The Treatment And Conditioning Of Slaves During The Antebellum South

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 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

People used religion as a way to justify the act of slavery. They believed that God determined people’s places in life, so slavery was considered a “misfortune” controlled by God and not a social evil (Shi and Tindall, 91). Africans were also seen as “heathens” which lead people to believe that they had the right to enslave the Africans (Shi and Tindall, 92) The Africans brought the skills they had in Africa with them which made them very desirable in the American economy. Also, there was the creation of the slave code allowed slave owners more control over their slaves activates and movements (The Virginia Slaves

Slaves were considered property, not as human beings, and were bought and sold as commodities. They were often listed in sales along with corn and land (document 5) and were leased and sold openly from slave dealer’s places of business where human beings were kept in a “slave pen” prior to sale. Inhumane punishment, such as severe and cruel whippings were inflicted on slaves for any minor infraction, often in public view. (document 2) The harshness of these beatings

These men, women, and children were kidnapped from their homelands to be separated from their families, shipped to the Americas in, at many times, unlivable conditions, then forced to live a life of forced labor (Doc. 5). The treatment of slaves in colonial America was perhaps the most undemocratic feature of society, a feature that is today regarded by democratic society as vile and

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

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.

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

The system of institutionalized slavery in the Virginia and South Carolina colonies is the marker point in history of the fearsome dissemination of racial and class stratification. Through the events and laws leading up to the 1760s, Virginia and South Carolina pave the way towards formation of our modern day concepts of "race" and "class". Daniel Noel, creator of the Noel hypothesis, identified the inevitability of racial stratification given that three requirements: ethnocentrism, competition, and a difference in power. The enslavement of Africans during the 1600-1700 's is a prime example of what happens when all three requirements are fulfilled.

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

To start off with, one of the main events that involved slavery during the Antebellum period would be through increased production of cotton. As a result of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, as well as other sewing machines, there was an increase demand of cotton export from the South to England. In order to keep up with this high demand, farmers bought large areas of land for a surprisingly small amount of money. However, the increase in land called for an increase in slave labor to harvest and cultivate the crop. Slave labor was a resource that plantation owners and Southerners relied on, because the slaves could not quit due to them having a fixed number of years, as well as slaves not being allowed to demand higher wages. This slave labor, in addition

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).

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, brings to light many of the social injustices that colored men, women, and children all were forced to endure throughout the nineteenth century under Southern slavery laws. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. Yet, while Douglas’s narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. Aside from all the

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.