Northup's Enslavement: Erasure of Free Identity in the 19th Century

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Solomon Northup was lured into Washington because it was slave territory. It is also way easier to believe that Solomon had escaped from a nearby plantation than to believe the truth that he is a free man. Also, people like his capturers Hamilton and Brown knew you could sell African-Americans for money, so they took advantage of Solomon making him believe he had a job. Solomon discusses John Williams, who was given to Burch to pay off a debt; people were using slaves almost as a currency.
Free African Americans were at a huge risk of being captured and sold. Many people during the 19th century believed that African Americans could only be slaved, especially, the whites against abolishing slavery. Solomon wasn’t the only free African American that was taken into slavery, he met a free man from Cincinnati who was also taken. The man’s name is Robert, he was with two other men traveling for work, but he didn’t have his papers, so he was taken and sold to Burch.
2. How did the slave traders seek to destroy Northup’s identity as a free person? How did slave owners make it nearly impossible for an enslaved person to be found?

From the start, the slave traders tried to tarnish Northup’s identity by beating him till he gave the idea up that he is no man’s slave and just a slave that escaped from Georgia. Even when the slaves were all traveling together and Northup mentioned he’d been to New York got him a death threat from his Master Burch. Slave owners would also change the name of the slaves. The man who would auction off the slaves, Theophilus Freeman, changed Northup’s name to Platt and Eliza’s name to Dradey making it even more difficult for Northup’s friends or family to find him and rescue him.
3. Describe the living and wo...

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...onto women’s suffrage.
9. Textile mills were established in New England’s countryside. Many women left farms in order to work in the mills. What were they offered? What were working conditions in the mills like? Why was the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association formed?
The women working in the textile mills were offered money and a place to live in the companies boarding houses. The working conditions were not good, the mills were often hot, dusty, the machines would run too fast sometimes, and they would have to work more machines than intended, which didn’t cause an increase in pay. The Lowell Female Labor Reform Association was formed to change general conditions and shorten the work days. They tried to get the Legislature to investigate the working conditions, but they did nothing. In the end, they didn’t get the 10-hour work day they were fighting for.

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