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Camelia Elias
American Studies
first reasons for the civil war
Incompatibilities between: the rural place and the city the feudal system of the South and the
industrial drive of the North totalitarianism in the South and democracy
in the North.
background for slavery in the US
In 1619, 20 Africans were dropped off by a Dutch trader at Jamestown, Virginia.
slavery was not legalized in the colony at the time
the Africans were treated as indentured servants, gaining their freedom after a fixed period of time.
expansion of slavery in the colonies
BEFORE 1660:
Slaves could receive freedom by completing contracts
(indenturement)
OR
by converting to Christianity.
AFTER 1660: New laws lowered the status of
Africans reasons are not clear BUT
measures against the black slaves
could not own guns or join militia
revoked rights to property Christian conversion did not
guarantee freedom
stages
the transition from indentured servitude and "half freedom" to African and African-American enslavement for life
the brief but bloody Stono Rebellion of 1739 in South Carolina
the establishment of the "Black Codes," regulating virtually every aspect of slave lifefrom 1865 and some 50 years onwards
Black Codes "Negroes must make annual contracts for their labor
in writing; if they should run away from their tasks, they forfeited their wages for the year. Whenever it was required of them they must present licenses citing their places of residence and authorizing them to work. Fugitives from labor were to be arrested and carried back to their employers… Minors were to be apprenticed, if males until they were twenty-one, if females until eighteen years of age. Such corporal punishment as a father would administer to a child might be inflicted upon apprentices by their masters. Vagrants were to be fined heavily, and if they could not pay the sum, they were to be hired out to service until the claim was satisfied. Negroes might not carry knives or firearms unless they were licensed so to do…
Black codes
"In South Carolina persons of color contracting for service were to be known as "servants," and those with whom they contracted, as "masters…House servants were to be at call at all hours of the day and night on all days of the week. They must be "especially civil and polite to their masters, their masters' families and guests," and they in return would receive "gentle and kind treatment."
Southern whites
Religious argument Historical argument Racial argument Social argument
Color of skin became the mark of inferior legal & social status
laws
1665: slavery is legalized (Virginia)
1692: the prohibition of sexual intercourse between whites & blacks.
SERVITUDE BECAME PERMANENT
Bacon’s rebellion
after Bacon’s Rebellion (1676) more slaves were being shipped in because they had become cheaper than white servants
the demand for slaves
practical reasons: slaves were not as rebellious as
servants due to their skin color, they
could not fade into the population.
By 1770:
1/3rd of the southern population were African slaves (500,000).
slave culture
Slave Codes governed lives marriages not recognized by law no property ownership can’t testify in court against a white
person no contracts for labor
slave culture 2
ReligionCombined African animism and Christianity
Use of spirituals - obvious and secret
slave culture 3
Methods of Protestrebellion and escapefolk talesslow pace of work, fake injury,
break equipmentslave Narratives
slave narratives
accounts of freed and former slaves either written or told and published
Douglas’ best seller written narratives allowed slaves
to confront owners, and expose slavery to the world
life of free blacks
formed many anti-slavery groups
worked as day laborers 434,000 in the north job discriminated, segregated divided - fear of slavery vs.
abolitionist
life of rural slaves
lived on large plantations
conditions varied greatly
field slave/house slave
life of urban slaves
owners hired out to mills, factories, shipyards
shortage of white labor use of skilled slaves - carpenters,
blacksmiths - great demand
life of urban slaves 2
less supervision better fed and clothed more privileges easier to blend in, disappear,
meet in groups
abolition of slavery The proclamation of
Emancipation (1862/63) The Thirteenth Amendment
(proposed and ratified in 1865) abolished slavery.
The Fourteenth Amendment proposed in 1866 and ratified in 1868 included the Privileges or Immunities Clause, Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses.
The Fifteenth Amendment, ratified in 1870, grants voting rights regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude".Abraham Lincoln
(1809-1865)
6th President of the US
Slavery and the Making of America
PBS Documentary - Slavery and the Making of America
A History of Slavery in America Testimonials (Ella Ramsey; Lavina Bell)
status of black citizens
1860: slaves 1870: state legislators, mayors, politicians 1877: persecuted by the Klu Klux Klan
the system of slaves turned into a system of servitude and lasted until the civil rights movement in the 60s
Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)
"I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."
narrative form
1. pers narrative (narrator/protagonist) two personas
the young uneducated and oppressed slave the eloquent political commentator
voice/point of view/tone
As narrator: reasoned, rational figure. tone is dry and not exaggerated. capable of seeing both sides of an
issue, even the issue of slavery. presents a realistic - if critical -
account of how and why slavery operates.
his vision allows him to separate slave-owning individuals from the institution that corrupts them.
presents himself as capable of intricate and deep feeling.
allows his narrative to linger over the inexpressible emotions he and others have suffered, and he sometimes dramatizes his own tears.
As protagonist: both a strong and a weak
character and at some seminal scenes in which he
is only a witness present a composite portrait of the dehumanizing aspects of slavery.
a character in process and flux, formed and reformed by pivotal scenes
emerges as a figure formed negatively by slavery and cruelty, and positively by literacy education and a controlled but aggressive insistence on rights.
largely optimistic helps others committed to abolitionism
themes
ignorance as a tool of slavery knowledge as the path to freedom slavery’s damaging effect on slaveholders slaveholding as a perversion of
Christianity
motifs
the victimization of female slaves the treatment of slaves as property freedom in the city
symbols
Sandy’s Rootignorance vs. knowledge
The Columbian Oratorslave vs. master
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896)
“There’s no arguing with picture, and everybody is impressed with them, whether they mean to be or not.”
the slave scale
slave narratives up to dateWintley PhippsKathleen Battle & Jessye NormanKathleen Battle & Wynton Marsalis - HandelKathleen Battle & Wynton Marsalis - Bach