Slavery Dbq Essay

Slavery has been a major component of human civilization all throughout history. People turn to slavery for many reasons, such as fear of different ethnicities and fear that these new foreign people will take over land that is not theirs. The conditions under which slaves work and live varies greatly by the time and location of which the slaves lived. Slaves play a major role in their society and contribute greatly to their communities, often forming one of the largest masses of the population. Though the accuracy of the information from primary sources may be tainted with exaggeration and bias, it is easy to deduce from primary works the treatment of slaves and the working and living conditions surrounding them. According to many sources,

Slavery has dependably been the most stunning wonders of our reality. Slavery, independent from anyone else appears to be exceptionally unnatural and incites blended sentiments from the heart of every individual. A few people are relatives of those who used to be slaves years prior. Some confronted "slavery" even in the contemporary times. What 's more, a few people do not comprehend the likelihood of one individual considering another person its slave. Slavery, by definition, is the primary authentic type of misuse, under which a slave alongside various actualizes of generation turns into the private property of the slave proprietor. At the end of the day slavery changes an individual person into a "thing" or even some sort of customer item. These spectacles have done a ton of mischief to millions of individuals, taking without end lives and pulverizing the destiny of the general population who could have been upbeat. It is basic learning that slavery was disposed of with the end of the Civil War. The South was discharged from the load that made the slavery to stop and that began crushing the partialities concerning the color of skin. These days, it is as of now history. Throughout the paper, the topics that will be discussed is a life of a slave on how they were mistreated, the Emancipation Proclamation, and lastly Lincoln most famous speech; The Gettysburg Address”.

Starting from a slave’s birth, this cruel process leads to a continuous cycle of abuse, neglect, and inhumane treatment. To some extent, slave holders succeed because they keep most slaves so concerned with survival that they have no time or energy to consider freedom. This is particularly true for plantation slaves where the conditions of slave life are the most difficult and challenging. However, slave holders fail to realize the damage they inadvertently inflict on themselves by upholding slavery and enforcing these austere laws and attitudes.

There were many things that were going on during the seventeen century. That was also one major thing that had shaped the aspect of the south and the southern colonies. The major thing was slavery. Slavery was work being done by not getting paid, and being forced to do the work. Slaves where being miss treated and it was unfair, it made the population sky raise, and it cause there to be two different agricultural zones.

After reading Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, it is clear to see the true horrors behind the entirety of slavery. It is one thing to learn about it from a textbook or to sit through a lecture, but it is a completely different experience to get an account of how grossly inhumane, frightening, and appalling slavery really was from someone who experienced the terrors first-hand. Reading this narrative provided extremely descriptive details of how slaves truly were treated. Douglass recounted the time where he had often:

After analyzing and interpreting the speakers purpose's in “Old Plantation Days”, Speech at hartford, Connecticut from Abraham Lincoln, and Sojourner Truth's “Ain't I a Woman” I concluded what the speakers purpose was for giving or publishing their literature and their personal bias on slavery. According to the text of Abraham Lincoln, he could go either way on slavery but this is because if he chooses to turn to on side or the other, half of the country would be mad and may rebel or opt out of the “More Perfect Union” (The Country) and I believe his bias is that he thinks slavery is wrong. I can safely say Sojourner Truth is against slavey for many reasons and she has an opinion on how woman deserve rights as well as men. The speaker in “Old Plantation Days” thinks that a slave owner is saving the slave because they take care of them and she claims black people who went into the real world and gained freedom suffered rather than the slaves who stay back home with their masters.

It is well known in today’s American society that slavery is horrific. However, throughout the 1800s, slavery was a common practice in the South. Slave owners sought great profit in the free labor of slaves and saw no harm in slavery. It is well known that slavery was substandard for the slaves, but slaves such as Frederick Douglass viewed it as also unfavorable for the slaveholders. Throughout Douglass’s book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass tells of his experiences as a slave and provides numerous examples of how slavery is substandard for slaveholders.

