What were the differences between 19th century American slavery and slavery in other countries & time periods?

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Harriet Beech Stowe wrote this novel in reaction to Congress’ passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. Using information that she got from her own visit to Kentucky, from accounts of run-away slaves on the Underground Railroad and from Southern publications, she created a fictional story about slaves and their owners that was based on fact. Her intent was to awaken her fellow Americans to the realities of slavery and its innate immorality. The novel was regarded as the book that started the Civil War, though it was only one of many factors that led to America’s greatest crisis in the 19th century. Yet, it was a controversial work in that it intensified the pre-existing tensions over the perpetuation of human bondage in the “land of the free” – tensions that went as far back as the drafting of the 1776 Declaration of Independence.

d) You can also use online sites, but reputable ones – not blogs. There is a lot of junk on the web, including fake histories and lunatic-fringe “facts.” One online site that you can consult is: http://college.hmco.com. You can also consult the history sites provided by reputable colleges & universities – e.g. CUNY, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, the University of California, the University of Chicago. Don’t use websites of institutions/organizations you’re unfamiliar with or have never heard of:
(5) Don’t summarize the plot of the novel; this is not a book report.

(6) Answer the questions in Q&A (Question & Answer) format; List the number and letter in that you are answering. Treat your responses like a mini-essay with complete sentences and paragraphs. Remember that even with Q&A, organization and correct grammar are still needed.
Instructions:
In a typewritten response regarding American slavery, answer the following questions, and base your answers upon Stowe’s novel and non-fictional sources. What you will do is to determine how accurately Stowe portrayed the conditions and problems of slavery. Pretend that you are an investigative journalist, who will use different sources to analyze America’s “peculiar institution” of slavery in “the land of the free”. (BTW: “Peculiar” means “unique” or “distinctive”, as well as “odd”.)

As for resources which you can use, start with your textbook:
(a) Look at the Table of Contents for the chapters on Slavery and read them. You can also look at the Index at the back of the textbook for information about various subjects or to zero-in on a particular topic. (FYI: An index is a pre-Internet search engine which is limited only to the information in the book that it is part of.) Pay attention to items in the chapters that deal with varying viewpoints and/or contending voices for different opinions on an issue.

(b) Next, consult the section at the end of each textbook chapter entitled TO LEARN MORE, which gives a short list of suggested readings or sources that can help you get started. Be aware of two types of sources for historical research – (i) primary source documents, which are works/records written by people in the past and are the raw materials for historians & other investigators to work with; and (ii) secondary sources which are materials written or produced using those primary sources. For example, Stowe’s novel is a primary source, while a study based in part on her book is a secondary source. Another example: A newspaper article is a primary source since it is contemporary with its time period and the current events it reports; but a journalistic or scholarly article utilizing the newspaper account is a secondary source. Use the suggested readings, especially the primary sources to help you answer the questions of this assignment; and you must use primary sources in addition to secondary ones.

c) Insert 1.5 inch-margins on all sides of each page

F. Y. I. — Note the following points:

1. Stowe deals with American slavery in the 19th century (1800s) and NOT in the period of the 17th and 18th centuries (1600s and 1700s). So, don’t confuse the two historical periods.

a. In the 1600s to 1700s, most slaves were imported from Africa. But after 1808 when the US government banned the African slave-trade, Americans got their slaves by breeding them; consequently, the slaves in Stowe’s novel are American-born, even though the author dubs them “Africans.”

b. In the 1600s and 1700s, slavery existed in both the North and the South. But in Stowe’s time, i.e. the 1800s, slavery was abolished in the North by the state legislatures there; however, it continued in the South and only ended in that region after the Civil War. Therefore, 19th century slavery refers solely to Southern slavery.

2. In Stowe’s novel, the geographical term, “north”, has two meanings:

a. “North” may refer to the free or non-slave region above the borders of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri (see the map of US slavery after the Compromise of 1850 in your textbook).

b. “North” may also refer to the UPPER South (i.e. the slave states of Kentucky, Virginia,
Maryland and Delaware), as opposed to the DEEP South (i.e. the slave states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia). So, Kentucky is not a Northern free state but a Southern slave state, even though it’s sometimes called “up north” in the novel.

c. Note that Ohio IS a free state, despite the fact that its Senator Bird votes for a
pro-slavery bill in the novel.

3. Indentured servants were a form of mostly white contractual labor bondage that existed in the 1600s and 1700s; but it was not prominent in the 1800s before the Civil War among whites. Also, under indentured servitude, the laborer had to be set free when his/her contracted term of work was over (usually after 4 to 7 years). This is what makes indentured servants different from slaves, not race or the kind of treatment they got (both could be abused). In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, there are no such servants. So, don’t confuse the two forms of labor bondage.

4. Great Britain ended slavery in its empire long before the United States did (in the 1830s), so that British territories like Canada were the preferred destination for some American slaves, rather than the “free” Northern states of the US where they could still be captured.

5. Non-native English speakers should be aware of the difference between the following terms: “South America” only refers to Latin America or that part of the Western Hemisphere where Spanish and Portuguese are spoken; it does not mean the “American South” where slavery existed in this country in the 19th century before 1865.

