The Power Of Master And Slaves In The Antebellum Period

The Abolitionist movement during the Antebellum period, was a critical time in American history. The goal of this movement was to emancipate all slaves immediately, and end discrimination, as well as segregation. The brave men and women involved in this movement were called abolitionists and antislavery advocates. The antislavery advocates stood for freeing slaves gradually, and abolitionists wanted slavery gone immediately. No matter how fast, these people all wanted to spread opposition against slavery across the United States. Northern churches started liking this whole idea of abolishing slavery, which started conflict between the North and South. These arguments led up to the Civil War.

It is widely assumed that the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery in the United States. Though the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865 abolished slavery in the United States, remnants of it persisted. During the Reconstruction era, the federal government attempted to reconcile grievances among African-Americans. In particular, aiding former slaves who were once property in the South and now citizen protected but citizens who had inalienable rights codified in the U.S Constitution. Both the convict lease program, debt peonage system in the United States are exampled which exemplify the existence of slavery by another name. Employed readily in the American Deep South, but not exclusively as there instances in both the North and the West, numerous African-Americans found themselves in a system eerily mirroring slavery. By exploring the Gilded Age era of America, a harrowing story emerges involving African-Americans. In disenfranchising Blacks through the legal system, the American Deep South, White Southerners used forced labor to boost their states finances, aid their industrialization, and to assuage their fears concerning racial integration leading to re-subjuagation of Black Americans.

Throughout American history slave has resist their master, the system and the idea of slavery. These resistance has became of a key stone in the history of slavery. To understand what these resistance is, we will look at incident of the past to analyze how slave in the past resisted their master, the system and the idea of slavery.

In this assignment I will be taking a further look into the history of slavery. When thinking of slavery the immediate thought that comes to mind is all the negative aspects of the system. Prior to this research, I was unaware of slave systems that were not based on the long labor hours and the torture of slaves. Granted, there were still forms of slavery that practiced these brutal rituals, where slaves were treated as animals and were malnourished. One prime example of this, is the book titled “Am I Not A Woman And A Sister”, looks at the history of a Bermudan slave named Mary Prince. Another example of slavery that will be incorporated in this paper will come from a source about a woman slave named Semsigul, born in Caucasus an area that

During the Antebellum period, with the emergence of the Second Great Awakening provoked lots of political and social reforms such as abolitionism and changes within the religion of Christianity. However, despite having all of these changes, the creation of the cotton gin was absolutely on of the more significant one because it created a more efficient way to produce cotton, thus needing more labor to operate such machinery. Therefore, whilst the antebellum period is occurring it caused a split of the North and the South for the sole reason of moral standing on the subject of slavery. The pro- slavery argument derived from the position on economic and political and social unity, however, the anti- slavery arguments were positioned on a religious and ethical standing. Furthermore, these arguments would result in women becoming more involved in politics by opposing the inequality of the rights given to them by man, and the split of Christianity in two section, one of the southern countrymen and the other of non- slave owning people by classifying southern countrymen as hypocritical to their religious beliefs.

Former slaveowners would still demand to be addressed as “master” or “missus” instead of “boss”. General hatred of freedmen was detrimental to African-American’s safety, which was unfortunately very common. (Document C) Henry Adams witnessed this abuse and recorded the prejudice, writing “they were going to kill me and every other Negro who told them that they did not belong to anyone”, even though this was now illegal. Town, city, and state governments went so far as to produce the black codes, which severely limited African-American’s rights to live outside of their white ownership. (Document B) Violence during this time was prevalent, as white Southerners threatened to “kill everyone they found leaving their masters” (Document C) and breach their basic rights in the

In the antebellum south, the Large Plantation – agricultural way of life dominated the whole society. Only 25% of white southerners owned slaves and most did not live in mansions but in dark, cramped, two-room cabins. Cotton was the crucial cash crop of the South, but it was not the only crop grown there. Corn, sugar, rice, and tobacco were also grown – but Cotton was king, and the most labor intensive of all these crops. Not only was the South reliant on cotton, but the northern factories relied on the raw material as well as England. The South was the world’s largest producer and from 1815 to 1860 it represented over ½ the U.S. exports.

