5 Paragraph Essay: Slavery Before The Civil War

Monograph Essay On Incident In The Life Of A Slave Girl
Name
Instructor
Course
Date
Slavery before the Civil War
African Americans had been enslaved from the 17th century in America. Slaves who were mainly of the African descent were considered as inferior beings and they were subjected to slavery. In the south, these people were used in the cotton plantations as free labor. Some were engaged in rope-making, tobacco farms and others in livestock keeping. This paper will discuss Harriet’s narrative concerning slavery before the civil war.
During the period, the slaves could not be able to work and earn enough money to buy them freedom. Normally a slave’s day would be characterized by long working hours of pure hard labor with no machines to
This could be evident from Harriet’s mother’s mistress who was supposedly the one to take care of her. She was a Christian and had taught Harriet about some Christian teachings that were from the bible and other Christian beliefs. One Christian teaching is that, “you should do unto other what you expect them to do unto you.” Before she died, the mistress had taught Harriet the same. Although these were the teachings she gave to Harriet, she never practiced the same to African Americans and so that shows that even those who were supposed to behave in a way that showed love to the blacks did not and so that could be used to show that all the whites had the same perception concerning the African Americans (Harriet
Families could get distorted easily due to the engagements of slavery. When Harriet’s brother is told to choose between a mistress and his father, it shows that there is more than just slavery. There was no respect for family and the masters were concerned about making the slave’s lives miserable so that they could fully depend on them. When Harriet ostracizes her grandmother’s relationship with the young lawyer that shows that she does not respect such relationships since they are not right and they are immoral. Slavery can lead to separation of families and disconnection. When Harriet travels with her ward to England, she was separated from her children and that was meant to free her and later free others from slavery since her slogan was clear about being freed or dying. Again, when she had escaped from Flint, her brother was taken to jail just to torture her emotionally but she remained adamant and did not come out. As it can be observed, she betrayed her brother but then she was sure nothing bad would happen to him much as Flint had jailed him. Generally, slavery caused separation and emotional disconnection between families and that is what is evident from the examples in the text (Harriet