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ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS:

1. What were the differences between 19th century American slavery and slavery in other countries & time periods? What made American slavery distinctive? For ALL sections of this question, look at the systems and practices of slavery in ancient cultures & non-Western ones (including African societies), as well as slavery under Christianity and non-Christian faiths in the Old and New Worlds.
(a) How did one become a slave under the American and foreign systems during different time periods?
(b) In some societies, could slaves buy their way out of slavery? If so, how? Did this occur under US slavery? If slaves became free, how were they treated afterwards?
(c) In different societies, were slaves only used as manual laborers? Could they be educated or skilled in other work besides menial labor? Were there different sub-classes or hierarchies of slaves? Did different statuses allow slaves some “privileges” or “social mobility”, though not liberty?
(d) Did American and non-American societies acknowledge/respect the marriages of slaves, and the family ties between slave parents and their children? Were slaves legally regarded as “persons”? Can non-human entities have legal “personhood” (e.g. a corporation)?
(e) Under different systems, what was the status of children born of slave parents; were such children also slaves? And what was the status of children born of a slave woman and her owner?
(f) Did slaves have freedom of movement (i.e. the freedom to move about without supervision, or to travel)? What kinds of restrictions were imposed on slaves under both the American and foreign systems?
(g) In different cultures, did slaves have some protection against extreme abuse by their owners or overseers? How were slaves treated if they resisted mistreatment and oppression, or tried to escape? If slaves were brought into a law court for some case, how were their testimonies treated, and how were their testimonies extracted?

2. In both the novel and in real life, there were huge debates over the pro & cons of slavery. In Stowe’s book, the justifications and condemnations of the “peculiar institution” are expressed by members of the St. Clare (St. Claire) family – i.e. Augustine, his wife Marie, and his twin brother Alfred. (a) What are they? (Note: the views of the St. Clare family members are expressed in different parts of the novel; so look for them – don’t just rely on one view for each member.)
(b) Compare and contrast their views with real-life defenders and opponents of slavery. (Be specific as to who said what: Just stating that real life defenders and opponents of slavery shared Augustine’s view is not enough.) Do the justifications for slavery resemble arguments for suppressing other peoples in different times and cultures; which ones?

3. Defenders of slavery insisted that it was a form of paternalism toward an “inferior” people, who were “better off” as slaves than as free workers.
(a) How were slaves treated, according to Stowe’s novel? Look at the way slaves live on the Shelby, St. Clare (St.Claire) and Legree estates. Is kindness ever sufficient protection for slaves, in Stowe’s book? What would give slaves real security from abusive masters, in the author’s view?
(b) In history, how were American slaves actually treated? Give the views of both real-life defenders and their adversaries. (Again, be specific, and identify the individuals & their views; don’t generalize.)

4. Stowe describes what domestic (i.e. American, not African) slave trading was like.
(a) How were trades conducted in both the novel and in real life?
(b) What American social classes were involved, and which of them did Stowe blame the most for this human trafficking? Was she correct, according to real-life supporters and opponents of slavery?
(c) In both the novel and in reality, what were American slave-warehouses like, and how were slaves treated by the traders & by the customers?
(d) What aspect(s) of the slave trade did Stowe find the most horrible? What did real-life abolitionists consider to be the worst aspect(s) of the trade in whatever form it took?

5. Contrary to stereotypes, both history and the novel reveal that not all Southerners or slave-owners supported slavery.
(a) Which Southern whites in history were against slavery and why? What did they do about this system of bondage? (Don’t confuse such individuals with Northern abolitionists.) When and why did Southern abolitionism die away?
(b) In the novel, how does Augustine explain the existence of slavery in the first place? (Look at his “Quashy” speech, chapter 19). And how does he explain the perpetuation or continuation of slavery? What were the real-life reason(s) for slavery’s continuance?
(c) Besides Augustine St. Clare, which other slave-owners in the novel are opposed to slavery? Why doesn’t Augustine and others like him in the novel do anything about slavery, when they know how inhumane it is? What is Stowe’s view of such individuals?

6. Northern states at different times had abolished slavery on their own initiative (i.e. independently of the national government), and well before the Civil War which would finally end the “peculiar institution” in the rest of the United States.
(a) In history, what reason(s) did Northern whites have for wanting to end slavery? Was their opposition solely on moral grounds, as Stowe’s was? And was opposition to slavery the same as supporting racial equality? Why or why not?
(b) In the novel, what does Stowe point out about Northern whites through the character of Ophelia and through Augustine’s view of Northerners like his cousin?
(c) How were free blacks in the North actually treated in real life; and why? How did blacks feel about their treatment?
(d) What was the “colonization scheme”? How did blacks in real life and in the novel feel about it? (For the novel, look at the character of black George Harris, who is not to be confused with his white master of the same name.)

7. In spite of the hardships, exploitation and abuse experienced by slaves, most did not rebel against or run away from their masters. Why?
(a) What does the novel suggest as to the factors that kept slaves disunited, or discouraged from running, or disinterested in defying their masters? Look at Augustine’s household slaves, and those on the Shelby & Legree estates.
(b) In real-life, what did the laws in southern states (slave codes) allow owners & overseers to do to slaves in terms of restrictions and of punishment? Be specific.
(c) In what ways did slave rebellions influence the slave codes (e.g. the uprisings of the Haitian Revolution, and of Denmark Vesey & Nat Turner) – explain what these rebellions were, and why they were so frightening to whites.

8. Historically, there were also laws at the federal (i.e. national) level that upheld white supremacy and protected slavery.
(a) How was the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act different from earlier federal fugitive acts? What made it so controversial?
(b) Why did Northern politicians in history, like Illinois’ Senator Stephen Douglas (Lincoln’s opponent in both the 1858 senatorial race and the1860 presidential election), support the interests of the slave-holding South? Which character in the novel is like Douglas, and why does that character initially support slave-owners?

9. It has been said that slavery in America was a democratic expression of popular will (or the will of the majority).
(a) Does Stowe agree with that? Which region of the country does she blame the most for slavery’s continued existence? (See chapter 45 in the novel; read this carefully.)
(b) Historically, would that statement be true? If it isn’t true, how could slavery persist in “the land of the free” after America became independent of Britain? How involved was the North with slavery and the activities of the South? How much did the North share with the South in attitudes toward enslaved and free blacks?

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