“I speak advisedly when I say this – that killing a slave, or any colored person, in Talbot County, Maryland, is not treated as a crime, either by the courts or the community.”(Chapter 4; Paragraph 3)The United States slave owners made slaves work for long hours in the heat, beat slaves, murdered them and did various inhumane things to African American men, women and even children and slave owners did not get punished or even a “stern talking to” for the inhumane things they did to African Americans. African Americans were considered animals. “We [the slaves] were all ranked together at the valuation. Men and women, old and young, married and single, were ranked with horses, sheep, and swine. Horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children – all held the same rank in the scale of being and were all subjected to the same narrow examination, the same indelicate inspection. At this moment, I saw more clearly than ever the brutalizing effects of slavery upon both slave and slaveholder.”(Chapter 8; Paragraph

To be a slave in the south back then was to suffer a deprivation of freedom so extreme as to be qualitatively distinct from all other forms of unfreedom. The master-slave relationship became violent to where slaves could not form any work or family relationship without the master approval. By law then the slaves could not make contracts, own property, or form legal partnership on his or her own. This does not mean that the master did not feed or support his slaves. “In the one, the end in view is the happiness of the youth; born to equal right with that governor, on whom the duty devolves of training the young to usefulness, in a station which he is afterwards to assume among freeman.(6) The end is the profit of the master, his security and the public safety; the subject, one doomed in his own person, and his posterity , to live without knowledge, and without the capacity to make anything his own, and to toil that another may reap the

In a time where research was not a primary source of knowledge, most physicians and slave owners were forced to create their own their own practices based on observations. Throughout the Antebellum South, many slaveowners learned of the immunities and adaptations to the environment that their slaves possessed. However, due to the poor living conditions in the slave homes, many families were susceptible to parasites and other diseases. Often, these diseases were treated by other slaves in their family, but in other cases their owners called a white doctor to care for them (Black Health on the Plantation: Owners, the Enslaved, and Physicians). Before a doctor was called, the slaves would often use herbal remedies or religious prayers

American slavery was something that not only mentally challenging, but it was physically demanding as well. Many slaves did not have the luxury of a “kind” master, and many were mistreatment from birth. Slaves fought masters, and master fought slaves without regard to the human condition. Antebellum slavery was different than past form of American slavery, because slaves had gained a taste of the ideas that were spread from the American Revolution. These idea played a big role in slaves wanting freedom, and doing anything to get it. Antebellum slavery, if it were defined in three simple words, would be categorized as; misleading, ruthless, and resistance. I have chosen these three words, because the give the essence of antebellum slavery, and show the underlying theme of the time period.

While slavery was a horrific thing that led to the mistreatment of millions of black people, it had the power to last for centuries. When looking closely at historical accounts it becomes easier to see why this horrible practice was able to sustain for so long. One of the reasons was because the economy of Colonial America relied heavily on the labor of slaves. Farming, the slave trade itself, and the harsh treatment of slaves were all driven by the greed of slave owners. Another reason that slavery lasted so long was racism. During this time, the black population was considered inferior to the white population. This helped to promote the cruel behaviors that occurred in slavery. Lastly, many whites actually felt that the slaves were treated

In 1830 slavery was originally sited in the South, where it lives in various structures. African Americans were imprisoned on diminutive farms, big plantations, in cities and towns, within homes, outside the fields, and in industry and transportation. Even if slavery had such a great series of faces, the fundamental concepts were always similar. Slaves were considered possessions, and they were possessions for the reason that they were black. Their rank as property was inflicted by aggression actual or threatened. People, black and white, lived jointly within these limits, and their lives as one took a lot of forms (Solomon, 1855).

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The dynamic of the relationships between slaves and their master was one which was designed to undermine and demean the slave. The master exercised complete authority and dominion over his slaves and