The eight different documents are given are different in many ways. I am going to compare the documents based on the attitudes of my understanding the document. These documents are all based on the institution of slavery and the attitudes about slavery. I put these eight documents into two groups and those are for slavery and neutral attitude thought about slavery. These eight documents are all sorted by attitude and are going to be from the beginning of time to modern day. The first group is the thought that slavery was a good thing. The first document in this group is document number one. This document states that a man has contracted a debt that they have to sell or rent their family. This is stating that slavery is good but there …show more content…
The author’s point of view is that most people have slaves and that slave prices vary on age and strength. This document was written in 1296 and was a message sent from an emperor and that was a higher class person to talk like this about slavery. The third document in this grouping is document number six. This document is talking about how a group of people are taken for trade and the Takedda are proud of how many slaves they have. This is in the neutral section because it is not saying a point of view, just saying an observation. This document will only talk about how the Tadekka are going to Africa to buy slaves and how proud they are of it. This document was written in the year 1353 in north central Africa and was taken from a book written there. The fourth document of this group is document number seven. This document is talking about how it was hard to find a home in Tuscany that was a good home and did not have any slaves. It is also saying that the slave owner could do whatever they please with the slave they own, they say this like a person was property. This was only saying how common it was for a home to have slaves in it at this time. This document was written in 1375, and was a letter to a business associate in Italy. I disagree with this document because it is talking about a human being like they are a book they treated them however they wanted that is terrible. (POV) The fifth
The main focus of the document, The Horrors of a Slave Ship, is over a topic of a young boy given the name Gustavus Vassa who shared his story of his own slavery experience. He writes about a journey of heartbreak and terror and all of the restrictions he endured. He first describes the day he was kidnapped, then all of the families he was sold to. At one time he was fortunate to see his sister for a last time before being sold again to another family. Vassa observes the differences and similarities between his culture and the families’ of his owner’s cultures. Towards the end of the document, Vassa describes Africa, and how he was shipped off to a new world. He had to endure the horrors that came with being chained up with the other slaves. The boy described the smell to be unbearable and that many people would choose death their current situations. By the end of the document he portrayed the way that people were being sold in an auction and the despair of agony when they were parted from their loved ones.
In such inhumane conditions, a nation managed to justify the hell that it put Blacks through. How is it humane to enslave a person yet inhumane for the death penalty to be practiced? Living on a double standard, a nation built on civil rights has managed to justify this hell. In such harsh times, the South was frowned upon for slavery. The North was hypocrites for this accusation. Slavery was justified in the South. Throughout the world, one group subjugated another. With these reasons and lies from the opinion that wants to be heard; a nation is able to justify slavery.
There are different experiences of the slave trade that are reflected in these documents such as those of an enslaved person (Olaudah Equiano), a European slave trader (Thomas Phillips – an English merchant), an African monarch (King Jao) whose kingdom and personal authority suffered from the slave trade, and an African monarch (Osei Bonsu) who opposed the ending of the slave trade. Of all the commercial ties that linked the early modern world into global network of exchange, none had more profound or enduring human consequences than the Atlantic Slave Trade. And in all these documents, we can see how people reacted differently to this system based on how they encountered it and how it affected them.
3. Slaves were purposefully kept illiterate and therefore left few written records of their life on the plantations. Technology for audio and video recordings was unavailable and few travelers from the North recorded observations on slave treatment, lifestyle, or culture. *** If you were a historian trying to make conclusions about these subjects, what types of sources would you consult? Do you think an “objective” picture of southern slavery is possible to construct?
The letter makes one 's heart grow heavy when he writes of others ' ignorance of his salvation. It would be of better understanding to have the views of a slave owner to answer the questions of the specific uses of slaves and why they are treated the way they are, as well as the subject of the legalism of slavery. That way, it would help one comprehend the topic of slavery concerning both sides of the partythe slave as well as the shareowner. Document 7 contains an excerpt from the published book of Alfred von Kremer, an Austrian scholar-diplomat, ex-ambassador to Egypt and the United States, in 1863. Alfred von Kremer is more neutral towards the subject of slavery, though still hinting his thoughts of the prejudice world.
Throughout the history of mankind, slavery has existed in one form or another. Since the times of ancient civilizations to modern era subjugations, there have forces who feel strongly of its necessity and purpose, while others have devoted themselves to seeing the ideas and acts of slavery abolished. America is not an exception to the concept of slavery and during the nation’s early history, parties from both sides have been made famous for their beliefs in the continuation or the denouncement of slavery in the United States. To understand the contrasting views of pro-slavery advocates versus abolitionists in antebellum America, a comparison of the individual positions must be made to further understand the goals of each party.
