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The life of the slaves
The life of the slaves
The life of the slaves
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1. Slave’s lifestyle in the 1800 was anything but enjoyable. They lived, breathed, and sweated work.Their hours were from sunrise to sunset. Not only did they live in poor living conditions, and work in undesirable conditions, but they also were often taken from their families, and had religion forced on them. To sum it up, the lives that slaves led were unfavorable due to the way they had to live, and the lifestyle that was imposed on to them.
Many today take the luxury of being able to live with food and a roof for granted - a luxury that slaves only dreamt of. Usually, their housing consisted of, in the south at least, small stick houses with many cracks, letting cold gusts of wind in. In books and movies the slave’s quarters are
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usually depicted as log cabins, but that was far from the truth. On top of living in such inhumane conditions, the slaves were given the bare minimum to eat. They were not fed to make them feel full, they were fed as to keep them working. Overall, the slaves were kept as property and nothing more, with is clearly reflected in the way they lived. The buying and selling of slaves was a common feat during the time. Basically, this translated into families being torn apart, and hearts broken. The owners couldn’t care less of what happened to the slaves, so they easily sent them away deeper into the south, where they transformed into just a number on the field. This was only possible due to how slaves were viewed - just a piece of property. This allowed the owners to do whatever they wanted whether it be working them to death, trying the slaves of ridiculous crimes, or scandalous actions such as affairs or even rape. In short, the humane ideals that are upheld in today’s society were unheard of in the slave world, with allowed the masters to not only separate families, but to do what they pleased with the slaves. Having no one to turn to except God, slaves often clung to religion. It was their means to escape the hell that they lived in, and look to the positive side of things. Plus, the religious people who came preaching viewed slaves as almost equals. This whole idea of religion made the masters a little antsy considering it gave the slaves a means to live other than their devotion to working. The masters also believed that practicing religious would cause the slaves to begin thinking for themselves, and demanding freedoms or a better lifestyle. Religion was the slave’s means of happiness, and it was their chance to get away from their lives. There are countless textbooks and depressing stories about how terrible the lifestyle of a slave was, but no piece of literature could ever truly capture the hell that they endured. The slaves lived in unbearable conditions, they were often separated from their families, and they worked from sunrise to sunset. To sum it up, the slave lifestyle was extremely unfortunate, and the way they were treated was hardly humane, and completely unacceptable. 2. Judging by the terribly poor lifestyle that slaves led, it is no question that they would want to escape. The most common ways were the Underground Railroad, songs, camouflages and disguises, or means of hiding in carts or boxes. The Railroad was compilation of many people or groups who helped funnel people to freedom. Harriet Tubman was the head honcho of the whole ordeal, helping lead people from check point to checkpoint. Another factor that helped with not only the Railroad, but with escaping in general were songs that helped give directions. Examples such as "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Go Down Moses," and "Follow The Drinking Gourd" are famous examples of such songs. These songs were sung in the fields to help those who planned on running away remember them, and then gave them directions on how to flee. Although, the consequences for getting caught were very extreme sometimes getting hands or feet chopped off, countless whippings, or even death. Even still, the abolitionists and slaves worked together on escape tactics such as giving slaves disguises. Patrick Holland was famous for this practice, pretending to deliver products, or whatever scenarios he could think of. Henry Brown was also famous for such practices, using boxes to ship slaves giving him the nickname Henry “Box” Brown. To sum it up, slaves only had the means to escape because of their wholehearted devotion, and the way the abolitionists met them halfway, in both heart and help. 3.
