...Rape During The Antebellum Period The first African slaves arrived in Virginia, North America in 1619. As the plantations of the antebellum south flourished, the African slave trade gained momentum. Between the 16 and 19th centuries, America had an estimated 12 million African slaves (Slavery in the United States, Junius P. Rodriguez ). Enslavement of the African Americans formally commenced in the 1630s and 1640s. By 1740, colonial America had a fully developed slavery system in place, granting slave owners an absolute and tyrannical life-and-death authority over their slaves or 'chattels' and their children (Slavery in the United States, Junius P. Rodriguez ). Stripped of any identity or rights, enslaved black men and women were considered legal non-persons, except in the event of a crime committed. Documents and research on the slave era in the antebellum south are awash with horror stories of the brutal and inhuman treatment of slaves, particularly women (Slavery in the United States, Junius P. Rodriguez). Considered 'properties' by their masters, enslaved black women endured physical and emotional abuse, torture, and sometimes even death. By the 1800s, slavery had percolated down mainly to the antebellum south. While a majority of enslaved men and women were designated as 'field servants' performing duties outside the house, a smaller percentage, particularly women were employed as domestics or 'house servants', mammies and surrogate mothers. In the absence of any security...
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...colony) that restricted enslaved people’s behavior to control their actions and reduce the chances of an uprising. Blacks were prohibited from possessing weapons or lifting a breath of air against any white person, even in self-defense. If caught carrying a gun, the enslaved would receive 39 lashes with a whip and give up his/her weapon. In some places, even free Blacks couldn’t carry a gun. Very similar to how the police violence is protected by the laws of today, resisting the violence of a slaveholder or overseer granted them the right to kill that enslaved...
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...Three hundred and ninety seven years ago, the first of many enslaved Africans arrived on American soil in Jamestown, Virginia thus beginning what is to be now known as the African-American experience. Over the course of almost four centuries, African-Americans have faced a plenitude of oppression, racism, and violence from the W.A.S.P majority and through it all was able to retain many Africanisms native to West Africa and more specifically Sierra Leone. The documentary Family Across the Sea (1990) by Tim Carrier explored these specific connections and debated the common notion that enslaved Africans and their descendants lost all ties with their origins in West Africa when in truth the Geechie Gullah people of Georgia's Low Country are a prime example of how Africa’s cultural, spiritual, agricultural traditions continue shape the black experience in America today....
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...The late 18th century to the mid 19th century is referred to as the antebellum period, where many reformers pushed for change within the United States of America. One of the most notable movements within this period is the push for abolition across the new nation. With a free mother and enslaved father, David Walker had an interesting perspective on the subject. David Walker influenced the abolitionist movement in the antebellum period by pushing for more radical solutions, urging other abolitionists to be more daring in their endeavors, and ensuring that his voice would be heard. In the early efforts of the movement, many reformers called for gradual emancipation for the slave states. This would call for people who were born into slavery...
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...Black nor White, slave or slave owner, it doesn’t matter, both races deserve the same quality of medical care, because they’re living human beings who deserve respect and equal rights. Down in the South, in the eighteenth century, doctors were scarce, which forced slaves and slave owners to rely on their own medical practices and some used manuals written by medical professional to concoct medicines. With the limited accessibility to physicians, the slaves became essential in providing medical treatments to people on the plantations. Several different remedies and plants, including “using plants, herbs, roots, and non-herbal substances as ingredients for medicine…[also] peach tree leaves, catnip, sage, raspberry leaves, pine needles, mustard...
