American Slavery Essays (Examples)

Slavery in America

African-American Slavery in America

Introduction and Historical Foundation

The first African-Americans were brought bound and chained to the United States of America to Jamestown, Virginia then a colony, in 1619 under the auspices of working as free labor in the production of tobacco and cotton, sugar, rice and other agricultural endeavors (Segal, 1995). These were considered to be lucrative crops for the early settlers in the United States. Those that were deceitfully taken from their homes were the descendants of nearly 14 million African forbearers that were forcefully snatched and torn from everything they knew and transported like cattle during the massive slave trade that began as early as the 1400's according to some historical records (Davis, 2006). If the encaptured survived the Middle Passage on slave ships named Jesus and other noble and biblical titles, they were then traded amongst the hites to work for nothing.…

American Slavery in the 1800s

Any discussion of 19th century American history that omits slavery is incomplete, because slavery was such a significant fact of life during that time period that it impacted all people, whether slave or free, and whether they lived in a slave state or a state that prohibited slavery. The impact of slavery on the people of the United States during that time period was multi-faceted and complex. First, slavery expanded during that time period, which created political pressures that led up to the most significant conflict in United States history: the Civil War. Second, slavery in the 1800s was a troubling moral issue that aroused the sentiments of abolitionists on one side, but also focused on property and due process rights on the other side. Third, slavery in the 19th century had racial overtones that had been present, but less significant, in America prior to…

"I was made to drink the
bitterest dregs of slavery," wrote Frederick Douglas as he describes the
horrors in which he had to work in slavery. "e were worked in all
weathers... work, work, work, the longest days were too short for him, and
the shortest nights too long for him" (Bayliss 57), helping to show what
was expected of the slaves. Slaves had to work under horrid conditions as
much as possible, and they could not expect these conditions to change if
working for their former masters. The former slaves are acutely aware of
such risks as they write, "The man who tied me to a tree & gave me 39
lashes" is the man who they will now work for, and that there will be no
change. The oppressor, the elite white, will still be oppressing the poor
black. "In a Condition of Helplessness," the freed slaves will…

social, political and economic tensions that led to Bacon's Rebellion. Morgan begins to give the reader an idea of where all the tension begins, as well as a viewpoint to see that here lays a beginning to a possibly very nasty ending.

Bacon continued to conduct the crusade against Indians -- all Indians. He began by marching his men southward to a fort held by the Occaneechees on the Roanoke River near the present Carolina border. The friendly Occaneechees captured a number of Susquehannahs for him. After the prisoners had been killed, Bacon's men turned their guns on the Occaneechees and dispatched most of them too, thus demonstrating their evenhanded determination to exterminate Indians without regard to tribe or tribute. Upon returning, Bacon reiterated his loyalty to the governor. All he wanted, he said, was to make war "against all Indians in general," neglecting to add that friendly Indians were…

" American Theatre, February 2004, 67.

Phillips, Ulrich onnell. American Negro Slavery: A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime. Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1959.

Thomas, Helen. Romanticism and Slave Narratives: Transatlantic Testimonies. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Yancy, George. "Historical Varieties of African-American Labor: Sites of Agency and Resistance." The Western Journal of lack Studies 28, no. 2 (2004): 337.

Ron Eyerman, Cultural Trauma: Slavery and the Formation of African-American Identity (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 60.

Ron Eyerman, Cultural Trauma: Slavery and the Formation of African-American Identity (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 77.

Shauneille Perry, "lacker Than You, rother Man': Minstrelsy's Poisoned History amboozles a Compendium of Jim Crow Plays," American Theatre, February 2004. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5009564596

George Yancy, "Historical Varieties of African-American Labor: Sites of Agency and Resistance," the Western Journal of lack Studies 28, no. 2…

Very few individuals could possibly understand what it was like to be denied fundamental rights or dignities, such as knowing the name of your father, the love of your mother or even the date of your birth, unless you have lived it, like Douglass did and partly Truth as well. (Douglass) (Truth) This seemingly simple information and expression of love are things most everyone in the world takes for granted, as a universal right, and yet many slaves were denied such information, as a manner of control, though not quite as strong as that of the permanent "mental darkness" of illiteracy. (Douglass) in some ways the legal situation of women was similar to that of slaves, as they had no rights to their property or their children, unless granted by their husband or their father.

The struggle for natural human rights demonstrates the proof that they exist. Natural human rights…

However, the opposite was true in the south. As the slave trade continued, the two halves of the continent grew in very different ways, setting up the ultimate confrontation of the Civil War.

The result of the Civil War and the outlawing of slavery resulted in the crashing of the Southern economy, thus leading to a further divide, this time economically, between the North and the South. Since the southern economy depended on slaves, when this factor was removed the economy collapsed while the north's continued to grow. The effects of this are still felt today.

ibliography

Garraty, J.A. And M.C. Carnes. (2001): A Short History of the American Nation. (8th ed.). oston: Longman.

Howe, Daniel Walker. (2007): What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848. New York: Oxford University Press.

Kolchin, Peter and Fritz Metsch. (2003): American Slavery, 1619-1877. New York: Hill and Wang.

Williams, a.A. (1999): The…

S. Supreme Court. As to religion, slaves were allowed to worship in segregated sections of white churches, but with the advent of Reconstruction around 1867, freed slaves left the white churches and formed their own aptist and Methodist congregations.

