The slave revolt that took place in Southampton, Virginia and this was when black slaves overthrew their white masters. This was done out of deep hatred to the way blacks have been treated at that point in American history. Nat Turner was supposedly the leader of the slave rebellion. He was said to be the mastermind, coordinator, and encourager behind the
Depending on the slave owner’s rules, many slaves were denied any type of freedom. This even included the right of the slaves to learn to read and write. Many slave owners would deny their slaves these rights in order to make sure that they did not develop desires that could lead to an escape or rebellion. Most slaveholders were very afraid when it came to the thought of a rebellion because the slaves were very important to their economy and their families’ wellbeing. Many of them attempted to reduce the risk of rebellion by reducing the amount of exposure of their slaves to the world outside their plantations. By keeping their slaves from exposure to the outside world, they could eliminate many of the possible dreams and/or desires that might come from the knowledge of the world outside the slave owners plantation or farm.
Slaves were forced to work long hours in the heat, were malnourished, beaten, and underwent many more difficulties. Some worked on vast plantations, toiling in the fields, picking cotton and more, while others worked on plantations that were not as big. Some slaves had harsh and brutal masters, while others had kind and gentle ones. But regardless of whichever master the slave had, the slave was still considered a slave, though those with masters that were not so harsh received better treatment than those who did not. Slaves had no rights or say so in American politics nor any other area in the decision making of America or their masters. Slaves were not even considered as people, but as property. The writers of the Constitution even considered them as three-fifths of a person, thus they were seen and treated as inferior to the Whites.
The beginning of African American slavery in America in 1619 deeply impacted the culture of African Americans. The overall experience that African American slaves encountered throughout their journey to freedom is a tragedy. As a whole, they were continuously disrespected and treated poorly by nearly all white people. Regardless of what type of slave or which geographical area the slave resided in, they were considered property and were never capable of being equal to whites. Nearly two and a half centuries later in 1865, slavery was abolished with passing of the 13th amendment. African American slaves may have been severely mistreated on a daily basis, but they were able to deal with the circumstances that were laid out in front of them by turning to religion and coming together as a family (House).
In the 1960’s there were over 18 million African Americans that resided in the south (African Americans), 90 percent of them were victims of slavery or segregation. Ever since coming to America, African Americans have been victims of hate from the white Americans. The blacks were enslaved soon after coming to America, and once slavery ended the harsh treatment continued. All throughout the 1800’s and 1900’s blacks were segregated and treated like diseased animals. In the 1960’s the Civil Rights Movement came into full swing and they started the beginning of the end of all Jim Crow laws and segregation. The treatment of African Americans in the south has changed over the years. They went from slaves, to separate but equal, to segregated, to free.
A changing attitude in the North toward slavery changed the outlook of life for both free and enslaved blacks. As is shown in the maps of slavery in the U.S. in 1790 and 1830, while the South experienced a massive increase in slavery due to the demand for American cotton, and the west expanded slavery because of the newly available land for farming cotton from the Louisiana Purchase, the North’s slavery greatly dropped off, almost to none. Many slave owners freed their slaves upon death, as it was uneconomical for them to own them in the first place when they did not need them for labor with a more diversified northern economy emerging. Pressure morally to end slavery also led to ...
Slavery has existed in one form or another for centuries and in some places in the world it still exists today. In most places slavery is a way of life and there is nothing that can be done about it, and in southern America that was the case too for over three hundred years. During that period many people fought against slavery and tried to get it abolished from the country, but little did they know how long and how brutal the fight would be. Even after slavery was abolished by the thirteenth amendment in 1865, the African American and some European people suffered even harder times than they did during the years of slavery. After slavery was abolished a few years later the Jim Crow laws were introduced in the south, making it nearly impossible for African Americans to live a free life, and these laws would eventually shape the race relations in the south for several years to come. The Jim Crow laws made African Americans second class citizens to the white people of the south. Even though slavery was abolished in the south, these laws made sure that African Americans were not able to enjoy their new found freedom. These laws were implemented by white community to make sure that they kept the power that they once had over the African Americans, because they were afraid of what might happen if they gain power. The white people in the south were successful in doing so for almost eighty years.
