The Value Of Slave Life

The introduction of Africans to America in 1619 set off an irreversible chain of events that effected the economy of the southern colonies. With a switch from the expensive system of indentured servitude, slavery emerged and grew rapidly for various reasons, consisting of economic, geographic, and social factors. The expansion of slavery in the southern colonies, from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 to just before America gained its independence in 1775, had a lasting impact on the development of our nation’s economy, due to the fact that slaves were easy to obtain, provided a life-long workforce, and were a different race than the colonists, making it easier to justify the immoral act.

Slavery has been a major component of human civilization all throughout history. People turn to slavery for many reasons, such as fear of different ethnicities and fear that these new foreign people will take over land that is not theirs. The conditions under which slaves work and live varies greatly by the time and location of which the slaves lived. Slaves play a major role in their society and contribute greatly to their communities, often forming one of the largest masses of the population. Though the accuracy of the information from primary sources may be tainted with exaggeration and bias, it is easy to deduce from primary works the treatment of slaves and the working and living conditions surrounding them. According to many sources,

This system is characterized by its brutality and inefficiency. Whereas under the task system, the slaves would be given certain tasks to complete for the day. Tasks were often measured in terms of an acre, additional on rice plantations in tidal floodplains, the work was divided into sections as sectioned by irrigation ditches. The slaves would work more efficiently to complete these tasks in order to enjoy the free time afforded to them by their masters. This system allowed slaves to work for their own benefit. They could hunt, fish and work their own plots, thereby improving their nutritional intake. Slaves could even sell surplus food in the local markets as well for a modest amount of profit.

Before the cotton gin was invented there weren’t need for many slaves. They cotton business wasn’t a money making business because of how long it took to produce cotton and seeds. I once was in Georgia and picked a big garbage bag full of it took me a year to remove the seeds from half the bag. Since the cotton gin removed all the seeds and took less time there was need for more slaves to speed the process of picking from the fields. The cotton gin made this business a moneymaker causing increased need for slavery.

The different treatments slaves received from their masters may have been caused by the different environments they were living in. After moving from the country to Baltimore, Douglass observed that slaves living in urban surroundings were treated differently from slaves living on plantations. Douglass notices that “a city slave is almost a freeman, compared with a slave on the plantation. He is much better fed and clothed, and enjoys privileges altogether unknown to the slave on the plantation” (Douglass 32). These differences can be seen through the experiences of George Womble and Douglass. Mr. Womble, a slave who lived on a plantation in Clinton, Georgia, says that “slaves on the Womble plantation were treated more like animals rather than like humans” (Womble 12). Children ate from a trough and shared meals with the animals, and his master would whip slaves “just to give himself a little fun” (Womble 2). Slaves were also punished unjustly. For instance, when he was sent off to complete an errand, Mr. Womble “stopped to eat some persimmons [instead]…of returning immediately” (Womble 13). As a result, his master “started beating him on the head with a wagon spoke” until “his head was covered with knots the size of hen eggs and blood was flowing from each of them” (Womble 13). This brutal treatment would not be accepted in the city. In urban areas, masters have “a sense of shame that does much to curb and check those outbreaks of atrocious cruelty so commonly enacted

Eugene D. Genovese’s book, The Political Economy of Slavery: Studies in the Economy and Society of the Slave South, challenges the accustomed belief which concluded the immorality of Slavery was the underlying main factor of conflict between the North and the South, partnered with materialistic interests. Instead, he presents the idea which observes the social system and civilization as a whole, identifying its distinct structure and their reasoning behind their disagreeing actions. Drawing upon information from four categories which highlight the main arguments, Genovese is able to convey that the power Slavery gave to holders, dissimilated the appeal of a North bourgeois and industrialist structure and Slavery itself overall, being ineffective

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.

