Paternalism And Slavery

When the first nineteen slaves arrived in Virginia in 1619, an institution that would last more than two hundred years was created. These first slaves were treated more like how the indentured servants that came to the New World from England were. However, as time passed and the colonies grew larger, so did the institution of slavery. Even after the importing slaves internationally was banned in 1807 by Congress, the internal slave trade expanded exponentially. The growth and durability of slavery persisted until the end of the Civil War, a time period greater than the entire existence of the United States. The institution of slavery was not only able to endure through two hundred fifty of turbulent change in America, but it was able to advance. This is due to the mindsets of slavery as a “necessary evil” and a “positive good” coupled with the dependence on them for such a large portion of the economy. These factors can be observed in the narratives written by Olaudah Equiano, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs.

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.

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).

The introduction of Africans to America in 1619 set off an irreversible chain of events that effected the economy of the southern colonies. With a switch from the expensive system of indentured servitude, slavery emerged and grew rapidly for various reasons, consisting of economic, geographic, and social factors. The expansion of slavery in the southern colonies, from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 to just before America gained its independence in 1775, had a lasting impact on the development of our nation’s economy, due to the fact that slaves were easy to obtain, provided a life-long workforce, and were a different race than the colonists, making it easier to justify the immoral act.

In the early 18th century, there was a supposed shift in the manner of how planters/masters asserted their authority. On one hand, Patriarchalism was know as ultimate authority and was very much so associated with a monarchy. This ideology was a much more strict and harsh method of dominance. The other technique, Paternalism, had the reputation of being much more affectionate and soft, if you will. Historians Kathleen Brown and Philip Morgan took two opposing stances on this topic. Brown, the author of “The Anxious World of the Slave-owning Patriarch”, believed that Paternalism, while most likely was a little more compassionate, was still just a branch under Patriarchalism. Morgan, the author of “The Effects of Paternalism Among Whites and Blacks”, contradicted her by saying that slaves actually benefited from the new paternalistic ideology. While Morgan makes a powerful and credible argument due to the perspective he takes while analyzing Paternalism, Brown’s reasoning is ultimately more persuasive because she looks at many different time periods and utilizes many primary sources.

Before the Civil War, the “Old South” lived by the regimes of slavery with white’s superior

Slaveholders took the responsibility for the physical and moral well-being of their dependent which was their spouse, children, and slaves. Paternalism, which is Latin for “Father,” narrowed the cultural gap between the master and the slave because it became deeply embedded after the closing of the African slave trade in 1808. The paternalism disguised and gave a reason for brutal reality of slavery. “[Paternalism] enabled slave-owners to think of themselves as kind, responsible masters even as they bought and sold their human property—a practice at odds with the claim that places formed part of the master’s “family”” (Foner 413).

Paternalism is the idea that slavery benefits African Americans because they are unable to take care of themselves. However, even if this is to be assumed true it is not because African Americans are genetically or otherwise biologically inferior to caucasians but rather that they have been manipulated to appear weaker. For example, African American slaves appeared to be unintelligent because they often spoke broken English and were illiterate. While some may have interpreted this to mean that African Americans were not intelligent enough to "speak properly," their verbal skills were a reflection of their lack of formal education. It would be asinine to presume slaves could learn these skills on their own, especially considering that it was often illegal to educate

The introduction of this book is very unique in that it gives a brief overview of American history that not many Americans were taught. The book fills in the blanks about how exactly our country started out being a small trading partner with European countries and in a few decades became the world’s largest economy. “For some fundamental assumptions about the history of slavery and the history of the United States remain strangely unchanged. The first major assumption is that, as an economic system a way of producing and trading commodities American slavery was fundamentally different from the rest of

The stability that slavery created in the American South between 1820 and 1860 was phenomenal. Economic stability was like no other country had ever seen, this economic stability created a global marketing network throughout many different nations, trade routes that still exist within modern America today. Slavery became the bedrock of American South livelihood; it became so valuable that it was almost seen as unimaginable to live without slavery. “It was inconceivable that European colonists could have settled and developed America without slave labour taking place,” this was according to……. The reason the south prospered and grew like it did was due to slavery. The value that slaves had to their slave owners was unquestionable. Slave owners were able to receive loans, whilst using their slaves as guarantors; these loans would then have been used in the purchasing of further land, more livestock and more slaves. It was also said that slave owners used their slaves to pay of any outstanding debt they may have had. It is clear to see the economic value that slaves possessed; they were included in the valuation of estates, for example; (Example), and this in turn became a source of tax revenue for the National as well as the local Governments, it was also

The decline of slavery in the upper South in the early 19th century can be identified as a profound change which would contribute to the eventual division of the nation. After 1830, the pattern of regional slavery in the South experienced great variations, such that the upper South gradually declined ties with slavery while the lower South distinctively became identified with it. This profound change was brought on by a shift in utilizing free labor rather than slavery to drive economic production in the upper South (Goldfield et. al, p. 285). The climate and geography in states of the upper South overtime proved less

In American history, every event and person plays a part in the future. For example, rich plantation owners helped America advance their economy. However, that would not have been at all possible without the help of their slaves. The time and institution of slavery is a time of historical remembrance. It played a primary role during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. The treatment, labor conditions, and personal stories of these slaves’ treatment and labor conditions are all widely discussed around the world to this day.

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.

Since the beginning, the United States` government, racial slavery had conquered various American identities. “Racism sprung early colonial times due the slavery riot incidence misinterpretations, leading full men, women, and children racial slavery of all different ethnic backgrounds” (Hooker 1). African-Americans held a life long work and Caribbean island shipment originating and affective progression to American colonies. “An importation of 4,000,000 Negroes were held in bondage by Southern planters” (Webstine).Advanced time went, and Northern states nurtured a rapid industrial revolution; Factory introduction, machines, and hired workers replaced any agricultural need of existing slaves. Southern states, however, maintained

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.