Slavery During The Antebellum Era
Antebellum Period
Your Name here
A research study on slavery of African American during Antebellum Era African American Studies
15 November, 2013 Antebellum (in Latin is pre-war) period (1781-1860) is an era of great upheaval and turbulence. The American Revolution concluded at the siege of Yorktown (1871), and southern States of America became major source of political and economic force in the building of American Union and Nation. However, Southern States, cotton states as they were often referred, seceded from American Union on the question of slavery. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas were among the most influential States growing cotton and tobacco and needed a great deal …show more content…
of cheep labor. Blacks were subjected to many discriminatory laws, especially in South. They were treated like subhuman species, only a mere labor1. It was a conflict of interest dividing country between agricultural South, legalizing slave labor and trade, and industrializing North that was against bounded labor.
Blacks or Negroes, as they used to be called, were found themselves as involuntary immigrants in that era, being transported from the Continent of Africa in unimaginable dilapidated conditions. The problem of enslavement has another face that is of racism. Though only South overwhelmingly favored black people trade and making them slaves, North also embraced anti black racism. For the daily wage earner white middle class labor such entertaining acts where white actors and actresses apply cork or powder coal on faces and perform “blackface”2. It was an act of miming and ridiculing the stereotypes of blacks to provide entertainment to hourly wage earner white labor. This on stage performance was often humiliating and ludicrous providing relief to working class white labor.
In the year of 1863 the Proclamation of Emancipation, a law that granted all the men and women, particularly African American working as slaves in houses and at farmlands or any other place in the Union, became free people. They were emancipated with having no compensations to be paid to their masters. Slavery divided American nation. Those States which left the Union the law of Proclamation of Emancipation brought them back to Union. Practically by the end of the year all the slaves became free. A systematic effort was made to end slavery in all the states. Thirteenth Amendment rectified abolition law of slavery in 18653 and made it illegal, endorsing the status of freed men and women for millions of slaves.
The antebellum period is generally characterized the polarization of the American Nation into South and North. South was booming because of cotton revolution and needed man power to grow and harvest, while North was shifting from agriculture to industrialization. That was the era of industrial revolution. South also needed man power to run its industries, however, there was a widespread idea of Americans and their founded institutions are morally superior and they have a moral duty to extend the rights and morality to all the people in and out of Union.
The economic power of South was highly depended on cotton plantation. Large tract of land after paying very little money were purchased by white men in the South and large workforce and labor was obtained to cultivate harvest and maintain the ample amount of production. Slaves provided easy, cheep and long term labor or workforce. Slaves not only provided the labor but also they virtually never demanded more rights, better wages and above all generations remain loyal and obliged to work on the same farmland.
Slave trade took a new turn when American Government put a ban over import of further slaves from Africa. The prices of the slaves surged and those smaller land owners and farmers who were losing cultivated rich soil because of overuse and more than once plantation in a year started selling their slaves to those big land owners. There were families in South who took pride in having a great force of slave labor. They were looking for more land in Central America, Caribbean or more deep in South. They wanted to keep their life style and power and pride in keeping slaves. They bought slaves and treated them as subhuman entities. These slaves used to work in their farm houses and as house servants and used to perform every chore they were bidden.
Another remarkable change occurred in the manufacturing system at ginning looms which affected greatly slavery.
Waltham or Lowell4 method of power looms in mills brought revolutionary change in the labor employed at looms. It slowly and gradually overtook previous system of apprenticeship with trained wage labor and replaced family labor and slavery in industrialized areas. It mainly took young trained women having softer and efficient hands to work better at power looms. Industrialization caused people shifting to cities for better income and wages but the promising scenarios for better income at factories and mills accelerated this movement5. Similarly, the changes in textile industry did not remain limited to it. Similar shift took place in other industries as well. the manufacturing of machinery, equipment, paint, furniture, paper, glass and all other modern sort of things used to be produced at that time in factories were affected by this new …show more content…
drive.
There has been a wave of religious revival during 1790 to 1840s that affected whole country and inspired abolitionist movements. Many traditional beliefs were challenged and new value systems were evolved6. The new spirituality strengthened evangelism that was based on equality and human dignity and sanctity of lives irrespective of cast color and creed. That was the beginning of abolition movements.
In antebellum America several rebellions and resistance movements occurred, where blacks risked everything for freedom.
In august 1829 happened one of the most bloody rebellion in the history of America where 60 whites were killed during that organized slave rebellion by Nat Turner7. Afterwards, 56 slaves were executed on account of providing assistance in the rebellion. The most horrible part was when angry scared people formed militia and mobs killed around 200 slaves consequently. The rebellion of John Brown was a failed attempt to equipped with arsenals to impetus in resistant movements, however, it provided the most needed energy and inspiration. Brown was arrested along with his compatriots and executed. After this incident South feared that the North was waging war to annihilate Whites in South.
Antebellum Era has marked the transition in full bloom. Slavery divided American nation and it was quite possible that two hostile blocks remained blood thirsty of each other and ready to destroy. However, Emancipation Proclamation brought American nation to that higher status to live with ideals of equality and humanity that it became not only a leader in democracy but also a torch bearer in humanity and its
ideals.
Bibliography
Copeland A. David. The Antebellum Era. Primary Document on Events from 1820-1860. U.S.A, Greenwood Press, 2003.
Mark M. Smith. The Antebellum Period. U. S. A. Picking and Chatto. 2009.
