Preview

Greenburg's Honor And Slavery

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
593 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Greenburg's Honor And Slavery
Honor and Slavery
Honor and Slavery written by Kenneth S. Greenburg examines the old-fashioned ways of the men of the Deep South during the United States formidable years. He delves deep into the actions of these men and offers new meanings to what we may consider innocent horseplay or mild disrespect. Greenburg introduces a new meaning to the age old saying, "Actions speak louder than words". The Honorable men of the Deep South said very little, however more often than not their arguments were conveyed with precision and tact.
Imagine a 30 year old man being sent back in time to the mid 1800's. Of course he would be baffled by the lack of technology, clothes, food and the like but would he know how to conduct himself around friends, foes, and politicians? Chances are even if he were to completely blend into his surroundings he most definitely would have no clue how to go about communicating with his fellow man. Had Greenberg not offered his translation of this unspoken language one would be inclined to think these men were crazy.
…show more content…
The products the slaves produced allowed for the lavish lifestyles and afforded the title of being an honorable man. An honorable man was brave, courageous, and intelligent, whereas slaves possessed none of these attributes prohibiting them from possessing honor. It is very ironic that the honor these men thought they had, laid in the hands of people that could never attain honor. Without the slaves the archaic institution of being a Man of Honor never would have been able to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The adage “You reap what you sow” is the saying that characterizes the times of slavery. Slave masters sowed bad seeds upon themselves by abusing, neglecting, undermining, and deceiving their slaves. In return, they reaped consequences of slave rebellion, slave wittiness, and overall the come up of the black race. In Larry Rivers “A Troublesome Property: Master-Slave Relations in Florida 1821-1865” he expounds on how slaves used what was supposed to make them oppressed and hopeless to their advantage by them learning how to outsmart their masters.…

    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Slavery, by Stanley Elkins, is a text that does its best to analyze the institution of Slavery from all angles in a more analytical, rather than purely emotional, manner. It also proves that the topic, which many believed was decided upon and done with at the end of the Civil War, was still as powerful and controversial in the 20th Century as ever. Elkins approached the topic from several viewpoints, including anthropological, sociological and psychological, even starting the text by examining the works of many “experts” in the field who attempted to analyze it after the end of the Civil War.Though originally published in 1958, the analyses within hold up as well today as they did then, and the additions of even more analyses in the second and third editions give even more insights on how historians are still focusing on this area of American history.…

    • 1726 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Apush Chapter 16 Readings

    • 1917 Words
    • 6 Pages

    7) Summary: In this passage written by Frederick Douglas who was an escaped slave that became known as the greatest Black abolitionist of the time for sharing his terrible experience as a slave in order to stop slavery, it discusses the cruel treatments that the slaves are expose to. For instance, if the slaves perform at a poor rate or produces insufficient work, their master would hit them with a whip as a symbol of punishment. Sometimes, the master doesn’t even need a reason to torment the slaves other than for his/her own satisfaction. In addition, Douglas who was a slave for the majority of his life, claims that the laws created by the Southern states were unfair since it was design to give the master full control over the slaves which took away their freedom. Moreover, Douglas supported his idea by repeating the same phrase and adding the different things that were restricted against the slaves such as earning a proper education, receiving good food/clothes, and working hard to make money. Furthermore, Douglas asserts that the physical cruelties that are brought upon the slaves are sufficiently harassing and revolting since it inflicts on the mental, moral and religious nature of the helpless victims. All of these reasons explain why Douglas…

    • 1917 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the South, slavery played a prominent role in contributing to the economy, but more importantly they were abused by the whites and slave owners. The immoral treatment of the blacks and slaves is showcased by Lawrence A. Kuznar who claims that they were in “the era of Jim Crow disenfranchisement of blacks” (Source F) and subjected under “the system of violence and exploitation” (Source C). The violence and lack of voting privileges were all adverse conditions the slaves had to endure from the people of the Confederacy. The mistreatment of slaves was once associated with all the members of Confederacy that have been turned into statues and monuments. Consequently, it is vital that the monuments are keep intact in order to teach visitors about the abusive relationship that existed between the blacks and whites in the South. Even though critics claim that the monuments “still echoes in the nation’s prevailing racial inequities” (Source C), they still serve as an effective method of directly displaying the origin of the inequities present in this…

