Kenneth Stampp's The Peculiar Institution

Slavery has long inspired controversy among historians. Many have different views on slavery whether it was slaves lived under kind masters, or slavery was a brutal system that drove slaves into constant rebellion, but neither viewpoint is accurate although both contain some truth in it. Many masters wanted to earn profit off of slaves no matter what because some masters were kind causing the slaves to develop genuine affection for their owners. Although slaves had affection for owners they did not even question themselves when deciding to desert to Union lines when northern troops descended on the plantations during the Civil War. The experience of slaves working on cotton plantations in the 1830s and 1700s differed because of reasons unrelated to the kindness or brutality of masters. More of reasons like the plantation system, the work and discipline, the slave family, and the longevity, health, and diet of slaves.

slaves were oppressed people. It shattered their hopes of a normal life. the whole slave section of society was miserable and living in property. Slavery forced a caste system onto a society of revolutionaries. Slavery wasa blight on society because now there wasa group of people who weren't as good as everyone else.

(wikipedia.org) Slaves in the slavery society could be treated as personal property and be sold or bought as commodity, besides slaves could be deprived of rights and interests randomly by the slaveholder. Endurance of overloaded work and poor treatment seemed like endless alongside with maltreat and punishment, forced the indignant slaves to revolt against both the master and the unjust institution, whether there would be brutal repression. During the vigorous slavery abolition, the continuous strike of numerous slaves’ resistance and rebellion had been indispensable and irreplaceable.

1. Slaves were treated harshly and worked to the bone. They could not own land and many landowners would not allow them to read and write. The slaves were used to work in the fields and make life easier for their owners. Some slaves were forced to have sexual activities with their owners so they can produce more slaves instead of buying them

Skills that are acquired through having a traditional paying job such as budgeting, saving, shopping were not developed nor provided while enslaved. The Masters also never taught the slaves how to care for themselves and without money or education, they also now faced major health concerns.

Life under slavery was harsh, and during the mid-1800s, it was the main way of living in the South. Unlike the North, the South had very few industries, but made up for this with plantations. They then gained wealth by using slavery as they pleased, but under slavery, African- Americans were treated brutally. Under this kind of treatment, slaves made many ways to endure this pain and even sometimes then rebel.

Slavery in the United States was at the same time both economically beneficial to southern planters and unsustainable due to the industrial revolution and the reliance upon single cash crops. In this document I will explain what forms of slave resistance existed in American society, how and why slavery was beneficial to the United States, how the slaves in the United States were treated and how the slaves were traded into the United States. Slavery changed the world in many ways that affect the way people think and act today.

Every-day acts of resistance included breaking tools, destroying livestock and other property, talking back to their owners and so forth, and though they had no long-term effect on the slave system, they encouraged many slaves to stand up for themselves, which slowly contributed to the elimination of slavery. Arson, homicide and armed rebellions were a few examples of long-term resistance which had a continuing effect on the slave system. When looking at both types of resistance, one may think they contradict each other but they often help each other out. Every-day acts of resistance can become so frequent that they help encourage slaves to come up with more ambitious ideas of rebellion that can later develop into long-terms acts of resistance.

On a more physical level, Douglass describes in his narratives his experience of going to another plantation which was meant to make trouble slaves more submissive to their masters. This was accomplished by forcing the slaves to work in all circumstances till the stop. Douglass then goes on to say this type of work would turn a human into a brute giving the implication that he saw this as one of the ways that enslaved people were dehumanized. Douglass saw this as dehumanization because of the harsh treatment of slaves and the disregard for their wellbeing. They were treated even worse than property because even then people had respect for their property and would not overuse it or neglect their property. This type of treatment was meant

But plantation slavery did not function simply because of threats or violence. Slaves were also wheedled and persuaded to work. They were given small motivations -extra foods, clothing, and time free from work, expecting that they would work more and effectively. They were also given land to cultivate foodstuffs or rear animals for their own use. Among all these, yet violence was the eventual threat of the entire system, much as it had been on the slave ship.

The slaves had salt thrown in their wounds, runaway slaves would have their legs cut off and sometimes slaves were able to earn their freedom by either their

Slavery was a ruthless and dreadful way of life for all slaves. Yet there were differences in rank between slaves. Minor class slaves were “field slaves”. Superior class slaves were “house slaves”. The daily routines of these slaves differed to a great extent. Field slaves only function was production. Their duties were to plant and cultivate the crops, clear the land, flame the undergrowth, roll the wood, split rails, transport water, restore fences, spread fertilizer, and break the soil. Working since sunrise to sunset was purely and analogy for slave labor, they regularly worked before sunrise and considerably past dusk. A house slave every day routine incorporated

Slavery was a system of forced labor popular in the 17th and 18th century that exploited and oppressed black people. Slavery was an issue in the United States that brought on many complex responses. Slave labor introduced to the United States a multitude of issues that questioned political, economical, and social morals. As slave labor increased due to the booming of cottage industries with the market revolution, reactions to these issues differed between regions, creating a sectional split of the United States between industrial North and plantation South. Historiographers Kenneth Stampp, Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman, and Eugene Genovese, in their respective articles, attempt to interpret the attitudes of American slaves toward their experiences of work as well as the social and economic implications of slave labor.

“Most slaves lived on large farms or small plantations; many masters owned less than 50 slaves. Slave owners sought to make their slaves completely dependent on them, and a system of restrictive codes governed life among slaves. They were prohibited from learning to read and write, and their behavior and movement was restricted. Many masters took sexual liberties with slave women, and rewarded obedient slave behavior with favors,

Discuss the forms of resistance used by slaves and assess the effectiveness of the different forms of resistance.