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...was the Three-Fifths Compromise. This compromise was the counting of southern black slaves as three-fifths of a white man. Southern states wanted to count blacks so they would have more votes in Congress. Northern states didn’t want blacks to be counted because blacks did not vote. Congress eventually passed the three-fifths compromise so that blacks would partially count towards the South's vote. Second, the Compromise of 1850 was the passing of five bills based on Clay's proposals. The Compromise was setup to please both the north and the south but later caused outrage in the north. Third, States' Rights was boosted when the republicans wanted to get rid of the Alien and Sedition Acts. The Republicans faced a problem when opposing the law because at that time, the Supreme Court didn't have the power to strike down a law as unconstitutional. Congress agreed to a plan called the Three-Fifths Compromise. Each enslaved person would be counted as three fifths of a free person. With the compromise 500 enslaved people would count as 300 free people making this a gain for the south. The North had to agree on this to keep the South in the Union. The Three-Fifths Compromise preserved slavery in the new Constitution by making the distinction between “free persons” and “all other persons.” The North was still upset that the South had more votes. The Compromise of 1850 was to help both the North and The South. President Zachary Taylor opposed the Compromise but soon died in 1850. Millard...
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...felt by those in the north. Those with this view felt slavery could exist in the south but could not be expanded into the new territories. They felt slavery should mostly for economic issues. Plantations with slaves produced higher quantities faster. This meant lower costs. The next position was the abolitionist position. This view was held by a very small minority in the north and almost none in the south. Abolitionists felt slavery should be ended everywhere, even in the south and should not be permitted to expand into the territories. There were two types of abolitionists. There were colonizers who not only wanted to end slavery in the south but they wanted people of color to be shipped to another country because they felt the different races would never get along. Colonizers thought black people could start their own colonies elsewhere. The second type of abolitionists was egalitarians. They, like colonizers, wanted slavery to end everywhere but they felt enslaved persons were Americans and therefore thought they were entitled to all the rights and privileges of an American citizen. Pro-slavery was the next view on slavery. This obviously was the view of most southerners and a small minority of northerners. They felt slavery was protected by the constitution and could go anywhere the American flag went. They also felt slavery was a good and Christian lifestyle and enslaved persons had it better with slavery. The next view...
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...in aristocratic Europe. The chapter of Democracy in America that will be analyzed in this paper is titled, “Situation of the Black Race in the United States, Dangers Entailed for the Whites by Its Presence”. Slavery and American racial mores circa 1830 will be addressed as we continue. At this time, the presence of blacks is the greatest dangers threatening America. African slaves were imported to many colonies and nations other than those in North America, but none of these other slave-importing countries achieved anywhere near the economic growth seen in the United States. Bacon's Rebellion was an event that redefined the notion of race in the United States. Africans were in America long before Bacon’s Rebellion. The Great Migration was a period that the colonies were in desperate need of laborers. Blacks, along with whites, worked as indentured servants. There were black indentured servants that owned land, some even owning slaves themselves. After Bacon’s Rebellion, there was a gradual change in the status of African Americans from indentured servants to slaves. Post Bacon’s Rebellion, there was a great demand for labor and that demand was met through slavery. The number of white indentured servants diminished and the number of black slaves grew. It became the nearly universal presumption that whites were free and blacks were enslaved. Bacon’s Rebellion created fear for another uprising. This fear led to the rise of white supremacy in the United States. This...
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...What effect did the Emancipation Proclamation have on the overall outcome of the American Civil War? Emancipation Proclamation “The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, holds a critical moment in American history and the American Civil War” (Nix, E). The proclamation led thousands of black men to enlist in the army. It was supposed to go to people in the Confederates, but not the ones that were loyal to the state’s borders. Even black women helped with the war by being spies, nurses and also cooking for the army. As the battles were being fought near the south, the Confederates would kill the weaker black soldiers and would send the stronger ones back to slavery. “An astounding 78 percent of free...
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...Elements of African American Identity The Pre slavery Era brought Africans from their homes and to the United States in 1619. The Africans were sold to white settlers in Virginia as servants who had the same legal status as white servants. Slavery took place over a span of 300 years, from the 16th century to the 19th century. Slavery practices varied by state or by region (Deep South versus border South). The experience of the slave may have differed depending on the plantation size, the number of slaves involved and the convictions of the individual slaveholder. Slavery in North America delivered the harshest form of social relations to ever exist. Slaves were considered property and not humans. The plight of the slave was doomed to extreme 12-15 hour working days and often deplorable living conditions. African American slaves were beaten, whipped and even murdered, but they kept the spirit to survive. History shows that slaves tried to revolt, always to the detriment of the participants. When the slaves saw that revolting would never work, they sought ways to escape. One such way of escape was the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was an organized effort to assist slaves attempting to escape. The Railroad was believed to have been incorporated in 1804. The Railroad was operated in defiance to the Fugitive Slave Laws and white abolitionists assisted the slaves in their cause. By the middle of the 19th century, slavery had become a serious...
