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White Americans In The 1800s Essay

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It is surprising that after all of the obstacles that were put in the way of those that were helping the slaves escape and the runaway slaves that such a high amount of people were actually able to escape enslavement and lead on better lives. Some historians believe that as many as 100,000 slaves escaped via Underground Railroad between the years of 1800 and 1865 alone. While this seems like an extremely high number, in the 1840’s there were over 4 million slaves living in the south. Of those that attempted to escape, a majority of them were caught and returned to their owners. Unfortunately, the number is constantly debated because there were no records that were kept by the slaves or by those helping the slaves during this time for fear …show more content…

first was the aristocratic class, the big slaveholders,... the second and third classes were servants to the first class… the second class included the small slaveholders, the overseers, managers and clerks… the third class was composed of poor, ignorant dirty whites… the first and second class looked down upon the poor white trash…” The slaves were brought up being told to hate the third class, the poor whites, so in return, that caused the poor whites to hate the slaves. This then caused tensions between the slaves and the poorer whites who lived among each other in some cases. The tensions led to stereotyping other races based on the appearance of each other. Another account of a slave says, “After Lincoln took office, a chill settled over many of the plantations of the South. “The white folks begin to treat us different,... they seemed to be strange towards us. Been treat us like we’s one of the family till they got talking about Lincoln and the abolition.” This controversy between the slaves and their owners continued for a majority of Lincoln’s Presidency. Only then, did it subside after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. “Certainly most Northern whites, in the 1850s, were still racists (particularly by modern standards), and many of them thought about slavery only to the extent that it kept black people in the South and away from them.” This is something that we do not regularly hear about

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Slavery persisted in the United States for many years, causing a break between the North and South that led to the civil war. According to the text, despite its brutality and cruelty, the slave system caused little protest until the 18th century. Some began to criticize slavery for its abuse of the rights of man. The text states in the United States all states north of Maryland abolished slavery between 1777 and 1804. Antislavery feelings had little effect on slavery in the plantations of the Deep South and the West Indies according to the statement in the text.

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With the increasingly polarizing debates and discussions surrounding slavery as the Civil War approached, the North and South were at a breaking point. Abraham Lincoln's election into office, the Dred Scott decision, and Bleeding Kansas brought the country at odds with itself and many people believed that this problem could only be solved through violence and division. When Abraham Lincoln was elected to be the President of the United States, the South was aggravated and not willing to have a president that did not share their opinions on slavery. Because Lincoln was so outspoken against the institution of slavery, the South felt directly attacked. Their way of life since slavery was introduced was threatened.

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Whites routinely seized free blacks, claimed that they were slaves and, with the permission of local officials, sold them or hauled them off to the South, ““Even after slavery ended in New York, the South’s peculiar institution remained central to the city’s economic prosperity. New York’s dominant Democratic party maintained close ties to the South, and some local officials were more than happy to cooperate in apprehending and returning fugitive slaves. Abraham Lincoln carried New York State in the election of 1860 thanks to a resounding majority in rural areas, but he received only a little over one-third of the vote in New York City. More than once, proslavery mobs ran amok, targeting abolitionist homes and gatherings and the residences and organizations of free blacks,”

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Nobody knows for sure how many slaves died on the Underground Railroad. Harriet and the other slaves knew the way north because Harriet knew that on the routes the moss grew on the north side of the trees. Every year over 1000 slaves escaped from there plantation using the Underground Railroad. All of the slaves would sing to let the other slaves know when they could go to the Underground

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Before the American Civil War, we struggled with the concept of slavery based on our economic and moral differences. People who lived in the North believed that slavery should be abolished since they did not grow crops that needed an abundance of slaves. Moreover, they thought that slaves should be treated like all human beings based on the constitution. On the other side, Americans who lived in the South thought slavery should not be abolished as their crops demanded twice as much work than the ones in the North; therefore, they needed much more workers working in their field and that’s where slaves came into view. They also thought that Africans were inferior because of their skin color and origin.

