Argumentative Essay: Freedom From Slavery

In the United States there was a heated debate about the morality of slavery. Supporters of slavery in the 18th century used legal, economic, and religious arguments to defend slavery. They were able to do so effectively because all three of these reasons provide ample support of the peculiar institution that was so vital to the South.

Slavery has always been the most shocking phenomena of our world. Slavery, by itself seems very unnatural and provokes mixed feelings from the heart of each person. Some faced “slavery” even in the contemporary times. And some people just simply do not understand the possibility of one human being considering another human being its Slave. Slavery is the practice or system of owning Slaves. Nevertheless, there is still much to say about it and a lot of things to recall.Some of the big central ideas that I have found so far in my research are some of the ways Slaves were tortured, why was this portrayed, and what really led to this. Important insights that I have derived from my research topic include Slaves who helped other Slaves become free

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the issue of African slavery in America in the antebellum by late eighteenth century and before the antebellum crisis as discussed in Paul Finkelman’s book: Defending Slavery.

Slave as defined by the dictionary means that a slave is a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another; a bond servant. So why is it that every time you go and visit a historical place like the Hampton-Preston mansion in Columbia South Carolina, the Lowell Factory where the mill girls work in Massachusetts or the Old town of Williamsburg Virginia they only talk about the good things that happened at these place, like such things as who owned them, who worked them, how they were financed and what life was like for the owners. They never talk about the background information of the lower level people like the slaves or servants who helped take care and run these places behind the scenes.

In addition, Kolchin gives the readers the catalysts for the events in the history of slavery. Economic,

Slavery was not fully addressed in the Constitution, in fact the word slavery was not mentioned in the constitution. There different sections in the constitution that prevent the government's involvement with slavery. Some may say that if government had the power to ban slavery the Southern states would refuse unite with the Northern states. It seems that the framers of the Constitution were trying to keep the South happy in order to keep the country United. The framers had no way to avoid slavery at that time, they did what they needed to do in order to keep the country together.

Slavery was held out until 1865, but during this time period abolitionist are trying to do anything to stop slavery. The reason being is because slavery wasn’t slavery anymore. Slavery was beginning to become more advance due to technological innovation. The Abolitionist are people that were against slavery and would boycott anything to get rid of slavery. The argument that the Abolitionist had during this time period was its conditions as violating Christian’s principals and rights to equality. The abolishment of slavery was a significant change in the history of slavery, because of all the technological innovation that was making the slaves jobs easier. In the American Revolution war slavery played a role in which they began a sequence of abolishing slavery. Slavery played a role in the American revolutionary war to begin to grant themselves freedom, liberty, and rights. Slavery changed in 1808 due to a bill that abolished the slave trade. The westward expansion divided the nation because the north and the south weren’t coming into agreement of change going on in the United States. The abolitionist had a plan and that plan was to abolish all slavery throughout the whole United States. These are some of the main things that would lead to the abolishment of 1865.

Edmund S. Morgan’s famous novel American Slavery, American Freedom was published by Norton in 1975, and since then has been a compelling scholarship in which he portrays how the first stages of America began to develop and prosper. Within his researched narrative, Morgan displays the question of how society with the influence of the leaders of the American Revolution, could have grown so devoted to human freedom while at the same time conformed to a system of labor that fully revoked human dignity and liberty. Using colonial Virginia, Morgan endeavors how American perceptions of independence gave way to the upswing of slavery. At such a time of underdevelopment and exiguity, cultivation and production of commodities were at a high demand. Resources were of monumental importance not just in Virginia, but all over North America, for they helped immensely in maintaining and enriching individuals and families lives. In different ways, people in colonies like Virginia’s took advantage of these commodities to ultimately establish or reestablish their societies.

Slavery, especially in America, has been an age old topic of riveting discussions. Specialist and other researchers have been digging around for countless years looking for answers to the many questions that such an activity provided. They have looked into the economics of slavery, slave demography, slave culture, slave treatment, and slave-owner ideology (p. ix). Despite slavery being a global issue, the main focus is always on American slavery. Peter Kolchin effectively illustrates in his book, American Slavery how slavery evolved alongside of historical controversy, the slave-owner relationship, how slavery changed over time, and how America compared to other slave nations around the world.

In 1787, delegates arrived in Philadelphia to begin work on revising the Articles of Confederation. Most states agreed that the Articles had not provided the country with the type of guidelines that it needed to run smoothly. There were many things missing, and many issues that needed further consideration. One of the most controversial topics at the Constitutional Convention was figuring out the country's policy towards slavery. When all was said and done, slavery was still legal after the Convention because the southern economy depended on it and because most people decided that this was an issue that should be decided by each individual state, rather than the country as a whole.

For Edmund S. Morgan American slavery and American freedom go together hand in hand. Morgan argues that many historians seem to ignore writing about the early development of American freedom simply because it was shaped by the rise of slavery. It seems ironic that while one group of people is trying to break the mold and become liberated, that same group is making others confined and shattering their respectability. The aspects of liberty, race, and slavery are closely intertwined in the essay, 'Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox.'

The dichotomy of freedom and slavery in rhetoric and rise of the United States of America has long been an enigma, a source of endless debate for scholars and citizens alike who wonder how a nation steeped in the ideals of republicanism could so easily subjugate and enslave an entire group of people. The Chesapeake region was home to America’s great statesmen, men who espoused ideals of freedom and liberty from tyranny. Yet at the same time, these men held hundreds of men, women, and children in conditions of lifelong bondage. How then did this dichotomy arise? The dangers posed by indentured servants that became freemen resulted in the development of a system of African-descended chattel slavery in the Chesapeake, a system whose creation and continuance was aided by a continuum of racial thinking and racial prejudice aimed at Africans in Virginia.

Enslaved people live with the perpetual fear of being separated from their families. Women, children and the elderly are most vulnerable for being sold. Slave owners only want able bodied slaves. Slave owners will sell weak, sick or injured slaves for very little money. This is a tradition that has gone on for decades. It sickens me to see families being torn apart under such awful circumstances. Humanity cannot sit back and watch this happen. You cannot turn your heads away anymore. It’s time to to take a stand against the enslavery of human beings. My entire life I’ve seen my people get treated like lesser beings. I’m tired. I’m tired of seeing the pain in my people’s eyes, I’m tired of fearing for my people’s life and I’m tired of not feeling

There has been much debate on the topic of slavery in the early times, although most of the countries considered slavery as a criminal activity. Some countries such as Myanmar and Sudan do not abolish it. They even expedite the slavery system. It is no doubt that slavery violent the human rights. However, it was commonly spread in the early times from 17th to 19th century. In this research, I will talk about the origin of the slavery, the reasons for people to becoming slave and the life of the slave.

This place was terrible. They took our clothes away, forced hundreds of us into tightly packed rooms, literally stacked on top of one another like a can of sardines. I was missing you all so much and needed you at the time for comfort. I could not stand it anymore as we rocked back and forth, weeping and angry. As I was bleeding terribly, I forced myself to unlock my hands from the chain. At that point I didn’t care how much pain I was in, all I wanted to do was escape. When I finally did escape and free the others, this raging power came upon me to takeover the ship. The others and I killed all but two of the Spanish on the ship. It felt good to let out all the anger that was built up inside of me and I felt accomplished and powerful.