Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

This month marks the 160th anniversary of the ratification of the 13th Amendment, which permanently ended slavery in the United States.

The amendment was passed by Congress in January of 1865, but only became

part of the Constitution when three quarters of the states voted to finally close this ugly

chapter in American history. What Lincoln once called the bondsman's 250 years of unrequited

toil finally came to an end. Now, such drastic cultural change did not happen as

quickly or as straightforwardly as America's earliest documents seemed to imply. For example,

Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence included a condemnation of the

British slave trade. In 1787, the U.S. Constitution suggested that the slave trade would end by

1808. The treaty that ended the war of 1812 called the slave trade, and I quote, irreconcilable

with the principles of humanity and justice. And 30 years after that, in the agreement that

finalized the border with Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. agreed to deploy

naval forces along the coast of Africa to wipe out the British slave trade. But rather than die-out,

as many had expected, slavery in America actually got worse. In 1850, the U.S. Congress passed

the Fugitive Slave Act, and that meant that slaves who had found freedom in northern states could still be arrested and returned to bondage.

Seven years after that, the Dred Scott decision by the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that black Americans, and I quote, are not included and were not intended to be included under the words citizens in the Constitution.

And one unexpected factor that helped sustain slavery was the cotton gent.

Eli Whitney's invention in 1794 dramatically changed the production dynamics of one of

America's most important crops, making it possible to clean seeds out of the cotton much faster

than by hand.

As Whitney boasted, quote, one man and a horse will do more than 50 men with the old machines.

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