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Impact of the institution of slavery
Justifications for American Slavery
Impact of the institution of slavery
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George Fitzhugh, a well-known planter and lawyer from Virginia, who believes that slavery is a necessary evil. This, however, is untrue, slavery is morally wrong and by enslaving people we are abducting them of their natural rights. Fitzhugh describes slavery as “impractical and self-destructive”, but isn’t it self-destructive to enslave and force manual labor to beings of the same species, one of which are not so different from ourselves other than the tone of their skin? Slavery has and always will be iniquitous. The truth is, all men are created and should be treated as equal because everyone has something to offer. Although Fitzhugh attempts to persuade people that slavery is a requisite, slavery is an atrocious act that is unnecessary to society. How could anyone own another person? Is it right to call someone as their own property? These are the questions that Fitzhugh wrongly answers. Fitzhugh falsely declares slaves as a person’s property, comparing them to things like land, houses and money. This states that slaves, human beings that live and breathe the same air as our own are just items. This leads to anyone, even those with white skin, to have the ability to become …show more content…
Fitzhugh believes that freeing slaves would be detrimental not only to us, but to the slaves themselves. He stresses how society would “devour” them, but they are what is holding our society. They are what makes this society work, without them farms and crops would slow down significantly. So we should treat them as equal and with respect because they are an asset, that could improve this country. Setting them free would bring peace between two different races and prosperity to the
When reading about the institution of slavery in the United States, it is easy to focus on life for the slaves on the plantations—the places where the millions of people purchased to serve as slaves in the United States lived, made families, and eventually died. Most of the information we seek is about what daily life was like for these people, and what went “wrong” in our country’s collective psyche that allowed us to normalize the practice of keeping human beings as property, no more or less valuable than the machines in the factories which bolstered industrialized economies at the time. Many of us want to find information that assuages our own personal feelings of discomfort or even guilt over the practice which kept Southern life moving
Finally, the government was unjust because of their need to treat black males as animals rather than men. During slavery the high level of cruelty towards slaves made it seem as though the man was an animal and was often referred to as such. Douglass didn’t take kindly to how laws had referenced to slaves as “beast of the field” (Douglass, 2011, p.780). He found it ridiculous that when it came to the law the term “man”
David Walker describes the fact that slaves are humans just as much as their White American masters are. He states the pressing matter is that “You [colored people] have to prove to the Americans and the world, that we are MEN and not brutes, as we have been represented and by millions treated.” (Page 33) He asks the question “How can those enemies but say that we and our children are not of the HUMAN FAMILY, but were made by our Creator to be an inheritance?” Although nowadays many people agree that black people have the same anatomy as whites do, but back then many people did not view blacks as equals to themselves.
The fight for racial equality is one of the most prominent issues Americans have faced throughout history and even today; as the idea that enslaving individuals is unethical emerged, many great and innovative authors began writing about the issues that enslaved people had to face. Olaudah Equiano was no exception. In his work The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, he attempts to persuade his readers that the American way of slavery is brutal, inhumane, and unscrupulous. Equiano manages to do this by minimizing the apparent differences between himself and his primarily white audience, mentioning the cruelties that he and many other slaves had to face, and the advantages of treating your slaves correctly.
In this text, Fitzhugh is giving all the reason why slavery is beneficial to both slave and master economically and physically. He had also made arguments further defending his point by saying that the “free laborers” are worse off than the slaves. In the beginning of the chapter, Fitzhugh explains that slaves are more valuable, therefore the masters would care for them out of their own self-interest in hopes of gaining more profit from them. As opposed to the “free” laborers who are worse off year round because no one cares for their employment for the simple fact that they are not obligated.An example of this was when the English had taken over Jamaica and Ireland. In Jamaica, the Negro slaves had been living “comfortably” and supposedly
“The right to have a slave implies the right in some one to make a slave; that right must be equal and mutual, and this would resolve society into a state of perpetual war.” Senator William Steward, an anti-slavery supporter, issued this claim in his “There is a Higher Law than the Constitution” speech. Steward, like all abolitionist, viewed all of man as equals. This equality came from the “higher law” that is the Bible. Since all men were created by God then all men were equals in God’s eyes. Abolitionist believed that whites had no more right to make a slave out of a African American than the African American had to make a slave out of a white man.
Slavery in the eighteenth century was worst for African Americans. Observers of slaves suggested that slave characteristics like: clumsiness, untidiness, littleness, destructiveness, and inability to learn the white people were “better.” Despite white society's belief that slaves were nothing more than laborers when in fact they were a part of an elaborate and well defined social structure that gave them identity and sustained them in their silent protest.