The industry of cotton affected the social class of the South in the sense that it gave the white men further means to harness the use the slaves, and gave the women a role other than just being a pretty wife. The cotton industry helped use the slaves due the fact now, much more tangible cotton could be generated. More slaves meant more cotton being picked, which meant more cotton material to be produced, which meant more profit. Prior to the revolution the social status was still similar, with man being above the woman, and the slaves at the bottom, but as cotton became a huge crop, each of the roles in society were heightened. The men were now hyper egotistical masters, the women were head of the slaves, and the slaves became nothing but property as they were harnessed for the land. The women had new powers as head of the slaves, they were the Southern mistress. The women became the caretakers and guidance for the workers, making sure they were doing their job, that they were able to work, and basically told them what was to be done. The husband may have bought the slave, but the wife commanded them. In short, the roles that were played in the south after the cotton revolution just goes to show how tightly the south enveloped and devoured the idea of slavery, and how heavily it affected everyone’s daily
lives.
1. The insight that each of these sources offers into slave life in the antebellum South is how slaves lived, worked, and were treated by their masters. The narratives talk about their nature of work, culture, and family in their passages. For example, in Solomon Northup 's passage he describes how he worked in the cotton field. Northup said that "An ordinary day 's work is considered two hundred pounds. A slave who is accustomed to picking, is punished, if he or she brings less quantity than that," (214). Northup explains how much cotton slaves had to bring from the cotton field and if a slave brought less or more weight than their previous weight ins then the slave is whipped because they were either slacking or have no been working to their
Within the economy a great development had been achieved when the upper south handed its power to the lower south all due to the rise of an agricultural production. This expansion was led by the excessive growth of cotton in the southern areas. It spread rapidly throughout America and especially in the South. During these times it gave another reason to keep the slavery at its all time high. Many wealthy planters started a ‘business’ by having their slaves work the cotton plantations, which this was one of a few ways slavery was still in full effect. Not only were there wealthy planters, at this time even if you were a small slave-holder you were still making money. While all of this had been put into the works, Americans had approximately 410,000 slaves move from the upper south to the ‘cotton states’. This in turn created a sale of slaves in the economy to boom throughout the Southwest. If there is a question as to ‘why’, then lets break it d...
As the North was going through many economic changes and continued to advance in other issues as well the South became stagnant. The North developed factors and made major advancements in the textile industry; new jobs were created and women began to take a more active role in society. Where as the South stayed mostly the same. Besides a few inventions such as the cotton gin, slavery still dominated the South and women had very little to almost no say in any aspect of life. The difference in economy’s brought about great amounts of tension between the North and the South, and because of territorial expansion there was a significant amount of controversy over whether slavery would be legal in this new territory or
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
Secondly, the demand for cotton grew tremendously as cotton became an important raw material for the then developing cotton industries in the North and Britain. The growing of cotton revived the Southern economy and the plantations spread across the south, and by 1850 the southern U.S produced more than 80% of cotton all over the world. As this cotton based economy of the south grew so did the slave labor to work in these large scale plantations since they were more labor-intensive...
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 South did not seem to have a problem with the system of slavery. After all, why should they? it had been successful for over 200 years. Instead, they saw the North as a cruel society full of the treacheries caused by capitalism. They saw factory work as "wage slavery" while they viewed Southern slavery as "paternalistic" and "benevolent." Slavery, they contended, helped eliminate all class distinctions in Southern society. In the North, they saw, factory owners became rich while their employees lived in a state of poverty. Slavery was the great unifier of Southern society.
The impression of slavery, as unpleasant as it is, must nevertheless be examined to understand the destitutions that were caused in the lives of enslaved African-Americans. Without a doubt, the conditions that the slaves lived under could be easily described as unbearable and inhumane. As painful as the slave's treatment by the masters was, it proved to be more intolerable for the women who were enslaved. She says "Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women.
Many social groups of America at this time were impacted by the market revolution. Two groups that I am going to focus on are the blacks and the middle class. The slaves were impacted by the invention of Eli Whitney's cotton gin in 1793. In Give Me Liberty by Eric Foner, he tells of the slowing of the cotton market in the "Cotton Kingdom" due to the slow, tedious work of removing the seeds from the plant. And when the cotton gin came in to play, it expedited the process of cotton picking. This tool did indeed revolutionize slavery in the South. Thanks to the cotton gin, a rise in demand for cotton led to more slaves being needed. Foner tells us, "In 1793, when Whitney designed his invention, the United States produced 5 million pounds of cotton. By 1820, the crop had grown to nearly 170 million pounds" (Foner 260). In a painting by Lewis Miller named Slave Trader, Sold in Tennessee depicts the image of slaves being sold in 2 lines, with men on horseback holding a rifle guiding the slaves on their journey. The caption for the image explains that the slaves are being marched from Virginia to Tennessee. The bl...
