Based on the evidence supplied by author Kent Anderson Leslie, slaves in antebellum Georgia did not always live under the oppressive system of chattel labor. According to Leslie, the rules that applied to racial hierarchy were not strictly enforced, especially when it came to propertied and wealthy planters such as David Dickson who chose to raise his mixed-race daughter at home. Amanda Dickson’s experiences during Reconstruction demonstrate that she had much more freedom after slavery was abolished than may have been expected before the Civil War. Amanda Dickson’s experiences and those of her mother in particular do not fit the presumed mold of oppressed slave with no opportunity for a better life. In the case of Amanda America Dickson, “her personal identity was ultimately bounded by her sense of class solidarity with her father, that is, by her socialization as David Dickson’s daughter, her gender role as a lady, and her racial definition as a person to whom racial categories did not apply.”1 This may mean that her freedom was less proscribed by race because she was not a male seeking political advantage. Some people of mixed-race in the nineteenth century South managed to create a personal identity and …show more content…
As far as Julia Dickson, the information contained in Kent’s book presents the picture of a young girl and young woman who did not have the conventional life of a slave. Julia herself apparently explained that she worked making beds, sweeping, and tending to chores in the house and garden. She had other children after Amanda, a son by a slave and a daughter by a white man named “Doc Eubanks.”4 Julia was treated by the Dickson family doctor regularly for many years. David and Julia Dickson maintained an apparently intimate relationship. Slaves and whites both reported that the two had an intimate and affectionate
Making Whiteness: the culture of segregation in the south, 1890-1940 is the work of Grace Elizabeth Hale. In her work, she explains the culture of the time between 1890 and 1940. In her book she unravels how the creation of the ‘whiteness’ of white Southerners created the ‘blackness’ identity of southern African Americans. At first read it is difficult to comprehend her use of the term ‘whiteness’, but upon completion of reading her work, notes included, makes sense. She states that racial identities today have been shaped by segregation, “...the Civil War not only freed the slaves, it freed American racism
Although Frances E.W. Harper (1825-1911) lived in the enslaved state of Maryland, she was a free individual as a result of her parents’ social status. Harpers’ freedom allowed her to embark upon many opportunities that other blacks were not afforded. During her youth Harper’s parents passed away and she began to live with her aunt and uncle. While living with her aunt and uncle, Harper was acquainted with a new way of life that taught her about abolitionism and how to be a well rounded individual. After learning more about social injustices and seeing the ways in which they affected black people, Harper began to use writing as a positive outlet. She eventually became a teacher of poetry and taught vocational skills that were important during this time. However, teaching was not Harper’s passion and she felt that she needed to do something to improve the lives of the people of her race. Harper gave lectures about moving forward and demolishing social injustices. She gradually became one of the greatest black reformers, feminists, and civil rights activists in the nation. In the midst of fighting for civil rights Harper still continued to write poetry. She published one of her most famous works “The Slave Mother” during this t...
To understand the desperation of wanting to obtain freedom at any cost, it is necessary to take a look into what the conditions and lives were like of slaves. It is no secret that African-American slaves received cruel and inhumane treatment. Although she wrote of the horrific afflictions experienced by slaves, Linda Brent said, “No pen can give adequate description of the all-pervading corruption produced by slavery." The life of a slave was never a satisfactory one, but it all depended on the plantation that one lived on and the mast...
the country to its monetary struggle. As ensued as tenth successor of the country, John Tyler lacked in securing a more adept union and was incapable of possessing an accomplished presidency. He continually declined to nationally accommodate to Congress’s political positions, by vetoing the establishment of the national bank with branches in various states. This sparked a reprisal among the Whigs who expelled John Tyler from their party, as well as compelled his entire cabinet to resign. This added further perspective as to why it was vital for there to be a relationship between Congress and the President of the United States; as it tends to affects our Nation’s well being.
Valerie Martin’s Novel Property is an engrossing story of the wife of a slave owner and a slave, whom a mistress of the slave owner, during the late 18th century in New Orleans. Martin guides you through both, Manon Guadet and her servant Sarah’s lives, as Ms. Gaudet unhappily lives married on a plantation and Sarah unhappily lives on the plantation. Ms. Gaudet’s misserableness is derived from the misfortune of being married to a man that she despises and does not love. Sarah, the slave, is solely unhappy due to the fact that she is a slave, and has unwillingly conceived to children by Ms. Gaudiest husband, which rightfully makes Sarah a mistress. Throughout the book, Martin captivates the reader and enables you to place yourself in the characters shoes and it is almost as you can relate to how the characters are feeling.
The story begins by illustrating the Hamilton’s Southern rural society, which seems eerily similar to the slave society that existed almost forty years before. Berry is initially described, as “one of the many slaves who upon their accession to freedom had not left the South, but had wondered from place to place in their own beloved section, waiting, working, and struggling to rise with its rehabilitated fortunes” (1). This description of the “beloved” South is strange considering that Berry, along with many other Southern blacks, had been enslaved here for generations and treated more like animals than human beings. This makes it apparent that while the South has been extremely limiting and unchanged since the Civil War, it still provides comfort and a sense of home for these unfortunate post-antebellum African Americans. It also...