The governments which were set up by the North during the Reconstruction period often mandated that segregation remain in place which affected the ability of freed slaves to attend and seek assistance in many local and state-level social institutions, such as colleges, hospitals and welfare facilities. For example, in the state of Georgia, there was no existing system for the care of disenfranchised former slaves and those who suffered from diseases and many physical ailments until the early 1880's. Also during this time, former slaves were forced to live in very inadequate housing, especially in southern cities like Atlanta, Richmond and Charleston. efore the Civil War, black American slaves had it…

Slavery

According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, a slave is a 'person who is the legal property of another or others and is bound to absolute obedience' (Blackburn 262).

To be very concise, slavery is the opposite of freedom. A 'liberated' individual possesses all the freedom to enjoy basic human rights of citizenship, profession choice and lifestyle. Not only this, he has all the rights of security of self and property. On the contrary, the slave is a hereditary chattel who can be legally punished, sold or transferred, controlled and separated from the loved ones. Both his productive and reproductive capacities are exploited by the master. Thus, a slave doesn't have any right that a 'free' individual holds. Slaves belong to a different economic group; totally separated with the 'independent' working class (Campbell viii).

Slavery can be described as an institution that is founded on a relationship of control…

Slavery, The Civil ar and the Preservation of the Union

In the face of oppression and harsh treatment, slaves formed communities as a coping mechanism and to resist the belief that they were simply property. Members of these slave communities came together often to sing, talk, and even plan covert plots to runaway or sabotage the system in which they were living. Slaves married, had children and worked to keep their families together. Families were often broken up as members were sold off to different masters, but when a family was kept together, nuclear families of two parents and their children working for the same master were common. It was in these communities that countless elements of African-American slave culture were passed on for generations, including skills such as medical care, hunting, and fishing as well as how to act in front of whites, hiding their feelings and escaping punishment.…

American life is all about the fight towards becoming upwardly mobile and making life better. Ellen oster by Kaye Gibbons and the Narrative of the Life of rederick Douglass, an American Slave written by himself tell the story of struggle and hardship that leads to change and reflection. These two stories although differing in setting and protagonists, share the same level of pain that are universal regardless of race, gender, and age.

Both protagonists are bound by the chains of their existence. The differences are based on age and racial inequality. In terms of style and content, because the two novels were written during different time periods, they will have differences, especially in perspective since Douglass wrote it about himself where as Kaye Gibbons wrote about a made up character. In this essay these differences will be explained along with the universal themes that bring the two together.

Ellen oster…

American Revolution

Slavery in the United Stated lasted as an endorsed organization until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865. In 1619 twenty Africans were brought by a Dutch soldier and sold to the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia as indentured servants.

This would be the first of many visits up and down the American eastern seaboard. At this time, most slaves were being purchased by white men, though some Native Americans and free blacks were also detained. Slavery was spread to the areas where there was a high-quality soil for large plantations of important crops, such as cotton, sugar, coffee and most prominently tobacco. Even though the endorsed practice of enslaving blacks occurred in all of the original thirteen colonies, more than half of all African-Americans lived in Virginia and Maryland. The three highest-ranking North American zones of importation throughout most of the…

American History

Northwest Passage- 1492-1600 when Europeans encountered the new world

After the Portuguese and Spanish took control of the South's sea pathways, the English and French began seeking a northwestern route to Asia. However, by the 17th century, they lost hope of ever making their way across North America's northern part after many generations of sailors failed to find a way. Nevertheless, early 15th and 16th century explorations and colonization increased knowledge regarding the world by a significant amount. Cornelius Wytfliet, the cartographer from Flanders created a world map that continued to depict the mythical "Straits of Anian" -- a province in China connecting the Atlantic and the legendary Northwest Passage, which finds mention in the edition of traveler, Marco Polo's work dated 1559. European powers' endeavors to make their homes in the Americas succeeded, ultimately, in the 17th century, when the English and the French successfully contested the…

Finally, the two works have different purposes, so it is difficult to rate them to the same standards. McPherson has more on his mind than the institution of slavery; he is discussing an entire war and its aftermath, while Elkins is solely concerned with slavery in America and why it occurred. While the authors do share many similar views, many simply do not apply to each other.

In conclusion, both of these books play a vital role in understanding the complexities of the Civil War and race relations during and after the Civil War. One takes a more scholarly approach, while the other takes a more storytelling approach. Both use intensive research and knowledge of the Civil War period to make their cases, and both belong on the bookshelf of any serious Civil War historian. McPherson's work is a bit easier to read, simply because he gears it to a…

33). Slavery was an institution, and as such, it had become outmoded in modern society of the time. Elkins feels slavery could have been viewed less emotionally and more realistically as an institution, rather than an ethical or moral dilemma, and this is one of the most important arguments in his book, which sets the stage for the rest of his writing.

In his arguments for his theses, Elkins continues, "To the Northern reformer, every other concrete fact concerning slavery was dwarfed by its character as a moral evil - as an obscenity condemned of God and universally offensive to humanity" (Elkins, 1959, p. 36). Slavery was a moral evil, and it is still seen as such. Elkins indicates society was becoming disillusioned with it at the time (at least Northern society), and that the institution needed to change or disappear.

