...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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...Sam Tran Freeman Derryl Ethnic 100 March 03, 2017 Midterm essay Though both African American and Native Americans shared the bottom of the American social ladder and suffered from prejudice and discrimination, their lives were somewhat different. Both suffered at the hands of whites, but Native Americans suffered more due to the fact of destruction of their society and land lost. On the other hand, African American were being more challenged in term of improving the condition from nothing. One thing is certain that America must always remember the hardships it forced African American and American Indian to endure for no other reasons than the greed, hatred, ignorance, and racism that allow discrimination to thrive. During the period of the...
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...Essay Question 1: In what ways did the character and composition of the black population and the institution of slavery in the Chesapeake change between the middle of the seventeenth century and the early decades of the eighteenth century? The early Chesapeake was characterized by a labor system heavily dependent on indentured servants, primarily young, single men from England who contracted to work for a set period of time in exchange for passage to the New World. This system, however, faced significant challenges. The mortality rate among indentured servants was high due to harsh conditions, disease, and inadequate provisions. Moreover, as the colony expanded and the demand for labor grew, the supply of indentured servants began to dwindle....
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...During the American Revolution, slavery was in the process of being abolished in Europe and in the Northern states of America. Even though parts of the world were willing to free slaves, the Southern states found ways to defend slavery. In Paul Finkelman’s book Defending Slavery: Proslavery Thought in the Old South, Finkelman provides the writings of many white leaders from the South who believed that slavery was essential to America’s society. The white leaders who spoke about proslavery included a broad range of defenses to justify themselves because they wanted Americans to believe that slavery had a lasting impact economically, religiously, legally, and racially. One of the defenders in Finkelman’s book was Thomas R.R. Cobb. He justified slavery by arguing the effects of abolition in the United States. Cobb said, “The emancipated negroes do not enjoy full and equal civil and political rights in any State in the union, except the State of Vermont” (Finkelman, 79). He was convinced that those who became free of slavery did not live a better life. He believed that any African American slave who is free is not capable of living successfully and “His moral condition compares unfavorably with that of the slave of the South” (Finkleman, 79). This argument states that African Americans who are enslaved are in better hands with the slave owners and therefore they should remain as slaves. Cobb’s defense was justifiable because he believed that keeping African American’s...
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...Lydia Maria Child was a remarkable figure in American history who made significant contributions to the abolition movement during the era of slavery. Her unwavering dedication to social justice and her powerful writings played a vital role in shaping public opinion and advocating for the rights of the oppressed. In this essay, we will explore Lydia Maria Child's life, her impactful contributions to the abolition movement, and the lasting legacy she left behind. Lydia Maria Child was born on February 11, 1802, in Medford, Massachusetts. Growing up in a family deeply committed to education and social reform, she developed a strong sense of justice from an early age. Despite facing financial challenges, Child’s thirst for knowledge led her to...
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...African American literature is surprising, captivating, and spirited. Once you start reading a story it is easy to get caught up in the tale being told. The descriptive nature of the works makes it easy to relate to them. Throughout my readings thus far in the class I have noticed some common themes that reoccur in many of the stories and poems. Of course slavery was a very common topic but there were others such as inequality between the races and sexes, injustice and resentment, the black identity, and a strong faith and religion. Even though the words can be separated in the end they all come back together. There were many narratives written by fugitive slaves before the Civil War and by former slaves in the postbellum era. These narratives document slave life from the perspective of first-hand experience. The stories they tell are dark and ugly. The authors like Douglas and Jacobs reveal the struggles, sorrows, aspirations, and triumphs of slaves in absorbingly personal story-telling. Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl was the first autobiography by a formerly enslaved African American woman. In it she describes her experience of the sexual exploitation that made slavery especially oppressive for black women. She also recounts her life in slavery in the context of family relationships with her escape and her struggle to free her children. Fredrick Douglas who wrote Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas, an American Slave, Written by Himself...
