What Historians Can Learn From Slavery

Thesis Statement: The reason slavery was supported is because it made the owners enormous amounts of money, but when it came to freeing them it could only be done by war. If the Slaves succeeded in rebelling against the slave owners others could have been encouraged to change the order of classes.

Since the publication of the first slave narratives as early as 1740, black authors accounting their experiences as former slaves have used a variety of tactics to best reach audiences with whom it was thought they had little in common with beyond basic humanity, including testimonials, documentation, and use of the popular literary techniques of the era. As the tradition of the slave narrative grew alongside the abolitionist movement, these narratives became increasingly political, as authors hoped to not only share their stories of subjugated, but motivate those in power to action against the institution oppressing them. Two of the most significant

Ophelia Settle Egypt, informally known as Ophie, was an African American woman ahead of her time. She attained the educational status of less than one percent of the American population, was liberal and accepting of others despite the criticism around her, fought to end racism, worked independently of her husband, and believed in limiting family growth. All of Egypt’s beliefs and lifetime achievements represent a new type of woman: a woman who refuses to assimilate to her gender stereotype of weak, inferior, and domestic. Egypt dedicated her life to social work through various activities. She worked as a sociologist, researcher, teacher, director of organizations, and social worker at different times in her life. Egypt’s book, The Unwritten History of Slavery (1968), and the Planned Parenthood Clinic in Southeast Washington D.C. named after her represent Egypt’s legacy and how one person is capable of social change.

Slave as defined by the dictionary means that a slave is a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another; a bond servant. So why is it that every time you go and visit a historical place like the Hampton-Preston mansion in Columbia South Carolina, the Lowell Factory where the mill girls work in Massachusetts or the Old town of Williamsburg Virginia they only talk about the good things that happened at these place, like such things as who owned them, who worked them, how they were financed and what life was like for the owners. They never talk about the background information of the lower level people like the slaves or servants who helped take care and run these places behind the scenes.

Slavery was a system of forced labor popular in the 17th and 18th century that exploited and oppressed blacks. Slavery was an issue in the US that brought on many complex responses. Slave labor introduced to the United States a multitude of issues that questioned political, economical, and social morals. As slave labor increased due to the booming of cottage industries with the market revolution, reactions to these issues differed between regions, creating a sectional split of the United States between industrial North and plantation South. Historiographers Kenneth Stampp, Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman, and Eugene Genovese, in their respective articles, attempt to interpret the attitudes of American slaves toward their experiences of work as well as the social and economic implications of slave labor.

Slavery has a lot of effects on African Americans today. History of slavery is marked for civil rights. Indeed, slavery began with civilization. With farming’s development, war could be taken as slavery. Slavery that lives in Western go back 10,000 years to Mesopotamia. Today, most of them move to Iraq, where a male slave had to focus on cultivation. Female slaves were as sexual services for white people also their masters at that time, having freedom only when their masters died.

The life of a slave was harsh to say the least. They worked long hours from dusk to dawn, most of them laboring in the hot southern cotton or tobacco fields. They were often separated from their family members and suffered harsh punishments when their masters felt they did wrong. But, after the Civil War ended, the slaves were left with hope that they would be free and have the same rights and opportunities that the white men had. Unfortunately, it would take decades for them to see true freedom.

Once slaves have been shipped to the America colonies, their population started to grow rapidly. Some slaves worked on plantations while others worked as skilled or unskilled labor force in the industry. Later on, these slaves were promised freedom. To gain this freedom they had to join the fight for the king. During this war (or fight), some have gained their freedom. Those who did not go, use this event onto their advantage to escape from their masters. Those who went to war and did not get their freedom, were killed. These slaves did everything they could find their freedom.

That is why I have chosen the time period “The Old South and Slavery 1830-1860”. Slavery is the first historical event, under which a slave along with different implements of production becomes the private property of the slave owner. In other words, slavery converted Africans from being a human being into being a “thing” or even some kind of consumer item. In today’s generation, blacks tend to look at slavery as something in past that really hurt our people as a whole. Many say that they could survive being a slave, but in reality they do not really know hard it was to be a slave. Hearing stories from family members or friends does not really show them or make them understand how had it truly was being a slave. When many slaves arrived they spoke different languages for they

During the period of the Civil War, chattel slavery was very prominent in the United States in the 19th century. Being treated more as personal property as opposed to an actual human being, some slaves managed to rebel and write down their account of white slave owners’ dehumanization of black slaves. In social reformer and writer Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave he writes of rebelling against his physically abusive owners and triumphantly gaining freedom. In writer Harriet Ann Jacobs narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs writes of rebelling against her sexually abusive

Runaway slaves mostly escaped through an agency called the Underground railroad. The Underground Railroad was made up of secret routes that helped slaves travel undetected. A person can not travel non stop so they had safe houses ran by people who hid them from their masters and fed them. Also, a very influential person during this time period was Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman was a slave herself but escaped to freedom, she did not stay in the free states she risked her life to go back and help others escape to freedom along side her. However, not all slaves that tried to escape succeeded if caught here was major consequences. If the slave was caught they could have been beaten when returned to their master sometimes even beaten to death. Another form of punishment was being sold, if caught a master usually sold the slave to someone else not wanting to risk them escaping again. If slavery wouldn't have happened there would not be a need to runaway to be free. Truly, slavery was the backbone for the inequality and a person's views are influential to the

America is rich with history, and the individuals living here are quite proud of many aspects of the past. Hiding beneath the folds of patriotism though, are ugly scars that cannot be forgotten or rubbed away. This facet of the past is common in many countries; however people are hesitant to integrate these unbecoming stories into mainstream history. Slavery and Public History exposes the inclination to ignore those dark areas while at the same time using that knowledge as a vehicle for abhorrence and misunderstanding. When deeply rooted, the feelings these words invoke are difficult to overcome, however Historians can teach us that there is nothing learned from discounting the past no matter how dark or ugly, and approaching subjects such as the meaning behind the Confederate battle flag with knowledge, as well as an open mind, can bring about inspiring and powerful change.

It is important to know what slaves had to go through, which pushed them to want to free themselves and others. Slaves ran away in order to escape the conditions of the plantations. For masters to be able to reclaim their slaves if they were to ever runaway, slaves were branded in obvious places on the body. Most commonly slaves were branded on their face like the jaw, cheek, or forehead. It was not uncommon for slave owners to post publically some descriptors of what their slave looked like whenever a slave would run away. Back in the middle 1800’s, those publications that acted like a missing person article mostly commented on the slave’s appearance and noting any scars on his or her face. With

It’s been 2 weeks since we set off from Africa on our voyage across the Atlantic. The winds are in our favor, and the crew’s feelings are high. I well . . . I haven't been feeling the best about these jobs ever since I was told about it by my father. He said that we Europeans started buying or capturing Africans to be use as slaves ever since the need arose for cheap manual labor. He also said that the whole slave trade started back in 1650, back his grandfather was walking the earth. He also described how the slaves were caught, surrounding them when they were alone or in small groups at night. Being a part of one of these trips, and a captain no less makes me wonder how he felt when he made his first and only trip as a captain of a slave

Auld’s wife taught him the alphabet even though it was against the law to teach slaves to read and write..Next he was moved to a plantation owned by William Freeman where he taught other on the plantation to read the bible at weekly church services.Often,as many as 40 slaves would attend lessons.Local slaves owners became angry and they stopped the church meetings with clubs and stones.He was helping slaves learn to read and write when they were at the church meeting and owners were really confused when the slaves were writing