Slavery After The Civil War Essay

Slavery is one of the things that we can still feel its effects today, like the discrimination towards African American, and stereotypes that are associated with them, which started with slavery. Slavery wasn’t a dependency for the south until their crops started to grow, and they needed a stable work force. As the wealth of the South grew so did the dependency on slaves. When the North questioned openly the morality of slavery the South defended itself with paternalism that was far from the truth. The abolitionist did take to advocating for the freedom of slaves, because their treatment was inhuman, and that they too deserved the same rights as a white American. Slavery was easily implemented as means to an end; but putting a stop to it was
Why? Well violent rebellions didn’t last long and lead to even more violent consequences. Because of the fear of the repercussions it meant to rebel out right slaves, “by forming community within the plantation setting,” and by slowing down work, practicing religion, and learning to read and write. All those things brought hope to African Americans when their Planters trying to dehumanizing them constantly. Their living conditions and working conditions were to not even close to ideal, “The diets of enslaved people were inadequate or barely adequate to meet the demands of their heavy workload.” After the Civil War a project set out to get the stories of what live was like and record it. The slave narratives tell us what it was like to be a slave, and what they lived. Everyone knows that the life of a slave was beyond harsh, that the horrors they lived through were unspeakable. Some slaves that the project tried to interview just preferred to leave the unhappy memories where they were or out of fear. However, others did share their tragedy with the world telling us exactly what they went through. “Along came a Friday in that unlucky star day. And I was playing around the house and master Williams come up and say, ‘Ellis. Would you like to walk down the street with me? And my mammy say, ‘alright, Jim you be a good boy. That the last time I ever heard her speak or ever see her.” A slave’s greatest fear was to be separated from their families. As slaves were seen as property, marriage was something that could be undone if their masters didn’t seem to benefit them. They also were married to who the platers thought would give good offspring, for better workers for their plantations or to sell them off. The North was looking at it as a threat and that was the initial reason they wanted to get rid of it; abolitionists were the first ones who wanted it end