Slave Masters – Some Good, Some Bad Essay

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

She writes “And here I cannot but take notice of the strange providence of God in preserving the heathen...”

My aunt was quite an old woman, and had been sick several years; in rains I have seen her moving from one part of the house to the other, and rolling her bedclothes about to try to keep dry- - everything would be dirty and muddy. I lived in the house with my aunt. My bed and bedstead consisted of a board wide enough to sleep on- - one end on a stool, the other placed near the fire. My pillow consisted of my jacket- - my covering was whatever I could get. My bedtick was the board itself. And this was the way the single men slept- - but we were comfortable in this way of sleeping, being used to it. I only remember having but one blanket from my owners up to the age of nineteen, when I ran away (Drew 45). These living conditions caused many to resort to immoral methods of survival, as Henderson relates: Our allowance was given weekly- - a peck of sifted corn meal, a dozen and a half herrings, two and a half pounds of pork. Some of the boys would eat this up in three days- - then they had to steal, or they could not perform their daily tasks. They would visit the hog- pen, sheep- pen, and granaries. I do not remember one slave but who stole some things- - they were driven to it as a matter of necessity. I myself did this- (Drew 48). Mealtime was far from a joyous occasion. In regard to cooking, sometimes many had to cook at one fire, and "before all could get to the fire…the overseers horn would sound: then they must go at any

Slave as defined by the dictionary means that a slave is a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another; a bond servant. So why is it that every time you go and visit a historical place like the Hampton-Preston mansion in Columbia South Carolina, the Lowell Factory where the mill girls work in Massachusetts or the Old town of Williamsburg Virginia they only talk about the good things that happened at these place, like such things as who owned them, who worked them, how they were financed and what life was like for the owners. They never talk about the background information of the lower level people like the slaves or servants who helped take care and run these places behind the scenes.

Randolph B. Campbell's An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas provides in an in depth look at the slavery existence in the state of Texas. He provides the factors that explain the establishment and growth of slavery. Campbell also explains the economic and legal institution of Texas, and explores the physical and psychological effects of both slaves and their masters prior to the Civil War, during, and after emancipation. Campbell provides clear detail of slavery's impact on Texas slaveholders and society, and how the Civil war affected slavery prior to its destruction.

(3) When first reading these narratives one would often assume, by what history tells us, that slave owners were cruel, hated men who often beat slaves severely if they committed even the slightest infraction. While this depiction does stand true for some slave owners, I was surprised to find that most of the former slaves interviewed in the “Slave Narratives” often held their masters in high regards, referring to them as kind and good. Former slave Harriett Gresham even goes as far to say that her master, Mr. Bellinger was “exceptionally kind”. Many slaves in the narratives described their masters as good to his slaves and never whipping them unless it was absolutely necessary. However, when the former slaves spoke of the “paterollers”, white men who roamed the roads in search of runaway slaves often beating them and returning them to their owners, they were described as being very cruel to slaves showing no sympathy to any slave found running away from a

Douglass’s master, Captain Anthony, has two sons, Andrew and Richard, and a daughter, Lucretia, who is married to Captain Thomas Auld. Adult slaves receive one blanket, but no bed; however, the slaves are so exhausted from work that they hardly notice what they get to sleep on. They receive a very limited amount of clothing, and their food allowance is eight pounds of pork or fish, and bushel of corn meal. After Severe dies, who was a very cruel man, Mr. Hopkins replaces him as overseer. Hopkins is less cruel and profane than Severe and is considered a fair overseer. Slaves on their way to the Great House Farm usually sing wild, spontaneous songs that sound both joyful and sad. Douglass explains that he did not know the underlying meaning of

During the 1840s, America saw increasingly attractive settlements forming between the North and the South. The government tried to keep the industrial north and the agricultural south happy, but eventually the issue of slavery became too big to handle, no matter how many treaties or compromises were formed. Slavery was a huge issue that unraveled throughout many years of American history and was one of the biggest contributors leading up to the Civil War (notes, Fall 2015). Many books have been written over the years about slavery and the brutality of the life that many people endured. In “A Slave No More”, David Blight tells the story about two men, John M. Washington (1838-1918) and Wallace Turnage (1846-1916), struggling during American slavery. Their escape to freedom happened during America’s bloodiest war among many political conflicts, which had been splitting the country apart for many decades. As Blight (2007) describes, “Throughout the Civil War, in thousands of different circumstances, under changing policies and redefinitions of their status, and in the face of social chaos…four million slaves helped to decide what time it would be in American History” (p. 5). Whether it was freedom from a master or overseer, freedom from living as both property and the object of another person’s will, or even freedom to make their own decisions and control their own life, slaves wanted a sense of independence. According to Blight (2007), “The war and the presence of Union armies

pretending to see spirits the whole time. John was condemned to hang for Mary’s lie but overall

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.

Due to their initially slave life style, Washington’s mother was not able to fulfill his appetite for his every desire. However, she indefatigably worked to keep her family alive and through her privations she was able to demonstrate the virtues of determination, tenacity, and gratitude into Washington. During the time that Washington’s family was working on a plantation, before the Emancipation Proclamation, they were living in abominable conditions. The cabin, at which they called home, was stricken with countless amounts of cavities, and was accompanied by a deplorable dirt floor. Fearing that her children would starve, Washington’s mother stole a chicken and would cook it “late at night (P5)” for “the purpose of feeding them (P5).” Washington

The Bondswoman’s Narrative is the only known novel by a female African American slave, and therefore it contains both personal and informed perspective of slavery. Crafts’ novel taught me that rivalries existed between the slaves, that the conditions of house slaves compared to field slaves varied drastically, and that not all slaves came from Africa nor were they strictly designated for labor. Her words were enlightening and cast light upon another side of slavery not frequently spoken of.

This quote is talking about the rich is the capitalists. They are rich so they owns land, house, business and money. Anyone who dare go against them will be going to jail; therefore, the citizens will not be able to do anything. The capitalists do not also own land, they own slaves as will. These slave are mostly children.

Being that the slaves lived in small quarters separate from the plantation, they were accompanied by a small patch of land. The masters illustrated forms of benevolence which allowed for the slaves to raise crops in what little they could in that space. However, it wasn’t like this for all slaves. The lives of the enslaved really depended on how generous the enslaver wanted to be. This gave the slaves a tiny measure of individual freedom; enough where what little was grown could be used for the benefit of receiving what was necessary for inheritance. An heir loom to the slaves were very important for their family and friends, adhering to this labor made it possible for things to be given for remembrance of each other, being that they were

She often sat in her creaky rocking chair looking down at their graves, envying them their companionship, wishing she could complement it by her presence. Her love for Mary was as bright as the day the little girl was born. Although Mary was born on the wrong side of the blanket, she was blood of her blood, bone of her bone, and flesh of her flesh, and she loved her all the more because of the misfortune of her birth, not in spite of it. Her love for Seth grew daily even after he was executed. She remembered his life, his work, his strong hands, his care, his love, and the sacrifices he made to lift others from the shadow of the grave. He had failed and been hung for it, but he had done his best and she had few