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...Being literate is something that you and I are capable of, if not we wouldn’t be able to get through this essay. In American society, being able to read and write is superior to any form of communication and is the norm for most. What if I told you about two individuals who were not as fortunate and were incapable of these skills? Who were deemed unworthy and too oppressed to learn to read and write through the normal route? Sherman Alexie and Frederick Douglass were the two people mentioned, they were people who were determined and sought out their own passage in learning these skills. In “Learning to Read and Write’’, Douglass focuses on overcoming the challenges of having to teach himself literacy as an enslaved man, on the other hand, Alexie’s essay, “Superman and Me”, focuses on the obstacles of him...
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...African American Slavery In this essay I am explaining why the African American has more African-ness the Nigerian Americans. I will examine the origin and the different aspects of the African American culture. I will also examine how the African culture is so rich in the American world and changed many aspect of the everyday life in the new world. Slavery predates back to the 18th century from when African Americans were enslaved. People of color were bought, sold, and used to work on farms, and in the household of their white masters. The progression of African American culture has progressed by leaps and bounds since the1800’s. It took a long time for slaves to be given their freedom. Although they were free, the reconstruction plan was a starting point, which in turn allowed former slaves to become freedmen. Freedmen who were allowed to own land and become upstanding citizen just like their white counterparts. The freed slaves went on to become prominent business owners and family men. They were still some racists who were appalled that they were allowed to go free. Slaves were not allowed to learn how to read and therefore could not read the bible. It was a way for the salves masters to protect themselves from the slaves getting a silly notion of equality from the bible. Religion became a big issue within the African American community. Black churches were established to allow them to come, worship, and not be segregated from their white counterparts. Even...
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...question using evidence from the studies of Degler, the Handlins, and Morgan. Slavery was not brought into existence by any one singular variable. It is a combination of attitudes and circumstance. Specifically, a preexisting discrimination of darker skinned people by the British and colonists led to the foundation and inconsistent growth of slavery, while the economic factors caused for its widespread acceptance. For instance, there are many more cases of blacks being treated as slaves before the legal status of slave came into existence than there are of whites. In Degler’s article Genesis of American Race Paradox, he argues that racial discrimination was present from the beginning and that the institution of slavery was just the law catching up with the practice (Degler). This essay agrees with and will use many of the points he makes to argue how a predetermined attitude to the Africans created the basis of slavery, but will stop short of saying that is the sole determinant. The English have a history of ethnocentrism. This can be seen in the associations of the words white and black. White symbolizes virginity, purity, cleanliness, goodness, etc. Contrastingly, the color black is associated with death, evil, filth, and violence. The...
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...Essay #1 Chapter 9: Politics, Morality, and Race in The Abolitionist Crusade Michaela Duvall Hist. 221, section 3 William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass were close friends for over a decade and co-workers in the American Anti-Slavery Society. As abolitionists, their views on slavery were close and each defended the other from attacks by critics. They focused on the superiority of “moral suasion” over “political agitation.” Yet, their friendship ended and the two became distant towards each other. Garrison and Douglass split in 1848 when Douglass started his own newspaper, The North Star. Douglass then changed his mind over political activity, giving the two men opposing views. Frederick Douglass’s way of promoting the abolitionist cause was the most effective in that it took less time to bring upon emancipation. It only took three years until it was confirmed that “moral suasion” and nonviolence were inadequate to destroy slavery. William Lloyd Garrison believed that people would be willing to change their acceptance of slavery if they could see the morality of enslaved people. Though, towards the end of the 1830’s many abolitionists were moving away from the philosophy of moral suasion and onto political action. Political agitation was not only the faster way to abolish slavery; it was the more overpowering and everlasting way to abolitionism. After The Liberator came out with news articles on slavery, the Northern states began to pass laws doing away with...
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...Bibliographic Essay on African American History Introduction In the essay “On the Evolution of Scholarship in Afro- American History” the eminent historian John Hope Franklin declared “Every generation has the opportunity to write its own history, and indeed it is obliged to do so.”1 The social and political revolutions of 1960s have made fulfilling such a responsibility less daunting than ever. Invaluable references, including Darlene Clark Hine, ed. Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004); Evelyn Brooks Higgingbotham, ed., Harvard Guide to African American History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001); Arvarh E. Strickland and Robert E. Weems, Jr., eds., The African American Experience: An Historiographical and Bibliographical Guide (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2001); and Randall M. Miller and John David Smith, eds., Dictionary of Afro- American Slavery (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1988), provide informative narratives along with expansive bibliographies. General texts covering major historical events with attention to chronology include John Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr., From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans (Boston: McGraw Hill, 2000), considered a classic; along with Joe William Trotter, Jr., The African American 1  Experience (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001); and, Darlene Clark Hine, William C. Hine, and Stanley Harrold, The...