Another of the important points Elkins attempts to make…

Inclusion Exclusion

Blassingame, John W. 1979. The slave community: plantation life in the antebellum South. New York: Oxford University Press.

The most overt explanation of the author's research problem is when he states: "To argue, as some scholars have, that the first slaves suffered greatly from the enslavement process because it contradicted their 'heroic' warrior tradition, or that it was easier for them because Africans were docile in nature and submissive, is to substitute mythology for history," (p. 4).

The struggles of African slaves are the topic for Blassingame's entire book, and it is impossible to indicate one page number describing all the travails that are detailed in the tome. However, the first chapter of the book does provide examples of the suffering of slaves in Africa, during the transatlantic voyages, and in the New World. Pages 6 and 7 describe in some detail the brutality of the slave boat…

Slavery and its Relation to the Modern World
The history of slavery in colonial America is a story of two worlds: the world of the aristocratic landowners and the slaves from African that helped to maintain and work the plantations. Each group had its own experiences and views, and each group was impacted differently by slavery. At the time, slavery was an accepted practice in the South. It had first been introduced in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619 when 20 slaves from Africa were brought to the colony by a Dutch ship. Thus began an era of slavery in America that had lasting effects on the population of the country even unto this very day. This paper will show how slavery throughout the history of the United States influenced the Legacy of slavery today because slavery is discussed in a negative connotation.
As the Editors of History.com note, “though it is…

The slaveholder was the "father" who needed to take care of his slaves spiritual and material needs, and to protect him or her.

Early in the nineteenth century, slaveholders began to view their slaves as property that needed protecting. Conditions improved slightly and slaves were given better food, clothing and housing. This was not done out of kindness, but because of a need to protect their property. Eventually laws were passed in southern states that limited the physical punishment that slaveholders could inflict upon slaves, and set the age at which slaves could be separated from their mothers.

Slavery needed to be protected from capitalism and democracy because these forces were inherently in opposition to slavery. Democracy declared all men equal before the law, but Paternalism provided the basis for a justification by saying these were not men, but some inferior being that needed to be ruled by whites. Slavery…

Americans are reminded incessantly these days that slavery was a terrible thing. In today's politically correct society, some blacks are challenging reparations for slavery because their remote ancestors were slaves. Slavery is routinely used to bash the South, although the slave trade began in the North, and slavery was once used in every state in the Union. Today's historians assure people of America that the War for Southern Independence was fought first and foremost if not exclusively over slavery, and that by winning that war, the North put an end to the peculiar institution once and for all. However, in today's modern society, if people are legally bound to hand a certain percentage of their income (the fruits of their labors) over to federal, state and local governments, then from the legal standpoint they only have some percentage ownership of their person and labor which could be considered a form…

Slavery in the Cotton Kingdom

Slavery

During the American evolution and the civil war, the North and the South experienced development of different socio-political and cultural environmental conditions. The North became an industrial and manufacturing powerhouse as a result of rise of movements like abolitionism and women's right while the South became a cotton kingdom whose labor was sourced from slavery (Spark notes, 2011).

The distinct feature of cotton kingdom is that her activities were empowered by slave labor. The cotton kingdom thus means a cotton producing region of the United States until the period of civil war.

The reason why slavery spread into the cotton kingdom after revolution is because the tobacco income plummeted as white setters from Virginia and Carolinas forcing the original Native Americans inhabitants farther and farther west where they established plantations. The wide spread use of the cotton gin invented by Eli Whitney in 1793,…

American Expansion

American Territorial Expansion: The Louisiana Purchase

American territorial expansion was the top priority of ashington DC for every decade of the 19th century, including the Civil ar years. The new territory all came to Americans through treaties or conquest, and thus promoted the isolationist "Manifest Destiny" prerogative of strengthening the American continent. The earliest and largest territorial expansion of the 19th century was the Louisiana Purchase, doubling the size of the American states. The Louisiana Purchase was made with the short-term bolstering of Thomas Jefferson's government in the near-term, yet with deep concerns for the security of the new land and how and who should settle the land in the long-term.

The Louisiana Purchase was not a decision taken lightly by then President Thomas Jefferson, who felt that it would be difficult for the young America to take full possession of the territory, and thus sign the country…

American System

Henry Clay gave his famous speech in support of the American System to the House of Representatives in 1824, although Alexander Hamilton had used the same term decades before. It rested "on the idea of harmonizing all the segments of the economy for their mutual benefit and of doing so by active support from an intervening national government" (Baxter 27). Clay's conversion to this policy was surprising since Hamilton had been a member of the Federalist Party while Henry Clay was supposedly a Democratic Republican and a Jeffersonian, opposed to Federal plans for government aid to industry, a national bank, protective tariffs and federal funding for highways, canals, railroads and other internal improvements. After the ar of 1812, however, the first political party system had come to an end and the Federalists were discredited by their opposition to the war and threats of secession in New England. During…

The first Great Awakening in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries became a harbinger of the later, more vocal and radical abolitionist movements. The Maryland Abolition Society was another early abolitionist group. Some abolitionist movements espoused violent means to obtain full freedom for slaves, and John Brown is one of the most notorious advocates of radical means.

