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Slavery became the backbone of Southern economy. The growing number of enslaved African Americans began to outnumber slave owners/whites. Slaves began to gain some leverage over their owners, and developed bonds with other slaves. Slaves began to maintain aspects of their African culture, kinship networks, and religion. Despite being a “free” man, or enslaved; ties were still created. Skilled slaves, such as carpenter or blacksmiths, used their little pay to visit free African Americans. Some were able to learn to read and write and access tools denied by their slave owner. During constant labor and harsh conditions, slaves were able to create social bonds that embraced their culture. Despite receiving English names, slaves continued
Servitude is a usual part of African ritual. Tribes would often use trade to obtain slaves by going to the head chief and trading for livestock. Not only did various tribes trade with the people of their countries, but with the Europeans of other nationalities as well. There were times that tribes would go to war and keep chiefs and prisoners of war were kept as slaves, to trade with European countries. Many times slaves were sold due to being punished, or to rape and other various crimes. Some were also forced into life of captivity. It was common for young individuals to be kidnapped and taken to a home of a common family to work and serve them. Many owners would treat their slaves fairly. The masters would own a piece of property and have an apartment for their own personal family along with a home for the enslaved family. Equiano talks about how many slaves owned their own slaves in some cases. If a family was wealthy enough, they would accommodate their property, meaning the slaves. They were a part of the owner’s family and were as brutally treated comparing to slaves of the Colonial U.S.
The Southerners viewed slavery as a luxury and a necessity. Financial gain was one of the reasons slavery was tremendously popular. Slaves were required to work in various places for little or no money. Therefore, this helped the slave owners achieve their goal of increasing their profits because they did not have to pay for labor costs. With lower labor costs, the Southerners had more disposable income. This extra money allowed them to pay their taxes, to buy more land, and to even possibly purchase more slaves.
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...
The southern economy was largely dependent on slaves, who worked on the numerous plantations of the South. Moreover, the main purpose of slavery in the South was for the cultivation of these cotton plantations. (Doc 4) For this reason, southerners believed
Also, in the South, it was hard, rough work in the hot sun and very few whites were willing to do the work, therefore, most plantation owners purchased slaves to work the land. The plantation owner gave the slaves shelter and a small food allowance as a salary. Thereby, the plantation owner "saved" his money to invest in more land, which of course required more slaves to continue to yield a larger profit. An economic cycle was created between plantation owner and slave, one that would take generations to end. Slaves were now a necessity on the larger plantations to work the fields.
Slavery allowed the American economy to flourish for over 300 years. It allowed many Southern states to grow at a furious pace without significantly diversifying their economy. The South relied on the harvesting of cash crops such as tobacco and cotton, which were very labor intensive. Without much cheap labor, slaves were relied on to harvest the crops; this provided enormous value to farmers and plantation owners in the region. However, the institution of slavery was challenged in the 18th century by decades of Enlightenment thought, newfound religious ideals, and larger abolitionist groups. After the American Revolution many states would ban the practice of slavery completely and only a few would maintain the “peculiar institution”.
In the absence of freedom, the slaves were able to reach beyond the confines of their masters and create a vibrant social and cultural life.
Slavery was one of the main reasons why America was divided because the north allowed African Americans to be “free” and have equal rights compared to the south, who were born into slavery. It started to become threating to the south since the power would be unbalance when Missouri was issued to be a free state in 1819 but then wasn’t passed by congress. Year later the Missouri compromise was in placed because it would eventually led to evenly balance the power between the free and slave state which would made Missouri a slave state and Maine(part of Massachusetts) into a free state; also, slavery would be excluded above the latitude of 36, 30. When slavery started to become problematic, the idea became an issue for the northern churches and
Slave’s masters consistently tried to erase African culture from their slave’s memories. They insisted that slavery had rescued blacks form the barbarians from Africa and introduced them to the “superior” white civilization. Some slaves came to believe this propaganda, but the continued influence of African culture in the slave community added slave resistance to the modification of African culture. Some slaves, for example, answered to English name in the fields but use African names in their quarters. The slave’s lives were filled with surviving traits of African culture, and their artwork, music, and other differences reflected this influence.
Those who wore the chains of slavery spent their lives tied down to their master, and even when the chains were broken, they were never truly free of their fate. Many African- Americans were born into slavery throughout the 17th and 18th century, and these children were property of their masters before their parents could claim them. After all slaves were not considered human beings, they were simply property, cheap labor, and at times merchandise. It was said in “Give Me Liberty” that American slaves were better off than slaves in other countries since they were more expensive and valuable in the Unites States than other countries such as the West Indies and Brazil (322). Slavery
African Americans were taken from their homeland and sold in slavery in a process known as the Atlantic Slave Trade. African American slaves sold into the colonies would work different jobs. Because the South was more farmland, the slaves sold to the southern colonies worked on farms and plantations. The North however, was more industrial, so many slaves worked in factories producing materials and goods. Although slavery in general was bad, in the South slavery was much worse. Slaves in the South suffered harsher treatment. They would be whipped, beaten, and in some cases even murdered. Slavery was seen as a big economic contributor to the colonies so many opposed its banishment. Many slaves tried to run away and escape their captors. Those who fled sought freedom in the North. Some escaped while others weren’t so
Slavery in America brought about a successful south but also proved to be one of the most terrible things done by humans to humans. Slavery became a way of life in early America. Eight out of the first twelve presidents owned slaves. People in the south benefited from slaves the most. Harvesting those huge cotton fields took many hands. That’s were the slaves became key to the success of the south. Slaves were predominately black Africans. Africans made up the majority but they were not the only ones. Native Americans and even English indentured servants made up the rest of the people put into slavery.
First, after emancipation, federal laws revived slavery into new form. After slaves were freed during post- civil war, the whites especially those in the south faced problems in running their plantations; since there was no free labor force from slaves, and also some whites who had never owned slaves saw the African Americans as undesirable competition. I think the laws enforcements eventually became the method through which slavery of blacks take its new form. Under these new laws, a lot of African Americans were arrested with no reason and were given harsh fines and later they were charged with the costs of own arrests. This is because majority of the Africans were poor and good number of them who were arrested could not afford to pay fines. With no means to pay fines most of the prisoners accumulated debts as a result they were sold a forced labor to industries and farm
Although, In the past African Americans had struggles and didn’t know how to speak and to understand the real truth why they were being treated like slaves. The people who were chained up has the same struggles like the African Americans because they were being held back by something, and being affected by there immediate environment and lacking to seek enlightenment and positivity. What this led is the freedom to the “real world” accepting the way they live and believing that there’s no way
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...