Black Slavery : An Essential Part Of The American Economy

The Underground Railroad was a huge success lasting for decades and freed around one hundred thousand slaves by 1850 (History.com). The events of the railroad happened all over the country, each trip different and all routes kept secret, but slaves from the South would escape in small groups of three to five in an attempt to pass the Ohio River to Northern Free states. Slaves mainly traveled by foot in small groups, occasionally a slave would travel by boat or train, but wagon or foot was easiest as the night provided cover and there were set up safe houses (Wikipedia). The underlying causes of the Underground Railroad was as a means of escape from the harsh lives most slaves lived. The events that caused the construction of the Underground Railroad are unknown but is believed to be started by Quakers in the late 1700s (History.com). The Underground Railroad was a huge success bringing thousands of slaves into freedom a year, giving them hope for a better

The Underground Railroad was a network of people who assisted fugitive slaves. Slaves that escaped from the south to the North and then to Canada. Run away slaves received assistance along the way from individuals who were involved in this network. The organization became successful the estimated 1810 and 1850, 100,000 slaves escaped from the South through the Underground Railroad. The abolition of slavery had been a concern for anti-slavery advocates since the inception of slavery. The first abolitionist society was in Pennsylvania in 1775. In time, individual anti-slavery advocates directly assisted in run away slaves escapes. Soon the Underground railroad became out in the open, others helped and a secret organization wasn’t so much of a

Was slavery an economic engine for the Southern economy before the Civil War? Men like Senator and businessman James Henry Hammond would say yes immediately without a second thought. People like Hammond believed that slavery in these times were critical to the growth of the southern economy. They made points such as that agricultural sales were a main percentage of business in the south and with the large area of fertile land that slave ownership was a necessary evil. Along with those, the decades preceding the civil war, the north began to industrialize, which in turn created a large demand for cotton, which was heavily supported by slavery. Not only was slavery a supporting crutch for the immense cotton market, but also slave trade proved to be a highly profitable market of his own. Finally, from the perspective of a plantation owner as a business enterprise, owning slaves proved to be most effective by implementing business strategies, much like Henry James Hammond’s. Without slavery, small planters would have been unable to make a steadfast profit, leaving the cotton industry to rely on large plantation owners who would mainly invest their fortune in British luxurious imports, instead of diversifying and reinvesting in schooling or infrastructure. I personally believe that James Henry Hammond and others were correct, with exception to my ethical beliefs, that slavery was a key factor in the growth and preservation of

The Underground Railroad was an intricate system of households and farmhouses alike that were all connected throughout many towns and villages in the mid 1800s. It was formed by the common goal of people taking a stand against the law and helping thousands of black slaves escape from the south to gain their rightful freedom in the north. This happened because many people began to see slaves as human beings with value, rather than brutes that were valued less than a human. Throughout the mid 1800s, there were many cases of runaway slaves attempting to escape to freedom without anywhere to hide or anyone to help. A lot of people realized that this was a very impactful movement so they began to open up their minds and homes to these fugitive slaves as an attempt to help them make it into the north. Many people helped these runaway slaves because they believed it was morally right, that black oppression was a crime; slaves held value and deserved to keep their family together and lead a life as any other man or woman would, and former slaves shed light on these critical issues.

There is no doubt that the United States was built upon the hard work of Black-American slaves, referred to at the time as bondpeople, who were the main labor force in producing important American exports, such as cotton or tobacco, which were, in fact, the backbone of the American economy during that time. Due to bondpeople’s overall importance in keeping the United States the powerhouse that it was, the domestic slave trade was a value market that “‘was roughly three times greater than the total amount of all capital, North and South combined, invested in manufacturing, almost three times the amount invested in railroads, and seven times the amount invested in banks’”(23). In “‘In Pressing Need of Cash,’” Daina Ramey Berry, a professor for the Departments of History and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas, looks at a fifteen year period, from 1850-1865, of the economic factors of the domestic slave trade. Berry uses Steven Deyle’s findings in his study, "Carry Me Back: The Domestic Slave Trade in American Life” which examined both the "long-distance interstate trade" and the extensive local or "intrastate" trade of enslaved males and females, who were priced differently depending on their perceived market value (23). With Deyle’s findings, Berry specifically discusses the relationships among gender, age, skill, or type of sale and how those factors, generally, determined the priced paid of enslaved workers.

During the 19th century, over 100,000 slaves from southern plantations within the United States achieved their freedom through the Underground Railroad. This system of hiding and aiding a slave in order to achieve their freedom was attributed greatly to the sacrifices of many Americans. Most of the locations of the Underground Railroad are continuously a secret to this day. Many white Americans and already free slaves risked their lives to help other slaves escape the harsh conditions of their plantations in the south. Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass were two major influences to the success of the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad benefitted the African Americans by giving them hope, and most importantly freedom. If not for the Underground Railroad, the abolition of slavery would not have become a reality and slavery would have flourished and continue to spread into the newly added territories of the United States.