When referring to the days of slavery, it is often assumed that the south was the sole force behind its continuance. However there were many factors which lead southerners as well as some in the north to quietly accept slavery as a good thing. John Calhoun declared in 1837 “Many in the South once believed that [slavery] was a moral and political evil…That folly and delusion are gone; we see it now in its true light, and regard it as the most safe and stable basis for free institutions in the world” (p. 345). This statement was justified by various reasons. There was the fundamental belief that Africans were inferior to their white counterparts. Many saw the slave population as a labor force that

Steven Mintz states, “A Master’s authority rested on the threat of physical pain. To discipline slaves, plantation owners set up private jails, confined slaves in stocks and shackled them with chains and iron collars.” Punishment was not only used to discipline slaves, but it was a way for slave owners to show their dominance. Slave owners asserted their power over the slaves in any situation they did not agree with. In “Instructions to his Overseer”, James Henry Hammond states, “The following is the order in which offences must be estimated & punished:1st Running away.

During the eighteenth century, slavery was already well-established section of the American labor system. As the amount of slaves grew in size, they did not receive rights, and were mostly separated from their families. They were mostly needed for agricultural labors and had to work mostly from dusk to dawn. Frederick Douglass’s experiences as a slave was different than that other colonial labor because of the strict treatment he received from his masters, the inferiority to other humans that he felt, and the harsh conditions he lived in.

Plantation owners thought that this extreme discipline would make the slaves too scared to rebel. In South Carolina it was said that "a slave owner would put nails in a barrel sticking out on the inside of the barrel, then put the slave in and roll him/her down a very long and steep hill. Another punishment slave owners used was to whip their slaves. Other slave owners in Virginia smoked their slaves. This involved whipping them and putting them in a tobacco smokehouse".("life of a slave" thinkquest) Other punishments were getting beaten with various objects such as a chair, broom, tongs, shovel, shears, knife handles, the heavy end of a woman’s shoe, and an oak club.("life of a slave" thinkquest) Although slaves lived terrible lives, they found hope in religion. Many converted to Christianity which did not please many whites.

Such a dramatic switch as the one from indentured servants to slaves was not the only transformation in American slavery. Slaves underwent many integral changes as the years of servitude progressed. The slave-owner relationship directly represented how times changed for slaves while working. As they were brought over to America and were in culture shock, they were often treated like absolute dirt. The inferiority of slaves is illustrated as Kolchin states that “It was easy to look upon Africans in an instrumental manner: they were “savages” imported to work, and few planters expressed much interest in their lives, except for a lively concern with training them in that work or securing their obedience (p. 59).” As time progressed however, and less slaves were directly from Africa, the ideology towards slaves changed. Kolchin writes that “Slave owners were changing too: just as the slaves were becoming America-born, so, too, were the masters (p.59).” Slave owners started to look at slaves at as people instead of objects. This was a very monumental step in slavery. Slaves began to gain more freedoms from their masters. These freedoms included religious Sundays off, family visitations, and the ability to make money on the side. While some slaves were still met with the hardships of harsh southern slave owners beating them, as time went on, slaves became more of

In today’s society, people are not treated inadequately as if they were animals or property like back then when slavery existed. Slavery was an immense problem that humans faced years ago. Even though it might not exist in the United States now, it still exists in other parts of the world, like India. The reason why slave owners beat their slaves to the point where they can barely work is for the slave owners’ pleasure and satisfaction, to get slaves to be afraid of their the owners’ punishments and when slaves were disobedient. One reason why slave owners punished their slaves was for the slave owners’ pleasure and satisfaction.

Throughout the years, slavery has been regarded as a profitable investment that fueled economic growth in both Spain and Portugal, but the reality is that it was only profitable in the beginning as it began to depreciate towards the end of slavery. The latter part is precisely the reason slavery ended because it was no longer profitable to slave owners. The cheap labor provided by the African slaves that ensured many Europeans’ wealth eventually backfired as slavery made European slave owner’s dependent on trade rather than self-sustainable. Slavery not only led to dependency and depreciation, but also to wars and disparity amongst Latin American colonies.

Not only was slavery divided up into different systems, but the roles of the slaves varied greatly. Field slaves were subjected to strenuous labor and strict overseers. They usually worked from dusk until dawn without receiving a day off. On the other hand, household slaves took care of the children, chores, and food and were sometimes seen as part of the family. There is a misconception that household slaves had an easier life than those working in the fields. However, regardless of whether or not someone was a household slave or a field slave, they were slaves nonetheless. The documentary fuels these misconceptions by making things seem right that Washington only worked his slaves six days a week, giving them Sunday off, and was known to have treated them well.