The Hegemonic Power

The act of violence also contributes to the dehumanization and the “breaking down” of the slaves. Slaves were beaten, and whipped daily, subjected to cruel torture. Northup describes these acts of violence in his narrative very vividly.

Greed is the undertone upon which Douglass states that slavery “corrupted souls” and “turned good people into bad people.” The institution of slavery was based on the ultimate control and power over a human to whom he is stripped of all of his identity and becomes sub-human. Consequently, the institution forces slave holders had to buy into this concept in order to justify any and all cruelty toward slaves. Douglas states “Slave holders resort to all kinds of cruelty” and later describes various ways of torture and punishment “all are in requisition to keep the slave in his condition as a slave in the United States” (Douglass 272). Slave holders showed no mercy when reprimanding slaves. The brutality and cruelty of these punishments were more of a statement of power and control and often times the punishment was worse than the offense.

Perhaps one of the strongest elements of slavery is honor. Honor has had a wide range of impact in history, whether it was shaping major dynasties and hierarchies, deciding an individuals’ role in society, or family ties and marriages. This sense of worth, high esteem, or virtue was also manipulated by slave masters in order to control their slaves. “The slave could have no honor because of the origin of his status, the indignity and all-pervasiveness of his indebtedness, his absence of any independent social existence, but most of all because he was without power except through another” (p 6). This element is not just a physical force, such as coercive power, which one can heal and

In the Narrative, Douglass shows slaveholding to be damaging not only to the slaves themselves, but to slave owners as well. The corrupt and irresponsible power that slave owners enjoy over their slaves has a detrimental effect on the slave owners’ own moral health. With this theme, Douglass completes his overarching depiction of slavery as unnatural for all involved. Douglass shows how white slaveholders perpetuate slavery by keeping their slaves ignorant. At the time Douglass was writing, many people believed that slavery was a natural state of being. They believed that blacks were inherently incapable of participating in civil society and thus should be kept as workers for whites. This leads to cultural hegemony which is the way that society is ruled by people in power. The beliefs, values, and expectations are said to be true, and made to keep the people in power powerful. This is what caused blacks to feel bad about themselves and for whites to feel like they were better than other races. The Narrative explains the strategies and procedures by which whites gain and keep power over blacks from their birth onward. Slave owners keep slaves ignorant of basic facts about themselves, such as their

Starting from a slave’s birth, this cruel process leads to a continuous cycle of abuse, neglect, and inhumane treatment. To some extent, slave holders succeed because they keep most slaves so concerned with survival that they have no time or energy to consider freedom. This is particularly true for plantation slaves where the conditions of slave life are the most difficult and challenging. However, slave holders fail to realize the damage they inadvertently inflict on themselves by upholding slavery and enforcing these austere laws and attitudes.

Moreover, the treatment received by the slaves also differs in both Chesapeake Colonies and the Northern Colonies. Due to the high percentage of slaves resided in Virginia and Maryland, slave society was ranked the lowest in the hierocracy of freedom such that they were treated with violence and their access to freedom were restricted by the Whites (Foner 137). The slaves were also said to receive flogging by their owners on a daily basis. Such books that contained methods on improving the power of masters over their slaves were also exists in the eighteenth centuries (Foner 137). Thus, violence played a major role in the Chesapeake colonies’ institution of slavery. Contrarily, less or no violence applied by the Whites in treating their slaves

As a means of showing contempt and overall disapproval of being forced to live and labor against their will slaves resisted in a variety of ways that ranged from minor delinquency to felonious methods. To disrupt the daily routine where they worked they would purposefully break tools and make false claims of illness. On the other end of the spectrum they would sometimes launch physical attacks, both covert and overt, against whites.

Karen Ho writes very a informing passage about Wall Street and the recruitment process in “The Biographies of Hegemony”. She speaks about the type of “families” Wall Streeters tend to form by only selecting specific types of people to work for them. An atomic family is composed of parents and their children and with aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. as the extended family. The “constructed family” created by Wall Street is similar to an atomic family to the extent that Wall Street itself poses as the parent of its children Harvard and Princeton and has the other Ivy League schools acting as their “extended family”. Just as an atomic family has trust, loyalty, and inclusion, Wall Street’s “family” has the same in order to succeed as a

During the years of slavery, the population of black slaves usually outnumbered the white population. With that, the white population were paranoid about the slaves revolting and taking over, so they needed a way to control them. They usually controlled the slaves by scaring them into submission through the use of violence. In an excerpt from “The Life of John Thompson, a Fugitive Slave,”  a slave talked about how his master “MR. W. was a very cruel slave driver. He would whip unreasonably and without cause.” He goes on to further explain how his master would forced slaves to whip each other and that his kids were very amused by the this practice. In the sources six titled “Same Old Thing,” and seven titled “Freedom,” slaves were controlled through the use of religion.

