Ethical Codes Of Slavery: Unsafe Work Environment

The United States Department of Labor (DOL) has a mission to protect the welfare of wage earners, job seekers, and retirees. They also improve working conditions and ensure work-related benefits and rights. The DOL has many laws and reregulation’s protecting workers that range from the Fair Labor Standards Act, which sets standards for wages and overtime pay, to the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which focuses on workplace safety and health. With the wide range that the DOL has employees can feel that they have standards in place to ensure fair pay, fair treatment, and a safe environment to work in. Without the enforcement of the DOL corporations are left to establish pay and safety standards internally. In a business atmosphere where the importance of profit is often placed before the employees, an environment without laws and regulations can be dangerous. An example can be seen in other countries where labor laws are not in place compassion and common sense also seem to be absent. In these areas workers, many times children often works long hours for little pay. Sadly it has been shown that when corporations are unregulated the importance for the fair treatment of employees takes a less important role.

     Fortunately, companies can afford to pay workers higher wages. If this were not true they would not have been able to become so successful with production in the United States. It is a shame that any company would see themselves as being morally or ethically correct allowing it’s employees to work in a hazardous environment. Companies should want their employees to enjoy the place they work in. This would increase satisfaction in the work place, which would in turn increase production and decrease employee turnover.

The black codes were a backdoor attempt at reestablishing slavery. In many ways it was very much alike slavery. The blacks that were just emancipated from former masters all over the south were essentially forced into working for them again for close to nothing after. The codes said that they needed to have a job and they needed a place to live but it didn't give them any money after being slaved for so long and for all the work they did. They usually ended up working for their former slaves and treated worse than before. This time if they tried to run they would have to pay for each mile they got if they were caught. And if they tried to convince others to run they would be punished by the law, or their master. They weren't really allowed

No human being deserves to have their pride and dignity stripped from them, because we all are equal and should be treated as such. America’s race relations history is everything, but pleasant. For example, when Africans were brought here in shackles to make their white slave masters money, and convert them to Christianity. Once slavery began, indentured servants weren’t in high demand, and slaves were more profitable because they worked for free their entire lives. Slavery was inhumane and unnecessary, because human beings were treated like their God given purpose was to make America money and do whatever else their master told them to. These helpless people were treated like objects that could be auctioned or killed if they didn’t obey. Even U.S. presidents felt that slaves couldn’t function on their own, because their color and ability wouldn’t allow it. This awful activity took the lives of millions, especially during the middle passage, because slaves were transported to America shackled and chained at the bottom of a ship. The decision to

Ethically speaking companies should protect their workers from being overworked, but in reality some of these companies are the same ones with sweatshops in 3rd world nations. The world is money driven plain and simple. If allowed, companies will either overwork an employee or find one that they can. Care for quality of life in the business world is a relatively new concept thanks to laws and demands by customers.

During the mid-19th century there was a fight about the morals of slave labor versus free market capitalism. Abolitionists tended to support capitalism, or even socialism, and would argue that slave labor is immoral. Supporters of slavery would argue that Christianity allowed for slave labor, and it also created a more equal society; one much closer to the socialist dream than European philosophers could hope for. The image of “Lowell Offering” depicts free market labor in which the worker is paid for the fruits of their labor. “Slavery Justified” by George Fitzhugh is a moral argument in favor of the slave system, suggesting it provides more equality than the abolitionist view of “equality” and “liberty provides.

Organizational value of the slavery was an essential part of the Virginia and Chesapeake during the eighteenth century. The social practices and attitudes that accompanied the skin color based slavery system affected fundamentally all the fields of life. The slave system originated in early seventeen century and slowly prospers with increasing family based servitude system in African Blacks. Over the period of hundred years this slavery system became the critical component of the Virginia society due to obstructive legal system and social practices. The basic reasons of progression in slavery system in Chesapeake are fast growing agriculture system and need of extensive labor in this proliferating endeavor. The initial purpose of using slaves is the increasing demand of tobacco for export purposes but with time as slavery system entrenched in the society; the African slaves were used extensively in expanding farming and agriculture industry.

