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Life
Under Slavery King
Cotton The
invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney (in the 1790's) led to an
explosion in cotton production, a huge rise in the slave population,
and the rapid expansion of slave territory to the Mississippi and, by
1850, beyond into the Southwest. The slave population rose to 1/3rd of
the total population in the South. Victory in the Mexican War during the
late 1840's and the acquisition of huge territories in what would
become California, Arizona, and New Mexico raised the prospect of
another huge expansion of American slavery.
During
the boom years of the first half of the 19th century, cotton was king.
England's steam powered cotton mills demanded raw material, and the
American South soon provided nearly 75% of world production. Raw cotton
exports measured 50% of all American trade. Investment in slaves was
the single biggest asset in all of America, outstripping factories,
banks and railroads combined. New Orleans, over
night,
became the second biggest trading center in the country. The going rate
for a slave in the 1840's was five hundred dollars, a huge amount of
money, and the price would go up as the Civil War approached. Northern
manufacturers and merchants participated in the slave economy and
shared in its profits. Profits from slavery financed industrial
development in the North, and trade with the Midwest resulting from the
opening of the Erie Canal led to New York City's rise to prominence. These
huge profits in the cotton trade had important effects on Southern
culture. Everyone
tried to hit it big in the cotton trade. To do so, you needed land and
slaves. Slave ownership became a prerequisite for entry into the
highest levels of society where the aristocracy dominated state
politics. The Southern economy produced fabulous wealth, but it lacked
diversity: there was no industry, no technological progress, and no
urban growth. These economic factors would eventually doom the South in
the coming conflict with the North. The
Pro-Slavery Argument: The
huge rise in the slave population created a corresponding hardening in
owners' attitudes towards any attempt to reform the 'peculiar
institution'. There was just too much money to be made, and the
increasing numbers of slaves heightened white anxieties about the
possibility of a slave rebellion. Repression of slaves became more
severe, taboos against reading and writing were tightened, and fugitive
slave laws made harsher. At
the same time, though, slave owners had to articulate a humane
justification for the institution in order to resist Northern efforts
to circumscribe the expansion of slavery. Southern politicians
developed a 'paternalist ethos' which glorified their hierarchical
agrarian society. They argued that slavery, far from being a
destructive social system, actually enabled a truly civilized life
style quite different from the competitive capitalist society in the
North. Men, they argued, could not be truly free without the foundation
of slavery. Freedom was not a natural right. It was a privilege, not an
entitlement. Slavery was the normal and natural basis of the greatest
societies, from the Greeks to the Romans to ... their own. Hierarchies
predominated in nature, so why not in society? Slavery created the most
equal society possible... for whites... because it prevented the growth
of an unskilled labor class. And
slavery was, supposedly, a humane institution. Negro slaves were
'happy' because their kind masters protected them from the harsher life
endured by the white Northern poor who labored through the boom and
bust cycles of a capitalist economy and suffered in impoversihed slums.
Would
blacks have been better off there? In the South, according to this
argument, slaves labored in exchange for cradle to grave security.
Their paternalistic masters provided food, clothing and shelter; they
provided guidance and firm discipline; and they cared for slaves in
their old age. Slave
Culture: The
reality of slavery was, of course, quite different. Originally,
American slaves were not a single people. They came from many different
cultures, spoke different languages, and practiced different religions.
Over a period of centuries, though, a slave culture had emerged in the
South, formed not by kinship, language or even 'race', but by the
conditions of slavery itself. Slave
identity was formed by the fact of racial exploitation; by cultural
differences between slave and master; and by diverging religious
beliefs and practices. The most basic principle taught by this culture
was that white prejudice against blacks was entrenched and enduring, so
blacks had to move carefully in this hostile environment. (Escott) Slaves
faced a life of incessant toil mandated by the constant threat of brutal
punishment and family separation. Slaves had no legal rights.
Therefore, no slave could bring a suit against a white, nor could he or
she testify against a white in a court
of law. Slaves could not sign legal contracts, own property, or possess a firearm.
Slaves had no right to meet, no right to move, no right to choose a
marriage partner, and no right to learn how to read and write. Even
so, conditions for slaves in America were
not as harsh as those in the sugar plantations of the West Indies and
Brazil where slaves continued to be worked to death while their numbers were
replenished by the constant importation of new slaves. American
slaves had a better diet and were not exposed to as many tropical
diseases. The rising prices for slaves in America encouraged masters to
care for their "goods". Slave
Labor: Slaves
did not just pick cotton and harvest rice or sugar cane. They supplied
much of the labor which built America's infrastructure: its buildings, roads,
railroad tracks,and bridges. Slaves worked in iron and coal mines.
