The relationship between master and slave in the Old South was as unique to the region as mint juleps. In no other time or place were master and slave in such proximity and so involved in each other’s private lives. What was it that lead slave-owners to take such an interest in their slaves’ lives? To what extent, and in what ways, were masters involved with their slaves, or vice versa? In this brief paper I will answer these questions using chapters four and five of Peter Kolchin’s American Slavery 1619-1877. The fact that slave-owners had such an active, personal interest in their slaves is only surprising before examining the evidence that Kolchin provides. There are several factors that contributed to the Old South’s peculiar institution; an institution in which masters would describe their relationship to their slaves as “love” of their “people.” Kolchin tells us that while there is “no one slavery that …show more content…
This paternalism of the post-revolution South showed to be a time of great improvement for the living and working conditions of slaves. On page 112 Kolchin gives us an excerpt from a letter P.C. Weston wrote to his overseer, “his first object is to be… the care and wellbeing of the negroes. [The Proprietor]… never can or will excuse any cruelty, severity, or want of care towards the negroes.” Due to America having an abundance of fertile land, feeding slaves a balanced and nutritional diet was an easy task, and failure to do so “[was] regarded as the most aggravated development of meanness” (Kolchin, 113). While housing and clothing were basic at best, medical care was exceptional compared to the average Southern white (Kolchin, 114). Ever a product of the Second Great Awakening, masters also often read the Bible to their slaves and encouraged them to attend church services (Kolchin,
This document acknowledges the different set of rules about what the master expect from his slaves to do and not to do. The plantation rules described in this document is accounted from the diary of Bennet Barrow’s, the owner of 200 slaves on his plantation in Louisiana on May 1, 1838. No one will be allowed to leave the plantation without Barrow’s permission is the first of many plantation rules. To add, no one is allowed to marry out of the plantation and allowed to sell anything without their master’s consent. Rules implemented by Barrow is strictly dedicated to the safety and security of his plantation of from encroachment of outsiders. He is more concerned about his
“The contrast in the relative prominence of slavery between the Upper South and the Lower South reflects the adverse health conditions and arduous labor requirements of lowland rice cultivation, whereas tobacco farming continued to be attractive to free family farmers as well as to slave owners”(Engerman, Sutch, & Wright, 2004). The lower South depended on their slaves more than the Upper because they were in the process of cropping tobacco. The Upper South had to keep up with the lower south, because they had to focus on their slave trade that would build and expand their plantations. During this era, the diverse between these two regions were more concerned with the values of slaves. The values of slave price can increase because of high demands between the upper and the lower South. As the upper South was coming up short, the slave profession took off. The slave profession helped the Upper South, yet there were numerous deformities. The slave percentage was at the end of its usefulness of significance “in the Upper South” significance it had a weaker understanding of community reliability than in the cotton areas. This made the upper south separate on what the future may hold. It was not clear on whether if the future was based on the Deep South’s financial growth between the North and the
Slave-owners looked upon the African Americans as lesser people who were in desperate need of support. They were not capable of surviving on their own without white guidance (Boston). Dr. Flint, the master over the plantation where Harriet Jacobs lived showed a great example of paternalism. He cared for Harriet but in a possessive way to which he continuously sought the woman for his personal needs. For Dr. Flint, the slaves he owned should be grateful towards him and be willing to do what he asked with no rebuttal. This wasn’t the case with Harriet. She simply refused him at every chance which only angered the slaveholder. Jacobs resisted the doctor and his paternalistic ways. Harriet Jacobs sheds light onto the self-interest that drives the paternalism displayed by the masters. The slaves were property and who wanted to showcase poorly groomed property? If there was someone visiting, the slaves, except for those within the house, would be hidden away and those who worked within the master’s home would dawn nicer clothes and better meals would be prepared all in a show for the
In A Narrative of a Post-Civil War Visit to Gowrie and East Hermitage Plantations, Louis Manigault shows a totally different point of view from the other documents. In which, he presents that apparently he had a peaceful relationship with his slaves. “They all seemed pleased to see me, calling me "Maussa" the Men still showing respect by taking off their caps” (Manigault). He shows some changes that in his belief the blacks were in a better situation before than after Civil War. “I am of opinion that very many Negroes are most unhappy in their changed condition, but this however they do not care to admit” (Manigault). But in reality, either way there were being abused, or through slavery or through “contracts”.