In 1817, a group of wealthy white males founded the American Colonization Society (ACS). The ACS had an abolitionist platform but a fundamentally racist agenda. hile the main objective of the ACS was to eventually free the slaves, members also wanted to deport all blacks to an African colony. Called Liberia after the Latin word for "free," the colony was created by the ACS for the express purpose of creating a second exodus of freed slaves, many of whom were born on American soil. Some members of the ACS might have been…

Slavery

The so-called peculiar institution of slavery would come to define America in the 19th century, and set the stage for effects that until the current day. It was a critical, destructive error to leave the issue of slavery unresolved at the time of American independence.

Attempts to econcile the Slavery Issue

3/5 Compromise

What was the 3/5 Compromise?

elevance of the 3/5 Compromise

Significance of the 3/5 Compromise for the issue of slavery

Missouri Compromise of 1820

Define (MO as slave state, ME as free state)

Louisiana territory

Significance of the 1820 compromise

3.Compromise of 1850

Define the compromise of 1850

Significance of this compromise iii. Fugitive Slave Act and DC

Shift in power dynamic on the issue

Nebraska-Kansas Act

Define the Nebraska-Kansas Act

Describe the bleeding of Kansas iii. Show how the violence was a precursor to the Civil War

Dred Scot

What was the Dred Scott case?…

Slavery pattern in North America took a funny trend since initially the blacks had some social positions and had a voice in the running of the community. his however later changed and the North also started to own slaves at a higher rate. here are several factors that led to this change in events in the north that made it to fancy slavery just as much as the South was with its plantations.

It is worth noting the background of the slavery trend in order to fully comprehend the drastic shift in slavery from the class servitude to racial slavery which was predominantly in the late 17th century and early 18th century. he black laborers and white laborers from the working class used to work on the same level and the Europeans used to be allowed to have slaves from the non-Christians population regardless of the color. he class determined…

Many see slavery as the cause of the Civil ar but like with many other wars, it simply is not that simple. ars are never simple and rarely are they clear-cut. Slavery is a black eye on the history of the United States but within that turmoil, there is much to glean about a nation and a people. hile slavery is not unique to America, it is connected to the Civil ar. The struggle up until that time demonstrates how society and culture influence behavior and beliefs. Slavery was painful and freedom was not a perfect answer for those who suddenly found themselves free with nowhere to go. The pain of the Civil ar lead to the birth of Civil Rights and from such pain, individuals find release through perseverance. Unfortunately, slavery is a part of the history of man and while we read the pages of history, it is…

American Civil Liberties Union

(Friend or Foe)

America was founded on the astute principles of democracy and the potential benefits of freedom it derives. America, unlike many of its foreign counterparts has long recognized the benefits of individual rights, freedoms and privileges and has fought to the death to protect them. Currently, America aims to spread these principles of democracy around the globe in an effort to create a better quality of life for all mankind. Even with these lofty and ambitious goals, America, on occasion fails to uphold these principles within its own borders. Too often, America has overlooked the problems prevalent within its own country while criticizing other nations about their own circumstances. Many of these overlooked issues including slavery, discrimination, women's rights and others have left an unfavorable image in American history. In such instances, the American Civil Liberties Union has become the beacon of hope for…

By 1861 the political and economic disagreement concerning the issue of slavery came to a head and the civil war began. During the civil war slaves fought in both the confederate and union armies.

In 1862 and 1863 respectively President Lincoln issued executive orders referred to as the emancipation proclamation. These proclamations basically set slaves in the southern states free.

By 1865 the civil war came to an end and by July of 1865 most slaves were freed.

As it relates to economics, it is important to understand that the establishment and perpetuation of slavery was always about monetary benefit. Slaves provided land owners with access to abundant and free labor. Not having to pay people for labor results in increased profitability. During the 1600's colonist first began to understand the economic benefits associated with slavery and slaves became more valuable than indentured servants (Boskin). The value of slaves increased…

The kind of work a slave did depended on where he/she ended up. In the Chesapeake region, for instance, Africans cut and burned brush, split rails, and built fences with axes and hatchets. They cut down trees and squared logs. They were wheelwrights, carpenters, shingle cutters, boat builders, cabinetmakers, and barrel makers. They built wagons, worked as blacksmiths, made saddles and harnesses. In South Carolina they built dugout canoes and boats that carried rice to Charleston. A law there required all slaves to work as ditch diggers when the growing season was over. Slaves built roads and dug waterways. In North Carolina slaves made tar and pitch from pinecones for use on English boats. In Georgia, black slaves wove fishing nets and were shrimpers. In Africa they had killed and eaten crocodiles, so they knew how to deal with alligators in the South. The women worked in the fields and…

Regardless, slaves worked hard, often beginning with small tasks as children, and took on large responsibilities within their community. Women were charged with more tasks in addition to the fieldwork they had to do; they were also charged with cooking, cleaning, and child rearing. Slaves adapted to their lives through the development of their own culture. By the early 19th century, most African-Americans were Christians, with some converting to Christianity voluntarily and others being coerced. Though autonomous black churches were banned blacks throughout the South developed their own version of Christianity that was often considered more emotional than its white counterpart and influenced by African customs, traditions, and practices.

The development of the abolition movement arose from the revivalist movement in the North and the desire to create a perfect society in Christ's image and thereby perfect themselves. The abolitionists faced many obstacles including politics and unexpected racism in the…

Some writers had been overwhelmed by the sudden changes brought by the Harlem Renaissance and they preferred writing about certain things which didn't involve it. Sometimes they chose to write about a place in the U.S. which had a special effect on them at some point of their lives.

