The video made me feel as there is more to know about slavery, than what is presented through word of mouth and classrooms.…
The documentary, “The Two Towns of Jasper,” was excellent in my mind for many different reasons. It told of a black man being chained to the back of a pickup for three miles by three white men. The documentary consisted of good interviews, captive images, and the information was quality and factual.…
For one, slaves were treated as unruly, uncivilized animals. The film opens by showing a group of slaves exhaustedly walking in the sweltering heat. They hardly had clothes on, their ankles sliced so deep from being chained together and their faces in masks guarding their mouths as though…
Slavery, the practice of being possessed by someone as a labor force or for his personal needs, was a ubiquitous workforce in nearly every part of the world. Slaves served as the propelling engine behind the Southern labor force for a long time. These African-Americans first arrived in ships from Africa and progressively started setting in the South, were they worked and served as a labor powerhouse. These slaves were used predominately for plantations, were treated as animals and worked under extremely harsh conditions with no pay. Historians have argued for a long time on whether slavery destroyed the black family. Despite the fact that Eugene D. Genovese states that slaves created there own system of family and values, Wilma A. Dunaway clearly proves that due to the harsh living conditions, the inevitable separation between families and the absolute lack of freedom of slaves, destroyed the black family.…
Around 1790, there were 700,000 slaves in the United States. And by 1860, the number of slaves moved up to 4 million (lecture). The reason why the numbers had changed so drastically was because of the cotton boom. The cotton growing was concentrated on plantations rather than the small farms. Around 75% of slaves lived in groups of around 10 or more slaves, which made changes in the African American slave communities and culture (lecture). With the slave communities developing, they were very unstable. Around 1 million slaves migrated from the upper to lower south, which split the communities and families apart. Since the slave communities were growing, Southern African American communities were different from other slave groups such as Cuba where they constantly imported slaves from Africa. With being a slave, it resulted in a lot of health challenges but the planters tried to keep them healthy enough to work. The death rate for the slave children were rather high because the women worked hard and were not nourished enough. Their masters provided them with food and supplemented the food by growing and hunting (lecture). The slave children did not work the fields at the start of their lives. They were to observe how to survive as slaves. They learned what the penalties were for disobedience and observed how white men violated black women. They saw how slaves were sold away for punishment and also for profit. The older children were to take care of the younger ones and there was no schools for the slave kids. Adult slaves served as servants, artisans, skilled workers, or most were field workers. Most of the skilled workers were men rather than women. Around 75% worked in the field directly affected by the cotton plantation labor system (lecture). With the cotton, it demanded a year rounds worth of labor. The owners divided the slaves up into 20-25 slaves. At harvest they would work 18-hour days. In the evening the women would…
Slaves masters would use violence to not only keep the slaves in line but to motive them to work harder. Violence did not only effect the slaves physically it affected them psychologically. Slave masters would use all sort of methods to break slaves to make them more submissive. Slaves would have to witness others slaves get beaten to frighten other slaves for committing the same offence as the slave being beaten. Slaves would have watched as their family member and/or other slaves’ family member be separated like in the book where Eliza was torn away from her children. In the book Solomon mentions that after Eliza’s children were taken away from her how she became “shell of a woman she once was”. Some slaves if they were female had to live in fear of being raped by the slave master. We see this in the beginning of the book with Eliza’s daughter who was not sold with her mother because Theophilus Freeman want to keep her until she was presumably of child bearing age and to sell her to the highest bidder where she would likely be raped. In the book, we also see where Patsy is repeatedly raped by Master Epps and not only did she suffer from the rapes. Not only did Patsy had to endure though Master Ford raping her she also had to deal with the jealousy of the Epps’s wife. Having living in that sort of environment, would have the slaves too terrified to disobey. Even though violence kept slaves to afraid to go against their slave master, slave masters us religion as well to keep slaves in…
Based on the information in the videos the enslaved lives were difficult. The torture that they had to go through they knew that it wasn’t right and it seemed like they couldn’t do anything about it. They weren’t allowed to sleep on beds, they had to sleep on the floor. Enslaves weren’t allowed to have an education and couldn’t even pick up a book they were only taught to mind their masters. If they used self-defense it was basically a crime and they were beaten. Enslaves were treated like animals and were sold like animals to the highest…
A lack of education led the blacks to poverty and they struggled every day just to survive. They were limited in the paths they could take, forcing many to hustle on the streets or worse. It was not that they chose this, but due to society’s lack of choices for them.…
Many of us can learn about the treatment of slaves as property, freedom, and abuse of enslaved women in the lives of the slaves and slaveholders during this period. Slaveholders holders believed that slaves were incapable of being educated, participate in society and to be capable of having manners.…
Slaves endured slavery and discrimination with leisure time activities and slaves churches. Slaves were tortured for almost the whole day with barely any time to rest. Their fingers feel numb, their eyes feel tired, and their legs feel broken. They worked without pay. They started to work in the morning until dawn. The men had to work harder than the women. The women worked as housemaids, cooks, babysitters, and doctors. The slaves were living in dilapidated huts and hoses. Every Time the slaves disobeyed, they faced extreme torture. They were sometimes used as a horse to plow the field.…
They were treated inhumanely, and were not looked at as human beings but as possessions that were inferior. African slaves resisted their enslavement by running away, fighting back, poisoning food, and plotting riots. They were beaten, whipped lynched and abused for simply trying to escape for freedom.…
In the South slavery was a main thing, it was a struggle to take control in America. Slavery was the main stronghold and motive behind many political actions. Which is why slavery being dominate in political and economic which made it a big thing from 1840 to 1860. Which is why he way life in the South for the slaves involved resistance and survival. Slaves have been around for a long time. From slave farmers from the South. To the North where men believed that women shouldn't be allowed to work. Even though slavery was terrible some slaves managed to escape their terrible life and did it with success. While unfortunately some slaves didn’t escape well like others and had to suffer the consequences from their masters.…
Slavery and the Making of America is a book split into 6 chapters. The book starts off by explaining history about African slaves, and their bringing to America. Africans’ were kept as slaves in the United States for at least twelve generations. Slavery was one of the main components that led to the building of America. Well-endowed white men would buy slaves to work on their plantations. Slaves eventually created a basis for America’s wealth as a nation, especially with their labor put towards farming cotton.…
When the African Americans were introduced to slavery, they didn't accept what was happening to them and how they were being treated, but as time passed working for their masters, not only physical, but mental abuse took its toll and soon they began to believe the way they were living was normal and alright.…
Slavery and Its Impact on Both Blacks and Whites Slavery and Its Impact on Both Blacks and Whites The institution of slavery was something that encompassed people of all ages, classes, and races during the 1800's. Slavery was an institution that empowered whites and humiliated and weakened blacks in their struggle for freedom. In the book, the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, slave Frederick Douglass gives his account of what it was like being a slave and how he was affected. Additionally, Douglass goes even further and describes in detail the major consequences the institution of slavery had on both blacks and whites during this time period. In the pages to come, I hope to convince you first of the mental/emotional and physical damage caused by slavery on black slaves, and secondly the damage slavery caused in the mental well-being of white slave-owners.…