The Enormity Of Slavery By Fredrick Douglas

During the industrial revolution, Eli Whitney’ development of the cotton gin in the year of 1794, was an extremely popular and widely used invention throughout the United States of America. This particular machine, is capable of completely separating the seeds, from what we know as cotton. Prior to Whitney’s generous contribution, manual physical employment was necessary for this job. The cotton gin allowed quicker expansion of cotton, which quickly lead to an increase in the economy in the South. The fact that slaves were used to produce such cotton was one of the main causes for tension between the North and the South. The opposite sides had opposite views and opinions on

Frederick Douglass, the author of the book “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, said “I saw more clearly than ever the brutalizing effects of slavery upon both slave and slaveholder” (Douglass, p.71). Modern people can fairly and easily understand the negative effects of slavery upon slave. People have the idea of slaves that they are not allow to learn which makes them unable to read and write and also they don’t have enough time to take a rest and recover their injuries. However, the negative effects upon slaveholder are less obvious to modern people. People usually think about the positive effects of slavery upon slaveholder, such as getting inexpensive labor. In the book “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass

Slavery is an institution that repetitively separates family members and close friends from each other, without any regard to those people. This aids in disrupting the heteronormative nuclear family relationship greatly. Frederick Douglass said that “My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant…” and that “It is a common custom…to part children from their mothers at a very early age.”(pg. 1). This showing that most children that were born into slavery would grow up having no relationship at all with their own mothers. Also, a lot of slaves were born into slavery by the fact that “children of slave women shall in all cases follow the condition of their mothers,” (pg. 2) and the slaveholder now holds the title of father and master. With being torn from their mother at a young age and having your own father be your master, completely takes away the chance of a child that is born into slavery from having the “normal” nuclear family relationship.

Fredrick Douglass was a man who always looked for ways to better himself and his life as a slave. Throughout the book “Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass”, it documents his life and how his views on freedom and slavery change throughout the book. His views on freedom evolve constantly throughout the book due to the different slave masters that owned him.

In 1794, U.S. inventor Eli Whitney patented a machine that transformed the production of cotton by significantly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber called the cotton gin. By the middle of the 19th century cotton had become America’s leading export. This gave Sothern’s the rationalization to maintain and expand slavery despite large number of abolitionists in America. While the cotton gin made cotton processing easier, it facilitated planters in earning greater profits, resulting in larger cotton crops. This in turn increased slavery because it was the cheapest form of labor. As for the North, particularly New England, the cotton gin and cotton’s increase meant a steady supply of raw materials for its textile mills.

In the 1790’s the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney sparked an increase in cotton production in the South. The cotton gin decreased the labor time it took to pick seeds from the cotton. Slave owners moved or sold their slaves to deep Southern states

In this book, Fredrick Douglass gives his own perspective of slavery and how it was being a slave. He describes different circumstances that involve social, economical, cultural and religious impacts due to slavery.

Due to this, the economy of America at this period of time was centred around cotton and as Clement Eaton stated, 'After the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, the tempo of life in the South quickened.' The industry was able to achieve large profits through the use of slaves-the cheapest labour of all-and eventually 'Three-fourths of the world's supply of cotton came from the southern states.'

With Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin in 1793, cotton became very profitable. This machine was able to reduce the time it took to separate seeds from the cotton. However, at the same time the increase in the number of plantations willing to move from other crops to cotton meant the greater need for a large amount of cheap labor, i.e. slaves. Thus, the southern economy became a one crop economy, depending on cotton and therefore on slavery. On the other hand, the northern economy was based more on industry than agriculture. In fact, the northern industries were purchasing the raw cotton and turning it into finished goods. This disparity between the two set up a

Since African slavery began in North America in 1619 at Jamestown, numerous slaves had been shipped in slave trade between Britain’s American colonies and Africa. With years by years’ transition, when it comes to 1793, a young Yankee schoolteacher named Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin which significantly boosts the demand of the slaves. Especially in the south, the cotton gin meant a switch that reinforced the region’s dependence on slave labor and the slave population in the United States increased nearly five-fold in the first half of the 19th Century. But it didn’t seem that all of people like the existing slavery system. Not only the slaves want to be freed but also a lot of abolitionist showed up and advocated for liberating the slaves.

The slave system was kept in existence for many years since the early 1600’s. A never ending cycle of pain, and harsh conditions From being in 12 years of slavery, Solomon Northup recounts the time when he had once been a free man to be kidnapped of that freedom back in 1841. The relationships that Northup encountered were neither positive or negative . From friends he gained or his slave masters, the relationships were shaped by slavery and helped intact the slave system. In those relationships, how the supervisors of the slaves treated them impacted the slaves work ethic and the friendships that were made during this harsh time, thus supporting the slave system.

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.

The invention of the Cotton Gin by Eli Whitney in 1793, was a problem for the cotton growing South. Cotton was a major staple for the South because it was becoming a very profitable commodity for the southern states. This would mean that the south would need more laborers and that meant more slaves to work the plantations. This invention turned the South into a one crop economy. Meanwhile in the North they were an economy based on agriculture. The North was using raw cotton and turning it into finish goods. This would cause a rift in the economy of the north and the south. This change meant the evolution of the North would bring many different races and classes having to work together to accomplish

Cotton production in the South was not always as fast paced as it grew to be before the cotton gin was invented in the late 1700’s. Before the inventor Eli Whitney patented the machine in 1974, cotton picking was a very laborious and tedious process that did not profit any landowners. It came to the point in the time where the idea of slavery was dying out until the cotton gin was implemented, and “ Suddenly we could turn a profit on this terribly labor-intensive crop (cotton). From then until the Civil War the slave population increased to the astonishing level of 4,000,000” (Document 3). Cotton became so profitable and popular after the cotton gin, that even foreigners wanted to mass produce it themselves. In the letter Barthelemi Tardiveau

Throughout his narrative Frederick Douglass tells about his experience as a slave. Frederick’s experiences show that slavery dehumanizes the slave and the slave holder. Slaves didn’t have rights of their own and were treated like animals, while the slaveholders had complete power over the rights the slaves should have had as human beings. This created a unique situation that destroyed the morals of both the slave and the slave holder, which dehumanized them both.