3. Black people had not been the only ones struggling to receive credit for their writings during the 1920s, as it had been also hard for women to become appreciated in a majority of men writers. Despite having to fight the severe gender discrimination which existed during the period, many American women writers managed to become successful.

Bess Streeter Aldrich is one of the women who succeeded in getting a positive feed-back from a public that had not been accustomed with women writers. Aldrich's writing "A Lantern in Her Hand" had won her international recognition for having created a great literary…

Alexander Hamilton carried on an affair with the wife of "a notorious political schemer," Maria Reynolds. Andrew Jackson married Rachel Jackson before her divorce from Lewis Robards was finalized and therefore was accused of marrying a married woman. Jackson's opponent in 1828, John Quincy Adams, was in turn accused of "corrupt bargaining" during his term. Jackson also championed Margaret O'Neill Timberlake, who married his secretary of war, John Eaton. "Peggy O'Neill" was considered a woman of "questionable virtue," and as a result Martin Van Buren became Jackson's successor in the presidency. After the death of Jackson and Eaton, Peggy married a 19-year-old dance teacher (which raised eyebrows, as she was 59), who embezzled her money and ran off to Europe with her 17-year-old granddaughter.

Other scandals concerned Richard Mentor Johnson, who ran for vice president in 1836 with Martin Van Buren. He supposedly shot Tecumseh during the ar of 1812,…

His accomplishments included simplifying government jobs, and helping create the Democratic Party. He is most remembered as a great general and for defying Congress. Martin Van Buren served from 1837 to 1841. He was married to Hannah, and he died in 1862. His vice-president was ichard Johnson, and his nickname was the "Little Magician." His accomplishments included regulating banks and federal funds, and creating an independent treasury. He is most remembered for the Panic of 1837, and for being opposed to slavery. William Henry Harrison served in 1841 and died after only one month in office. He was married to Anna. His vice-president was John Tyler. He is most remembered for being the first president to die in office. John Tyler served from 1841 to 1845. He was married to Letitia and then Julia and he died in 1862. His nickname was "Old Tippecanoe." His accomplishments included annexing Texas and…

The development of the American automobile industry is one of the best examples of this interplay: "Unlike European manufacturers, who concentrated on expensive motorcars for the rich, American entrepreneurs early turned to economical vehicles that could be mass-produced," (Jackson 159). The fact that so many Americans then became capable of purchasing a car both fed the notion of the American dream, and also served to expand American cities and suburbs; people who could afford to commute were not forced to live in the stifling and often impoverished inner-city. This trend tended to make inner cities in America decreasingly desirable places to live. Yet, in places like New York, with the creation of central park, wealthy neighborhoods came to crowd around such desirable locations and push the impoverished sects of society away: "By the time the park's founding generation passed away, the political, aesthetic, and cultural unity they valued had already…

Slavery in Texas

andolph Campbell, in his book "An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas," said that "protecting slavery was not he primary cause of the Texas evolution, but it certainly was a major result." (Campbell, 1989, pp. 48-49) The role slavery played in Texas, and the decision by the Anglos to rebel against the Mexican government has long been a tale that is not well-known in American history. Slavery was an institution that many who had emigrated from the United States to Texas either opposed, or were willing to restrict, but what many in Texas were not willing to accept was the high-handedness by which restrictions on slavery were imposed. Over time, many have viewed the Mexican government's interference in the economic foundations of Texan life the cause of the Texas evolution, but what really caused the revolution was the attempt to restrict, and then outlaw, the…

Webster appears to be in agreement with Calhoun regarding the North's part in damaging the relationship between the North and the South. According to Webster however, the main culprit in this dynamic is the rhetoric of the abolition societies. While the author acknowledges that these societies include mostly honorable and just people who believe in their cause, he also holds that their rhetoric has become unacceptably emotional and their tactics, such as spreading anti-slavery literature to the South, essentially dishonorable. According to the author, such tactics ironically lead only to strengthen the Southern cause and increase enmity and violence.

Resolution

William Henry Seward believes that the abolishment of slavery is inevitable as the economy and humanitarian institutions grow. According to this author, the institution is simply an "accidental" institution that came into being as a result of a combination of certain factors at a certain time. As times are changing,…

Slavery vs. The New Deal

Slavery vs. New Deal

Two influential events that occurred over the course of American history were slavery and the New Deal. In both situations, they were result of some kind of changes that were taking place and created tremendous amounts of debate about the legality / effectiveness of these ideas. To fully understand their impact on the nation requires comparing the two with one another. Together, these elements will offer specific insights which are highlighting how both shaped economics, politics and the basic freedoms everyone enjoys to this day. (Freidman) (Powel) (Zinn)

Slavery was considered to be a vital part of the Southern states economy. This is because a tradition had been established where large plantations were developed with this being used as a form of cheap labor. Politically, many people were divided about if this practice was considered to be legal, its morality and…

Slavery Art

Robert, Calvin, Martha, and illiam Scott and Mila ended up in the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco because its owner, Rev. illiam Anderson Scott, was the minister at Calvary Presbyterian Church there in 1853-61. He was originally from the South and because of his sympathy for the Confederate cause in the Civil ar, including offering public prayers for Jefferson Davis, he "had to leave the city for his safety and that of his family" (Smylie 89-90). His son Robert, depicted on the far left of the painting, became a Union Army officer in 1862, although Rev. Scott regretted that he was "on the wrong side" (Acker 79). Mila was a gift to his wife Ann from her father in 1830, and was in charge of caring for the four children. In the painting, the Scott's wished to be depicted as "relatively well-heeled members of Sothern society" even…