Today, most American citizens would agree that slavery is unethical. They would agree that the concept of holding humans against their wills and forcing them to work in unbearable conditions is inhumane, and unjust. But, in 1776, Americans would’ve expressed a very different opinion on the matter. Americans saw nothing wrong with holding slaves captive, and some of the most influential people at that time (Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson) held slaves . The opinion of slavery by Americans has dramatically evolved over hundreds of years. During 1776 to 1860, the idea of slavery progressed from praise, to rejection. The opposition of slavery seen during this time is due to many underlying factors and forces.

Slavery is known as one of the most inhumane, callous and unjust practices throughout history. A powerful picture of Solomon Northup tells the story of a once respected individual to a man who had been crippled by slavery in the trailer 12 Years A Slave. Steve McQueen 's trailer exposes slavery in its rawest form. McQueen appeals ethically, emotionally, and logically through music, strong voice-overs, color contrast, and character expressions to convey his belief that slavery devalues a person and their dignity.

To regulate the relationship between the owner and the slave, and to institutionalize slavery, the Slave Codes were established. These codes were laws in colonies which defined the rights of the masters and slaves, along with the legal sanctions over the black population; they generally placed harsh restrictions on a slave’s freedom and gave the owner absolute power over him/her.

The life of a slave was terrible, harsh, and extremely cruel. Slaves had no rights back then and when they were beat, whipped, or even killed, they could not do a thing about it since it was against the law. Slaves could be put up for auction and sold to other people like they were cattle being sold to a farmer. And even before they were sold to their new master, they were examined and looked at in many different ways. In the article, it states, “The latter gentleman was very talkative, dwelling at much length upon several good points and qualities. He would make us hold up our heads and walk briskly back and forth, while customers would feel our hands and arms and bodies, turn us about, ask us what we could do, make us open our mouths and show our teeth, precisely as a jockey examines a horse which he is about to barter for or purchase.” This shows how the slaves were treated when they were about to be sold/bought.

Both a New Yorker favorite book and Kirkus reviews best biography of the year, Mightier Than the Sword written by author David S. Reynolds, is one of the most impactful writings in American society till this day. Reynolds, a best-selling author, professor, British historian, and literary critic, obtained his Bachelor's of the Arts magna cum laude from Amherst College and later received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley while also having published fifteen books including Mightier Than the Sword. This book includes research over Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, which was greatly intended to raise awareness over the cruelty of slavery as well as was a huge part of the anti-slavery movement. Reynolds provides

Even though the slavery was introduced in the early 1600s, it had no doubt that the abolitionist inaugurated the movements about the slavery actively from early 1850s. The slavery became the essential part of industry in the South more than in the North because of the large plantations and slave trades. So in the Southerners’ perspective, the slave flourished the businesses with their inexpensive labor forces in order to profit; they argued slaves were by and large a culturally inferior, child-like people who were treated well by whites and thus content with their status in life. However, Uncle Tom’s Cabin described the slavery as an evil institution that must be abolished accurately from the historians today.

Statistic shows that seventy-three percent of people are not being treated fairly in the workplace. Corporate slavery thought to be a non-effective manner that is occurring around the world. Many situation in the workplace are fairly important that needs to be taken care of, but one situation that withstands the most is corporate slavery. One way to improve the world is to rid it of corporate slavery by influencing the CEO’s, eliminating discrimination, firing racist employees, and giving attention to the lower promoted workers.

Substandard working conditions in the less developed world are usually described as terrible places where employees are subjected to both mental and physical abuse, near impossible quotas, long hours, extremely low wages, and unsafe working conditions compared to western standards. All of this within an uninhabitable environment that corporations knowingly force the world’s impoverished people to submit to. Through pure ignorance, complete disregard, or lack of moral direction, many corporations have taken the concept of