How Did Antebellum Treat The Slaves Before The Civil War

During the Antebellum period, the southern United States was an agricultural based society built on the exhausting labor of approximately 4 million African American slaves. Antebellum in Latin means “before the war” and in historical terms, Antebellum used to describe the period of time before the Civil War and after the War of 1812. Slaves during this time frame were considered property and little to no legal rights. Slaves were a vital part for the southern economy yet put through the most hardship. Apart from the grueling labor the slaves had to perform, the slaveholders made things more difficult by mistreating and abusing the slaves, separating them from their families, and by depriving slaves of their legal rights. Slave owners would

They used whips, wooden rods, boots, fists, dogs, and much more to punish the slaves for any type of misconduct regardless of the age or gender of the slave. Threats of separating a slave from family was one of the most feared punishments for slaves. Women were often sexually assaulted or raped by their owners and could not do anything to stand up for themselves. Celia, a slave repeatedly abused and raped by her owner, was hanged and killed for defending herself and killing her master. For five years, Celia has been trying to stand up for herself to avoid being raped but being an African American slave, she could not do anything. When one day she finally killed her master who was about to rape her again, she was sentenced to death because the

African Americans were often separated from their families to be put into slavery. Not only did they not get to see their loved ones, but they had to live with the idea of not being able to protect them. This applied especially to the slave men who were incapable of protecting their wives and children from slavery or abuse. John Rudd, a slave who had his mother and brother sold away, said, “If’n you wants to know what unhappiness means, jess’n you stand on the slave block and hear the auctioneer’s voice selling you away from the folk you love.” Slave marriages were illegal in the south and married couples were separated during slave auctions. Henry Bibb writes in his autobiography Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave, “When we were about to separate, Malinda clasped my hand exclaiming, ‘oh my soul! My heart is almost broken at the thought of this dangerous separation.’” Some slaves however took risks to keep relationships with their loved ones. They would sneak out and escape to see their families despite the punishment that occurs with it. No one would want to be separated from their families, but slaves during the Antebellum period had no