Slavery was an essential element of the society of Ancient Greece. Social life, in numerous ways -- family, commerce, politics, was heavily dependent on a class of people who fulfilled tasks their masters saw as degrading. Although, the concept of slavery represented a fundamental aspect of the practical construction of democracy, it is not the only factor that has lead to the development of this complex political institution which is currently the basis of modern constitutional systems. Other issues that need to be considered are the developments in philosophy, the urbanization of Greece and the extremely large interest that the population manifested towards politics. (After all, the Greeks were as interested in philosophy and politics as much as the omans were interested in law). Each of this factors was essentially predetermined by slavery, which as a firm establishment, made possible the development of all political systems in ancient Greece, and…

Marx's interpretation of Twentieth-Century Capitalism, as described by Miller, describes the changes in the American dream. The American dream was initially one linked to the idea of land ownership. Immigrants came from Europe, where land ownership had been a privilege of the wealthy. However, when America was relatively unsettled, almost anyone could theoretically come to America and claim land, and many people did just that. Of course, some of these early Americans did so in a grand way, traveling westward from the cities and establishing homesteads in the wilderness. The idea of home ownership, however, was not limited to those frontiersmen. Instead, only 100 years ago, someone could come to America and, because of the cheap price of land, afford to build his own home if he worked hard enough to do so. However, the nature of the home, itself, was different. Those homes were centers of production: at the…

William Penn, a Quaker whose father had been an Admiral in the King's oyal Navy, was given a large piece of land as payment for a debt owed by the Crown to his father. Penn had suggested naming the new territory Sylvania, meaning wood, but the King added his surname, Penn, as a tribute to William's father (Uden). Penn considered his venture a "Holy Experiment" and sought to establish a society based on religious freedom and separation between religious and governmental authorities,

Under Penn's governorship, Pennsylvania became a safe haven for all persecuted religious groups like the Quakers. He instituted a ballot system that intended to allow all members of Pennsylvania to have an equal say in their own governance. Some of the provisions of equality and religious tolerance in the charter that he drafted for Pennsylvania would eventually be incorporated into other charters, including the U.S.

Constitution (Uden). Perhaps…

American Social hought on Women's Rights

his paper compares and contrasts the arguments in favor of women's rights made by three pioneering American feminists: Judith Sargent Murray, Sarah Grimke, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. his analysis reveals the centrality of religious argumentation to the feminism of all three. Murray and Grimke were both converts to varieties of evangelical Protestantism who drew considerable intellectual and emotional nourishment from strands of Christianity, which encouraged, or at least did not discourage, their personal development. Unlike Murray and Grimke, however, Stanton did not convert to evangelicalism. Instead, she launched upon a secularizing trajectory that took her beyond Christianity to Comtean Positivism and rationalism. Unlike Murray and Grimke, moreover, she acknowledged the problems inherent in any attempt to square Christianity with feminism. However, she never rejected the Bible completely, and she is appropriately viewed with respect today as a pioneer of feminist biblical criticism. he paper…

Without a public health system in place these elements were left in the street to be breathed in and walked through daily.

In addition there engineering advances that built large high rise slums that were quickly filled to capacity even though they offered no fresh water or waste disposal areas.

The 1870's became the decade for urban public health reform as Congress made the move to reorganize the Marine Hospital Service. It was also at that time the Surgeon General position was created and still exists today.

The Surgeon General was charged with overseeing public health issues and providing advice, guidelines and mandates as to how they would be best handled.

During the 1880's the movement toward public health moved away from the political arena and into the laboratories around the nation.

It was at this time scientists began to learn how to isolate disease producing organisms for communicable diseases.…

Even after the Emancipation Proclamation, the Supreme Court held that separate but equal was a legitimate stance under American law, essentially codifying human beings into different racial categories like a caste system, until Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. In short, America was a nation founded upon a paradox. It idealized freedom and personal choice, yet it also was based upon a system that did not allow a substantial percentage of the population to exercise that freedom and enjoy in their liberties.

The Civil Rights movement was so radical, because it demanded that the promise of American freedom finally be truly realized and granted to Black Americans, which America was unwilling to do, until African-Americans demanded their rights through this eloquent and articulate protest movement. Sadly, the damage of hundreds of years of slavery had taken their psychological and economic toll upon some Black Americans. One of the saddest…

This, along with the older Psalter by trenhold and Hopkins, was the main influence of the Bay Psalm Book printed during 1640 in Massachusetts. This can be compared with the first musical influences on and compositions by Li Jinhui. The traditional forms were explored thoroughly before new ideas in music were explored.