Take it into our own hands in achieving our freedom, do not sway in pleading whites to end it for us but to take action. Specifically Garnett says, “Brethren, the time has come when you must act for yourselves” (293). He is basically saying although we are faced with things against us and not in our favor we must rise and act for ourselves. This resonates with Baker’s assertion in that it demonstrates that Garnett knew of the struggles against African Americans and that he wanted change and in order to do so resistance is what should be done. He also says, “TO SUCH DEGRADATION IT IS SINFUL IN THE EXTREME FOR YOU TO MAKE VOLUNTARY SUBMISSION” (293). Garnett asserts that it is a sin to submit to slavery. He suggests that, we have lived through all that is unjust and all that is wicked but to submit to slavery is a sin. Here showing how we have struggled long enough with everything playing against us in every move that we have taken but to submit is to sin. Tying back with Baker, she has mentioned the flaws of the system making it difficult to progress. After all that was presented the years of suffering, resistance still is the way to gain freedom in full
“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves” Abraham Lincoln, unlike Lincoln, George Fitzhugh supported slavery and saw it as a beneficial thing for everyone. Fitzhugh became well known through his writings defending slavery. The autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, is written from the perspective of a slave, demonstrating the suffering slaves went through for generations. Fitzhugh is wrong for justifying slavery because slavery robbed slaves from their freedom and dehumanized them. Douglass’ autobiography serves as an example that contradicts Fitzhugh arguments in his essay. He argues that slaves are happy with the condition they live in, that slaves are fairly cared for by the masters, and that
One of the key arguments in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” as well as in other narratives about slaves is inequality. Douglass attempts to show us how African American slaves were still human beings like their white counterparts, there have been numerous instances where it is shown that many whites did not want to accept slaves as true humans. Frederick Douglass also perceived racial inequalities at a very young age and notes “I do not remember ever met a slave who could tell his or her birthday. They seldom come nearer to it than planting-time, harvest-time, cherry-time, spring-time, or fall-time. A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood. The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege” (13). Douglass also takes the argument of inequality one step further by making remarks upon the difference between the white and black children. Instead of accepting the difference that he is aware of even the minor details of inequalities. These descriptions of inequality are stated in the first half of the book and help us as readers realize the true “worth” of a slave. Frederick Douglass states “We were all ranked together at the valuation. Men and women, old and young, married and single, were ranked with horses, sheep and swine. There w...
George Fitzhugh’s, Cannibals All (Excerpt) is a primary document that appropriately argues that it is in the United State’s best intentions to preserve negro slavery across the South and the rest of the country in effort to sustain better lives for American negroes. Frederick Douglass argues in his piece, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave that society is responsible for shaping the negro community into slavery, and that abolition is necessary to remove that from existence. The author, Fitzhugh is a considerably significant individual who has a strong political background and is recognized for pro-slavery theology, influencing him to be a prominent figure in the context of arguing for the justification of slavery.
Many slave masters tried to defend owning slaves by claiming it’s not breaking any laws or hurting anything and in contrary it is actually bettering society. On November 27, 1789, John Brown wrote a letter to his brother Moses defending his right to take part in the slave trade. John Brown claims he needed to own slaves to pay back a debt in Europe. Which his debt would be left to his family if he were to pass away without fulfilling it. John Brown claims that if slaves weren’t with him they could be with someone else that could treat them worse. Brown views the slave trade as doing a favor to the slaves. In 1837, William Harper wrote, “Slavery in the Light of Ethics,” which can be summarized as we don’t know the effects of abolishing slavery and we should be worried of the aftermath if slavery was to be abolished. Putting an end to slavery would be bad for Southern
Douglass's narrative is, on one surface, intended to show the barbarity and injustice of slavery. However, the underlying argument is that freedom is not simply attained through a physical escape from forced labor, but through a mental liberation from the attitude created by Southern slavery. The slaves of the South were psychologically oppressed by the slaveholders' disrespect for a slave’s family and for their education, as well as by the slaves' acceptance of their own subordination. Additionally, the slaveholders were trapped by a mentality that allowed them to justify behavior towards human beings that would normally not be acceptable. In this manner, both slaveholder and slave are corrupted by slavery.
Slavery was the core of the North and South’s conflict. Slavery has existed in the New World since the seventeenth century prior to it being exclusive to race. During those times there were few social and political concerns about slavery. Initially, slaves were considered indentured servants who will eventually be set free after paying their debt(s) to the owner. In some cases, the owners were African with white servants. However, over time the slavery became exclusive to Africans and was no limited to a specific timeframe, but life. In addition, the treatment of slaves worsens from the Atlantic Slave trade to th...
Slavery has been a part of human practices for centuries and dates back to the world’s ancient civilizations. In order for us to recognize modern day slavery we must take a look and understand slavery in the American south before the 1860’s, also known as antebellum slavery. Bouvier’s Law Dictionary defines a slave as, “a man who is by law deprived of his liberty for life, and becomes the property of another” (B.J.R, pg. 479). In the period of antebellum slavery, African Americans were enslaved on small farms, large plantations, in cities and towns, homes, out on fields, industries and transportation. By law, slaves were the perso...