Today slavery is commonly viewed with a mixture of outrage and disgust. Some have declared slavery as the Original Sin of the United States. While many would love to erase the stain of slavery from the history of the United States, there were men and women who defended slavery. One of these slave supporters was Fitzhugh. Some of his arguments are on target; however, Fitzhugh seems blinded by his devotion. He contends that slavery is needed and as beneficial to the slave as the master. Fitzhugh stands on the idea of the benevolent master as a father. Subservience alone may allow mutual affection between two people. He likens the familial bonds of a father to the relationship between master and slave. He states that all society has a substratum people, in the south these people are slaves, and the substratum of the north are factory workers and immigrants. In the south under the protection of slavery the weak and the poor are provided for, not unlike children. Conversely, in the north the poor and the weak are crushed beneath the grind of the free market. Fitzhugh’s comments on the slave master relationship, saying that the needs of the master require the preservation of the slave. The slave he continues is …show more content…
Slavery was abolished. There was resistance to the idea of the happy slave in the north, but the greatest opposition would have come from men like Fredrick Douglass. Douglass had lived as a slave and a freeman, he had suffered as a slave and become a freeman. Men and women who had suffered the burden of slavery and tasted freedom would have spoken out against Fitzhugh’s belief that slaves were happy. Some people may have believed Fitzhugh’s words and consider the black slaves of the south cared for. However, the truth of the south was that the economy of the south needed slaves to survive. It had relied on slaves for so long the loss of slaves as labor broke the southern
Slavery was an issue in early America that plagued the African Americans who were forced into the position. It was believed, in the beginning, that the African Americans were happy to be enslaved, that it was their natural place. Many of the slaves that were taken from Africa couldn’t be more distraught with being sold into slavery but overtime as the older generation that had memories of freedom were replaced by the generation that only knew servitude. This generation was socialized into their position of enslavement, a lack of self-worth, and no access to education gave the illusion of happiness. Luckily around this time white Americans, mostly Northern, saw how wrong these inequalities were and began demanding the abolition of slavery. This
As he was a slave himself in his early years, Frederick Douglass was one who strongly opposed to slavery. Growing up in slavery, he didn’t have a choice. But he won his right to freedom when he escaped to the North. When he grew older and entered the controversial world of politics, he met Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln shared the same views on slavery as Douglass did. In his opinion, Lincoln didn’t want slavery to exist either. But Lincoln was white; unlike Douglass, the ongoing issue of slavery didn’t hit him as hard as it did to Douglass. Frederick Douglass knew what the act of slavery was like, he experienced it. So he despised the fact that Lincoln chose uniting the Union as one over ending slavery, immediately. It was clear what Lincoln’s act was; many critics of his called him a tyrant and that was wa...
In his speech, Frederick Douglass made it clear that he believed that the continued toleration and support of slavery from both a religious and legal standpoint was utterly absurd when considering the ideals and principles advocated by America’s forefathers. He began by praising the American framers of the Constitution, an...
Slavery thus became an increasingly Southern institution. Abolition of slavery in the North, begun in the revolutionary era and largely complete by the 1830s, divided the United States into the slave South and the free North. As this happened, slavery came to define the essence of the South: to defend slavery was to be pro-Southern, whereas opposition to slavery was considered anti-Southern. Although most Southern whites did not own slaves (the proportion of white families that owned slaves declined from 35 percent to 26 percent between 18...
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...
Fitzhugh calls the attention of his audience by showing how slaves have to be controlled by the rich and powerful leaders. As a pro-slavery activist, Fitzhugh tries to persuade his audience that higher people need to be in charge. He points out that “protection cannot be efficient without the power of control”, by doing this he shows his audience, abolitionist, that they can be in control. He affects the audience by giving them power and control over the weak. Not only does he state that slaves are weak, but he also states that the poor are considered weak. He includes this to make the weak live in fear and so his audience can gain power and protection. By the time this article came out white, rich people were angry that African Americans were
Slavery is the South Essay #3 Slavery played a dominating and critical role in much of Southern life. In the struggle for control in America, slavery was the South’s stronghold and the hidden motive behind many political actions and economic statistics. By dominating Southern life, slavery also dominated the economic and political aspects of life in the South from 1840 to 1860. By the 1840’s and 50’s the Southern economy had almost completely become slave and cash crop agriculture based. Without slaves in the south a person was left either landless and penniless or struggling to get by on a small farm. However, even though slaves dominated the southern economy, slaveholders only included about 2 to 3 percent of the population. This small percentage was the amount of people successful in a slave based, cash crop agricultural, Southern economy. Therefore, the Southern economy was controlled and dominated by those who did and did not have slaves. Furthermore, with the high demand for Southern items in Europe and Northern America more slaves were needed in the South to produce these cash crops. Without slaves there would be no cotton, tobacco, or sugar production and without these integral items the Southern economy would absolutely fail. The South depended on slaves to fuel their economy and therefore slavery dominated their economy. Between 1840 and 1860 many political issues, debates, and actions were inflamed by slavery. As America grew, the South wanted more slave states...
