A Letter To My Old Master By Jourdon Anderson

In the time period between 1775 and 1830, African Americans start to gain more freedom in the North while the institution of slavery expanded in the South. These changes occurred due to the existence of different point of views. The North did not need slavery and acknowledge the cons of slavery while the South’s want for slavery quickly became a need.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the issue of African slavery in America in the antebellum by late eighteenth century and before the antebellum crisis as discussed in Paul Finkelman’s book: Defending Slavery.

to which the president of the United States has signed his name,” (Dudley 181). Just by demanding that all slavery be abolished in certain areas, this considerably changed the ways of the African American people. With this new feeling of freedom, many African Americans began to fight for other rights to accompany this. (Dudley 180-183)

Throughout the duration 1776 to 1852, the institution of slavery was a awkward matter. However, some aspects of American society discarded slavery as an institution. These aspects that opposed slavery were the sensation of increasing diversity within the states, the ascending abolitionist motion, and the growing religious bond that formed unconcerned of race. These causes of resistance would later lead to Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Therefore, even though slavery was a extensively accepted custom, the main causes of opposition were guilt concerning inequality, the abolitionist movement, and religious dogma.

Blackmon provides many stories in his book about what the slaves to forced laborers went through and how they felt about the new so called “freedom” they gained. The Black Americans prior to the Emancipation Proclamation have never seen the slightest clue to what freedom could even feel like. “Some of the old slaves said they too weren’t sure what “freedom” really was”

equal, and the social issue of slavery as a whole became prominent to our young nation.  From

It is necessary to consider that for white people freedom was inherent, while for black people it was a huge of a deal they had to fight for, or not even that. For blacks, liberty was not an option; they had been living under white control supported with such an institution as it was slavery. All these was based on a racial construct that perpetuated white privilege; a complex system of beliefs defending a theory about racial minorities being inferior to whites, unintelligent, or dangerous. Government response was insufficient and several times it adopted a passive attitude towards racism, due to their enrichment and gains in other matters subjugation of blacks provided them.

Black and white abolitionists shared common assumptions about the evil of slavery, the "virtue of moral reform", and the certainty of human progress"(1). Schor, Garnet,1877, & Lanngston, 1989). This shared understanding provided "the basic for the interracial solidarity" and cooperation so vital in the crusade against slavery"(2). (Schor and Garnet, 1877). But blacks also brought a distinct perspective to the antislavery movement. Their abolitionism was shaped profoundly by their personal experience and racial oppression. Unlike most white abolitionists, they

The rights of slaves were thoroughly deprived. As a result, some of them refused to obey the law, agitating the southerners. These two compromises reflected that at that time, the United States was following the ideals of democracy. But from the slaves’ perspective, they did not live up to any ideal of rights, equality, liberty, or

As a Black New York abolitionist, the events in the decade preceding the Civil War has caused me great anguish in my pursuit for the abolition of slavery. Being that I desire to create a society free of bondage and subjugation for my brethren, I am harrowed at the development of such affairs, however I still continue my campaign to prevent a crisis from occurring in the United States of America.

During the 1840s, America saw increasingly attractive settlements forming between the North and the South. The government tried to keep the industrial north and the agricultural south happy, but eventually the issue of slavery became too big to handle, no matter how many treaties or compromises were formed. Slavery was a huge issue that unraveled throughout many years of American history and was one of the biggest contributors leading up to the Civil War (notes, Fall 2015). Many books have been written over the years about slavery and the brutality of the life that many people endured. In “A Slave No More”, David Blight tells the story about two men, John M. Washington (1838-1918) and Wallace Turnage (1846-1916), struggling during American slavery. Their escape to freedom happened during America’s bloodiest war among many political conflicts, which had been splitting the country apart for many decades. As Blight (2007) describes, “Throughout the Civil War, in thousands of different circumstances, under changing policies and redefinitions of their status, and in the face of social chaos…four million slaves helped to decide what time it would be in American History” (p. 5). Whether it was freedom from a master or overseer, freedom from living as both property and the object of another person’s will, or even freedom to make their own decisions and control their own life, slaves wanted a sense of independence. According to Blight (2007), “The war and the presence of Union armies

In American history, every event and person plays a part in the future. For example, rich plantation owners helped America advance their economy. However, that would not have been at all possible without the help of their slaves. The time and institution of slavery is a time of historical remembrance. It played a primary role during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. The treatment, labor conditions, and personal stories of these slaves’ treatment and labor conditions are all widely discussed around the world to this day.

Such a dramatic switch as the one from indentured servants to slaves was not the only transformation in American slavery. Slaves underwent many integral changes as the years of servitude progressed. The slave-owner relationship directly represented how times changed for slaves while working. As they were brought over to America and were in culture shock, they were often treated like absolute dirt. The inferiority of slaves is illustrated as Kolchin states that “It was easy to look upon Africans in an instrumental manner: they were “savages” imported to work, and few planters expressed much interest in their lives, except for a lively concern with training them in that work or securing their obedience (p. 59).” As time progressed however, and less slaves were directly from Africa, the ideology towards slaves changed. Kolchin writes that “Slave owners were changing too: just as the slaves were becoming America-born, so, too, were the masters (p.59).” Slave owners started to look at slaves at as people instead of objects. This was a very monumental step in slavery. Slaves began to gain more freedoms from their masters. These freedoms included religious Sundays off, family visitations, and the ability to make money on the side. While some slaves were still met with the hardships of harsh southern slave owners beating them, as time went on, slaves became more of

     The history of the United States is filled to the brim with an abundance of significant events. Over the course of this nation’s young history there have been numerous social institutions. Many have been a necessity in our development. However, the US was home to one of the greatest atrocities committed on mankind. The institution of slavery is not only the most embarrassing but most sever infraction on the natural rights of man. At times there were in excess of three million black Americans enslaved in this country. It was not the dismal living conditions nor the bleak existence they lived that led them into a resistance of slavery. It was the theft, the

American’s who live in the 21st century know that slavery is terrible and also a touchy subject. But Americans used to rely heavily on slavery, how we perceive slavery in today’s society can either be the same or different from how others thought of slavery living within mid 1800s. People who resided in the northern region of American found slavery wrong as we do today. Americans who lived farther south however liked, and relied on slavery. In today’s world, we Americans almost all agree that slavery had been a negative factor of our country. But within the 1840s and 1870s, Americans had been divided by slavery. People that were against slavery created the union as the pro slavery citizens created the confederates. Today, we can see why people of the mid 19th century either supported slavery or rebelled against it by reviewing sources.