Slavery Dbq

In the mid nineteenth, slavery was the debate of the century. In determining the effects of slavery to the southern economy we can understand that there was a growing gap between the white working force and the aristocrats of the south. The poor workers of the Chesapeake were viewed so poorly in their class system that they were more related to their african american slave counterparts than those who had a higher status in their economy. These two cultures of white and non-white workers formed important identities that shaped their way of life in the south. The effects of race, gender, geography, and class all played a role in what was seen as different or similar to these two groups. Race and class decided most people's lives in the 1800’s

Your location whether it be north or south, determined how many rights you had. If you had been located south as a slave you would have to endure much more labor, such as picking cotton for hours a day. The south was based around slavery and it showed in how their economy was ran, “In their eyes ‘Cotton was King,’ the gin was his throne, and the black bondsmen were his henchmen,” this quote shows how vital slavery was to their way of life. Their society in the south was based on agriculture and was reflected by it with the population of slaves present in the south at this time. Woman were also affected by location, if they were in the south, then they often worked out in the fields. If they were up north, then they had more of a chance of being a housemaid over the grueling work of gathering cotton. Besides that fact, being a man or a woman meant little if you were a slave, you were still a worker in their eyes. Women of the lighter toned ethnicities did not have nearly as much rights as a man, but gained more freedoms throughout the 1800’s. They began acquiring more jobs such as working in factories to start earning wages. The woman of this time period struggled and if you were a slave also, it only added to the turmoil a runaway slave, Harriet Jacobs, explains how even she needs her own freedoms as a human, “Who can blame slaves for being cunning? They are constantly compelled to resort to it. It is the only weapon of the weak and oppressed against the strength of their tyrants,” This helps show that african american women are also ambitious to have their own rights and freedoms as the rest of the slaves. Your location and your gender helped prove that women and men held different jobs based on their geography. Not only that, but your way of life as an african american was determined by your geography and the line of work you took was also influenced by your