Arguments Defending Slavery
The Southerners used various arguments to defend slavery while the slaves resisted the act. In defending slavery, the Southerners stipulated that terminating slavery would affect the economy of the South negatively since it relied on slave labor to function, with the collapse of the cotton economy, rice become unprofitable, and tobacco drying in fields. Freeing the slaves would contribute to unemployment, which would lead to chaos, including bloodshed, uprisings, and anarchy. They based the argument on the “rule of terror” by mobs during the French Revolution, requiring the continuance of the status quo that created room for affluence and constancy within the slaveholding society together with the free people enjoying the abundance of a slave society. Additionally, slavery had prevailed throughout the country’s history and a humanity’s natural state, with the Romans, Greeks, and the English owning slaves. 1 The Bible also noted slavery with Abraham having slaves while they Southerners pointed toward the Ten Commandments, which stated, “Thou shalt covet thy neighbor’s house…nor his manservant.” The Southerners also argued that the slavery institution was divine while claiming that it brought Christianity together across oceans. For the argument, it regards slavery as an ideal thing for the enslaved persons. It provided the blacks originating from Central Africa with an improved and civilized condition physically, intellectually, and morally. 2 Furthermore, comparing the slaves to the poor individuals in Europe and those in Northern states, the Southerners claimed that the slaves’ lives were better with their owners helping and protecting them when they aged or got seek, as opposed to those when fired from work would end up helpless.
Slave Resistance
Whereas slavery served as the law in American for over 300 years, the survivors, victims, and the ones perceiving it as morally unacceptable resisted and challenged it. The long campaign aimed at eliminating human trade was among the major moral crusades in the history of the United State with its success resulting from many years of agitation and organization among African Americans as well as their European American colleagues. The daily activities of slaves featured countless resistance activities. Whereas the law denied them freedom, enslaved African Americans utilized various approaches for disputing the slaveholding authority in line with advocating for the rights of controlling their individual lives. 3 With the slaveholders relying on the labor of the slaves to ensure that their enterprises remained operational, the slaves would regularly utilize work absenteeism and slowdowns in an effort to negotiate labor terms. Most slates would defy the slave system by abandoning it. Trying to escape served as a dangerous undertaking with slaveholders posting significant rewards for the captured slaves, although many received assistance from nearby plantations and firms and networks of European Americans and free African Americans. 4 The kind of resistance that slaveholders feared was violent insurrection, with which the enslaved blacks would take up arms fighting against their masters.
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Slaves’ Role during Civil War
The slaves played an essential role during the Civil War. Slavery served as the major force behind secession, particularly concerning the resistance that the political leaders of the South exercised on overcoming the political forces of the North to hinder extension of slavery to territories in the West. The lives of the slaves faced immense changes with the South witnessing Union Armies acquire significant control of the region. During and prior to the war, the slaves were crucial in their individual emancipation with thousands of them escaping when the war progressed. 5 During January 1863, Abraham Lincoln, the then President of the U.S., proclaimed the Emancipation Proclamation. The initiative led to around 3 million African Americans becoming free. During the same time, the two sides utilized blacks for military duties. The slaves provided slave labor in the South while serving as military volunteers and offering wage labor in the North. More than 100,000 previous slaves joined the Union in the war while around 500,000 fled from the plantations to support the Union. 6 Cultural expressions and religiosity also grew significantly during the war. In this sense, the slaves served as assets to the Confederate war effort as opposed to liability.
Emancipated Slaves’ Problems
The emancipated slaves encountered various problems. The chaos associated with the war together with the bloody repercussions led to negative effects toward the slaves. The freed slaves experienced neglect from the Union army or encountered rampant illnesses, such as devastating outbreaks of cholera and smallpox. Most of them would even starve to death with around a quarter out of the 4 million freed slaves suffering from illnesses or dying. The crisis served as the biggest one during the 19 th century despite lacking sufficient investigation. The reason for this is that during the time of the Civil War, most people were unwilling to research the tragedy that faced the freed slaves. 7 Various Northerners showed more sympathy as opposed to the whites concerning the freed slaves’ health.
Congress Efforts for Freed Slaves Rights
In guaranteeing the rights of the freed slaves, the Congress embarked on certain initiatives. Even while the Emancipation Proclamation targeted seeing the country end slavery, questions prevailed as to what freedom would mean for the freed slaves, while considering issues such as fear, voting rights, and economic independence. In this vein, the congress responded with various Constitutional amendments for terminating slavery, availing citizenship, and ensuring that black men received voting rights. The rights played an essential role in changing the political environment. States in the south saw around 1,510 blacks holding office in 1872 while eight of them worked with the Congress in 1875. 8 Thus, the Congressional efforts worked since they provided the blacks with a means of participating in the political life of the South.
Bibliography
Baptist, Edward E. The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism . New York: Basic Books, 2016.
Blackmon, Douglas A. Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War Two . London: Icon Books, 2012.
Guasco, Michael. Slaves and Englishmen: Human Bondage in the Early Modern Atlantic World . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014.
Riley, Padraig. Slavery and the Democratic Conscience: Political Life in Jeffersonian America . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.
Stevenson, Brenda E. Life in Black and White: Family and Community in the Slave South . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
1 Padraig Riley, Slavery and the Democratic Conscience: Political Life in Jeffersonian America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016), 37.
2 Brenda E. Stevenson, Life in Black and White: Family and Community in the Slave South (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 45.
3 Padraig Riley, Slavery and the Democratic Conscience: Political Life in Jeffersonian America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016), 56.
4 Edward E. Baptist, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism (New York: Basic Books, 2016), 26.
5 Michael Guasco, Slaves and Englishmen: Human Bondage in the Early Modern Atlantic World , (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014), 27.
6 Michael Guasco, Slaves and Englishmen: Human Bondage in the Early Modern Atlantic World , (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014), 76.
7 Douglas A. Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War Two (London: Icon Books, 2012), 34.
8 Brenda E. Stevenson, Life in Black and White: Family and Community in the Slave South (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 83.
