Paternalism played a very significant role in the southern slavery system. Some examples of paternalism in slavery are: slaves being forbade from attending any type of school of church services, masters would also whip slaves to encourage them to do the behave how they should and in certain extreme conditions kill slaves. Slaves were forbade from attending from attending any type of school or church service because “They were afraid … more sense than they” (Doc 6). Of course this does not mean the slaves were kept completely in the dark they were taught how to read, and maybe even write, if their owners were nice enough, for example Frederick Douglass “Very soon after … learning to spell words of three or four letters.” (Life and Narrative of Frederick Douglas p.28-29). Masters would also have services held for their slaves where they were taught obedience and submission (APUSH Textbook). This mostly lead to slaves only being taught how to obey (Doc 2)and never learning anything ‘real’ so to speak, or anything they could apply in the real world because the chance of any slave escaping, surviving and getting a job seemed, to the southern plantation owners, unrealistic. Even still some slaves were able to sneak off and attend mass some, such as the case of a one Nat Turner became to believe they needed to …show more content…
These whippings were not just two or three lashes, they were multiple and often left deep fissures in the slave’s skin causing hideous scars (Doc 8). These heinous acts of whipping were used to encourage slaves to do what the masters required of them, and most of the time proved to be a rather effective technique. People still turned a blind eye to this, because there was quite a bit of propaganda around the south such as political cartoons that showed slaves having better lives than the middle class of industrial Europe (Doc
Slavery is an association of authority and respect where one individual, the plantation owner, owns another individual, the slave. The owner can command the individual to various jobs around the plantation. Slaves were brought from Africa to work in the home, babysit plantation owner 's kids, and the most popular , to work on farms. Women were more common for working in the owner 's homes and watching after the owner 's kids. Where men were more likely to work on farms picking cotton. Slavery was serious and diminishing towards the African American race. Punishment toward slaves included numerous gruesome activities such as being whipped. Slaves had no legal rights. Slaves could not own property, vote, or have control over their family. There was so much expected from slaves to keep the plantation running like it needed too. Without slaves the South would not
It did not take too much longer for the other two states to outlaw slavery shortly after the revolution. In Southern States, the revolution seemed to have opposite effects. During the time of the American Revolution, ideas of emancipation for slaves were floating around. "White folk" is the South feared slaves being equal or even close to themselves; they also feared rebellion among their workers. "They feared that without slaves, it would be necessary to recruit a servile white workforce in the South, and that the resulting inequalities would jeopardize the survival of liberties" (Brinkley 120). This fear is what pushed white southerns to reinforce their authority over slaves. They executed men who planned slave rebellions such as Thomas Jeremiah. The reason that slavery existed was human nature, slavery was nothing
Slavery was practiced many different ways through the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern colonies. Slaves were mistreated by their masters and was treated as property and not people. Slaves had to work in very bad weather conditions and had to work even when they were sick. Many times families were split up because slaves were bought for specific skills and not always bought together. In many cases families were never reunited.
From 1607-1750 the development of the English colonies flourished while indentured servitude began to diminish. This lead to the development of slavery and the growth of plantations. There were many events that caused slavery to expand. Bacon’s Rebellion and Maryland’s law establishing slavery as inheritable through generations were two of many events that took part in the development of the institution of slavery.
In such inhumane conditions, a nation managed to justify the hell that it put Blacks through. How is it humane to enslave a person yet inhumane for the death penalty to be practiced? Living on a double standard, a nation built on civil rights has managed to justify this hell. In such harsh times, the South was frowned upon for slavery. The North was hypocrites for this accusation. Slavery was justified in the South. Throughout the world, one group subjugated another. With these reasons and lies from the opinion that wants to be heard; a nation is able to justify slavery.
One of the most common moral defenses of slavery was that slaves were being kept in better conditions than they would be if they had legitimate, paying jobs. For example, once slaves had grown too old to complete hard labor in the fields, they could be brought into the house, where they could be more comfortable working less strenuous jobs. Whereas a paid field worker would be fired once they grew too old to work. What this defense didn 't take into account was the horrible conditions that many slaves lived in their entire lives, and the physical, mental and emotional toll that these conditions took. For example, many slave owners allowed their overseers to hit workers who they believed were disobedient, or who just weren 't working fast enough. Female slaves were routinely sexually abused, and were punished for attempting to protect themselves. This kind of physical abuse would create an atmosphere of fear
They are most famous for whips as described in the personal testimonies recorded by abolitionist Benjamin Drew; slaves endured much physical and emotional abuse. One slave talks about how her brother was whipped “until his back was as raw as a piece of beef”. She also describes how her master would only beat them when they were weak. It takes a certain type of evil to beat a woman over the head with a knife just for a missing fork. It is the same evil that will allow a master to say “Now I can handle you, now you are weak”. This weakness that lead to the emotional
The whites used paternalism as an “excuse” on how they treated the slaves. Slaveholders stated they were doing the slaves’ race a favor. An example of how bad it was; a slaveholder was sad when his race horse was sick, but when his slave had died he paid no mind to it and sent off for another slave. On the slaves’ end, they did what was told because they felt they had an obligation to their owners because the slaveholders provided the slaves with living quarters (not sanitary nor comfortable) and necessities. The slaves needed to keep their owners happy by making their owners think their “kindness” was appreciated.
