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Slavery And Gender Issues Essay

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Slavery and Gender Issues Portrayed in American Literature

One of the most important part in the history was slavery. It played a major role in early 1800’s. It was one of the main reasons which caused the Civil war. Before the start of the Civil war, the cotton gin was invented and there was a rapid widespread of the machine, especially in the south. Machines such as the cotton gin required extensive labor and African Americans had supplied the labor. There were many more jobs which required inexpensive labor. This is when slavery had raised again after the constitution of 1787. The main issues during the age of realism was slavery. Slaves were forced to work for their master in order to survive, they went through harsh punishments and abuse. …show more content…

NightJohn is one of the character in the book of Gary Paulsen. In his book he describes NightJohns life as very merciless.He was a young boy who was brought in to work for Cler Waller’s. He was naked and had scars all over his body from the whippings he had gotten when he had first gotten there. His master, Waller used to put a shackle with rope around his neck and make him run in front of the horses while he yelled and sweared until he had gotten to the plantation. This is child abuse depicted in the books and shows the way children were treated by their masters. In Another autobiography “Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass” he explains how “The white children could tell their ages but the blacks could not tell why they ought to be deprived of the same privilege.” (Paulsen,19) There was no equality between the whites and blacks. The whites had more power and treated the blacks as if they were powerless. This is exactly how the blacks felt-powerless. They were forced to obey their master or else they would be given horrendous punishments.. The slaves were supposed to care about the horses of Colonel Lloyd and if they did not,” They were frequently whipped when least deserving, and escaped the whippings when they were on their best behaviour.” (Paulsen,14) All of this depended on the way Colonel Lloyd 's horses looked

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