The History Of Emotional Intelligence

Throughout the years of slavery, slaves were subjected to various forms of physical and emotional tortures being forced upon them by their slave masters. For a slave woman, one of these hardships included that of being separated from her children, never to see them again, through the selling of slaves. If a slave master were to decide that they wanted to buy or sell only one slave from a family no questions were asked. Harriet Beacher Stowe, a white, and the daughter of a priest with a strong religious background, found herself able to relate to a slave woman in terms of the feeling brought from losing a child. In 1849, Stowe lost her infant son Charlie to cholera. This experience left her devastated. 1848 brought about the beginning of the …show more content…

A person’s EQ is an important skill that can be developed over a person’s lifetime. It is controlled by the part of the brain called the amygdala, which psychologists say is what controls emotion and then gives a person the ability to connect and communicate with others around you. Emotional intelligence branches out to all aspects of life and allows one to become better at controlling anger, making decisions, and keeping a positive attitude. Emotional Intelligence was not an official term in terms of psychology until the 1990’s. Before this, the emotions of women were viewed as a weakness by men and the rest of society and one was considered to be valuable to society if they could live without showing emotion in a situation. Stowe, having used the emotional intelligence of women as something that makes them more capable in society to determine what was right and wrong through communication with others, was ahead of her time in her advanced …show more content…

That being said, however, there were two different types of slave masters. The two forms were benign and demonic slavery. Benign slavery, while still being a form of slavery, was tolerable for slaves and in some instances even pleasant. Slaves were clothed, fed, and given basic rights. Under demonic slavery, however, slaves were subjected to being physically tortured and beaten. Eliza, under the rule of Master Shelby lived in benign slavery. Because they were kind slaveholders, Mrs. Shelby showed her distaste in her husband’s choice to sell Henry. It was demonic slaveholders that pressed for the passage of laws like the fugitive slave law in 1850. This law demanded the return of any runaway slaves. If a white person would claim a black person as a slave, that person would immediately be returned to the south as a slave even if they were a free man. This act also tore black families apart. Solomon Northup for example, was wrongly turned in as a slave and was kept away from his family for over 10 years. Eric Foner, a professor of history at Columbia University explained that it was disturbing to him “to remember that there were thousands of free born Americans who fled to Canada because their freedom could no longer be taken for granted in the United States” (PBS). It would have been easy for people like Senator Bird in Uncle Tom’s Cabin to pass a law such as the fugitive slave law because they most likely would never see