For the slave it created a since of sustained fear and feelings of worthlessness. On the other hand, it created a practice of continual violence on humans (Butterfield, p. 22). The South depended on slavery; therefore, depending upon a violent nature. The tradition of violent beatings that occurred during slavery is a perfect example of a violent behavior that has carried into the South. For example, Butch takes numerous beatings from his grandmother Frances for skipping school and getting in trouble.
Imagine your life as if you were treated worst than a dog or a stray animal and treated as someone’s property. Slavery was the practice or system of owning people. Not only that slavery is “social and economic movement relationship in which a person is controlled through either violence or its threat, paid nothing and economically exploited”, stated The American Journal of International Law. It was a part of life that existed for a very long time. Slavery began when the first African slaves were brought to the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. Slaves were bought and sold, and used as laborers under orders of whoever owned them. Slaves were treated as prisoners in their own skin because they couldn’t do nothing for themselves but listen to people’s commands. Slaves were forced to listen to their owner without any say so. When talking about this touchy topic slavery was about having no choices at all to what happened, slaves had no control of their lives, and slaves constantly had a fear of violence.
The South was depending on slavery to sustain their economy and provide growth. The North however, was more focused on equality and the fact that every man should be equal. We also see how the Southerners way of life was a direct contradiction of the constitution. If slaves were treated fairly and more as employees than property, I doubt this would even be an issue. However, it is the disgusting way in which the South and other slaveholders treated their slaves that made this an inhumane practice. It has been documented the way slave owners would savagely beat their slaves for no reason. There were some rules on the treatment of slaves but most didn’t follow them and there was no regulation. A perfect example of this comes to us from the records of Bennet H. Barrow. He was a slave owner in Louisiana that kept records of how many times he punished, or beat, slaves during a twenty-three- month period. Mr. Barrow owned 129 slaves and his records totaled 160 whippings. This means on average a slave was whipped, beaten or punished every four and a half days. According to Mr. Barrow’s accounts, he was one of the nice slave owners. (Roark et al 452-453). It is said that slavery may have eventually become obsolete with the advance of modern
During the first half of the nineteenth century, the South was dominated by an elite group of White men who made their profits off the labor of Black slaves. Only 12% of southern white slaveholders owned twenty or more slaves, the amount used to distinguish between a planter and a farmer. Planters owned more than half of all the slaves and produced three-quarters of the South’s cotton, making these men very wealthy and allowing them to establish the social, political, and economic tone of the antebellum South.
Slaves were severely punished by their owners. There were laws, called “Slave Codes” which set rules for slaves and their masters. The Slave Codes were, “a diverse set of laws that varied from colony to colony.” (Veit, Unit 2, Lecture 2, 10:48). These codes included many laws pertaining to what the legal definition of a slave was, and also what rights slaves and slave owners had. One of these rules was, “Masters could not be punished for violence against slaves.” (Veit, Unit 2, Lecture 2, 11:15). This Slave Code lead to slave owners beating and violently acting out at their slaves. Some of the mistreatments that slaves endured were, “restraining, binding, branding, nose-slitting, castration, amputation of ears, toes, fingers, etc.” (Veit, Unit 2, Lecture 3, 12:55). Violence also occurred when
The slave’s life depended on their owners. Most owners treated their slaves well by making sure they had decent food, clean houses, and warm clothes to wear. Other planters spent little time caring about these things. They were determining to get the most work possible from their slaves. Slaves worked from sunup to sundown, at least sixteen hours a day. They sometimes suffered whippings and other cruel punishments. Owners thought of them as valuable property, that way the owners wanted to keep their human property healthy and as productive as they can. Keeping slaves families together was very difficult to do because slaves were considered as
treated them harshly. The masters’ perception of blacks was that they lacked self-discipline and morality. They justified slavery by claiming that they were training the slaves to master self discipline through work and also train them in the precepts of God. Not all masters were harsh and cruel. Some treated their slaves with kindness and subsequently were well loved. However, it still emerges that a majority of even the kindest masters still did not attach much humane value to their slaves. This has been exemplified in that despite