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.
Before Reconstruction, every African’s life was different. Some Africans worked on plantations, which meant they worked from sunrise to sunset, six days a week. They would even get food that wasn’t capable of being eaten. The plantation slaves lived in small shakes that had a dirt floor and little to no furniture. If there was a cruel overseer, otherwise known as a supervisor, on a large plantation, Africans would be treated like they worked on a small farm that didn’t grow enough crops for them to eat. Overseers were paid to get as much work as they could get out of the Africans, they would do whatever means they had to. If slaves complained to the slaveholder about being treated unfairly,
Although slavery was declared over after the passing of the thirteenth amendment, African Americans were not being treated with the respect or equality they deserved. Socially, politically and economically, African American people were not being given equal opportunities as white people. They had certain laws directed at them, which held them back from being equal to their white peers. They also had certain requirements, making it difficult for many African Americans to participate in the opportunity to vote for government leaders. Although they were freed from slavery, there was still a long way to go for equality through America’s reconstruction plan.
The South killed Reconstruction most by their resistance against the North. Reconstruction started after the Civil war between 1865-1876. During the Civil War, the North and South battled, (The North won) and the South laid in ruins. The United States was willing to let the South back in under some conditions, and that marked the day Reconstruction started. During the Reconstruction era, the South resisted the North’s help and Reconstruction died. Resistance means to oppose an offer or an offering. Southern resistance killed Reconstruction socially, economically, and politically.
Following the civil war, the south killed the reconstruction of the United States. (Reconstruction was putting the country back together after the Civil War) There are many reasons why, the south slowed down the reconstruction of the United States, the main reason was freedmen were not seen as equals to the white. The blacks were forced to vote for republicans, the blacks were looked at as free but not as equals in the south, the most powerful people lawyers, doctors and dentists who could make a difference were members of the Ku Klux Klan, who were against reconstruction. The southern leaders of the government only wanted white people in power, the north pulled out all its soldiers from the south, making it even more difficult for the freedmen to be free and equal.
Although the North and South had many advantages over one another, they each had as many disadvantages. The North had to conquer a large amount of land in order to win the Civil War. They were also invading unfamiliar land. The North may of had a strong Navy, but overall their soldiers were not properly skilled compared to the South. The South did have the advantage of good officers to train the soldiers, but they had very few people for the job. Most of the South's population were slaves. The South had very few factories to make supplies and even with the supplies they had it was had to distribute it because most of the railroad was in the North. During the Civil War the North and South had both advantages as disadvantages.
The American dream is described as the “dream of land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity each according to ability or achievement”. In the South, the Reconstruction Era took place officially from 1865-1877. However, events still continued after 1877. As slaves were now free after the civil war, White Northerners, educated Northern Blacks, Newly Freed Slaves, and Yeoman farmers all wanted the same thing–for everyone to be equal. In the Reconstruction Era, African Americans were given many opportunities such as jobs, education, freedom, citizenship and protection of their rights.
During Reconstruction, there was a group called the K.K.K. who killed color people for fun and they wore mask and pretended to be ghost. Also poverty was still an issue in the south. Industrialization in the South was too slow. Sharecropping and tenant farming were bad because they usually brought more complications like who would get what, and that wasn 't fair to the labors on the land. Taxes were elevated in order to rebuild the South. Jim Crow Laws which supported racial segregation. These failures during the Reconstruction made it harder in the North and the South.
The reasons why the Southern states succeeded from the Union were economics, westward expansion, political breakdown, and an enraged populace (Schultz, Mays, Winfree, 2010). The economic situation in the South was less advanced than in the North. The South was very dependent on waterways for trade exchange and less so on the railroad. They grew cotton almost exclusively, depending on the assistance of slaves to produce the crop. The North, on the other hand, grew more staple crops and used all means of transport for trade. The Market Revolution caused the differences to deepen, as the Southern plantation owners were reluctant to experience change. Why should they since things had
Eric Foner, the author of our textbook, “Give Me Liberty!” calls the Industrial Revolution, urbanization and accompanying economic expansion of American society in the early nineteenth century a “market revolution”. There are many significant changes and developments that make up this revolution, a few of them being the creation of canals, steamboats, roads and the cotton gin. Foner also describes how the revolution affected differently the north and the south. In the south, they were focused on agriculture. They were reliant on the production of cotton and required many slaves to make that happen. The north on the other hand, was more focused on industrialization and urbanization. They were building roads, canals,
Slavery in the south had grown in the early 1800’s. Importation of slaves had been outlawed since 1808 thus requiring the future of the trade to be a domestic
A first effect of the Civil war were the new Amendments made in favor of African Americans. The first was the thirteenth Amendment. The emancipation proclamation that Lincoln had put in place only banned slavery out of his jurisdiction. After the Civil war however, the thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude -involuntary slavery- in U.S, except for a crime punishment. It was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, then by the House on January 31, 1865. This was finally the ban of slavery. The second was the fourteenth Amendment. Adopted July 9, 1868, this Amendment gave all citizens rights and equal protection under the law. It was an effort to help resolve some of the issues of free slaves after Civil War. It was a step towards the right direction during reconstruction due to
Undoubtedly, the Union’s victory also brought resolution to many social problems. Since slaves were now free, they needed the same rights as other citizens, which the government gave them. African American citizens petitioned the Tennessee legislation to grant them equal rights, and showed how important this cause was to the black community. The federal government set up agencies like the Freedmen’s Bureau to help new Freedmen, or newly freed slaves.
Having slaves took jobs away from common people, causing the southern states to fall behind the northern states. That isn’t the only thing that was hurting our economy back then because of the creation the cotton gin. This creation made the economy fail because we focused more on it than industrializing. At the time, even farmers were failing because they didn’t get an education, so they didn’t know how to take care of soil, so they didn’t know about crop rotation. Due to the fact that North Carolina was so isolated, farmers could never even sell out of state because there aren’t any
Instead of saying that the American Civil War was a political contest, it was the result of the economic conflict between the South and North. In other words, the civil war was a war between the North and the South in order to protect their own interests.