    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In learning about slavery and the society which it existed in, our interest should not be purely scientific, for we will have learned nothing of value. Rather we should have a desire to understand the insturments of oppression and its evils. If we can recogonize them then perhaps we can adapt ourselves when faced with their posion in our own lives. It is not possible to learn, in the context a college class, the horror felt by slaves nor the action or inaction which they felt necessary to take. However, as members in the long family line of the opressor class we have extensive documentation of our ancestors thoughts and actions. For me, this course aims to show us those thoughts and actions in their totality so that we may see their failures in the greater context of slavery and reflect. Tim Wise said that each and every one of us is a member of at least one dominating class. It is in those words that this course finds its greatest meaning - and if we are to learn anything this quarter it is that our status as a dominator brings with it tremendous responsibility. This is not the responsibility, as many slave owners believed, to take care of and educate the dominated as if they were too weak and foolish to survive without our guidance. But rather it is the responsibility to educate ourselves, and to that end, face oppression through the eyes of the oppressed as can only be done by…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The book reviewed is the Honor and Violence in the old South. Wyatt-Brown defined honor as the inner conviction of self-worth, the claim of that self-assessment before the public, and the assessment of the claim by the public, a judgement based upon the behavior of the claimant (2). In other words, honor is reputation and society status. (3). Wyatt-Brown states Honor is ingrained in the Southern culture and that the white southerners, prior Civil War, adhered to a moral code that is called the rule of honor. The Europeans started the honor code long before coming to America. Wyatt-Brown uses a person a white teenage boy name James to present Honor in his Uncles life from Nathaniel Hawthorne book titled…

    • 460 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The main thesis of the book is honor and how it relates to every part of the southern way of life and culture. This book describes the ways honor is used to further prejudices and keep the ways of life in tact, even through the progressing society around them. He describes honor as an all‐encompassing element of life and thought in the South. Honor was immortal and derived its value from the opinions of others through a complex but well‐understood, and apparently, well‐adhered social hierarchy. Wyatt-Brown builds a convincing case that honor provides structure and implicit discipline for an ordered and hierarchical society. The details of this southern society of honor are revealed through dualistic and conflicting expressions of gentility, the absolute order of the family, and an extensive discussion on sexual honor. Gentility was sought as a measure of worth derived from a requirement to be sociable, well educated, and moral.…

    • 602 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In many ways, the American Revolution reinforced an American commitment to slavery. On the other hand, the American Revolution also brought about radical new ideas about “liberty” and “equality” that challenged slavery’s long tradition of extreme human inequality. “The changes to slavery, most important African Americans, in the Revolutionary Era revealed both the potential for radical change and its failure more clearly than any other issue” (Retrieved November 20, 2014, from http://www.ushistory.org/us/13d.asp).…

    • 1414 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to the narrative of Frederick Douglass, during the 19th Century, the conditions slaves experienced were not only cruel, but inhumane. It is a common perception that “cruelty” refers to the physical violence and torture that slaves endure. However, in this passage, Douglass conveys the degrading treatment towards young slaves in the plantation, as if they were domesticated animals. The slaves were deprived of freedom and basic human rights. They were not only denied of racial equality, they weren’t even recognized as actual human beings.…

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the 1800 's the United States was separated into different sections- The North and the South. They both had many differences but one of the most controversial differences was the issue of slavery. Thomas Jefferson believed that all men should be created equal and included anti-slavery in The Declaration of Independence (Skiba 318). But pressure from Southerner 's led to its deletion. Although at one point slavery was illegal there was still smuggling of slaves and many Southerner 's felt that it was good for the economy. More than a million African American 's were enslaved in the United States and were treated brutally (319). Frederick Douglass, a former slave, spoke of his experiences being a slave and not only how he survived but how he escaped. The purpose of this essay is to inform audiences the evil reality of slavery and the experiences of one slave, Frederick Douglass. Through literacy and…