Slavery would not recognize the black family structure, often separating mothers from their children or ignoring the relationship between husband and wife. Therefore, it was a great accomplishment for freedmen have control over its structure, such as removing their wives from the field and into a domestic role (85). Ned Cobb wanted to “keep the bucket out of [his wife’s] hands all expect to bring the milk in the house and strain it, prepare it for the family to drink and make butter” (Rosengarten 121). Although freedman like Cobb could exercise this freedom, the white community still did not recognize the black family unit. For example, white landowners did not value black women in domestic roles and often complained of their absence in the fields (Foner 85). By encouraging renting and sharecropping, they placed a premium on labour which sometimes required the wife to return to her labouring role (86). Freed women were viewed by their economic value, while white women were rarely held this perception. This shows how white superiority could inhibit the progression of black communities, even with their personal family
“Line of Color, Sex, and Service: Sexual Coercion in the Early Republic” is a publication that discusses two women, Rachel Davis and Harriet Jacobs. This story explains the lives of both Rachel and Harriet and their relationship between their masters. Rachel, a young white girl around the age of fourteen was an indentured servant who belonged to William and Becky Cress. Harriet, on the other hand, was born an enslaved African American and became the slave of James and Mary Norcom. This publication gives various accounts of their masters mistreating them and how it was dealt with.
Pauline Hopkins’ novel “Of One Blood” was originally published serially in a magazine called Colored American, from 1902-03. Within this novel Hopkins discusses some of the prominent racial and gender oppressions suffered by African Americans during this time. Following the Emancipation Proclamation of 1849 which resulted in African American freedom from slavery, but unfortunately not freedom from oppression and suffering. One of the minor characters, and the only dominant female role, within the novel is Dianthe Lusk. Within the novel Dianthe has many identifiers, which limits not only the readers but Dianthe’s understanding of her identity. Some of these identifiers include: women or ghost, black or white, sister or wife, princess or slave, and African or American. However, the most prominent of these juxtapositions in the novel is the racial identity. This paper will argue that the suffrage of Dianthe through her experiences with racial identity and rape serve to locate racial identity as an agent of politics, rather than of one’s color.
(Part 4: Antebellum slavery) A glimpse into the life of plantation slaves in the mid-1800’s is troubling to say the least. Every plantation owner dictated independently the type of environment that the slavers were to live in. There were no rules or regulation for treating slaves after they were purchased. Merciful slave masters let black slave communities grow and exist inside the plantation, which led to African-Christian practices as well as a sense of human-worth by letting the slaves tend to gardens and do other tasks other than physical labor. Unfortunately, this scenario might have been statistically uncommon in the larger scheme of plantations.
The book takes place in the 1930’s in southern Alabama. Ever since Alabama became a state on December 14, 1819, slavery has always been a huge part of their economic system as slaves were seen as property to own and sell. They had no voice and were silenced through torture of their “owner” , a white man. Although slavery was abolished on January 31, 1865, the caucasian people kept their ethnocentric views of being superior to the black community. In the eyes of the white man, black people would
Northup, Solomon, Sue L. Eakin, and Joseph Logsdon. Twelve years a slave. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1968. Print.
Deborah Gray White’s Ar’n’t I a Woman? details the grueling experiences of the African American female slaves on Southern plantations. White resented the fact that African American women were nearly invisible throughout historical text, because many historians failed to see them as important contributors to America’s social, economic, or political development (3). Despite limited historical sources, she was determined to establish the African American woman as an intricate part of American history, and thus, White first published her novel in 1985. However, the novel has since been revised to include newly revealed sources that have been worked into the novel. Ar’n’t I a Woman? presents African American females’ struggle with race and gender through the years of slavery and Reconstruction. The novel also depicts the courage behind the female slave resistance to the sexual, racial, and psychological subjugation they faced at the hands of slave masters and their wives. The study argues that “slave women were not submissive, subordinate, or prudish and that they were not expected to be (22).” Essentially, White declares the unique and complex nature of the prejudices endured by African American females, and contends that the oppression of their community were unlike those of the black male or white female communities.
In Danielle McGuire’s book, At the Dark End of the Street, the greatest strength and the greatest weakness in her arguments about gender and the civil rights movement in the mid-1960s are the utilisation of case studies connected across time and the limitations on the definitions of sexual rights due to the dichotomous nature of her argument, respectively. By understanding the strongest and weakest aspects of McGuire’s book we can further appreciate and understand the immensely important place African-American women had in the Civil Rights Movement and how their indispensable participation allowed for the success of the overall movement.
The first body of work “The Slave Mother” is written by Frances E. W. Harper. The title alone conjures such imagery into ones mind. It takes the reader back in time when slavery was legal, a time when a black