Slavery And Freedom : An Interpretation Of The Old South

In American Slavery 1619-1877 written by American Historian Peter Kolchin, he wrote “south developed as a true slave society, in which slavery served as the bedrock of the economy and of the social order” (Kolchin, Pg 29). This shows that the south relied on Slavery as a means to help run their society because being that the South was prominently farm country they needed to rely on slave labor to grow and sell their crops like cotton, tobacco and wheat which supply majority of their financial income. The south was never evolved into a more practical and modern way of life thus, the demand for slave labor in the south became increasingly more frequent, even when the need for slave labor according to the rest of the world was no longer a necessity. Just like the South, the northern states used slavery as their main source of income at first, however what set the North apart from the south is their advanced thinking. Slavery in the North while legal was not as excessive, in fact according to Kolchin, “ In most of the north, lack of substantial commercial agriculture preclude a demand for large scale forced labor; slaves served in a variety of capabilities, from house service to skilled crafts and day labor, but slavery did not serve as the basis for the economy” (Kolchin, Pg 27.) This depicts that while slaves did serve a purpose in the North’s financial

Ophelia Settle Egypt, informally known as Ophie, was an African American woman ahead of her time. She attained the educational status of less than one percent of the American population, was liberal and accepting of others despite the criticism around her, fought to end racism, worked independently of her husband, and believed in limiting family growth. All of Egypt’s beliefs and lifetime achievements represent a new type of woman: a woman who refuses to assimilate to her gender stereotype of weak, inferior, and domestic. Egypt dedicated her life to social work through various activities. She worked as a sociologist, researcher, teacher, director of organizations, and social worker at different times in her life. Egypt’s book, The Unwritten History of Slavery (1968), and the Planned Parenthood Clinic in Southeast Washington D.C. named after her represent Egypt’s legacy and how one person is capable of social change.

Between the time period of 1840 and 1860, slavery played an influential and pivotal role in the development of a new southern lifestyle. In the struggle for dominance in America, slavery was the South’s stronghold and the underlying cause in much of their motives for many of the economic instigations along with the affirmative political actions. By dominating the everyday southerner’s life, slavery also dominated the economic and political aspects of life during the height of the slavery period. By the 1840’s the Southern economy had become almost entirely slave and and agriculturally dependent. Without the dependence of slaves in the south, a person was to remain landless, poverty stricken or struggling to sustain life through the means

Introduction - When I think about Slavery, I think about black people and the south, but there is a whole other side to the story of Slavery called the North.In 1860, 476,00 blacks were free. 221,000 of them lived in the North. How Free Were Free Blacks In The North. Blacks in the North were somewhat free in the years just before the Civil War.This can be shown by looking at the three areas of society: Political, Social, and Economical.

Slavery was a central institution in American society during the late eighteenth century, and was accepted as normal and applauded as a positive thing by many white Americans. In the 1770’s, there were approximately 400,000 blacks in the Southern colonies and 50,000 in the Northern colonies. Slaves were central to the operation of the colonies, especially in the South where they were a crucial element of the labour force. They were treated as inferiors, but living alongside whites, and essential as an exploited labouring class. On one hand, people were advocating liberty from slavery, while at the same time relying on slaves to drive the economy.

Slavery is the South Essay #3 Slavery played a dominating and critical role in much of Southern life. In the struggle for control in America, slavery was the South’s stronghold and the hidden motive behind many political actions and economic statistics. By dominating Southern life, slavery also dominated the economic and political aspects of life in the South from 1840 to 1860. By the 1840’s and 50’s the Southern economy had almost completely become slave and cash crop agriculture based. Without slaves in the south a person was left either landless and penniless or struggling to get by on a small farm. However, even though slaves dominated the southern economy, slaveholders only included about 2 to 3 percent of the population. This

In James Oakes book Slavery and Freedom: An Interpretation of the Od South, the author talks about slavery during the nineteenth century and the infinite question of “what was slavery?” (xi). Oakes starts off his book making a questionable reference of what is freedom and how a person without it is a slave. It also talks about how was the relationship between master and slave, differences between slaveholders and non-slaveholders, the tension created between north and south because of the slaves running away to the north in hopes of freedom, and the ideology of racism. However, he also talks about how slaves after the Civil War won their freedom even though they did not knew what it meant at the moment. According to Oakes, the central thesis of his book is “Because slavery is always defined as the denial of freedom is inescapably tied to the way it defines slavery” (xiii).