In the essay “Slavery, Race and Ideology in the United States of America” Barbara Fields states:
Early American Literature reflects many conflicting differences in the presentation of slavery during that time period. Through the two chosen texts, the reader is presented with two different perspectives of slavery; Frederick Douglass’s narrative provides a look at a slave’s life through the eyes if a slave while Benito Cereno showcases the tale of a slave uprising from the viewpoint of the slave owner.. Benito Cereno’s work shows the stereotypical attitude towards African-American slaves and the immorality of that outlook according to Douglass’s narrative. Cereno portrays the typical white slave owner of his time, while Douglass’ narrative shows the thoughts of the slaves. The two stories together show that white Americans are oblivious to the ramifications and overall effects of slavery. These texts assist a moralistic purpose in trying to open up America’s eyes to the true nature of slavery by revealing it’s inhumanity and depicting the cruelty that was allowed.
Attitudes towards the institution of slavery in the Unites States contrasted greatly during the periods of 1830-1860. Over the course of this time period, the Northern region of the country became increasingly against the institution of slavery, while the southern region became increasingly supportive of and desperately dependent on the institution of slavery.
The subject of slavery in the early 1700s had the potential to elicit an array of opinions depending upon the race, gender, and political role of the individual in question. Like the majority of white land-holding men who owned slaves, William Byrd viewed the treatment of Africans as that consistent with livestock: slaves were to do the work they were assigned and give in to every whim of their masters for fear of being severely punished. Olaudah Equiano provides a contrast in opinion to this widely accepted viewpoint. By humanizing Africans and detailing the intimate emotions experienced by them, Equiano implicitly argues against the attitudes of typical slave owners.
Although Abraham Lincoln wanted to free African American slaves and thought slavery was wrong he did not believe they should have the same social and political rights. The mid 1800s was a time that separated the black and white race immensely. The northern states and the southern states of the United States was divided on the issues of slavery among other reasons which led to the civil war. The civil war was the beginning of struggling African American slaves journey to freedom with the help of Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation. Slavery in the northern states never reached the severity in most plantations that it did in the South, and it was common knowledge that being a slave in the South was, in a way, more harsh than the North, leading to a much larger number of slaves being held captive in southern states. Many people in the southern states used biblical passages to justify slavery and said that if slavery was abolished there would be unquestionable chaos and unemployment. Despite all of the people that did not think that slavery was wrong, one man stood and took the blunt of the judgement by the people named Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln viewed slavery as wrong, but knew that the nation’s founding fathers struggled with how to address the issue of slavery. There were several ideas on how abolish slavery during the 1800s, including colonization and the Emancipation Proclamation, but these ideas were not introduced into law because the general public
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
The black slaves resisted and tried to run away they wouldn’t give up. Even though there was laws in trying to stop the blacks from running away, they still ran away. There were laws made that if anyone were to find black slave they should do to them what they feel be appropriate. Man slaves were killed or burnt in the book there was a case were a black slave was burnt in a slow fire for 8-10 hours. In some cases both white and black slaves ran way together but the punishment wouldn’t be the same white would only extend there period of serving as slaves and the black salves were hanged or killed. Even then they could see racism how the whites that committed the same crime would get treated differently then the black slaves. The black salves couldn’t do anything besides being slaves, so thought the white people. Even the white servants were treated different, not only were they working for a set period of time, but they were treated as humans and they had rights, and would receive land and pay at the end of their term. The white people justified their own slave trade because in Africa slavery existed too. This was
Is there a possibility that two books on slavery, one fiction and the other non-fiction have similar concepts to it? The answer is yes it is possible, in the books Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Twelve Years A Slave by Solomon Northup, have many similarities in them. Some of those similar things are religion, violence, and unexpected turns in their life. In the essay it will explain how those topics are similar in the books.
The issue of slavery has been debated for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. It is of undisputed awareness that the act of enslaving another man or women is to strip them of their civil and natural liberties. It is also of uncontested certainty that no man or women would will- ingly chose to be a slave. And although slavery and it’s accompanied hardships are often seen as no less than an ultimate evil, it is also an indisputable fact that humanity has enslaved its brethren since the dawn of mankind1. As rational beings, we must put aside our presumptions, precon- ceived notions, and emotionally biased opinions of slavery and ask ourselves; why? One would think that if enslavement was such an unspeakable evil, it would have no place in our civil soci- ety. Yet, slavery time and time again has appeared as a fundamental part of many of the worlds most powerfull civilizations and societies throughout history. This is because slavery is a power- full tool and a necessary evil. The Greeks, Romans, Mongols, Ottomans, Egyptians, Ghana’s, Mali’s, Songhai’s, and Kanem-Bornu’s (the former four being powerfull African empires) all