First, People who defended slavery may have thought is that they wish that they weren’t buying into slavery. Also they we whipped for no reason and begged for food and water from their slave masters. They worked long hours and what they got in return is a little food and water. On Frederick Douglass arguments for slavery is that Douglass was seldom whipped by his old master Colonel Lloyd. He also suffered hunger
Southern sympathizers argue that abolishing slavery would ultimately destroy the southern economy. According to USHistory, “Defenders of slavery argued that if all the slaves were freed, there would be widespread unemployment and chaos.” Former slaves would struggle to find work and contribute to the economy and landowners wouldn't be able to maintain. After Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery, landowners no longer had free labor to maintain their land and since landowners could not maintain their land, the southern economy declined drastically. Since African-Americans were “property” that slave owners purchased, many believed it was completely absurd that President Lincoln freed
In the 1860’s, the US was in the middle of the Civil War. North wanted to abolish slavery, but South was against it, and some people believed it was somehow the cause of the war. Frederick Douglass was one of the many people that was against slavery. He, in his 4th of July speech, discussed that slaves should be free and they should have equal rights and it was his goal to make his audience take action against the issue, making slaves free and equal. Another person that was considered against slavery was Abraham Lincoln. He freed the slaves, because he needed more men to reach his goal, which was peace among US. I will be discussing if Douglass and Lincoln could achieve what they wanted.
Douglass as a freeman goes to New Bedford and beholds a site that surprises him. Douglass was expecting to see a poor city because there were no slaves, yet “he found [himself] surrounded with the strongest proofs of wealth (pg.115).” Douglass addresses this fact because most people in the South thank slavery for their riches; on the other hand many are trapped in crippling poverty. Some slaves thought their prospects were better as slaves because they were shown the luxurious side of their master’s life and “their poverty as the necessary consequence of their being non-slaveholders (pg.114).” Douglass’s view on non slaveholders was solidified by how the masses in the south were so poor and many assumed it was because they did not own slaves. Also, disloyalty among slaves were caused by their ambition to become a house slave in the master’s luxurious home, but in the eye’s of a slave anything is more sumptuous than a shack. The economic value of the mythology of the slavery is a delusion and the fog was lifted by the night and day aspects of The North and The South economies.
Through 1619-1864 is remembered to be the theme of one the darkest times in history. Over 10 million people shipped from Africa to the land which we call America in terrible conditions, many died from the trip which would start Slavery. ‘’Slavery is the condition in which one person is owned as property by another and is under the owner's control, especially in involuntary servitude.’’ Slavery was a huge part of the south and its success, it helped the South's economy greatly. Slavery created tension between the North and the South, which led to the one of the biggest war ever fought on United States soil in history. Harriet Jacobs was born into being a slave around 1813 and wrote about the horrors of her being a slave in North
The free laborer is dependent on employment and without it he will starve, but the slave is protected and cared for where he works or not. The example goes further by stating that when they were emancipated, they had the same treatments as the Irish did and now with no one to care for them, with no master, they are worse off without slavery, they are “destitute and savage”. Fitzhugh also states that the white-family enforces morality and assimilation upon their slaves. The constant interaction and supervision between slaves and masters created well-ordered families. He then also points out that nothing in the Bible or Christianity that is strictly against slavery, implying that using religion to attempt to abolish slavery is technically not true and by doing so “reduces the Bible to a mere allegory, to be interpreted to suit every vicious taste and wicked
After reading over the writing of George Fitzhugh and his argument that Slavery is Better than Liberty and Equality, I was shocked at his personal standings. He believed that slavery was not such a bad thing. He saw the slaves were treated fair, their jobs were benifitual for them because slavery would be an easier way of life than rather than having a typical labor paying job, and that they enjoyed the jobs they worked so hard on due to the fact that it was allowing them freedom. A statement that he made that was the most shocking to me was "slaves of the South are the happiest, and in some sense, the freest people in the world" this is such a crazy view on the lives of these people.
Although Northerners thought that slavery should be completely abolished for ethical reasons, Southerners disagreed, defending their position with the belief that the abolition of slavery had the ability to ruin their area’s economy.