Slavery by Any Other Name The PBS documentary “Slavery by Any Other Name” was taken place from 1865 to 1945 in the North and South. That was eight decades of slavery. The narrator of this story had a neutral tone throughout the film. It covered slavery and the new forms of force labor that occurred after the 13th Amendment was passed. The document put the many aspects of slavery into a better understanding for me. I was unaware African Americans partake in such misery for eight decades. The slaves were taken advantage of, had no rights, and no control of their own lives. The film wanted to show us all the cruelty that African Americans endured. Slavery was unjust, I disagree with it all. I know slaves were there to serve a purpose, but they did not have to endure such pain physically and mentally. Why did the slaves have to be sold? Why could it not have been dealt with in a better way? I did not quite understand the whole concept of them being sold like they were some kind of materialistic item, when they were human beings with feelings just like anyone else. Could there have been a different approach when it came to slavery? The treatment of the slaves, the beatings, the unfairness, and the misuse of each was such a disgrace. In 1865, the end of the Civil War and the passage of the 13th Amendment, four million slaves were free. They craved independence and freedom. Just because they were free did not mean they did not want to work, they wanted the reassurance of
What is slavery? Slavery is forced labor and this forced labor is what built America and made them become more developed. “Africans peoples were captured and transported to the Americas to work. Most European colonial economies in the Americas from the 16th century through the 19th were dependant on enslaved African labor for their survival.” Many claim that enslavement was very necessary in order for America to thrive and not die off for it is now one of the best countries in the world. However, slavery was not necessary in the Americas it was just a mechanism that just stripped Africans of their human rights, giving the slave masters the “right” to abuse them. Slavery was not necessary in the Americas because without slavery America would
Slavery was a key resource to the South and their economy. Thousands of slaves were kept captive and forced to work with no pay and very little incentive. A very key event was the result of this treatment, Turner’s Rebellion. Nat Turner led a
The issue of slavery has been in infamous part of American history since it first started in the 1600’s in Jamestown, Virginia. During the colonial era, white male landowners needed help on their land taking care of crops, so they would purchase the African slaves after they arrived by boat and have them work the land as well as other tasks that needed to be done such as tending to
To begin with, this paper will be about the legal, societal, and political events were highlighted in the video, “Slavery by Another Name” and how they explain how the institution of slavery for freed blacks continued after their emancipation. Of course, to begin, the abolishment of slavery, they verdicts and aftermath of court cases involving peonage, and forced labor, and also the political advancements that the presidents who were in office during this time after slavery had made within the African American communities and in the country as a whole.
The PBS Documentary Slavery by Another Name goes into detail describing one of America’s most disgraceful periods of time. In the video you can see photos and testimonies of people who once lived through the hardship of being an African American at that point in history. Families member tell the stories of their relatives. By doing so maybe it will impact the future generations.
Slavery was, and is, the mistreatment of people as property. Slavery in British colonies dates all the way back to 1619 when African Americans first arrived in Jamestown, Virginia. As soon as the African Americans arrived they were no longer considered to be “human”. Slaves were property; therefore they could be traded and sold. Slaves were cruelly whipped if they did something their master did not approve of. Some slave owners were so violent that they whipped their slaves until they bled and then they would rub salt into the wounds. Morosely, slaves were so horribly mistreated, some chose to take their own lives over continuing to be a slave. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which ended slavery once and
The importance of this film is that it puts the issue of racism and oppression in your face in such a way that it forces you to take an honest look, not just at the systematic oppression and racism experienced by African Americans, but also at how black lives in America are still undervalued as a result. In addition to this we are made aware even moreso that not much has changed for blacks in the sense
Slavery has always been the most shocking phenomena of our world. Slavery, by itself seems very unnatural and provokes mixed feelings from the heart of each person. Some faced “slavery” even in the contemporary times. And some people just simply do not understand the possibility of one human being considering another human being its Slave. Slavery is the practice or system of owning Slaves. Nevertheless, there is still much to say about it and a lot of things to recall.Some of the big central ideas that I have found so far in my research are some of the ways Slaves were tortured, why was this portrayed, and what really led to this. Important insights that I have derived from my research topic include Slaves who helped other Slaves become free
Researchers found that more than ten thousand people are in forced labor across 90 US cities. These people are forced to work in sweatshops, clean homes, work on farms, or work as prostitutes or strippers. Many of these cases are accumulated in areas with large immigrant populations, like California, New York, and Florida. Most of the victims of forced labor are “imported” from 38 different countries. China, Mexico, and Vietnam top this list of countries (Gilmore 1).
Slavery was like an addiction that the south could not break. Although it provided economic benefits to both the north and the south, the addiction or “curse” bound the people to the downfalls of slavery as well. Slavery created an oligarchy of which a small aristocracy of slave-owners would dominate political, economic, and social affairs of both blacks and whites. The institutions negative impact on the South, and even the entire nation would eventually lead to a great tragedy: the civil war.
“The fact is, that civilization requires slaves. The Greeks were quite right there. Unless there are slaves to do the ugly, horrible, uninteresting work, culture and contemplation become almost impossible.” - OSCAR WILDE, The Soul of Man Under Socialism
Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats attempted to cure their complete opposition on the regulation of slavery by using federal power to coerce an end to the feud, yet the movement increased tension between the divided nation. By invoking both legislative and judicial power, politicians used laws which included slave codes and freedom laws as well as court decisions like Dred Scott v Sandford (1875) to convince or force the population into acceptance of stances on slavery. Each party viewed their tactics and ideas to be righteous, and though they intended for positive results, national outrage answered the governmental movement.
The history of slavery in America has been long and treacherous. From day one when their fellow Africans sold them to white men, the long, cramped, and dirty boat ride, and finally being torn away from their family, if they even had family with them. They were then forced to work on large farms, or plantations. After a Civil War, they were finally freed, but still were not equal to white men and women who reminded them daily with segregation.
From the inception of the Colonies, the United States’ economy has depended heavily on cash crops grown in the South. In order to attain the most desirable output level, landowners needed huge slave populations to pick crops and keep achieving a profit. In a capitalist economy such as ours, everything comes down to profit. Profit drove owners to constantly strive to produce the most output for the cheapest expense. A wise businessman would have been stupid to overlook any opportunity for cost cutting, and slave labor was a huge subtraction from labor expense. Businessmen built the institution of slavery in the Americas with profit being the main goal every step of the way; from negotiations with African slavers, to keeping track of and
Growing up as a child, you are always told that violence is never the correct way to handle an unfair situation or conflict and that you should always use your words and not your fists. Violence is seen as uncivil and barbaric, to be avoided at all costs. However, the institution of slavery is itself uncivil and barbaric, and in the case of the slave Frederick Douglass, violence became the only viable option, even as a boy/young man. Fighting and not conforming to impossible demands of his overseer, Mr. Covey, was the only way that Douglass could avoid the horrible beatings that were among the worst hardships of slavery. While I do think that fighting back was the right thing for Douglass to do, I don’t think that his choice to fight back was the most meaningful turning point to his emancipation. Learning how to read and write was what set Douglass apart from the other slaves that he was amongst, and what led him to learn about the better opportunities in the North and inspired him to risk everything to escape to where he could live a free life as a free man.