In 1712, a group of slaves in Manhattan, New York set fire to a building owned by one of the slave’s masters. As whites responded to the fire the slaves killed them resulting in nine deaths and several injuries. (New York: The Revolt of 1712, n.d) The militia was called an all of the slaves were caught. Many were tried and executed.1 The governor at the time, Governor Robert Hunter included in his account of the event why he believed the slaves revolted. He stated in a letter the following, “when they (the slaves) resolved to revenge themselves, for hard usage they apprehended to have received from their master (for I can find no other cause).” (Colonial New York’s Governor Reports, n.d.)
For decades, African Americans have been on a racial discrimination and extremely deadly roller coaster ride for justice and equality. In this new day and age, racial tendencies and prejudice has improved since the 1700-1800s,however, they are slowly going back to certain old ways with voting laws and restaurants having the option to serve blacks or not. It all began with the start of slavery around 1619. The start of the New World, the settlers needed resources England and other countries had, which started the Triangle Trade. The New England settlers manufactured and shipped rum to West Africa; West Africa traded slaves to the West Indies for molasses and money . From the very beginning, they treated African Americans like an object or animals instead of another human being with feelings and emotions. Women that were pregnant gave birth to children already classified as slaves. After the American Revolution, people in the north started to realize the oppression and treatment of blacks to how the British was treating them. In 1787, the Northwest Territory made slavery illegal and the US Constitution states that congress could no longer ban the trade of slaves until 1808 (Brunner). However, since the invention of the cotton gin, the increase for labor on the field increased the demand for slave workers. Soon the South went thru an economic crisis with the soil, tobacco, and cash crops with dropped the prices of slaves and increased slave labor even more. To ensure that the slaves do not start a rebellion, congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act in 1793 that made it a federal crime to assist a slave in escaping (Black History Milestones). This is the first of many Acts that is applied to only African-Americans and the start of many ...
...illed, either in the war or as revenge for the rebellion. An additional 13 slaves were hung, along with 3 free African Americans. If the measure of an uprising’s accomplishment was the defeat of slavery, then none of these rebellions succeeded. Slave rebellions in foreign America and the United States never accomplished such greatness of success; the importance of uprising cannot be exaggerated. The continuous threat of physical violence was that slavery would never go unrestricted. Many slaves lived as slave but before they had a free lives but ended up getting kidnapped by slave masters and entered into slave trades or auctions, were they ended being sold numerous times. Solomon Northrup in the movie 12 years a slave is a good example of how some free men became slaves and their problems with trying to cope and resist without losing their life in the meantime.
Slaves were treated as property. Owners had the right to do whatever they wanted to them. They were property, not people. Owners would have the white farm hands stand in the fields and make sure the slaves were working as fast and hard as they could. If they weren’t working as hard as they could and a white farmhand saw it. The slaves would be beaten, and sometimes in severe cases killed.
The first resistance began in the 1830s when Nat Turner, who was an enslaved preacher and mystic led a small revolt in Virginia (Jones 283-284). Nat Turner and his group of bandits went on a killing spree when they realized that no matter what they tried, revolution was the only path to freedom. Nat Turner and his followers killed any white man they saw (about 60). However, Turner was captured after months of evading and executed. But, as the fire was now ignited, only the fuel was missing.
Although in the 19th century many slave owners had strict rules and control over slaves, enslaved individuals established their own way to go against the hardships they were placed in. Most people would have thought it was dangerous to defy a slave owner due to the consequences that were placed against those who resisted. Those who took part in the resistance, weighed their freedom higher than the risk of punishment. The various ways of effectively resisting the slave owner’s control are demonstrated in Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
It can be hard to fully understand the frustration and temptations that come with being a slave. To be treated so inhumane day in and day out by an entire race of people can drive one to the edge. There were some slaves who simply felt that it was their human right and obligation to fight back. There was once a slave revolt that was attempted in Richmond, Virginia in 1800. The revolt was coined and lead by a slave by the name of Gabriel Prosser. He was born a slave in the year 1776 in Henrico County, Virginia. Thomas H. Prosser was Gabriel’s master, as well as the master of Gabriel’s wife and two brothers. All of them aided Gabriel Prosser in his revolution.
When slaves became desperate enough, they openly resisted their masters. Numerous examples show how slaves refused to accept punishment and battled with their white masters who were trying to give punishment. Slave resistance was rarely successful because most masters would not tolerate it. Whether slaves physically or verbally opposed a white man it was dangerous.