Hegemonic internationalism by definition is a paradox within itself. Internationalism suggests cooperation among nations for common good, while hegemony is an instance when one nation has power over another nation. This leads to the belief that hegemonic internationalism is, in reality, one nation pursuing its own national interests at the expense of other nation. Nazi Germany, Iran and the United States are all examples of a nation pursuing hegemonic internationalism.

The sheer volume of violence in the ancient world also tells the story of its inequality. If all was equal in the ancient world, then it would not have been as violent as it was. A government that takes care of the people it rules does not have to worry about them robbing and killing one another, and yet it continued to happen over and over again. In a society built on dominance and conquest, it is no wonder that slavery was a prevalent as it was. Though slaves were often treated as human beings and, in some cases, could even hold public office, slaves could still be subjected to abuse and unlivable conditions. Though slaves were often treated fairly and with dignity, they were still under the direct control of people who could do virtually anything they wanted to them. A servant could cheat on his wife and face a far more severe punishment than if the same crime was committed by an aristocrat (161-162). The ancient world was made up of winners and losers—the winners were the conquerors and the losers were the conquered. It seems as though slavery was unavoidable as it was the only real way to keep these two groups apart in terms of social stature. Slavery also reflects the perceived dominance that a more powerful civilization had over another. In civilizations so concerned with how powerful and dominant they were, slavery almost had to be instituted in order for ancient civilizations to keep both their values and empires intact. The only reason for some

.Slave holding societies always lived in fear of the people they kept in bondage. Slave populations were typically much larger than those of their masters, and the anger provoked by a life in chains often spilled over into violent revolts and uprisings. But while these rebellions were usually defeated in brutal fashion, in some instances the slaves managed to escape persecution and even went on to set up their own communities and countries. Find out more about seven groups of slaves who risked everything for a chance at freedom.

By this stage, slave owners had begun to realise that the only way to control slaves was by using violence and threats. A new culture had been introduced: one of black inferiority and white superiority. Many white plantation owners used extreme violence to make their slaves work, as they had no other means with which to control them. They could not reward the slaves by decreasing their length of servitude; the slaves were used for life, and their monetary value was too great for the plantation owners to reprieve them. However, sometimes the violence became so extreme that the slaves died, which decreased the plantation's profit. This use of violence extended to rape of black women and children, mutilation and branding. Rape of slaves produced an inter-race community, although this was violently unstable due to the racial and social discrimination present at that time. The plantation masters branded their slaves so that if they escaped, they would have a mark to show they were fugitive slaves. Families were often split up, to weaken the individual's spirit, and thus their confidence and urge to rebel decreased. The slave owner's greatest fear was of the slaves rebelling, so this method of weakening their reserves of energy and will was found to be effective. The plantation

While the U.S. has always been globally involved, in the late 19th century, the American power grew globally to a larger magnitude. The increased globalization of the U.S. began from the Chicago World’s Fair, which symbolized innovation, integration and exchange of cultures and ideas, travel, and military capabilities. The Chicago World’s Fair was America’s way of claiming to be a world power.1 With the increasing power, however, also came many difficulties. The American workers and businesses were vulnerable due to global trade. More specifically, agriculture in the United States shouldered the burden of industrial development and increasing globalism. Social differentiation became more pronounced and tensions grew.2 However, the U.S. continued

In a country of complicated decisions made by politicians about far away places and the people that live there, it's only a guess as to the motives behind each of these decisions. In Noam Chomsky's book "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance", Noam gives a scrupulously researched critique of America's quest for dominance at any cost that not only has cast us in the role of a rogue superpower but also jeopardizes the very survival of humanity. From reading this book, I will give an account as to what Chomsky says about American hegemonic ideals and give him credit for the attempt that he has made to expose historical truth.