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...Daryl Smith Introduction to African-American Studies March 23, 2014 Professor Yeboah Midterm Paper: Essay Questions 1. Describe (3) three African (Ancient or Medieval) civilizations that pre-date enslavement? Kush, Axum, and Ghana are three Ancient African civilizations that pre-date enslavement. The Kush civilization started in 1700 BC, where it reached its first peak. Its second peak dated to 1500 BC. The Kingdom of the Kush was also known as Nubia. It is located south of Egypt and was built at the bottom of the mountains, beginning at the Nile River. The Kush kingdom was exceptionally wealthy with many natural resources. They had gold mines, iron ore, and rich soil. Their soil was rich due to the ample amount of rainfall they had all year long, which kept all of the natural resources fresh and growing. Many kingdoms were jealous of the Kush’s wealth and prosperity, and wanted to take it over, but the Kush did now allow it to happen. The “Iron Age” was when iron ore was at its peak and every kingdom wanted it to make weapons and tools. Kush was the center of the iron trade in ancient Africa. Burnt wood was needed to produce iron from ore and because wood was running out, the Kush had to trade other goods. The Kush was the reason for the Trans- Saharan Trade Route. In 750 CE, the Kush used camels and camel trains to cross the sand. They knew it was a miserable and dangerous journey, but knew it could be done. Attention was then turned to trade with West...
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...liberty, descriptive governments, and equality, among others. The Enlightenment assisted the absences in the standing of thought, the colonial situations and the absent classes respectively. Sadly, even though these principles were progressive, such ideals also had parochial aspects that caused them to be out of reach for most groups of people, namely, the enslaved people, Native Americans, and women. In that sense, this essay illustrates the ways in which these factors contributed to shaping and sometimes contradicting the core American values and some of the more radical aspirations that remained elusive in practice. The intellectual landscape of America’s founding ideals was significantly influenced by Enlightenment philosophy, emphasizing reason, individualism, and skepticism of traditional authority. John Locke's ideas about natural...
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...“There Is No Such Thing” Sumie Bodden Prof. Stacy Kelly Sociology 100 June 3rd, 2012 African American life in the United States has been framed by migrations, forced and free. A forced migration from Africa the transatlantic slave trade carried black people to the Americas. A second forced migration was the internal slave trade that transported them from the Atlantic coast to the interior of the American South. Then people of all parts of the world entered into the United States, which included people from every generation that were colored skin was considered black, even if they were from an Hispanic background, they were also discriminated against. This really shaped the lives of African Americans in a huge way, there freedom was taken away, and they were left behind to be slaves and discriminated against in circumstances that dehumanized them. They did what they were told without asking any questions. They were also confident that freedom would soon be theirs, and that they would have their own voice, and take their rightful place as people among others. ( Berlin, Ira.). Tradition plays a part in keeping people in slavery because it is the only thing that is known. Many slaves were promised freedom for being a slave for certain set time, but for the most part it was not true. According to the case study There Is No such thing as Rest slaves would do the same labors, and chores everyday. Law’s allowed owners to use whatever disciplinary measures they deemed necessary...
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...Rhetorical Analysis Essay The Union In 1861, Africans were free, although free “African Americans still were not allowed to enlist in the army. Towards slavery during this time isn’t quite enough to convince blacks to join them in their battle against the Confederacy. So, in April 1861, Alfred M. Green delivered a speech to persuade African Americans to prepare to fight in the Civil War. Green used rhetorical devices such as pathos and repetition to prove why joining this bloodshed was important. Pathos is used to not only introduce significant material, but to also get the audience’s attention. The statement, “My country right or wrong. I love thee still” is one of the first sentences that stirs patriotic emotions. It gives the audience...
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