    • 1662 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Maryland during the 1800’s, “Escape from Slavery” was written by Frederick Douglass, a man who successfully escaped slavery, in which he gives an explanation of how his definition of trust changed and the difference between the North and South. Having been owned by a master, Douglass,F. (n.d), “Escape from Slavery” (para.8). developed an aphorism of “Trust no Man!” However, his opinion changed as he arrived in New York as a free man. Frederick recounts his gratitude for all the kindness he was given as a refugee. By this, Frederick understood the North was not about extravagant living, or pageantry, rather it was about ease and comfort.…

    • 107 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slavery is an evil institution that, once established, robs not only the humanity of the enslaved, but also the morality of the slaveholder. It deprives the slave’s natural desire for knowledge, and hypocritically denies a man of his God given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, stated in the Declaration of Independence for the very country that enslaves him. Douglass uses specific examples, in the case of Hugh and Sophia Auld, Thomas Auld, Colonel Lloyd and Edward Covey, the slaveholders’ reliance on religion, and the harm caused to the slaves themselves, to show that although slavery is in itself a blatant disregard for human life, it also has drastic effects on the degradation of the slaveholder’s own morality.…

    • 1035 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Douglass points out that slaves would often times think of their master as better than other masters, with a sense of dignity, because “to be a poor man’s slave was deemed a disgrace indeed” (35). Slaves would often times give up their natural fellowship with other slaves for a miniscule amount of dignity. Slaves would additionally betray other slaves. In Douglass’ case, one of the slaves in his premature plan of escape betrayed him and he ended up in jail. Douglass was sure who testified against them, saying that he and his other friends “came to a unanimous decision [...] as to who their informant was” (95). This disloyalty among slaves was not due to the harshness of the masters, but simply due to the system of slavery itself. In fact, some slaves would take the side of their slaveholders rather than fellow slaves with the belief that their prospects were better as slaves, but this statement is among the many false mythologies of slavery.…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To southern men, honor was everything. I dictated their standing in society, whether or not they could own slaves; it basically was a secret caste system. A man held in the highest honor experienced a good life from a social stance in the south. The honor system used in the south was related to the language used by southern gentlemen.# Honor and Slavery by Kenneth S. Greenburg attempts to explain the vernacular and customs used by men in the antebellum south. It would be hard for a person in today's society to understand the way honor was shown; it would have even been a challenge for men living in the Northern United States to understand at that time.# As Greenburg states, "Since the language of honor was the dominant language of the men who ruled the slave South, we will never understand masters, the nature of slavery, or the Civil war without first understanding that language."# To be a powerful man in the south, society also had to consider you to be an honorable man. Honor and power in the South were parallel to each other; a man with a high honor ranking was usually a prominent member of society.#…

    • 1655 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Honor And Slavery

    • 2409 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Perhaps one of the strongest elements of slavery is honor. Honor has had a wide range of impact in history, whether it was shaping major dynasties and hierarchies, deciding an individuals’ role in society, or family ties and marriages. This sense of worth, high esteem, or virtue was also manipulated by slave masters in order to control their slaves. “The slave could have no honor because of the origin of his status, the indignity and all-pervasiveness of his indebtedness, his absence of any independent social existence, but most of all because he was without power except through another” (p 6). This element is not just a physical force, such as coercive power, which one can heal and even escape, but also a social-psychological issue. A slave had no name or public worth. Any worth was lived out and given through the master. The relationship between the slave and master can be complex but there was always “the strong sense of honor the experience of mastership generated, and conversely, the dishonoring of the slave condition” (p 6). Although Patterson made a clear connection between the slave and master with honor, his concept still contains gaps as certain slaves managed to preserve their honor using the power of voice.…

    • 2409 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays