Race and Political Power in the Pre-Civil War Period

In order to lure these African slaves to the Americas, many were stolen from their home land and/or promised various falsehoods. The Europeans, who employed these slaves, rationalized that they were the superior race to Africans and they were providing a better life for them. Slavery was not always an accepted practice. Early American settlers remained divided as to its morality and legality. Though, in its infancy, the North accepted slavery and practiced its use, it was the South that delved deep into its practice.

“Give me liberty or give me death!” Patrick Henry said this during his March 23, 1775 speech about fighting to gain the New England colonies' independence from the British. This quote in 1800 inspired the words printed on Gabriel's Rebellion's banner. “Death or Liberty.” Many slave revolts like the Gabriel's Rebellion, although unable to succeed in abolishing slavery, did however show that most slaves were unhappy with their position and wanted freedom. Despite the negative results arising from many slave revolts, they stood as a source of inspiration and demonstration of a desire to be free from the slave population. Slavery is a long standing issue that has occurred in our world for many years.

Since the 17th century, slavery helped build the United States by strengthening the economy, but also ruined many African American’s lives. Slavery especially effected the South and their economy, politics and laws, and the culture. Many whites did not see an unethical problem with the slave trade, especially if they treated their slaves well, but that is wrong. African Americans tried extremely hard to hold onto their culture and their lives before slavery. African Americans, free or not, suffered immensely because of the prejudice put upon them merely because of the color of their skin.

Pressure morally to end slavery also led to ... ... middle of paper ... ... faced many daunting challenges in life. After cotton became easier to grow and more profitable, slavery became more widely used in some parts of the country, while it died out in others due to moral objections and the fight by blacks. For those that were freed, discrimination in a wholly racist society was still very prevalent, and it would be some time before their rights would be achieved. It can be certain, however, that slavery caused the majority of challenges that freed African Americans faced, and just as clear is that freed blacks greatly helped the cause of their enslaved counterparts. Although their lives may have been substantially different in principle, the lives of both free and slave African Americans mirrored each other greatly, and these two groups had to meet their incredible challenges with a number of methods to overcome the hurdles they faced.

With the invention of the cotton gin in 1797, the demand for slaves increased. Yet the conditions in slave camps did not improve, and white Southerners justified the institution of slavery in nearly every conceivable way. Nonetheless slavery evolved from a “necessary evil” in Jeffersonian Virginia to a “positive good” in the antebellum South. This evolution infused America with a culture that was not allowed to form naturally. Therefore, blacks were put at a severe social disadvantage from the start, and the subsequent social cleavages that came to define the twentieth century should have been no surprise.

The first African Americans came over as indentured servants. White colonist ... ... middle of paper ... ...put extra effort into making slaves submissive, and new law such as the fugitives lave act of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska compromise played a major role in restricting slave rebellion. However, as time passed industrialization started influencing the non-agricultural regions of Americas. Hence, two distinct types of economies emerged as well as the consequent friction between the two. Those who remained dependent on agriculture needed slavery as an economic factor; but those who were industrialized did not, thus they had no reason not to oppose slavery as a moral issue.

Indentured servitude was used as bait to lure people into enslavement and eventually began to fade due to multiple historical events, such as The Bacon Rebellion . African Americans became an easy target because they were less prone to diseases and their bodies were capable of such intense and difficult labor. As slavery began to rise in popularity certain laws were passed through Congress that supported slavery. John Rolfe played a major role in history in 1614 when he found a way to harvest tobacco. The tobacco crop is what restored Jamestown, Virginia and it would not exist today without this cash crop.

However, Lemann connects the acts of violence to show an orchestrated movement intended to undermine both keys to the freed blacks’ quality of life, organizing abilities and voting rights. Violence against blacks existed for years, but in the form of a master supposedly disciplining his slave. The acts of violence outlined by Lemann show a shift from fear and ignorance to organized intimidation. After all, whites of the time viewed themselves “as protectors of [the] natural order” meaning racial superiority (65). What first started as a fear of being the minority turned quickly to a fear of losing political power and economic wealth.

Although, clear most of African Americans remained in a bond, the growth of free black communities in America was raised by the War for American to be free. In 1807 everyone had to stop having slaves. “ Soc... ... middle of paper ... ...d to rest. Instruments that they used to punish slaves and keep within limits are: the iron collar,or even slaves chains. But not all states wanted it to be slaves, the Southern states wanted it and the Northern states didn't.

In the 17th century the basis of the work force, in mainly the Southern colonies were Europeans labourers, who as indentured servants, offered landowners a solution to their labour shortage. Beginning in the 1680s, the mainland colonies underwent a massive shift, from indentured servants to slave labour, due to requirement of labour in the South. From the early 17th century Africans were shipped to North America to be sold as slaves, against their freewill. Slavery continued to expand even after 1808, when it was declared illegal. African slave trading became the main problem dividing Americans, and could even of been a factor of many, which led to the American Civil War.