“Indentured servitude declined over the century, and most of these domestic servants were now either free women or slave women” (Coryell, pg. 104). Those who worked in a servitude role were indentured servants, who had the ability to work a number of service years in order to earn their freedom and they would be given a small plot of land, afterwards, to continue to thrive. Eventually, in order to compensate for the growing American need of lower overall costs to purchase labor workers, longer time in servitude, and to decrease the need to give land lots, the term of indentured servant changed to slave, which limited potential freedoms and humanity. This demand for labor changed the owner and slave relationship. “Owners began providing minimal clothing and food. Owners viewed all of slaves’ labor as their own” (Coryell, pg. 105). By forcing a dependent relationship, owners were able to maintain their

Slavery was an institution that caused much division between the north and south of the United States back in the 1800’s that instigated many political, economic and moral fights between northern abolitionists and southern slaveholders. The system was established on the basis of economic profits, cheap labor, and morality of “saving” Africans from their previous lifestyle. The Southern states were notorious slave-holding states, while the North contained few, but far, slave-holders. Despite the number of slaves present in the south, their impact on production effected the economy in the north. The few but proud abolitionists in the north saw right through southerner’s proslavery ideology, and refuted their claims on the grounds of

The growth in cotton and crops production did not cause the change in economic system, but caused the increase in demand in slaves. Cotton boom required more production, and more production required more labor that meant more slaves. The number of slaves increased from 700.000 in 1790 to more than 1,5 million by 1820. For Southern states the idea of abolition was something incredible and impossible. Southern planters saw slavery as the only way of labor organization for black people. They believed that the slavery was the only conditions in which blacks could exist and that is why they could not be freed - they did not fit for freedom. Slaves were considered as property and therefore could not be treated as free people. For Southern planters the violence, both physical and sexual, was the norms of morality, they believed that as soon as slaves are property they could not have feelings and emotions and all what blacks need was to be feed, dressed, and have shelter. Since Southern planters gave this basics to slaves they thought that slaves should be happy and

In the Southern states, Slaves would work to make cotton in Plantation field's, they had no rights to anything and there only job was only to work, the suffering from working hard led to fear because the women would be raped by their Master's and the men would have to leave their children and wife to work on plantations or who could plow their fields, no slaves that were women and men had no freedom, during the time as being a slave, the title that have focused on was the religion they had thought that Christianity ''became a hope and resistance'' on page 433. Through the days of becoming a slave man have resisted, some have escaped, and some have done, not survive quickly enough, the legalization of slavery in the southern states made a big impact for African- Americans because many were enslaved to be taken away from their families and so led to white people as their ''Masters'' many women that were enslaved have been raped and used to work on the plantation field and also plow the field.

Slaves play a major roles in shaping the south. For obvious reason southern society took slavery to be a critical factor in economic and social identity. Slaves was the ultimate source of the south finances, through crops, marketing, trade monopolies slavery and industry productions. Slavery labor was excessive and slavery produce, one hundred percent return on of capital profits for south. The enforce labor works of slave was free and made easy for southern society obtain their status. Through their expropriation of slave distribution a great deal of southern land proprietor, industrial, business and the society flowing exchange industry could withstand. (Cobb, 2015) A great deal of farm and business and business dispensing slaves labor because they were consider property and did free labor service without

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.

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, slavery, principally in the southern states, developed with the growth of the institution of slavery. This dependence on slavery for labor in the South created both an enormous profit but also a rift, separating the North and the South. However, these labels defined more than just the direction, effecting the culture, economy, and politics. Furthermore, these forces created tension that built up as battles for influence and independence ensued between the North and South. The South’s dependence on institution of slavery, marked by the horrific exploitation of black individuals, primarily by white men, created racial boundaries and characterized the abolitionist, industrial culture versus the rural, slave culture, the market economy versus the agricultural economy, and the free states versus the slave states.

During this time slavery helped carve the social status of most the people in the South. The South became recognized as a “slave society” this was because slavery impaired the demeanor of southern life. Owning slaves put your social status above those who didn’t. Those who owned more slaves their production was higher and they made more money. This is how those who owned more slaves were considered a higher status. In general less slaves meant you had a lower status in the community.