Summary: The Institution Of Slavery

SLAVERY
HIS335 CIVIL WAR
MICHAEL J PERRY
Excelsior College

The institution of slavery, the two authors James M. McPherson and Stanley M. Elkins agree on many of the same points of view. The institution of slavery was hard on the slaves themselves often making them live under hard conditions that would not allow for a good life to be lead. These two authors discuss the harsh realities of being a slave, such conditions as unhealthy living conditions, forced labor in the cotton, tobacco, and hemp fields from sun up till sometimes when there was a full moon into the middle of the night with only a short 5 or 10 minute lunch break at noon to eat a few pieces of cold bacon. Families were often spilt up by being sold and religion was something
In Latin America slaves were allowed to go to church and in fact the church made it their right, the church believed in extending its moral authority over all men even slave to the point that they brought slave unions under their control. Slaves in Latin America enjoyed and were allowed to have many of the same religious right that we all have today in our own country. Slaves heading to Brazil would be baptized before leaving for that country and once there be meet by a friar to check conscience, faith, and religion of the new arrivals. As we look into the church, slavery and our own country this is a different matter. The slave in the United States weren’t given the same rights as slave in Latin America as a matter of fact they had no rights because they were property. In fact many slave masters did want their slaves to hear the word but it had to be in the original and purest form with the overseers present and many states passed laws that would not allow blacks to have service before the rising sun or after the setting sun of the same. In other states blacks could only go to white churches but many didn’t have the accommodations or want them there with the white
While on one hand some slave owners understood that success was measured by how much cotton would be picked and sold since this was the main staple crop of the day and if their slaves were hurt it would hurt their success, so some treated their slaves well. Most however did not, with the laws allowing the owners to do with the slaves what they wanted there were few rights the slaves had including protection or any Civil Rights. In many situations if a master treated his slaves poorly the public opium of him would be in question, but anytime you allow a man to have total control over something that they have little or no respect for mistreatment will eventually take place. Elkins discusses how in many circumstances the slave owners would take matters into their own hands to punish their slaves. Elkins has a example of a South Carolina law of 1740 which provided that, “In case any person shall willfully cut out the tongue, put out the eye, castrate, or cruelly scald, burn, or deprive any slave of any limb or member, or shall inflict any other cruel punishment, other than the whipping, or beating with a horse whip, cow skin, switch, or small stick, or by putting irons on, or confining or imprisoning such slave, every such person shall, for every such offense, forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds current money. The catch all to this was that Southern law