Culturally, the new Americans at the time were deeply religious, following the Puritan tradition on which they based their way of life. Their music therefore reflected this tradition, and the earliest genres were mainly religious in nature. As such, the musical format was unaccompanied by musical instruments, as these were viewed as secular and therefore sinful. The same type of division can be seen in the later genres of Asian music, where Cantopop began to lose its popularity in the face of new and more trendy developments. In contrast, however, the Chinese does not have as clear a…

British reactions to the colonies wavered throughout the colonial era, from the policy of salutary neglect to the tightened controls of King George III. The Crown faced a dilemma: to allow the colonies to develop thriving commercial enterprises in the hopes of a trickle-down benefit for Great Britain; or to tighten the leash on the colonial governments to demand more regular tax revenues. In light of the thriving colonial economies in Massachusetts, Virginia, and Maryland, King George III opted for the latter, imposing tariffs on the colonies. Britain's policies toward the New World colonies remained, therefore, primarily economic: the Stamp and Sugar Acts exemplify the Crown's interest not so much in the development of colonial culture as in the colonial economy.

Friction between English settlers and Native Americans also impacted the development of colonial life and of Crown policies. Infiltration into lands inhabited by the indigenous Americans led to numerous…

Slavery, and its negative (and positive) effects on society, is not nearly as pervasive in today's modern world as it has been in previous centuries. One expert writes "early Christians repeatedly conceived of sin and salvation in terms of slavery and freedom" (DeWet, 2010, p. 27) and that "in fact, slavery had become so embedded in the ancient conceptual reality that it played an integral part in the cosmologies and theories of politics of even the most prominent of thinkers" (p. 27). A society such as the one described by the prominent thinkers of those days was a society that was far more advanced than most people like to imagine, and much of the overall growth of the society was a direct result of the slavery environment. A vast majority of the citizens owned slaves (while the remaining individuals were likely to be slaves).

Slaves could be bought and sold,…

Slavery in the Bible

In modern estern countries, many Christians and Jews may wish to portray God as the comfortable deity of a middle-class consumer society like the United States, but the Bible demonstrates that nothing could be further from the truth. In the Bible, the God of history from the story of Cain and Abel, through Abraham, Joseph, Moses and the Prophets and of course the ministry of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Repeatedly, God intervenes on the side of the poor, the weak, the lowly and the outcast, and against the rich and powerful. He has mercy on Joseph when his brothers sell him into slavery in Egypt and elevates him about all others. God takes the side of a young shepherd boy David against the thuggish giant Goliath and then against the evil and corrupt King Saul. ith Jesus, the constant messages is that God shows…

Both religion and the law purport to advocate human rights, freedoms, and liberties. Yet neither religion nor the law can offer any justification for the dichotomy of slavery. No logic can sustain the argument that slavery is humane or just, and the brilliance of Jacobs' and Douglass' lsave narratives is their mutual ability to expose the fallacies in both religion and the law. The optimism with which the authors express their views does not negate their overt critiques. For instance, Jacobs and Douglass are both deeply religious. They do not criticize Christianity but only the way Christian doctrine is distorted to support slavery. Neither author criticizes the United States but only the way American law and values are distorted to support slavery. Their incredible ability to overcome a lack of formal education to write their stories bears witness to the power of the individual to transform defunct social norms and…

Boycotting British goods meant that American women were going to have to make sacrifices, and stop consuming goods that were imported from Britain. The cartoon of the women of Edenton, NC signing a non-consumption agreement represent American women involving themselves in the political and economic boycott of Britain by the American colonies. ("A Society of Patriotic Ladies") However, it is actually a criticism of women's involvement in political affairs by representing the women who signed as silly women engaging in silly activities. The entire cartoon is designed to give the impression that women are not able to take on political issues seriously and deal with them effectively. Instead, the women in the cartoon are engaging in sex, playing, drinking, and are generally distracted from the important issue at hand.

orks Cited

"A Society of Patriotic Ladies- North Carolina Digital History." LEARN NC. eb. 14

Oct. 2011. http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-revolution/4305

2000. Print.

"Laws…

This sort of behavior and scapegoating was the intellectual and cultural "easy way out" for many Americans looking for solace from the events taking place thousands of miles away, affecting the entire country. In the fog of war, as writer Barbre (2000) puts it, mistakes are made and generalizations are easily placed into existence. hen Americans were confused and scared, they looked to the easiest form of comfort, the alienation of the outsider or the "other."

Sexual Projection and the Internment of the Japanese-Americans

riter Renteln (1995) explores the role that sexual projection had in the dealing with Japanese-Americans in internment camps during II. This can be directly related to the themes within the book Snow Falling of Cedars due to the fact that Americans used their fear of the outsider (Japanese and Japanese-Americans) to project their own fears and misgivings about their sexuality and feelings of inadequacy. As author…

American politics took another turn with problems that would lead to
the Civil War, as the North and the South each had their own interests.
Tariffs to protect some Northern manufacturing interests greatly angered
the South leading to attempts to nullify acts of the federal government,
ultimately resulting in conflict between the powers of the states and the
federal Union. The result of this conflict led to the Civil War and
American political development became one in which decisions over slave and
free-states were the most prominent. America became increasingly partisan
and the Republican party emerged to compete along with Know Nothings and
Democratic Party. Ultimately the South seceded resulting in a Confederacy
that split from the Union as the debates over slavery reached an all-time
involving all aspects of political life.
The Civil War split America in two and then brought it back together
again. But the new America…