They worked on the docks and in factories. Most
slaves, though, worked in gangs in the plantation fields under drivers whose
primary concern was maximizing profits. 75% of women and 90% of men
were field laborers. Slave drivers maintained order through force: the
whip and the club. They also maintained control by encouraging
divisions between field laborers and house servants, and, most
effectively, they held over the heads of slaves the constant threat of
sale which meant separation from family and community. (Foner) Racial
Exploitation: The
psychological destructiveness of slavery was perhaps more pernicious
than its physical destructiveness. Whites used racial bigotry in an attempt to shape black identity
itself to conform to a demeaning and pervasive
stereotype. Whites defined blacks as
separate, inferior, and sub-human. Whites came to see the
fact of slavery as rigid and unbending, and laws were changed during
the nineteenth century to make the chances of escaping slavery nearly
non-existent. By constantly reinforcing simple racial differences, whites evoked hostility, particularly among poor whites, and
reinforced caste status. Forms
of Resistance: Slaves engaged in various methods of physical resistance. They engaged in sabotage by deliberately doing poor work, breaking tools, disrupting plantation routine, feigning sickness, laming farm animals, and stealing property. Many slaves ran away from the plantation following the North Star to Canada, assisted by Harriet Tubman's Underground Railroad. More often, they hid out in local wilds. Most disturbing to the whites, the threat of slave rebellion persisted throughout the entire history of slavery and grew during the decades leading to the Civil War. During the 18th c. successful rebellions had taken place in the Virgin
Islands, Guadaloupe and Jamaica, and these
revolts inspired a major uprising in Florida (the Stono
Rebellion). A brutal slave revolt in Haiti (1801) led by Touissant l'Overture
first established control of the island and then defeated successive
invasions from England and France (the super powers of the early 19th
c.) Touissant's military victories eventually led to Napoleon's
decision to give up the idea of a New World empire. His decisions led
to the negotiations which resulted in the
Louisiana Purchase in 1803. During the 19th c. major slave rebellions
occurred in Louisiana (1811), in Charleston, South Carolina led by
Denmark Vescey (1822), and in North
Carolina led by Nat Turner (1831). (Foner) However,
the greatest challenge of resisting slavery was psychological. Slaves had to find
psychological resources within the self, family, and community to
reject white judgments of them and create their own mental and moral
world. Slaves
resisted the psychological damage of slavery in several ways. The desire for freedom was never forgotten. The central intention of
slave religious rituals was to free the spirit. They looked forward
to the day when they could transform their condition in the political
and economic order. The fact of oppression created racial solidarity: loyalty, cooperation and mutual aid between slaves who
might have been strangers. Slaves also developed their own distinctive dress, music and dance: hair styles (corn rows, plaits,
cloth ties, head kerchiefs); banjos and drums; striking and unusual
dance styles which were vigorous, athletic, and sensual, featuring
complicated rhythms and intense emotional outbursts. Although
forced to convert to Christianity by owners, slaves protected
African based belief systems. Their
religion was animistic: they believed that the spirit
world was interconnected with the living world of nature, and contact
between the two worlds was not only possible but a normal aspect of living.
Slaves participated in ancestor worship: they believed that the
dead exist with a foot in both realms until theyhave fulfilled their destiny
on earth. Religious rituals enabled connections between the living and
the dead through possession by spirits and outer body experiences. "Hoodoo" or
"Voodoo" magic was particularly prevalent in communities with recent
immigrants from Africa ( on rice and sugar plantations). "Conjur men" could cast spells
using magic ingredients (hair, fingernails, tacks, dry insects, worms,
batwings, and such). These medicine men commanded great respect in slave communities.
Slave women too were skilled at the
use of herbal remedies
and commanded great respect in a society
struggling against disease without the benefit of enlightened science:
medicines included roots, herbs, plants, teas, snakeskins and magical
practices included wearing coins and other talismans to ward off
disease. Slaves also engaged in secret prayer meetings in which they
sought contact with their God's spirit. Religious
ritual helped slaves formulate an imaginative space in their lives in
which they could formulate a moral system and envision a justice
different from the white man's. Religious rituals provided solace
and emotional release from the mental torture of slavery. These rituals
also asserted a spiritual affirmation of their humanity (Escott) Give
Me Liberty! (2005)
by Eric Foner: chapter 4 "Slavery,
Freedom and The Struggle for Empire" chapter 5 The Peculiar Institution
(119-133) (385- ) |
