Freedom In The 19th Century
19th Century “Freedom”
In the 19th century, freedom had various meanings to different groups of people. A people’s class, race, or gender heavily swayed the ways in which they defined the term freedom. A white male, for example, would have had a vastly different view of what freedom meant than a runaway slave would have had. For example, since white men were not enslaved, from their perspective, freedom may include having the right to bear arms and freedom of speech. Whereas, a runaway slave may have defined freedom as simply the privilege of not being forced to work for someone without pay.
To an enslaved person, liberty would not have been a term used to describe any aspect of his/her living conditions. It was not until they were freed …show more content…
In it, Taper says “[he has] enjoyed more pleasure within one month [there] than in all [of his] life” (Foner 422). Taper notes that one of the things that make freedom so luxurious is the fact that he and his wife no longer have to live in fear of being raped or made afraid (422).
This excerpt highlights both the social and cultural construction of the life of slaves in the 1800s; they lived in a constant state of oppression in which, while already being subject to poor living conditions and harsh treatments by their slave owners, they had to worry about whether or not they would be physically and sexually assaulted on a day-to-day basis.
Not only did slave owners make it incredibly difficult for slaves to escape bondage (as slaves knew that if they failed and were caught, the repercussions would be ghastly), laws did so as well. During the 19th century, there were a number of laws that prohibited slaves from running away from their owners. If they ran away, they were considered fugitives, and the Constitution upheld that fugitives were required to be returned to slavery (Foner
In the 19th century, freedom had various meanings to different groups of people. A people’s class, race, or gender heavily swayed the ways in which they defined the term freedom. A white male, for example, would have had a vastly different view of what freedom meant than a runaway slave would have had. For example, since white men were not enslaved, from their perspective, freedom may include having the right to bear arms and freedom of speech. Whereas, a runaway slave may have defined freedom as simply the privilege of not being forced to work for someone without pay.
To an enslaved person, liberty would not have been a term used to describe any aspect of his/her living conditions. It was not until they were freed …show more content…
In it, Taper says “[he has] enjoyed more pleasure within one month [there] than in all [of his] life” (Foner 422). Taper notes that one of the things that make freedom so luxurious is the fact that he and his wife no longer have to live in fear of being raped or made afraid (422).
This excerpt highlights both the social and cultural construction of the life of slaves in the 1800s; they lived in a constant state of oppression in which, while already being subject to poor living conditions and harsh treatments by their slave owners, they had to worry about whether or not they would be physically and sexually assaulted on a day-to-day basis.
Not only did slave owners make it incredibly difficult for slaves to escape bondage (as slaves knew that if they failed and were caught, the repercussions would be ghastly), laws did so as well. During the 19th century, there were a number of laws that prohibited slaves from running away from their owners. If they ran away, they were considered fugitives, and the Constitution upheld that fugitives were required to be returned to slavery (Foner