Abolitionist Movement

Black Africans helped the Portuguese and the Spanish when they were on their exploration of the America. During the 16th century, some of the explorers who were of black origin went ahead to settle within the Valley of Mississippi as well as in areas that came to be known as New Mexico and South Carolina. However, Esteban was the most celebrated black explorer of the, who followed the Southwest route in the 1530s. Blacks in the United State and their uninterrupted history can be traced from 1619; this was after 20 Africans were landed within the English colony of Virginia. Though these blacks were by then not slaves, they served as servants who were bound to an employer for a limited number of years as it was to most of the white settlers. By 1660s bigger numbers of Africans were taken to the English colonies. By 1790, the…

Origination of Chattel Slavery

Traditional slavery, mostly referred to as chattel slavery, is almost certainly the least common among all forms of traditional slavery. In the words of the American Anti-Slavery Group, in Mauritania-where a ban was legally placed on slavery in 1980-about 90,000 dark-skinned Africans were still owned by the Muslim Berber communities. Though the Mauritanian Africans became Moslems over 100 years ago, and the Qur'an prohibits enslaving fellow Moslems, race in Mauritania seems to be a more influential factor than the religious doctrines. The main uses of such chattel slaves were for sex, labor, and breeding, and they were often exchanged for trucks, guns, camels, and money. The offspring of these chattel slaves remain owned by their masters. And even the community of free slaves, a tribute is mostly paid to their former masters, who equally maintain some inheritance rights over their freed slaves' properties (Singh, n.d). In…

The women are especially vulnerable because their children can be sent away from them, they can be the brunt of a cruel master's sexual encounters, and they often have to serve the master's family, which can make them targets of abuse.

Most of the southern women in the book are portrayed as kinder than their husbands. He writes of the wife of Mr. Epp "She had been well educated at some institution this side the Mississippi; was beautiful, accomplished, and usually good-humored. She was kind to all of us but Patsey -- frequently, in the absence of her husband, sending out to us some little dainty from her own table" (Northup 198-199). They are sometimes jealous of the slave women, as Mrs. Epp is, but for the most part, they are the gentler part of the slave experience, and they are not as cruel or vindictive as their husbands are.…

Thomas R. Dew Defends Slavery (1852)

In his 1852 argument, Thomas R. Dew outlined what he believed to be a logical justification for the continuation of the noxious institution of American Slavery that precipitated the Civil War a decade after its writing. In retrospect, it stands as a remarkable demonstration of myopic, self-centered, immoral rationalization that is breathtaking in the presumptuousness of its purported rationale.

Dew's first point is that however wrong the institution of slavery was to establish in the first place, the moral responsibility for that wrong does not rest in the hands of later generations who had nothing to do with that decision originally. He suggests that slavery "once introduced" is an entirely different matter than the decision to introduce it in the first place. According to Dew, neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament prohibits slavery; the former provides numerous examples of slavery while the…

constitution had been written with the abolishment of slavery included, the nation would not have benefitted much from such an act. Unfortunately, the United States was built on slave labor. This was especially true in the south. The colonists in colonial America would not have expanded the way they did. They would have not done well in crops like cotton and tobacco had they not employed slave labor. History states the conditions that existed back in the colonial era was deadly to most but African slaves. Although Europeans used indentured servants and Native Americans, they quickly died in those conditions.

Examining it in a positive way, the nation would have learned to exist and trade using other methods. They may have learned to cooperate with native populations and perhaps focus more on trade and developing skills versus farming and slave trading. The nation would have also remained unified. One of…

Anti-Slavery Movement of "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave"

Frederick Douglass' biography entitled, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Life" is a literary work that does not only discuss slavery in broader terms incorporated into a literary work during the 19th century, but the narrative is also a social study of the life of black Americans during the black American slavery period (19th century). Being a social study of the American society during the 19th century, the Douglass biography illustrates the injustices and inequality among black Americans during the black slavery period through vivid and descriptive narrations of the author's experiences as a young black American slave who tried to free himself from the slave bondage. Douglass' biography is also an example of a literary work that focuses on the theme of anti-slavery movement, similar to the objectives of famous black American writers…

There are approximately 60 million Americans of Irish descent, and most of their ancestors arrived in America as refugees from an Ireland colonized and exploited in the harshest ways by the then-contemporary government of Britain. Should Americans of Irish descent (or Irish people still living in Ireland for that matter) demand reparations for the hardships suffered by their ancestors at the hands of colonial British "masters?"

Irish immigrants to the United States during the 1800s faced apartheid-like discrimination by the majority groups at the time - mostly people of English and German descent. An oft-observed sign at factories and construction sites was "Help Wanted - Irish Need Not Apply." Should modern Irish-Americans demand reparations for the discrimination suffered by their immigrant ancestors upon arrival here?

Should Armenians demand reparations for the suffering of their ancestors at the hands of the Ottoman Turks prior to the First World War? Should the…

Pro- and Anti-Slavery Movement in the 19th Century American Society

The history of black slavery movement in the American society during the 19th century has become a common theme of debate and discussion between Americans for and against black slavery movement. There have been numerous literary works, essays, and other written works that discuss this primary issue of black American slavery in America during the 1800s. An example of these literary works is an essay by Thomas Jefferson entitled, "Notes on the State of Virginia," and an autobiography by Frederick Douglass entitled, "Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave." These two written works discuss the issue of black American slavery in America, with Jefferson defending and justifying the black slavery movement, while Douglass calls for a radical change and opposition against the said movement. These two written works will be critically analyzed in this paper, and by…