Antebellum is defined at Dictionary.com as "Belonging to the period before a war, especially the American Civil War."1 In the Antebellum period in the South, many people owned slaves.
In the south, plantations were "the most basic unit and the most vital element of the Southern antebellum economy."2 But at the heart of these plantations were the slaves. So vicariously, the slaves of the South were the most vital part of the Southern economy.
Slaves, although taken from Africa, were still able to hold onto their religious traditions and beliefs. They would incorporate their traditions into the Christian belief structure that the south had already setup. They kept their dances, chants, songs, etc. by disguising them into
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"The main reason for the purchasing of slave women had definitely been for reasons that involved the slaveholder's sexual desires rather than the female's economic potential."2
After a while, the male to female ratio of which the plantation owners bought evened out, and this actually did better for the plantation owners than they probably would have expected. As they bought more females and males, they would procreate, making more slave children for the prosperous growth of their plantation.
Slaves were able to marry, and make families with each other on plantations. Hence "A married male slave had more responsibility to his mate and children and therefore would be more deterred from trying to escape."2 This fact made the plantation owners job a lot easier by not having to worry about escaping slaves as much. This marriage not only helped settle down the male slaves, but also passed on the African American heritage, and values. The slaves were allowed to name their own children, enabling the black community to thrive through the emancipation.
When most think of the south and slavery, they think of everyone having huge plantations filled with hundreds of slaves. Quite the contrary, only about ¼ of the southern whites didn't even own slaves, far less hundreds. And of those ¼, there only about 12% owned more than 20 of them. Although most southern whites that didn't own slaves, most did
During this time period, the treatment of slaves improved because they were treated more like humans rather than farm animal. Some slave owners even allowed their slaves to purchase their freedom by working for them for a certain amount of time. Some African American slaves were not as lucky for their masters forbid them to do so (Doc F). As the North finally gets rid of all slave activity, the South becomes more and more dependent on slave labor and more embedded into the system.
The author also explores the profitability of slavery as an institution, as while the tendency of slave owners to keep their capital invested in slaves rather than industry resulted in a lack of economic diversification in the South, it also resulted in great profits during times of high demand for agricultural products. Phillips states that more research is required in this area.
Slavery is an association of authority and respect where one individual, the plantation owner, owns another individual, the slave. The owner can command the individual to various jobs around the plantation. Slaves were brought from Africa to work in the home, babysit plantation owner 's kids, and the most popular , to work on farms. Women were more common for working in the owner 's homes and watching after the owner 's kids. Where men were more likely to work on farms picking cotton. Slavery was serious and diminishing towards the African American race. Punishment toward slaves included numerous gruesome activities such as being whipped. Slaves had no legal rights. Slaves could not own property, vote, or have control over their family. There was so much expected from slaves to keep the plantation running like it needed too. Without slaves the South would not
The Changing Concept of Race in the South Throughout the years, the concept of race has changed in the South.
Though the majority of Southerners didn’t own slaves, slaves were used in the South to keep the revenue up, and slavery was very much a part of the agricultural lifestyle.
Slaves were an economic positive but a social negative in history. They helped the economics of the country thrive and grow, but it was also a insult of a race. Africans also had a history that they should have been proud to have. Instead, they were denied their heritage and were made to be ashamed of the people that they were. The development of slavery was the white slave owners ' way to maintain control of the growing population of Africans, socially and industrially. If the slaves were confined to the fields of the plantations for supervision, the whites would remain dominant race and maintain their theory of "white supremacy." It also freed the slave owners from the worries of labor
The Antebellum period took place from before the civil war until after the war of 1812, although some historians extend the date. This period was characterized by the rise of abolition and how prosperous and diverse the topic of slavery was.In this period, the economies the northern and southern economies were very different with the rise of cotton as a cash crop in the south and the industrial advancement in the north.
If one had just one slave, the cheap labor would benefit for only one times the amount, but if you were to have 15 slaves working for the same land then you will profit fifteen times the amount. “Plantation slaves produced more than 75 perfect of the South’s export crops, the backbone of the region’s economy. (PG 311)”, this gives us a reason why the South needs these slaves in order to actually have some type of economical profit. Also time would be more consuming and therefore, money would be produced much more quickly with these slaves.
Prompt: How did the different backgrounds of John, Cornelia, Lou, and Samuel affect their abilities to adjust to the end of the war? How did the end of the war affect their daily lives? Explain, making sure to support your answer with evidence and quotes from the text.
The plantation made slavery a lucrative business because slavery anchored merchant capitalism. The slaves enriched planters of cotton, tobacco, indigo, and sugar.
The African slaves in ways recreated Africa in the New World. Slave owners would help retain the culture by referring to the slaves by their African origin. Ritual scarring of African individuals continued to be practiced in America. Religion gives another window into African slavery. A lot of the families continued to practice various African religions. Christianity wasn’t instructed in the early 18th century because it was assumed that they were not under control to learn about Christianity. Slaves did not make a cultural break from their culture but rather merged the culture with new American and European customs. There was a sense of equality when the blacks and whites worshiped together. Blacks were actually able to respond to Christianity with African American roots (lecture).
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
Male Southern Plantation Owners needed slaves to work on their plantations because enslaved Africans made up 40% of the South’s population, so many of them were used as workers on plantations. For plantation owners they were cheap labor, couldn’t escape easily, and were low maintenance. Slaves and plantations were important to the South because they bacem an important part of the economy. Plantations grew cash crops like, tobacco, rice, and indigo. Plantations were made after Europeans didn’t find the gold or riches in America they hoped to discover, so they farmed crops that were exclusive to America to gain wealth. The first tobacco plantations used indentured servants as labor, but as the sizes of plantations grew more and more labor
So many people wanted slaves, especially in the South. They had more farms than they could handle on their own. Northern owners wanted them because they would have to do less work. Very few owners treated their slaves nicely and paid them to do work around the house. They would not be treated like family but would get treated a whole lot better than your “typical slave.” Those kinds of circumstances occurred more in the Northern states than the Southern states.
B is incorrect, because plantation mistresses being subordinate to their husbands were the prevailing social order. Some of them may have gossiped and shared their complaints amongst other mistresses about their problems with the patriarch system and the mulatto children that appear with their husbands’ features as a result, but they seldom publically challenged this social dynamic. The thought of any boisterous opposition to the social order or racial climate would likely be dismissed by a