Robert A. Margo. “Wages and Labor Market in America During 1820-1860”, Chicago University Press. www.nber.org. (Accessed on November 15, 2013)
Orser E. Charles. “The Archaeology of African American Slave Religion in the Antebellum South” Cambridge Archeological Journal, vol. 4, Issue 1, March 1994, pp 33-45, published online December 22, 2008. (Accessed on November 15, 2013)
Your Name here
A research study on slavery of African American during Antebellum Era African American Studies
15 November, 2013 Antebellum (in Latin is pre-war) period (1781-1860) is an era of great upheaval and turbulence. The American Revolution concluded at the siege of Yorktown (1871), and southern States of America became major source of political and economic force in the building of American Union and Nation. However, Southern States, cotton states as they were often referred, seceded from American Union on the question of slavery. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas were among the most influential States growing cotton and tobacco and needed a great deal …show more content…
of cheep labor. Blacks were subjected to many discriminatory laws, especially in South. They were treated like subhuman species, only a mere labor1. It was a conflict of interest dividing country between agricultural South, legalizing slave labor and trade, and industrializing North that was against bounded labor.
Blacks or Negroes, as they used to be called, were found themselves as involuntary immigrants in that era, being transported from the Continent of Africa in unimaginable dilapidated conditions. The problem of enslavement has another face that is of racism. Though only South overwhelmingly favored black people trade and making them slaves, North also embraced anti black racism. For the daily wage earner white middle class labor such entertaining acts where white actors and actresses apply cork or powder coal on faces and perform “blackface”2. It was an act of miming and ridiculing the stereotypes of blacks to provide entertainment to hourly wage earner white labor. This on stage performance was often humiliating and ludicrous providing relief to working class white labor.
In the year of 1863 the Proclamation of Emancipation, a law that granted all the men and women, particularly African American working as slaves in houses and at farmlands or any other place in the Union, became free people. They were emancipated with having no compensations to be paid to their masters. Slavery divided American nation. Those States which left the Union the law of Proclamation of Emancipation brought them back to Union. Practically by the end of the year all the slaves became free. A systematic effort was made to end slavery in all the states. Thirteenth Amendment rectified abolition law of slavery in 18653 and made it illegal, endorsing the status of freed men and women for millions of slaves.
The antebellum period is generally characterized the polarization of the American Nation into South and North. South was booming because of cotton revolution and needed man power to grow and harvest, while North was shifting from agriculture to industrialization. That was the era of industrial revolution. South also needed man power to run its industries, however, there was a widespread idea of Americans and their founded institutions are morally superior and they have a moral duty to extend the rights and morality to all the people in and out of Union.
The economic power of South was highly depended on cotton plantation. Large tract of land after paying very little money were purchased by white men in the South and large workforce and labor was obtained to cultivate harvest and maintain the ample amount of production. Slaves provided easy, cheep and long term labor or workforce. Slaves not only provided the labor but also they virtually never demanded more rights, better wages and above all generations remain loyal and obliged to work on the same farmland.
Slave trade took a new turn when American Government put a ban over import of further slaves from Africa. The prices of the slaves surged and those smaller land owners and farmers who were losing cultivated rich soil because of overuse and more than once plantation in a year started selling their slaves to those big land owners. There were families in South who took pride in having a great force of slave labor. They were looking for more land in Central America, Caribbean or more deep in South. They wanted to keep their life style and power and pride in keeping slaves. They bought slaves and treated them as subhuman entities. These slaves used to work in their farm houses and as house servants and used to perform every chore they were bidden.
Another remarkable change occurred in the manufacturing system at ginning looms which affected greatly slavery.
Waltham or Lowell4 method of power looms in mills brought revolutionary change in the labor employed at looms. It slowly and gradually overtook previous system of apprenticeship with trained wage labor and replaced family labor and slavery in industrialized areas. It mainly took young trained women having softer and efficient hands to work better at power looms. Industrialization caused people shifting to cities for better income and wages but the promising scenarios for better income at factories and mills accelerated this movement5. Similarly, the changes in textile industry did not remain limited to it. Similar shift took place in other industries as well. the manufacturing of machinery, equipment, paint, furniture, paper, glass and all other modern sort of things used to be produced at that time in factories were affected by this new …show more content…
drive.
There has been a wave of religious revival during 1790 to 1840s that affected whole country and inspired abolitionist movements. Many traditional beliefs were challenged and new value systems were evolved6. The new spirituality strengthened evangelism that was based on equality and human dignity and sanctity of lives irrespective of cast color and creed. That was the beginning of abolition movements.
In antebellum America several rebellions and resistance movements occurred, where blacks risked everything for freedom.
In august 1829 happened one of the most bloody rebellion in the history of America where 60 whites were killed during that organized slave rebellion by Nat Turner7. Afterwards, 56 slaves were executed on account of providing assistance in the rebellion. The most horrible part was when angry scared people formed militia and mobs killed around 200 slaves consequently. The rebellion of John Brown was a failed attempt to equipped with arsenals to impetus in resistant movements, however, it provided the most needed energy and inspiration. Brown was arrested along with his compatriots and executed. After this incident South feared that the North was waging war to annihilate Whites in South.
Antebellum Era has marked the transition in full bloom. Slavery divided American nation and it was quite possible that two hostile blocks remained blood thirsty of each other and ready to destroy. However, Emancipation Proclamation brought American nation to that higher status to live with ideals of equality and humanity that it became not only a leader in democracy but also a torch bearer in humanity and its
ideals.
Bibliography
Copeland A. David. The Antebellum Era. Primary Document on Events from 1820-1860. U.S.A, Greenwood Press, 2003.
Mark M. Smith. The Antebellum Period. U. S. A. Picking and Chatto. 2009.
Robert A. Margo. “Wages and Labor Market in America During 1820-1860”, Chicago University Press. www.nber.org. (Accessed on November 15, 2013)
Orser E. Charles. “The Archaeology of African American Slave Religion in the Antebellum South” Cambridge Archeological Journal, vol. 4, Issue 1, March 1994, pp 33-45, published online December 22, 2008. (Accessed on November 15, 2013)