The first hand accounts giving in the readings of Brent and Cartwright both provided great insight on how life was like during times of slavery. Brent's story provided an in-depth personal account on how it was for a slave girl to grow up. Brent life story took all sides of slavery into account. She considered factors like the effects that slavery was having on everyone whether they were white, black, female, or male. Cartwright provided details of his life in his writing, and he gave his account of how bad of an institution he thought slavery was. Cartwright greatly opposed slavery, but he did not really consider himself to be an abolitionist because he believes that their views on slavery were somewhat one-sided. He believed that the abolitionist felt so strongly that they distanced themselves from slave holders and destroyed any chances for either parties to sit down and discuss the issues. What Cartwright did not realize was that his arguments about slavery were also one sided because he was just representing the white male who did not own slaves, and also did not know much about slave conditions. Cartwright was mainly representing the outside world looking in at slavery. Cartwright realized that slavery was a bad thing, but because he was not a slave himself or a slave holder he could not give an informative account of slavery. So though Cartwright strongly opposed slavery, he did not fully understand the evils and the effects of slavery as Brent did.
One way that Cartwright did not understand the effects of slavery was that his only concerns over slavery revolved around the ill effects that slavery had on the whites. It did not seem as if he was really concerned about how slaves were being treated by their slave masters, though he did see slavery as a moral evil. To Cartwright, slavery was a moral evil because he believed that it made whites slave holders lazy. He felt that since slave holders had their slaves doing all of the housework, then they believed having to do so themselves would be like lowering their status. In other words the rich slave holders had lost the value of work to the point that if they had to do so themselves would be like lowing themselves to the same level as slaves.
Analysis of Arguments for the Slavery Institution. The foundation of this paper will highlight the following questions: How might southern apologists for slavery have used the northern “wage slave” discussed in the last chapter to justify slavery? To what extent do you agree with this argument? How did slaves use religious belief and kinship to temper their plight?
Following the success of Christopher Columbus’ voyage to the Americas in the early16th century, the Spaniards, French and Europeans alike made it their number one priority to sail the open seas of the Atlantic with hopes of catching a glimpse of the new territory. Once there, they immediately fell in love the land, the Americas would be the one place in the world where a poor man would be able to come and create a wealthy living for himself despite his upbringing. Its rich grounds were perfect for farming popular crops such as tobacco, sugarcane, and cotton. However, there was only one problem; it would require an abundant amount of manpower to work these vast lands but the funding for these farming projects was very scarce in fact it was just about nonexistent. In order to combat this issue commoners back in Europe developed a system of trade, the Triangle Trade, a trade route that began in Europe and ended in the Americas. Ships leaving Europe first stopped in West Africa where they traded weapons, metal, liquor, and cloth in exchange for captives that were imprisoned as a result of war. The ships then traveled to America, where the slaves themselves were exchanged for goods such as, sugar, rum and salt. The ships returned home loaded with products popular with the European people, and ready to begin their journey again.
Dr. Richard Fuller, a southerner from Beaufort, South Carolina, writes the second side of the argument. In Fuller’s mind slaves are acceptable because it has become a way of life in the South. Large Southern plantations need slaves to help harvest and plant the crops; because of this importance the slave trade becomes a big part of Southern economy during the 1800s. Fuller also points out in his opening letter to Wayland that slavery was not invented by the Southern states, but was actually an ideal brought over from England. Fuller also goes on to explain the racism that occurs within the Southern States. “It would suddenly give them a liberty for which they are wholly unprepared, and which would be only a license for indolence and crime”
The Growing Opposition to Slavery 1776-1852 Many Americans’ eyes were opened in 1776, when members of the Continental Congress drafted, signed, and published the famous document “The Declaration of Independence” in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By declaring their independence, many of the colonists believed that slaves should have the same rights as the whites had. Abolition groups were formed, and the fight to end slavery began. In 1776, Delaware became the first state to prohibit the importation of African slaves. One year later, in 1777, Vermont became the first colony to abolish slavery (within Vermont’s boundaries) by state constitution.
It was once thought that slavery was just a normal civilized part of life, whether you owned a slave or were one, that’s just how it was. In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, slavery was a well know topic, and slave narratives such as the ones by Rowlandson and Equiano were becoming quite popular. Slave narratives such as these assisted in revealing the horrors of slavery. Both these slave narratives have similar traits that helped people around the world better understand the perils of slavery. Both the Rowlandson and Equiano slave narratives utilize the perils of slavery, and one might say they are “one in the same.” Both Rowlandson and Equiano were abruptly taken from their home, and forced to live somewhere they could not have
Calhoun's view was that slavery ought not to be considered, as it exists in the United States, in the abstract; but rather as a political institution, existing prior to the formation of the government and expressly recognized in the Constitution. The framers of that instrument regarded slaves as property, and admitted the right of ownership in them.
