The Role Of Slaves In The 1800s

In the mid-nineteenth-century, the economic power switched in the South from the “upper South” to the “lower South,” which was expanding agriculturally. This switch resulted in the growth of a cotton-based economy. Economically, the change from cultivating tobacco and rice to cotton helped immensely. The high demand for cotton led to tremendous profits in the South and this drew the population to move to the prospering agricultural lands. The increase in cotton farming made African American slaves a necessity to the white males. These slaves were required to obey their masters and work the fields all day. The increase in slavery changed the social systems down South; the order now went African American slaves, poor white males, and at the top was wealthy white plantation owners.

Slavery was the driving force for most of the political controversies during the 19th century. Not only has slavery created political controversies in the United States, but throughout the world.The Fugitive Slave Acts, revolts, and a political argument indicating if slavery should be legalized are the main aspects that caused these disputes.

In the south they have to work in the fields and in the house if they did not do what the master said they would be whip. The slaves would be treated like animal. The slaves of the north were more like maids, and the slaves’ owners many time freed their slaves in the north.

The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South takes a profound look into slavery in America from the beginning. The author, Kenneth Stampp, tells the story after doing a lot of research of how the entire South operated with slavery and in the individual states. The author uses many examples from actual plantations and uses a lot of statistics to tell the story of the south. The author’s examples in his work explains what slavery was like, why it existed and what it done to the American people.

By the early 1800’s, the vastly growing cotton industry soared as cotton became the nation’s most important and valuable export. The development of the cotton gin only further propelled the cotton industry into economic success. The cotton gin took care of the hard tedious work that slaves used to have to undertake and increased the pace and the quantities in which cotton bales were produced. Working among the cotton fields, slaves adopted the gang system. The gang system was most commonly used in the cotton industry; to speed up production but also formally used among tobacco and sugar production. Under the gang system, slaves suffered long days of intense labor working from sunrise till sunset. The gang system was the most harsh of the two

Martin Luther King once said: “We are not makers of history, we are made of history.” We all can connect with this quote to a certain degree. A lot has happened in our history and as a result of that we are who we are today, even though sometimes history is not in our own hands to chose. The book, Soul by Soul by Walter Johnson tells the readers story of slavery that's took place on nineteenth-century, before the civil war on America by going away from the cotton plantations into the slave market itself which was the heart of the domestic slave trade. The story takes place on New Orleans. The New Orleans slave market was the largest in the nation, where thousands of men, women, and children were priced an sold. Walter Johnson incorporates

The American Civil War was the war that ended slavery. The civil war was known as one of the bloodiest and deadliest conflicts the United States had ever seen. The loss of life was an estimated amount of 620,000 men. It lasted four years, from April 12, 1861, through May 9, 1865. However, while slavery was a major cause of the American Civil War, there were several other major factors.

Slaves were treated like property that plantation owners could do whatever they wanted with. In the south, slaves were a symbol of success ,so, plantation owners wanted as much slaves as they could afford (7). Plantation owners with 20 or more slaves were considered the true upper class (7). When slaves arrived to a plantation they would usually have to build their own houses. Most of the time the houses were made out of wooden shacks with dirt floors (13). When the slaves would go to bed they would sleep on straws or old rags which didn’t provide any warmth (4). The plantation owners provide the clothes for the slaves when they got to the plantation. Unfortunately, the clothes were really bad material and didn’t fit properly (4). Slaves were expected to work morning to night in the cotton fields. During harvest season, most of the slaves would work a 18 hour day (10). A women named Sarah Ashley, who experienced the slavery, said “I used to have to pick cotton and sometimes I pick 300 pound and tote it a mile to the cotton house. Some pick 300 to 800 pound cotton and have to tote the bag the whole mile to the gin. If they didn’t do they work they get whip till they have blister on them... (14).” It was very exhausting, hot and tiring work to work in the cotton fields. It was also a lot of work physically with no breaks. Even kids at the age of 12 would be almost working the same jobs as the adults (10). Slaves that got

Have you ever wondered how life was for the slaves in the South? Slaves in the South suffered through many consequences. For example, they suffered through many whippings with cow skin if they didn't obey their master, they also got separated from their family mostly the fathers, so, they can be sold to a very mean slave owner. Even if they were living a miserable life on the farms, they had their own culture and they managed to even get married in the farmland or where they worked.

Slaves were not allowed to own any items for the reason that slaves were property themselves. The selling and purchasing of slaves is done under the idea that they are used as items and treated as items. Document 3 clearly stated slaves were unable to own any source of equipment of property.

Slavery is the ownership of a person or persons. Slavery in the United States was the legal institution of human chattel enslavement, primarily of Africans and African Americans, that existed in the United States of America in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 1800's slavery was a key issue that divided our state into two territories. the government had ideas on how to deal with slavery but their ideas were different from individuals and groups. the actions taken by the federal government and the Abolitionist Movement helped shape our history and the freedom and rights of African-Americans. The government's efforts to deal with slavery differ from individuals and or group efforts to deal with the Institution.

Slavery was an immense part of living in the United States from the 18th and 19th century. Slaves were seen as property of their masters and treated like animals without rights. In the minds of their masters slaves were seen as creatures that were bought to do their work. Slavery took away basic human rights from the people after they became slaves and slaveholders used punishments, rules and beatings to do this.

American slavery has always been a topic people believe as brutal, cruel, inhumane, and horrible. To many people, slavery wasn’t a lifestyle, it was a job. As we know, slavery officially ended in 1865, but do we really know the purpose behind slavery? One aspect about slavery is that we really don’t know the purpose of slavery. The purpose of slavery was to serve, labor, pleasure and greed.

During the civil war, many Americans lost and risked their lives to fight for their beliefs, emancipating the slaves or the White supremacy. The civil war resulted with the freedom of slaves and the period of Reconstruction (1865-1877). The Reconstruction tried to solve the problem of what would happen to the freed men and how the government would reintegrate the Southern States into the Union. Both of the said events caused social, political, and economic changes to American society.

Though much of slavery was marked by harshness and brutality, it remains certain that most of the slaves were treated differently from the African slaves in the sense that, although they were not allowed to change employer, they were paid a reasonable wage. Evidently, these slaves were for the most part prisoners of war, bought in the market, become slaves after being sentenced for crimes or to pay off debts. It should also be noted that slaves could be anything from doctors, professors, administrators to civil servants.