Hello Kim,

Slavery ended in the northern states well before it ended in the South. For example, all of the northern states on the East Coast (VT, Mass., PA, NH, RI, Conn., NY, and NJ) took measures to abolish slavery between 1777 and 1804. Since six of these states passed laws for the gradual emancipation of slaves, there were still a few slaves in one or two of these states as late as the 1840s.

The Southern states never abolished slavery. They didn't have a choice after the Civil War because the Thirteenth Amendment was added to the US Constitution in 1865 and the defeated slave states were required to end slavery in order to rejoin the Union.

However, before the Civil WAr each state passed laws regarding individual, private emancipation of slaves, and slaveholders freed slaves throughout the history of slavery in the United States, both in the North and the South.

Regards,
Sandra