Slavery caused a rift in the American society. The issue of slavery in America divided citizens into two groups, pro-slavery and abolitionists. Unlike other countries America could not decide this issue peacefully. The two groups fought constantly, the issue would not be settled peacefully but would end in a violent war. The pro slavery group accepted and approved of slavery, while the abolitionists viewed slavery in a different light. The abolitionist disagreed with slavery and all it stood for.
Their discussions are quite different due to the fact that they zoom in on topics that peek their own interest. For Zinn, he described why the development of race-based slavery in America began. He mentioned that the settlers did not know basic survival skills, like obtaining food. Therefore, they need laborers to grow and cultivate food for them specifically corn and these laborers would have to be people who were not costly to them. They used slaves from Africa because well they were easier to ‘control’ than the whites and indentured servants. Zinn focused more on the fact that these people were torn from their culture and brought here against their will, to engage in unfavorable conditions. The degree of cruelty these people faced made this
Farming, sewing, and taking care of livestock were just a few responsibilities that were left to slaves during the 1600's. White families received all of the benefits from the work done, yet they rarely had to lift a finger, unless it was to correct a slave. Today's generation reads about slavery and regards it as morally wrong. While I agree that slavery was one of America's greatest wrongdoings, it paved the way for America as we know it today.
Throughout this course we learned about slavery and it's effects on our country and on African Americans. Slavery and racism is prevalent throughout the Americas before during and after Thomas Jefferson's presidency. Some people say that Jefferson did not really help stop any of the slavery in the United States. I feel very differently and I will explain why throughout this essay. Throughout this essay I will be explaining how views of race were changed in the United States after the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, and how the events of the Jeffersonian Era set the stage for race relations for the nineteenth century.
A Leon Higginbotham Jr.’s argument in The Ancestry of Inferiority (1619-1662), is that the people of Virginia had already began to think of black people, be it they were free or indentured servants, as inferior to themselves before slavery was institutionalized. The Colonist’s had already begun to strategize legalities in regards on how black people were to be disciplined. Higginbotham has two reasons why Africans were not afforded the same liberties as that of the white indentured servants in Virginia. The first reason he states is that the majority of white indentured servants came to Virginia on their own free will. Once they had completed their five or seven-year contract with their master, they were free to buy land and begin working for themselves. Unlike the African’s that he claims were brought here against their will or for desperation. The second reasoning is that the English thought that the black represented evil or danger and because African’s skin coloring was black, they must be evil. Higginbotham offers a couple of examples representing just how the English prior to the actual term of slavery being used, were already creating a racial difference in the judicial system. From court cases that he has reviewed, he states one must find what the case is not saying verses what it is. When the English identified people with names the only time skin color was not used in context is when that person was a white person. Another case he made use of is a good example of black inferiority to white superiority in the early 17th century is in the case In Re Graweere, 1641. The court made certain that a particular African father had no value in society when attempting to get his child back. However, because his son was...
The author Kevin Bales ,and co-writer Ron Soodalter, discuss the issues pertaining to forced labor in “Slavery in The Land of The Free”. Free The Slaves is a non-profit organization in Washington that Bales founded to help end slavery not only in the United States, but around the world. The Abraham Lincoln Institute has the honor to have the established historian, Soodalter, serve on it’s board.The two authors also wrote a book by the name of “The Slave Next Door: Human trafficking and Slavery in America Today” (2009). One of the issues that Bales and Soodalter effectively touch on is how widespread the issue of human trafficking and slavery is in
The face of American democracy is deceptive; from missionary trips to military tours, America has established a presence in the Middle East, and has always projected itself to be the perfect image of a democratic and free nation where everyone is equal. While America tries to up hold their motto of being the land of the free, American media has presented Arabs as unintelligent and violent people. Because of the way America presents itself to the rest of the world, one would be surprised if they traveled to America only to find violence and ignorance amongst its government and citizens. While Western civilization believes itself to be on a higher level than Eastern civilization, this orientalist view blinds America from seeing the similarities
Slavery was the main resource used in the Chesapeake tobacco plantations. The conditions in the Chesapeake region were difficult, which lead to malnutrition, disease, and even death. Slaves were a cheap and an abundant resource, which could be easily replaced at any time. The Chesapeake region’s tobacco industries grew and flourished on the intolerable and inhumane acts of slavery.
Once the introduction to slavery was introduced to America, a firestorm of maltreatment towards human kind ensued. Slaves were an alternative to indentured servants, which proved to be a very popular and cost effective solution to the labor problem amongst farmers. Americans began to import enslaved African workers by the thousands and sold them to land owners as lifelong property. With the indentured population diminished, and due to the low cost of African slaves, popularity and widespread African slavery grew.