The life of a slave was an unfair and unjust degrading way to live. "I was often awakened at the dawn of the day by the most heart-rending shrieks, the louder that they screamed the harder they got whipped. Where the blood ran the fastest, there he whipped the longest" (Douglass, 3). Slaves were classified as property; they were inferior

Acquiring new land in the west brought about many arguments regarding the issue of slavery. The main problem was whether or not slavery should be allowed in the new western territories. Due to this issue, any further expansion was halted. Slavery was a huge issue between the north and south. Each region had their own strong opinions. These opinions made it difficult for the two political parties to earn approval from the vast beliefs from all the different religions. Northerners opposed the idea of slavery in the western land. They believed that if slavery was allowed in the new territories that wealthy southern farmers would purchase the land to create large plantations. Additionally, northerners preferred not to co-exist with African Americans,

No matter how tired, sore, or sick they were feeling, they were required to do what they were ordered. They worked outside in all types weather. Hot, cold, rain or shine. The living conditions were not any better. Slaves were stuffed in a small crowded room in cabins. They were only given two coarse linen shirts per year, along with linen trousers, a pair of trousers for winter, one pair of stockings, and one pair of shoes. When those clothes gave out on them, they had no choice but to remain naked until they received their next set of clothing. They lived without any beds or furniture; most of the time they slept on a hay bed they made. With hard labor and tough living conditions, there was still so much more torture the slaves had to experience. If they disobeyed their slaveholders, they would get beaten until blood began to show. There were attempts to escape slavery into freedom, but taking this risk

Plantation owners thought that this extreme discipline would make the slaves too scared to rebel. In South Carolina it was said that "a slave owner would put nails in a barrel sticking out on the inside of the barrel, then put the slave in and roll him/her down a very long and steep hill. Another punishment slave owners used was to whip their slaves. Other slave owners in Virginia smoked their slaves. This involved whipping them and putting them in a tobacco smokehouse".("life of a slave" thinkquest) Other punishments were getting beaten with various objects such as a chair, broom, tongs, shovel, shears, knife handles, the heavy end of a woman’s shoe, and an oak club.("life of a slave" thinkquest) Although slaves lived terrible lives, they found hope in religion. Many converted to Christianity which did not please many whites.

On May 25, 1787, George Washington headed the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia with 55 delegates, which represent 13 states, excluding Rhode Island. Unbeknown to him, this debate would change the status of slaves. Slavery in some of the northern states had already begun to be outlawed, due to the cries of outrage regarding the abusive treatment and proclamation that slaves were not property, but human beings. However, the southern states were determined that this was a matter for individual states and the Constitution should not be a part or concern of the constitution.

Being a free black in the time period of 1776 - 1861 may have sounded like a good thing. Yes, free blacks were living in the Northern states, free from slavery, but their rights were very limited compared to whites. Slavery was still very common in the Southern states. Slavery is when a person is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them. In this case, Africans were taken to America to obey their masters; which were whites. Slaves had to do hard agricultural work in the plantations for long hours under the blazing sun. Slaves also worked in their houses, cooked, cleaned, and cared for their children. It was clear why being a slave was not the ideal life. Although being a free black was safer than being a slave, free blacks did not have equal rights as whites did. Free blacks had very limited political, economic, and personal rights.

After industrial revolution, as America expanded, so did the slavery. As the industries expanded towards south, demand of slavery increased. It hurts to read through these chapters how the slavery was so popular in this era and how they were treated. One master said, “I govern them without the whips”. Another master said, “I should sell them if they do not conduct themselves as I wish”. In 1817, when the when American Colonization Society began to transport a few freed blacks to Africa, but the southern plantation system was expanding rapidly that led to slave states from eight to fifteen in just fifty years. The law called them as the movable property of whites.

The controversies surrounding slavery have been established in many societies worldwide for centuries. In past generations, although slavery did exists and was tolerated, it was certainly very questionable,” ethically“. Today, the morality of such an act would not only be unimaginable, but would also be morally wrong. As things change over the course of history we seek to not only explain why things happen, but as well to understand why they do. For this reason, we will look further into how slavery has evolved throughout History in American society, as well as the impacts that it has had.