Slavery occurred in Iowa prior to 1846, but the extent and significance of slavery in pre-state Iowa is poorly understood. Little is known about slavery in Iowa prior to theLouisiana Purchase. The area that is now the American state ofIowa was part ofNew France when first settled by Europeans. As such, it was governed byits slavery laws. French settlers first brought African slaves intoUpper Louisiana fromSaint-Domingue around 1720 under the legal terms of theCode Noir, which defined the conditions of slavery in the French empire and restricted the activities of free Black persons.[1][2]
In the pre-stateIowa Territory, there are sporadic accounts of slaves in Iowa.[3] In its first decision,In Re the Matter of Ralph, decided July, 1839, the Iowa Territorial Supreme Court determined that "no man in this territory can be reduced to slavery" and a fugitive former slave living in Dubuque could not be forcibly returned to Missouri.[4] However this decision against slavery was difficult to enforce. In the1840 United States census 16 enslaved people were recorded in Iowa Territory, all living inDubuque County. The only recorded slave sale occurred in 1841, when O. H. W. Stull, the Iowa territorial secretary, purchased an enslaved boy in Iowa City.[5] Josiah Smart, a U.S. Government Indian Agent, owned two slaves while working atFort Des Moines before 1845.[6]
Slavery was outlawed in Iowa when it obtained statehood in 1846; Section 23 of the Bill of Rights in theConstitution of the State of Iowa expressly prohibited slavery.[7] In the years leading up to the Civil War, many Iowans became involved in theUnderground Railroad, and famed abolitionistJohn Brown used Iowa as a base for his anti-slavery campaigns, 1856–1859.[8] The state of Iowa played a significantrole during the American Civil War in providing food, supplies, troops and officers for the Union army.
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