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...[Name of the writer] [Name of the institution] [Subject] [Date] Introduction United States in 1950 The year, 1850 is a very significant era in the history of United States being the pre civil war era. The north was undergoing huge developments and progress and people were immigrating to big cities. The southern region is a total contrary example, with a total of 3.2 million black slaves. The region was not developing due to total dependence and cotton production, rather than, industrialization. The era presents two entirely different regions in the same region leading to the civil war in the end. Contrary to north, southern region had feudal society and prevalence of slavery. There were extremely rich, each with enslaved people. The difference was escalating between both regions, and people belonging to those regions they identified themselves as different people. The difference led to the Civil war in the end. Kansan is 1850’s The state of Kansas possesses a central place in civil war history, as well as, the pre civil war era. Before the beginning of civil war, Kansas was undergoing fights between pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups. The tension was centered to address the notion, whether Kansas would be regarded as slave or a Free State territory or a slave state territory Negros (Kleppnerr, p. 300-316). The issue was to maintain peace between Abolitionists and slave holders. The slavery and its opposing groups initiated war on Kansas border in 1850, which is known...
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...will forever go down in history for her fight for freedom. As a child, Tubman grew up in Dorchester County, Maryland. Harriet was originally named Araminta Ross, which she later changed to Harriet Tubman after getting married. Tubman was one of nine children born to Harriet “Rit” and Ben Ross, enslaved people owned by two different families on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. At the age of six, Tubman began to work as a house servant for the Brodess family, who owned Tubman for the majority of her life. The Brodess family would make Tubman work in dangerous, miserable conditions. While Tubman was twenty-five and still enslaved, she married a free black man named John Tubman and later took the last name Tubman. While Tubman was just a teenager, she was severely injured. Tubman’s owner, who was...
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...The most common studies of women in the antebellum south focus on women of color, especially free women of color. The abundance of resources offers themselves to the numerous studies that have been published on the state and ensure there is plenty more for future research. For scholars studying the lives of blacks in Louisiana, they have relied on a wealth of information from numerous sources from which they could accurately depict the lives of the gens de couleur libres or free people of color in New Orleans. One of the critical sources that informed such works was the Code Noir of 1724. In this document, only two provisions applied to the free people of color, the divisions between being enslaved and free, and black and white. For free black women in Louisiana, power was something they became accustomed to in ways the enslaved black women could not. One of the...
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...The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Antebellum South by Kenneth M. Stampp was successful in providing a piece of historical knowledge to its readers. Stamp explored the how slavery began, its conditions, and the impact it had on America. He covers more than the simple topics of the lives of slaves and slaveholders. Stampp additionally portrays the immoral and aggressive ‘peculiar institute’ that was created little by little over time for social, political, and economic advantage of the white people. He claimed that, “Southerners did not create the slave system all at once… and all the while most of them were more or less blind to the ultimate consequence of the choices they were making.” (6) It is argued that Stampp wrote his book as...
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...balances to ensure no single branch would have too much power. The Bill of Rights is 10 amendments guaranteeing basic individual protections such as freedom of speech and religion which became part of the Constitution in 1791. America's first constitution, the Articles of Confederation, was approved in 1781, a time when the nation was a confederation of states that each operated like independent countries. The debate of the constitution focused on contentious issues like the question of state representation in the national legislature and slavery. Slavery The American Civil War approximately 4 million enslaved African Americans lived in the southern region of the United States of America. The vast majority worked as plantation slaves in the production of cotton, sugar, and tobacco. Very few of these enslaved people were African born principally because the importation of enslaved Africans to the United States officially ended in 1808, although thousands were smuggled into the nation illegally in the 50 years following the ban on the international trade. These...
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