Worse than Slavery, by David Oshinsky, is a novel about post-Civil War America, and the life it gave free African Americans in Mississippi and other parts of the South. Oshinsky writes about the strict laws and corrupt criminal justice system blacks faced after they were freed, and while the contents of the book are not typically read about in history textbooks, it is important to understand what life was like for the freedman. Anyone interested in reading his book would profit from it. With the end of the Civil War came the destruction of the old system of slavery. Many white Southerner’s were outraged, but were forced to accept the newly freed blacks.
To work, the freed slaves were forced to sign contracts with their employer. The Mississippi and South Carolina Black Codes of 1865 required blacks to sign contracts of employment and if they left before it ended then they would be forced to pay earlier wages. Freed blacks’ status in the postwar South
Pertaining to the rights of African Americans a new south did not appear after the reconstruction. While they were “free” they were often treated harshly and kept in a version of economic slavery by either their former masters or other white people in power. Sharecropping and the crop-lien system often had a negative impact on both the black and white tenants keeping them in debt with the owner. Jim Crow laws, vigilantes and various means of disfranchisement became the normal way of life in the South. It was believed that white people were superior to black people and when they moved up in politics or socially they were harassed and threatened.
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 book explains how at first, the black salves were similar to white servants. They worked together and were sometimes freed after a certain period. The whites and blacks hung out after work and often had kids. Few have stated that many masters in the South treated their slaves better than those up North. Some may say this because masters in the South saw their slaves as an investment, which makes prefect sense.
Southerners did everything in their power to keep freedmen from people able to do what a normal citizen would do. They came up with Black Codes, which are laws that prohibited african americans from being “free.” One of the black codes sections states “No negro shall be permitted to rent or keep a house within the limits of the town under any circumstances.”
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 black folk were freed by the abolition of slavery, yet this new freedom was not so. Ther identity was forever fractured between black and American, and even after they internalized the whites’ perspectives of them, they still wanted to be both without the disadvantages and racism. They were degraded, dehumanize, and shamed for their lack of education and job skills. In 1865, the Freemen’s Bureau was established by Congress to provide them with aid after living in slavery and not owning tools, homes, or land.
Slavery was a manner in which the which population were supervised and controlled; kept illiterate and unskilled as education meant that the black population could identify themselves as more than just cheap labour. White southerners were afraid that the black population would disrupt their social status and economy as the black population would be able to compete with poor whites for jobs and be on an equal base with them. The abolishment of slavery aroused a sense of fear amongst the white southerners as they were scared the black slaves would massacre their families, insurrection as seen in Richmond in the 1800 and eventually start a war . Another reason for the secession was not only motivated the belief that blacks wear inferior to the white race, the economy of the Deep South was also a huge
The impact of slavery on the Old South is a difficult measure to establish because slavery was the Old South. While the popular adage was “Cotton is King,” it was simply a microcosm of the delusion of the day. Truly, slavery was king. Slavery was the growing tension of the time, political catalyst and ironically crux of American power. To the masses, slavery was a social defining stance; the “peculiar institution” to some and a defining moral line to others, American life was changed depending on what view you took of slavery.
“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.
They freed themselves by 1865. They founded institutions, for example, black colleges, churches, banks, insurance companies, fraternities and sororities to uplift their race. “The process of enslavement was almost unbelievably painful and bewildering for the Africans. Completely cut off from their native land,
Slavery, the War on Black Family While slavery in America was an institution that was started over 400 years ago, the affects were so horrific that it is still felt today by modern day African Americans. Many families had to deal with the constant stress of being sold which made it difficult to have a normal family life. Slaves were sold to pay off debts, an owner dying and his slaves were sold in an estate sale, or when an owner’s children would leave the home to begin a life of their own, they would take slaves with them. Often times, children were not raised by their parents, other family members of someone designated to watch the children because the mother and father had to work long hours and the children were too young to join them.
Colson Whitehead chose to represent South Carolina ahistorically to comment on how racism and discrimination continued after the abolition of slavery, and he did this by incorporating elements of American culture and discriminatory decisions that did not appear historically until after the abolition. Whitehead uses the section of his book that takes place in South Carolina to comment on the racial segregation prevalent in America in the early-mid 20th century. In South Carolina as it appears in The Underground Railroad, slaves are owned by the state government and assigned to work in their own communities. They are given amenities such as housing and money for food in return for their services, but they are required to stay separate from the white community.
