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Slavery impact on the economy of the South
Free slave in the 1800s
Slavery impact on the economy of the South
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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.
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.
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.
Slaves and free blacks had the worst experiences out of all minority groups. Slaves contributed the most to America’s economy, but they reaped the least benefits for their hard work under their white planter oppressors. Auctioneers ripped children out of their mother’s arms and husbands away from wives, splitting families apart. Some people tried to send slaves to Liberia in hope of clearing the population, yet this practice ceased due to the increasingly low numbers of participants giving slaves away. White males kept free black away from work and travel to ensure their own chances of attaining jobs.
African Americans are now free but they didn’t have anything of their own so anything they needed they had work for it, so they all needed jobs. In the South, they were acquainted with one system of labor. They were presented with another system of labor, called Wage Labor, but they wouldn’t appreciate it. The South had been so use to the system of slave labor, because they could get what their essentials without paying them to get it….Wage labor would result in a destructive outcome to the South (2).
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?
Free Blacks: How Free Were They in the North? During the 1860s, 46% of all free blacks lived in the North. Based on that, many would have reason to believe that the North would be a safe-haven for the free black population. That would be partially true because the abolition of slavery in the North provided some protection. But even though free blacks in the North had some freedoms, blacks lived a very restricted life with little suffrage, discrimination, limits on economic opportunities, and segregation.
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"
