Worse than Slavery, by David Oshinsky, is a novel about post-Civil War America, and the life it gave free African Americans in Mississippi and other parts of the South. Oshinsky writes about the strict laws and corrupt criminal justice system blacks faced after they were freed, and while the contents of the book are not typically read about in history textbooks, it is important to understand what life was like for the freedman. Anyone interested in reading his book would profit from it. With the end of the Civil War came the destruction of the old system of slavery. Many white Southerner’s were outraged, but were forced to accept the newly freed blacks. However, the South relied on labor, and with the slavery abolished, they had no one to …show more content…
The wealthy were in need of cheap labor, and with the amount of blacks being sentenced, most jails still functioning were overflowing with them. Leasing was designed for black convicts, and laws passed allowed towns and independent men to lease them for a price. They black convicts were put to work building railroads, levees or doing work for private owners. The convicts did work that free labor could not. Conditions were horrible and they were forced to work knee deep in muck, in malaria-ridden swamps, and to dynamite tunnels. Convicts that were leased to plantations experienced much of the same conditions they were subjected to during enslavement. “The prisoners ate and slept on the bare ground, without blankets or mattresses, and often without clothes.” They were forced to live in their own filth, bloodied floors and vermin infested quarters. Punishments were usually carried out with lashings, however, they were subjected to “natural punishments” such as exhaustion, pneumonia, heatstroke, dysentery, malaria and frostbite. Convicts were more vulnerable than free workers, and paid a greater price. They were forced to do the jobs no one else would, especially when working for the railroad companies. “Convicts regularly were blown to bits tunnel explosions, buried in mountain landslides, and swept away in springtime
Book Critique “Worse Than Slavery” by David M. Oshinsky Yamilex Diaz Stockton University GSS 3204: Incarceration in American Society Dr. Christine Tartaro Historian David M. Oshinsky (Worse Than Slavery) draws on materials throughout the book the history of race and it’s relationship through prisons in the South where the “first circle” was located, the United States own gulag, the Mississippi’s Parchman State Penitentiary. Where the researcher built on others historians studies of emancipation, reconstruction and the post-reconstruction, Oshinsky established Mississippi’s Parchman prison farm as a sharecropping, lynching, convict leasing, and the segregation that replaced slavery. Not only was slavery replaced, but it was shown that
The kkk was flourished in the 1920s because in the 1920s was the time or the renaissance took place and began being popular to move out all of the African Americans because they thought they were beginning to be intellectual. The kkk believed that America was only a home to white christians and that all non caucasian people did not belong in the USA so the kkk members were 100 percent white and christian. The kkk burned barns, houses, and schools that only black people were allowed to go to, and beat black people. The kkk used photos, posters, and videos as propaganda.
First, during the years 1936-1938, 2,300 people, who were former slaves in the United States, had been interviewed about their own experience of slavery by the Federal Writer’s Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA was able to interview people in over seventeen states to preserve the ex-slaves life for people who did not live in those times of slavery. These sources are responses of the ex-slaves feelings about this “peculiar institution”. These interviews were documented to ensure an accurate history of the ex-slaves experiences before they died of old age or disease.
David N. Gellman is a professor of Early American History at DePauw University in Indiana and his written work focuses greatly on colonial America and emancipation in the United States. As an expert in Early American History, David N. Gellman gives us a strong background on the institution of slavery in New York in his book Emancipating New York and the road to the emancipation of African Americans in the state of the New York. David N. Gellman’s book Emancipating New York describes the process by which the state of New York abolished slavery with a combination of white opposition, black resistance and political changes. The abolition of slavery in New York was an effort of the above-mentioned sectors of society and government, all with differing views, interests and agendas.
In the history of the United States, America wasn’t always “the land of the free.” A tragic, beastly action was seen as a good thing to do, treating people as unwanted animals. For 245 years, America dehumanized a group of people, put them to work from dusk to dawn, and tortured them, just because of the color of their skin. This is thoroughly demonstrated in Gary Paulsen’s historical fiction novel, NightJohn, where the act of slavery and all the details to it are clearly pictured, from working in fields to getting flesh ripped off by ferocious dogs. In these descriptions, we witness the brutal punishments, the ways around harsh restrictions, and the support people had for each other during tragedy.
The South needed slaves as a way of running their plantations. The use of slaves was very important to their
Also, slaves were given minimal clothing once a year, and wore them dirty more often than clean. “There were no beds given the slaves, unless one coarse blanket be considered such, and none but the men and women had these” (27). Along with little clothing they were only given rough blankets instead of beds to sleep in. The torture that they suffered would be indescribable
Devin Plascencia HST 2201 Enslavement may have functioned as the single-greatest contributing factor to the economic prosperity of the United States. Even so, enslaved Americans’ experiences were far from singular. Not only did enslaved experiences differ based on the demands of each cash crop – namely tobacco, rice, sugar, and cotton – but also based on the size of slaveholding residencies, urban or rural conditions, and the temperaments of individual enslavers. Historical eras also informed differing slave experiences. Making use of evidence from historians Peter Kolchin and Chandra Manning, I argue that the experiences of enslaved Americans differed between the antebellum period and the Civil War.
Southerners that utilized the free work force consisted primarily of plantation owners, since the land they owned was ideal for cotton production. Due to free labor, plantation owners did not have to pay workers for cotton that was harvested, slaves were considered to be their property. This system that was developed opened a doorway for stronger trade relations with European countries, which led to Southern states heavily relying on cotton production to obtain economic wealth within their society, limiting their industrial growth. What about the North? Northern states didn’t have as much in the means of fertile land for cotton production, so families relied on each other and their community to harvest and trade crops to sustain life.
If the slaves missed a few days working on the plantation because of illness or what the case maybe that resulted in revenue loss. Whereas the North had many other alternatives to making revenue, such as mills and other manufacturing companies; the South basically depending on slaves to have income and to support their
The victory of the Union in the Civil War had given the freedom for most of the slaves. But the freed slaves’ now face a new injustice during the Reconstruction Period. The question of freed blacks’ status after the war in South still maintained unresolved even they passed the Thirteenth Amendment, the abolition of slavery. Later on, in the control of president Andrew Johnson, white southerners reestablished the civil authority in the former Confederate states. They then enacted “Black Codes”-a series of restrictive laws.
In the book Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome written by Dr.Joy DeGruy she explains how the past events in American history has lead to post traumatic slave syndrome. She explains that the way African Americans were treated during the slave era and after has had an everlasting effect on African Americans. The book goes on to describe how America has been denying its past and has not helped to integrated and level all the playing fields for African Americans. The book brings to light how we can try to contribute in making America a fair and equal place for all as most claim it to be. Through the book DeGruy talks about the four major contributing factors for the reason why America is the way it is.
The South had very little industry. It was based off of an agrarian economy (Document B). Slaves picked cotton off the plantation and the farmers sold the cotton to make money (Document A). The Southern weren't able to keep their money without slaves working for free. Slavery was vital in the South for the economy.
After we had fought the brutal, decimating Civil War, white supremacy in the caused our nation to take two steps further than we were even before the War. Obviously, hearing this, sounds like extreme conflict. Ironically enough though, this major step back in history was called, “The Compromise of 1877.” Unfortunately, this “compromise” did way more harm than good for African Americans.
Hahn discusses how blacks exploited the Civil War. Slaves were leaving their owners and enrolling in the Union Army. This made slavery a key issue of the conflict between the North and South. The post-war period was filled with confusion and chaos.