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Created in the early 1800s and assisted by people associated with in the Abolitionist Movement, the underground railroad assisted thousands of slaves departure from enslavement. By one guess of 100,000 slaves make a run from enslavement in the South between 1810 and 1850.The Underground Railroad was a system of classified passages and secure homes used by 19th-century slaves of African ancestors in the United States to make a run to free states and Canada with the help of abolitionists and colleagues who were thoughtful to their purpose. Harriet Tubman assisted hundreds of escaped slaves run to freedom. She never misplaced one of them along the way. As a wanted slave herself, she was assisted along the Underground Railroad by another famous

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The numbers of people who worked for the Underground Railroad could not be counted accurately; the numbers of slaves who had escaped with the help of Underground Railroad could not be counted

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“I freed a thousand slaves, I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves” , this quote was said by Harriet Tubman, the leader of the underground railroad, she freed some of the slaves, which caused the Southern states to resent the North. The Underground Railroad was a network of safe houses and secret routes, led by Harriet Tubman and a vast number of other people. 19th century enslaved people used the Underground Railroad to free themselves and others from slavery. The slaves went to the Free states and Canada, the Underground Railroad only worked at night, the slaves would move from “station” to “station”, meaning they'd move from safe house to safe house, most of the time it was difficult because of slave catchers

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Chaya, The number of immigrants spiked during this time. Some immigrants came to have a better life and some immigrants came to America seeking refuge. In the course book on page 612, it mentions how in 1888, more than half a million Europeans landed in America. New York City accounted for 75 percent of them.

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Americans had rarely accepted outsiders as equals, and that was the case with immigrants coming to the U.S in the 1840s to the 1920s. A time in America where immigrants were not considered inferior to native white Americans did not exist. The hatred of anything non-American, especially with the coming of World War I in 1914, would only cause more Americans to despise immigrants. Part of this was rooted simply in racism, which existed towards groups other than African Americans, but much of it was simply that Americans considered themselves the chosen people while everyone else was below them. Thus, despite immigrants being accepted into America, those immigrants were still treated far worse than white citizens between the 1840s and 1920s, for the prejudice against them was obvious even in the laws created.

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Even the people helping with the Underground Railroad were risking their lives by accommodating these slaves while they were on the run. The enslaved African Americans would do anything for freedom, even if they had to put their lives in jeopardy or even their families. Most slaves wanted to escape the South where they were bound to die because of how bad the slave owner’s were down there. Some slaves were scared of leaving slavery because that was all they knew. Slaves if they escaped would have troubles finding jobs and a safe place for their family.

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Most Southern cities had ports that allowed access to the to places where slavery was generally banned. White ship captains that were sympathetic and black sailors that were free were infamous for helping slaves escape aboard their ship. Cities were considered opposed to effective slave control. Free blacks had persuaded slaves in the urban areas to join them in their schemes (History,com Staff, 2010).

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During the 1920’s the feeling towards immigration and immigrants changed in the United States. Immigration became restricted, with lots of rules for immigrants to follow. Perhaps one of the biggest changes was that borders were shut down to mass migration in the 1920’s. Americans were concerned about immigrants taking their jobs for less pay. There was an overwhelming feeling of Nativism, opposing immigration in favor of natives to the country, across the land.

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One of the most influential modes of unorganized revolution was through running away. Thousands of slaves would take their families or escape on their own to the north, where many abolitionists and free black men lived and would take them in. However, crossing the border states was difficult, as news reports about runaway slaves quickly spread and they would soon be captured by local townsfolk. To make escape more effective and safe, an underground railroad was adopted. The underground railroad was “a loosely organized network of safe houses in the border states, [and they] helped more than 20,000 runaways make their way to freedom (PBS).

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Slavery began long before the colonization of North America. This was an issue in ancient Egypt, as well as other times and places throughout history. In discussing the evolution of African slavery from its origins, the resistance and abolitionist efforts through the start of the Civil War, it is found to have resulted in many conflicts within our nation. In 1619, the first Africans in America arrived in Jamestown on a Dutch ship.

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