The controversies surrounding slavery have been established in many societies worldwide for centuries. In past generations, although slavery did exists and was tolerated, it was certainly very questionable,” ethically“. Today, the morality of such an act would not only be unimaginable, but would also be morally wrong. As things change over the course of history we seek to not only explain why things happen, but as well to understand why they do. For this reason, we will look further into how slavery has evolved throughout History in American society, as well as the impacts that it has had.
Post, D. G. (2001, 07 02). Temple Universtiy. Retrieved 07 07, 2010, from Words Fitly Spoken: http://www.temple.edu/lawschool/dpost/slavery.PDF
Tadman, Michael. Speculators and slaves: masters, traders, and slaves in the Old South. Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989.
Slave marriages among other slaves and slave owners have always placed a social burden on the plantations and the government of the United States. What were the social issues that occurred as slaves had relations with other slaves or their masters? Government scandals, black salve owners, and law changes have all came about as part of the social discrepancies that came along with slave relations. Biographies of William Ellison, the first African American slave owner, will be scrutinized to see the social implications of a slave master owning slaves of the same ethnicity. Personal Journals written about the Thomas Jefferson and Sally Heming's case will be analyzed to see the government scandal placed on Jefferson’s slave relations. These social issues helped play out the course of slavery in the United States of America.
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...
“The ‘Blessings’ of a Slave,” in Kennedy, David M. and Thomas A. Bailey. The American Spirit: United States History as Seen by Contemporaries. Vol. I: To 1877. Eleventh Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
Between 1800 and 1860 slavery in the American South had become a ‘peculiar institution’ during these times. Although it may have seemed that the worst was over when it came to slavery, it had just begun. The time gap within 1800 and 1860 had slavery at an all time high from what it looks like. As soon as the cotton production had become a long staple trade source it gave more reason for slavery to exist. Varieties of slavery were instituted as well, especially once international slave trading was banned in America after 1808, they had to think of a way to keep it going – which they did. Nonetheless, slavery in the American South had never declined; it may have just come to a halt for a long while, but during this time between 1800 and 1860, it shows it could have been at an all time high.
African Americans resisted the practice of slavery and the trade of slavery from its inception in the United Stated in the early 1600s to its end in the middle 1800s. They resisted it in the fields and in the big house; they resisted by organized rebellions; and they resisted by direct, spontaneous acts of courage. For their freedom slaves killed and were killed. They ran away, and their masters ran after them. They fought and died, but they also survived. The conditions of slaves that survived varied. How well were they treated depended on their owner and the type of work they did. However, in my paper I will discuss the life of slave women and their relationships with their white masters. Since the beginning of slavery gender and social relations shaped the lives of slave in such a way that slave women experiences were different from slave men.
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...
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...
Time will inevitably change everything. That being said, more than roughly a century and a half ago the institution of racial slavery was a heavily debated societal issue, which led to the Civil War. It is my own personal opinion that slavery is best defined as the absolute ownership of another human’s life as personal property, and this practice of racial slavery served widely as one of the only means for economic prosperity throughout the Deep South. Wealthy plantation owners, subsistence slaveholding farmers, and even northern abolitionists who were involved in the purchasing cotton from southern slave states and weaving that cotton into clothes for sale benefited economically from slave labor. This unique American practice of forced labor was especially horrific compared to other forms of slavery because it targeted a specific ethnic group to be human bondservants who were typically indebted for life to masters, while dehumanizing everyone of that same ethnicity in the process. This truly incriminating social injustice did not rest easily with American’s conscience. Often being seen as undemocratic, slavery was in needed of a persuasive moral justification in order to avoid abolishment. This “moral justifier” often presented itself in the form of religion in which slavery was argued to be a socially moral upstanding institution, an argument supported by several verses in the bible referring to how slaves should behave towards their masters. Historians have often studied this complex relationship between religion and slavery in American history, and this paper will also seek to examine the impact that Christianity had on the convoluted issue of slavery in antebellum American society. Some Christian preachers like George Whitefi...