Although, there African Americans were technically free the former white slaveowners in the South did not agree with this and attempted to contain the Freedmen in the South. They had been successful with the practice of sharecropping. Sharecropping was where the freedman would come to an agreement with the former white slave owners, where both sides benefited; the freedman would get paid for their labor while the white former slave owner were able to continue their business. Sharecropping was corrupted and the white former slave owner would cheat the freedman and not pay them. The white former slave owners would keep track of the payments and would alter the data because they were educated, and the freedman population had no knowledge, and were illiterate because of this they were not able to keep track.
Blacks were once again almost completely economically dependent on whites. Originally, southerners had wanted to restore they system of gang labor (Digital History 1). In gang labor, the slaves were divided into groups who had different roles, and worked all day. It was a very brutal form of slavery. The freed blacks did not want to return to a system such as this; they were free and therefore wanted more freedom.
Slave Trade was very common in South Carolina and slave owners depended highly on slave imports because slaved would die off quicker than expected. However in the Chesapeake, slaves reproduced therefore they (owners) were not as dependent on slave trade as to those in South Carolina. Although slavery was happening in most colonies, in some places blacks weren’t treated too different from whites, so they were treated as indentured servants. This act was immediately stopped and there came the known “slave codes” which “established” what a black person was defined as.
Even though the blacks never had to live a life with slavery, the rights given to the blacks made it very similar. They were allowed to live in prosperity, pay taxes, have a house, etc., but were not allowed some of the basic rights they had to live. Charles Mackay explains that the blacks were allowed to live, pay taxes, and perform regular humanly duties, but were basically in full control from the government (Doc B). The government had control over what their taxes were, how much land they could own, etc. This isolated the blacks and gave them prevalent restrictions that the whites did not have.
They were treated the worst out of any of the other groups, mainly because of their skin color. Whether they were slaves or free men, they were all oppressed. Free blacks were able to do more than slaves, but they always ran the risk of being captured and brought back into slavery. Even if they had their papers showing proof of their freedom, free African Americans could still be captured and sold into slavery illegally. Escaped slaves ran an even higher risk of being captured because of their lack of the documents.
The term “lowland whites” defined mechanics, tradesmen, and small cotton farmers who lived in the south. They Hoped to someday achieve the American Dream that the rich plantation owners lived. Free blacks lived in the north, but that didn’t mean that they received their basic human rights that were well deserved. They were denied the following; right to vote and the right to a public education. Slaves were taking over the north and south population even though the right to smuggle slaves was banned.
Slave Codes Slave codes were strict laws that slaves had to abide by, in order to avoid severe punishment. Any slave that broke a code were subject to punishment, and those punishments included being tried in court, whipping, and even worse things like execution or imprisonment. The slave codes were harsh and wrong, and many abolitionists reacted to them arguably. What specific restrictions were set on slaves?
The background essay also states, “However, even without the institution of slavery, the life of a black person in the North was not easy.” This suggested
After they were emancipated faced many challenges. These challenges consisted of poverty, adversity, and vulnerability. Which lead to lack of money from no labor, inadequate shelter,and food rations. They also suffered from being different because they were black and in self-doubt because the Emancipation Proclamation left them to rot.
Introduction In Ronald Takaki’s book, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, Takaki argues that despite the first slave codes emerged in the 1660’s, de facto slavery had already existed and provides evidence to support this claim. While he provides a range of data, these facts can be categorized in three groups: racial, economic, and historical. These groups served as precursors to what eventually led to slavery codes to be enacted and the beginning of one of the darkest chapters in American History. Racial
During this time period, blacks had many different statuses. Some were slaves forever, some were like indentured servants. They were allowed to actually own property, get married and after they served their time they were freed. Slaves were at the bottom of the social order but the individuals above them were not much better. The white people that were poor did not have as many hardships because they always thought at least they were not slaves, even though they were towards the bottom of the social structure.
The treatment of slaves between the North and the South was drastically different. Slaves in the North typically lived in the same house as their master and worked by themselves, or in small groups (pg. 94). Slaves in the South tended to live in large plantations in which they were housed in plantation outbuildings (pg. 104). The difference between the North and the South in housing and working environment had a direct effect on the integration of African Americans into their new American society. When they were housed in the North with their masters and had limited exposure to other slaves, they tended to adopt the ways of their masters.
“The South grew, but it did not develop,” is the way one historian described the South during the beginning of the nineteenth century because it failed to move from an agrarian to an industrial economy. This was primarily due to the fact that the South’s agricultural economy was skyrocketing, which caused little incentive for ambitious capitalists to look elsewhere for profit. Slavery played a major role in the prosperity of the South’s economy, as well as impacting it politically and socially. However, despite the common assumption that the majority of whites in the South were slave owners, in actuality only a small minority of southern whites did in fact own slaves. With a population of just above 8 million, the number of slaveholders was only 383,637.
Have you ever wondered how life was for the slaves in the South? Slaves in the South suffered through many consequences. For example, they suffered through many whippings with cow skin if they didn't obey their master, they also got separated from their family mostly the fathers, so, they can be sold to a very mean slave owner. Even if they were living a miserable life on the farms, they had their own culture and they managed to even get married in the farmland or where they worked. Not only did the slaves live on the farm.
While slavery and black freedom were a huge topic, the one right behind it was women 's rights. There were many women at this time that started to speak out. There were many black women such as Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman who both started the movement not only to African American rights, but womens rights too. Look up Sojourner Truth 's "Ain 't I a woman"
