Slavery in Early American Society

Slavery is Entrenched

Recently in History class we have been focusing on slavery and how it impacted American society. The question that we were trying to answer in this section was; how did slavery become entrenched, both economically and politically by the early 19th century? To do so we analyzed three clauses from the founder’s constitution. The first basically determined that the importation of slaves cannot be prohibited or taxed before 1808, but Congress can impose a tax on the importation of slaves after 1808, the tax will be a minute maximum of $10 per slave. The second determined that if a slave escapes from the state in which they are in servitude they are not free of their owner and they must be sent back. And finally the last determines that for the purpose of representation and taxation every five people bound to slavery are counted as three free people. And each free person and indentured servant count as a whole person, Native Americans are not counted. We also read an article named Cotton is King: Slavery is Entrenched in American Society. Through this we noticed that in the late 18th century people did think that slavery was declining as a result of the American and French revolutions. This article also talked about Eli Whitney and his invention of the cotton gin. This new invention was a machine that would get rid of the seeds in the cotton so it could then be spun into threads. This increased the amount of slavery because it made cotton production more prosperous therefore needing slaves to keep the industry moving. Now the economy completely relied on the production of cotton which was run by slaves. These interactive maps clearly indicate that the increase in cotton production directly affected the increase of slave population in the US.

Comparison of slavery and cotton in 1790.

Comparison of slavery and cotton in 1820.

Comparison of slavery and cotton in 1860.

Morality of Slavery

In the next section of the slavery unit we focused our attention on the morality of slavery and what people thought of it. The essential questions that we were trying to answer were; how does a system of slavery based on race affect human dignity? What human characteristics does such a system tend to ignore? To do this we analyzed three documents in class on Frederick Douglass, George Fitzhugh, and John Brown. We wrote biographies on these figures and then found a portrait of them and decorated it with words or phrases that applied to their view of slavery. George Fitzhugh was one of the best defenders of slavery in the south, he was a lawyer and an author. He thought that without an orderly system such as slavery society would self-destruct. He wrote a book named Cannibals All and he also wrote an article called Slavery Justified. He viewed liberty and equality as destructive morals and ones that got in the way of society's happiness. He also proposed the point that slaves had better lives than free laborers. Next Frederick Douglass was enslaved in the early parts of his life, while he was enslaved he defied a ban on slaves learning to read and write by learning to do these things. His second attempt at escaping he succeeded, he then went on to write a newspaper and became an active slavery abolitionist. Douglass gave a speech where he told his audience that celebrating a small reduction in slavery is wrong because there is still such a significant amount of enslaved people. Lastly John Brown believed in using violent means to end slavery. He was an abolitionist who was willing to commit very violent crimes for his cause. He led the raid of Harpers Ferry, this is where he brought 18 men to Harpers Ferry, Virginia and intended to start a slave revolt. But instead this movement backfired and the majority of his men were killed and he was captured and put on trial for treason.

This is my groups portrait of George Fitzhugh. 

Next we analyzed an article that was about the differences between slavery in Natchez, Mississippi and Futa Jallon, Africa. One of the differences that I learned about was that in Africa slavery was based on religion not race. Also in Futa Jallon only non-Muslims could be enslaved.

The slaves in Africa could hold property and they were also able to work in the fields and gardens two days a week to feed themselves and their family. Also in Futa Jallon, if one of your parents were free you could obtain the highest echelon of power. In class we also watched a PBS movie called Prince Among Slaves. This was about the son of a Futa Jallon king named Abdul Rahman who was captured while returning home from a battle. He was then traded to white settlers and shipped across the ocean to Mississippi. On that journey people were cramped together and conditions were no where near sanitary. Once he arrived in Mississippi he tried to tell his slave owner, Thomas Foster that he was a prince in his home country, but was laughed at and mocked by being given the nickname “Prince”. He escaped once but returned after realizing that he would never return home. After a while he was confirmed as a prince and would be granted freedom to return home, but he actually used his freedom to go around and try to raise money to free his children, and to lecture about the problems of slavery. Once people found out that he wasn’t Moorish they stopped supporting him and he eventually has to return home.