Devil Slavery and Dr. Faust Essay example

Phillips writes that the defining characteristic of a ‘Southerner’ is a feeling of white racial solidarity which casts all other social considerations in the shade; it is the “cardinal test of a Southerner.” When Phillips touches upon the subject of non-slaveholding whites, he emphasizes their zeal for the primacy of white civilization as an end unto itself. He relates two contemporary accounts of non-slaveholders, one a tinner and the other an overseer, to demonstrate this fervor but pointedly devalues their economic attachments to slavery, writing, “Both of them, and a million of their non-slaveholding like, had a still stronger social prompting: the white men’s ways must prevail; the Negroes must be kept innocuous.” Phillips rejects out of hand the sway of overt pecuniary motives against the weight of racial ones and this rejection is so absolute in part because “it is otherwise impossible to account

John. W. Blessingame, The Slave Community: The Plantation Life in The Antebellum South (Oxford University Press, Inc: 1972, 1979).

There has been many historians and theorists who have tackled colonial slavery. One of them is Ira Berlin whose book Many Thousands Gone is his take on slavery diversity in American history and how slavery is at the epicenter of economic production, amongst other things. He separates the book into three generations: charter, plantation and revolutionary, across four geographic areas: Chesapeake, New England, the Lower country and the lower Mississippi valley. In this paper, I will discuss the differences between the charter and plantation generations, the changes in work and living conditions, resistance, free blacks and changes in manumission.

The article draws on evidence gathered from plantation owner’s personal writings, bondwomens accounts, relatives accounts and statistics to demonstrate the everyday events and repertoires that occurred in Antebellum plantations. Using plantations accounts such as William Ervin, Camp is able to give us an insight into the formation of the plantation and the spatial borders that limit slaves. Furthermore, plantation accounts from owners gives insight into the punishment that bondpeople receive. This essential knowledge provides an understanding into the conditions that bondpeople dealt with every day and the psychological mind set of plantation owners. Camp builds on these fundamental ideals by using primary accounts from enslaved people to bring an understanding in why truancy was an everyday occurrence. Specifically, Camp uses bondwomen’s accounts to understand the gender norms that led to different acts and rates of rebellion inconsistent with men. Camp focuses on the gender issue of women and the expectations laid by other slave members as described by Patience M. Avery. The last essential primary evidence that Camp uses to form her argument is through statistics of slave women which demonstrate the lack of women escaping to the north in specific states. However, some of her statistics have the potential to limit her argument as shown in describing incidents of truancy on plantation farms in South Carolina. These statistics occur in different years, 1828 and 1831 to show the rate of women committing truancy, however the differences in years could indicate that these rates could be an anomaly. Therefore, although Camp brings in useful and relative source to build a constructive argument there are areas which could limit the article. Camps overall uses vital primary sources builds on her contention

As we already noted – in the 1800s expediency of slavery was disputed. While industrial North almost abandoned bondage, by the early 19th century, slavery was almost exclusively confined to the South, home to more than 90 percent of American blacks (Barney W., p. 61). Agrarian South needed free labor force in order to stimulate economic growth. In particular, whites exploited blacks in textile production. This conditioned the differences in economic and social development of the North and South, and opposing viewpoints on the social structure. “Northerners now saw slavery as a barbaric relic from the past, a barrier to secular and Christian progress that contradicted the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and degraded the free-labor aspirations of Northern society” (Barney W., p. 63).

In Peter Kolchin’s widely acclaimed novel, American Slavery, he evaluates the development of slavery in the New World, which is one of the most debated issues in American history. In his novel, he yolks together the work of many historians with conflicting views to form a balanced and precise view of slavery. He researched primary source evidence, such as quotes from masters and slaves in the 1700s, to obtain the roots of enslavement in America. The success of his novel is often credited to the fact that he is one of the first authors to produce a historical synthesis on racial slavery in the United States. Moreover, his book uniquely spans all the way from the origins of slavery to its demise after the civil war.

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.

Perhaps one of the strongest elements of slavery is honor. Honor has had a wide range of impact in history, whether it was shaping major dynasties and hierarchies, deciding an individuals’ role in society, or family ties and marriages. This sense of worth, high esteem, or virtue was also manipulated by slave masters in order to control their slaves. “The slave could have no honor because of the origin of his status, the indignity and all-pervasiveness of his indebtedness, his absence of any independent social existence, but most of all because he was without power except through another” (p 6). This element is not just a physical force, such as coercive power, which one can heal and

In 1928 Ulrich B. Phillips wrote an argumentative essay about the reasons for the massive support that slavery received from both slaveowners and Southerners who didn’t possess slaves. The essay was well-received and supported by critics in the 1930-s. However, closer to 1950-s critics started doubting the objectivity of Phillip’s writing. It’s important to note that Ulrich B. Phillips is a white historian from the South, writing from a perspective of a white Southerner. When he was writing his article he failed to step back from his bias and provide fully objective support for the main theme of his argument, setting a doubt to the reliability of his work.

In December, slaves were given a few weeks off of work and could spend their time as they please. The masters encouraged the slaves to engage in merriment and indulge themselves with alcohol. Douglas states that the purpose of this break it to appease the slaves so they have some reprieve and cannot claim that they are constantly worked. However, it could be argued that the masters also encourage slaves to engage in these types of activities during the break, so that they do not find work elsewhere which would enable them to acquire money (which eventually might be used to acquire their freedom). By showing that the slaves are not using their free time to its full potential, slave owners were able to project the idea that slaves were not intelligent enough to make the best financial decisions for themselves. Therefore, under this logic, it would be best for slaves to work for the slave owners, and in return slave owners would provide the necessities to ensure an adequate quality of life (which slave owners rarely did in

There are three slave systems described in this essay. The first was a Northern nonplantation system. The second and third were Southern plantation systems, one around Chesapeake Bay and the other in the lower

For many people, the idea of a slave culture or of slaves exercising control and autonomy within the context of the master-slave relationship seems impossible. After all, the entire concept of the system of slavery is based upon the ownership of another person, which implies total control. However, Drew Gilpin Faust's essay, "Culture, Conflict, and Community on the Antebellum Plantation," which is based upon meticulous records kept by slave-owner James Henry Hammond, reveal that the master-slave relationship was far more complex than one might believe. Even when faced with rigid systems of control, slaves exercised some autonomy. Even with a rigid master, such as Hammond, these efforts at self-control frequently modified behavior on the plantation. In fact, while it is almost certain that some masters ruled through tyranny alone, it appears that the back-and-forth nature of the master-slave relationship meant that masters had to provide some inducements to produce work from their slaves.

Blassingame, John W. The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South. New York: Oxford University Press, 1972.

The book The Peculiar Institution takes an in-depth look at slavery in America from the beginning. The author tells the story after doing a lot of research of how the entire south operated with slavery and in the individual states. The author uses a lot of examples from actual plantations and uses a lot of statistics to tell the story of the south. The author’s thesis statement throughout this book is stated in the title of the book that tells that slavery is a peculiar institution, which also means that it is a very interesting form of service. There are many strange events that not only led up to slavery but that

The controversies surrounding slavery have been established in many societies worldwide for centuries. In past generations, although slavery did exists and was tolerated, it was certainly very questionable,” ethically“. Today, the morality of such an act would not only be unimaginable, but would also be morally wrong. As things change over the course of history we seek to not only explain why things happen, but as well to understand why they do. For this reason, we will look further into how slavery has evolved throughout History in American society, as well as the impacts that it has had.