Essay On Slaves In The Civil War

The Life of Slaves in the Civil War Era

Did you know that slavery was the main reason for the Civil War? If you didn’t know that, then you probably didn’t know about the many hardships slaves faced while living with their owners. Clara C. Young was a slave and said that she was only 17 years old when she was sold to an American, according to the book, Prayin’ to be Set Free. Almost the entire South had slaves and viewed them as having a lower status than Americans, which created many challenges for the Africans. Some of these challenges included extremely violent punishments, separation from their families, and working from morning to night, sometimes even throughout the night. One challenge that slaves faced were violent punishments. To begin with, some slave owners would beat their slaves if they did something the owner didn’t like. Also from the article called “Clara C. Young” from the book, Prayin’ to be Set Free, one part states( from Clara’s point of view),” The overseer we had was right mean to us when we didn’t work our rows as fast as the others. Sometimes he whup us, women and all.” Slaves were treated like animals, and would get extreme punishments for even the littlest of things. Secondly, if slaves did something that their owner was really unhappy about, then the punishments would be more harmful. In the

To begin with, when slaves were sold to people, they often did not end up being bought with their families. Another quote from the article ” Life for enslaved men and women” in Khan Academy is, “They were frequently separated from their family members because most slave owners had no compunction about splitting up families in order to improve their own financial situation.” This was especially hard for the younger children because they were still growing up and needed their parents. This was definitely a big hardship for slaves since family is something everyone should