term of labor, then went off to start their own claim rather than stick around and work existing farms. The land was still abundant (once your screwed over the local native tribes).
Given this, and given the immunity many west Africans have to the more debilitating malaria, the South slowly began replacing white indentured servants with black West Africans. Over the decades, this became the tradition.
He even noted that the plantation estate most envision is perfect to avoid mosquitoes. Surrounded by lots of lawn (no puddles for breeding); big windows to promote airflow. It makes some sense.
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According to Clay Jenkinson, Jefferson tried to introduce anti-slavery legislation on a few occasions in Virginia, never at the national level. I'm not sure when.
If people from Pennsylvania and New York, where the largest slave populations in the North existed, could do that, the Virginians were on rather thin bases to claim it was outside their power.
In his book 1493, Charles Mann presents a theory I had never heard; malaria. Big problem in the South, not so much in the North (too cold). The border of the malarial skeeter breeding ground was essentially marked by the Mason-Dixon line.
As indentured servants arrived in early colonial times, up to 70 percent croaked in the south. Those that survived the year-long acclimation to the disease served their term of labor, then went off to start their own claim rather than stick around and work existing farms. The land was still abundant (once your screwed over the local native tribes).
Given this, and given the immunity many west Africans have to the more debilitating malaria, the South slowly began replacing white indentured servants with black West Africans. Over the decades, this became the tradition.
He even noted that the plantation estate most envision is perfect to avoid mosquitoes. Surrounded by lots of lawn (no puddles for breeding); big windows to promote airflow. It makes some sense.