The North and South were forming completely different economies, and therefore completely different geographies, from one another during the period of the Industrial Revolution and right before the Civil War. The North’s economy was based mainly upon industrialization from the formation of the American System, which was producing large quantities of goods in factories. The North was becoming much more urbanized due to factories being located in cities, near the major railroad systems for transportation of the goods, along with the movement of large groups of factory workers to the cities to be closer to their jobs. With the North’s increased rate of job opportunities, many different people of different ethnic groups and classes ended up working together. This ignited the demise of the North’s social order. The South was not as rapidly urbanizing as the North, and therefore social order was still in existence; the South’s economy was based upon the production of cotton after Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin. Large cotton plantations’ production made up the bulk of America’s...
Since the beginning of slavery in the America, Africans have been deemed inferior to the whites whom exploited the Atlantic slave trade. Africans were exported and shipped in droves to the Americas for the sole purpose of enriching the lives of other races with slave labor. These Africans were sold like livestock and forced into a life of servitude once they became the “property” of others. As the United States expanded westward, the desire to cultivate new land increased the need for more slaves. The treatment of slaves was dependent upon the region because different crops required differing needs for cultivation. Slaves in the Cotton South, concluded traveler Frederick Law Olmsted, worked “much harder and more unremittingly” than those in the tobacco regions.1 Since the birth of America and throughout its expansion, African Americans have been fighting an uphill battle to achieve freedom and some semblance of equality. While African Americans were confronted with their inferior status during the domestic slave trade, when performing their tasks, and even after they were set free, they still made great strides in their quest for equality during the nineteenth century.
In Colonial America indentured slavery happen gradually. The colony of Virginia was one place the “terrible transformation” took place. There were Africans and poor whites that came from English working class, black and whites worked side by side in the fields. They were all indentured servants as servants they were fed and housed. After their time was served, they were given “freedom dues,” with that came a piece of land and supplies. Black and whites became free. The English would not enslave non-Christians slaves; they could be set freed by converting to Christianity (PBS Online, nd).
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.
In the late 1700’s the slave population in the United States had decreased. Before the invention of the cotton gin the South, which could only make money by farming, was loosing money because it didn’t have a major crop to export to England and the North besides tobacco and rice. However, these crops could be grown elsewhere. Cotton was the key because it couldn’t be grown in large amounts in other places, but only one type of cotton that could be cleaned easily. This was long-staple cotton. Another problem arose; long-staple cotton only could be grown along the coast. There was another strain of cotton that until then could not be cleaned easily so it wasn’t worth growing. The cotton gin was the solution to this problem. With the invention of the cotton gin short stemmed cotton could be cleaned easily making cotton a valued export and it could be grown anywhere in the south. The era of the “Cotton Kingdom” began with this invention leading into an explosion in the necessity of slaves.
The word “slavery” brings back horrific memories of human beings. Bought and sold as property, and dehumanized with the risk and implementation of violence, at times nearly inhumane. The majority of people in the United States assumes and assures that slavery was eliminated during the nineteenth century with the Emancipation Proclamation. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth; rather, slavery and the global slave trade continue to thrive till this day. In fact, it is likely that more individuals are becoming victims of human trafficking across borders against their will compared to the vast number of slaves that we know in earlier times. Slavery is no longer about legal ownership asserted, but instead legal ownership avoided, the thought provoking idea that with old slavery, slaves were maintained, compared to modern day slavery in which slaves are nearly disposable, under the same institutionalized systems in which violence and economic control over the disadvantaged is the common way of life. Modern day slavery is insidious to the public but still detrimental if not more than old American slavery.