The Underground Railroad was a system of individuals who helped escaped slaves to obtain their freedom in the northern part of the states, even as far as Canada. “The Underground Railroad was the first American civil rights movement” (Snodgrass) which managed to operate secretly for more than fifty years. While there was no actual railroad underground, there was an organized network of secret routes and houses to help refugee slaves to their freedom.

The Underground Railroad was the name used to describe a network of secret routes and safe houses used to help African American slaves escape into free states and Canada. Many slaves risked their lives to be free. Slavery began during the American Revolution and near the end of the Civil War when millions of African Americans were captured from Africa and were forced onto slave ships that sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to North America to be sold into slavery. Before the underground railroad, if slaves did try to escape, they’d soon return tired, hungry, and unable to survive on the run as a fugitive. The underground railroad was their only hope of becoming a free person. It was given the name “underground railroad” because everything

The enslavement of African Americans by White Americans existed in the United States of America for 245 years, and was not abolished until 1865, however, the movement to end slavery - the Abolition Movement - existed for many years before slavery’s termination. Slavery in America was constantly changing and African American slaves were constantly treated harsher and working under worse conditions. Black communities, families, and society were degraded by horrific slave owners, and slaves often found themselves entrapped under the atrocious conditions of slavery. The Underground Railroad was created as not a real railroad, but instead a route for slaves to escape their Southern plantations and find freedom in the North. Fugitive slaves spent days, sometimes months, together on the Underground Railroad, bringing them closer together and reviving their previous damaged culture.

“The Underground Railroad was established in the early 1800s and was aided by people involved in the Abolitionist Movement; it helped thousands of slaves escape bondage. By one estimate, 100,000 slaves escaped from bondage in the South between 1810 and 1850. Aiding them in their flight was a system of safe houses and abolitionists determined to free as many slaves as possible, even though such actions violated state laws in the United States Constitution.” (Net)

The idea of Underground Railroad emerged in 1834 when the National Antislavery Society in the United States, an organization that was made up of both blacks and white abolitionists used the railroad to enable about 100,000 slaves to find a path to freedom (Smedley 23). The Underground Railroad became a formal organization in 1838 under the leadership of Robert Purvis, a black abolitionist. Under the guidance of several railroad agents, thousands of slaves made impulsive escapes from the Confederate South (Gara 96). Other slaves managed to utilise well-organised systems to achieve this escapes. Before providing a detailed analysis of the Underground Railroad and its role in the antislavery movement, it is important to note that the idea of ?Underground Railroad? has nothing to do with a real railroad. It is a movement that utilised a variety of means to enable the enslaved Africans to escape from the south (Delle 64). Therefore, the main role of the Underground Railroad was to actively support the ongoing demand for abolishing slavery, the onset of the American civil war, and its historical role of being the pioneer anti-slavery movement in the United States.

Modern and historical forces combine to keep the racial hierarchy in the dominant cultures control. Historically, slavery was diplomatically protected within our constitution safeguarding the control and ownership of African Americans. The three-fifths compromise written into the constitution in 1787, safeguarded slaveowners by greatly increase the representation and political power of slave-owning states (Laws, 2017). Slavery was widespread within the southern states until the year of 1865, when slavery and involuntary servitude were abolished, except for those duly convicted of a crime. Between 1866 and 1870, through congress a radical reconstruction era was executed ensuring guaranteed freedom and civil rights to former slaves. These turn of events, incensed southern slave owners giving rise to white Supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan. Such historical events and accounts help us understand present conditions for people of color through recognition of the enduring struggle of those who have fought slavery and racism.

Unquestionably, the scourge of slavery has left a dark imprint on African-American history. However, some envisage its nefarious consequences only in terms of those who survived enslavement. Those who, quite frankly, should know better either downplay or outright ignore this terrible event that still causes sizable shock waves in our culture today. An alarming number of people conflate the end of slavery with the end of oppression. While those who were literally enslaved and later emancipated bore the brunt of slavery, the first free generation of children surmounted tremendous obstacles, some of which African-Americans must still face today. Utilizing “Beloved” by Toni Morrison, “The Ghosts of Slavery” by Linda Krumholz, and “Raising Freedom’s

Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats attempted to cure their complete opposition on the regulation of slavery by using federal power to coerce an end to the feud, yet the movement increased tension between the divided nation. By invoking both legislative and judicial power, politicians used laws which included slave codes and freedom laws as well as court decisions like Dred Scott v Sandford (1875) to convince or force the population into acceptance of stances on slavery. Each party viewed their tactics and ideas to be righteous, and though they intended for positive results, national outrage answered the governmental movement.

The Underground Railroad is a very helpful and dangerous way slaves used to find freedom (TSI). This was a network of secret routes and safe houses to free African Americans (Underground Railroad 21). It started in the 1800s and ended by the time of the civil war (Crew). The Underground Railroad is an act that was shown to stop slavery (Underground Railroad 21). The Underground Railroad still acts as a representation for America that patriots will risk their own lives to give freedom to all people.