The history of slavery in Tennessee began when it was the old Southwest Territory and thus the law regulating slavery in Tennessee was broadly derived from North Carolina law, and was initially comparatively "liberal." However, after statehood, as the fear of slave rebellion and the threat to slavery posed by abolitionism increased, the laws became increasingly punitive: after 1831, "punishments were increased and privileges and immunities were lessened and circumvented."[2] Tennessee was one of five states that allowed slaves the right of a jury trial,[2] and one of three states that never passed anti-literacy laws,[3] although the punishment for forging a slave pass was up to 39 lashes.[2]
Tennessee had a ban on interstate slave trading beginning in 1827 but it was broadly flouted and repealed in 1854.[4] Memphis, Tennessee was one of the central hubs of the interstate slave trade, along with Washington, Richmond, Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans.[5] Key Memphis traders included Byrd Hill, the Bolton brothers, the Little brothers, and the Forrest brothers.[5] Nashville was a second-tier market, "advantageously situated for purchases in Kentucky and sales in northern Alabama and northeastern Mississippi....Much local and intra-state trading was a matter of course."[5] East Tennessee manifested early abolitionism and colonization-movement activism but slavery remained widespread in that region until emancipation.[6]
According to journalist-turned-local historian Bill Carey, who wrote a book examining the history of slavery in Tennessee through the lens of newspaper reports, slave sale ads, county-government notices in local papers, and runaway slave ads, not only did the city government of Nashville own slaves, in 1836 the state government "organized a lottery to raise money for internal improvements (mainly road construction). Lottery prizes included assets such as land, a farm, steamboats and five slaves: a 45-year-old man named Charles, a 43-year-old woman named Nancy and three girls named Matilda (12), Rebecca (11) and Maria (6)."[7] Hiring out of slave laborers was extremely common and provided significant household income for their enslavers.[7]
As of 1914, the Supreme Court of Tennessee held that "ex-slaves had no inheritable blood" and thus could not transfer property by will to their siblings.[8] The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Jones vs. Jones that this was an unconstitutional violation of the 14th Amendment.[9]
In 2022, voters passed a measure that removed language in Tennessee state laws that permitted slavery or involuntary servitude as a form of punishment, a change intended to prevent abuses in the use of convict labor.[10]
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