All codes also had sections regulating free blacks, who were still subject to controls on their movements and employment and were often required to leave the state after emancipation. Slaves charged with crimes in Virginia were tried in special non-jury courts created in 1692. The purpose of the courts was not to guarantee due process but to set an example speedily. "Those slaves who attacked white people or property usually acted with a purpose and not just on impulse," wrote Philip J. Schwarz, a Virginia Commonwealth University professor who has studied slave courts. "Many killings, poisonings, thefts, uses of arson and attempts to rebel were efforts to oppose the means of maintaining slavery."
Report: Slave Codes U.S. History Unit: 4 Lesson: 12 By Bryce Calhoun Question 1: What specific restrictions were placed on slaves? Were the same restrictions placed on free blacks? The laws differed from state to state but generally asserted full rights of control to masters and required full obedience and subservience of slaves, forgave masters for the use of violence against slaves (even rape and murder), and prohibited slaves from learning how to read. Question 2: How did free blacks respond to the slave codes? The reaction of free blacks to slave codes largely depended on where they lived.
Originally they were transported here from Africa. After that they were either bought from the boat, or from other owners. They were also traded, the other way was born into the life of slavery. Slavery since they were considered property, without rights, are considered inheritance. There was coercion used to assert control to the system.
In 1776, Americans had just declared their independence from Britain –referred to as a kingdom of slaves. Why was their slavery justified? Their goal was to make America an asylum for refuge and freedom of religion, where equality would be first priority. The nations slave population was approximately one fifth of its own population. The idea of slavery is cruel and extreme in today society, but it was common to own slaves then.
American Slavery To think that the institution of American Slavery was a good-natured and acceptable act is beyond belief. On the other hand, it has been said that slavery is what made America what it is today. Slavery is a system, which people are treated with no respect and are forced to do hard labor(civilwar). Majority of slaves were African-Americans and many of the children and women were still forced to do harsh labor. When northern America was taken over by the Europeans, there was a shortage of labor.
After Emerson’s death in 1846, scott and his wife filed for separate suits for their freedom, with the help of their white friends. Scott’s lawyer told him b/c he was taken into territory where slavery was illegal, he can become a free man. During the suits, they were wins and losts. The final appeal in the Dred Scott v. Sanford was up to the Supreme Court. Roger Taney, chief justce, denied his request b/c scott was a black man and should not be able to sue in federal court, and the question was, was scott freed b/c he was taken to a state where slavery was prohibited.
Paternalism in slavery is the idea that slave holders held slaves because they believed it was in the slave’s best interest or an explanation that claims that slaves viewed their masters in a manner similar to the way children see their guardians. There were different views on paternalism; it could either be for the good or the bad. Owners thought that by beating a slave was best for the slave. In Nicholas Boston’s “Living Conditions” article he states, “Southern plantation owners defined slavery not as an institution of brute force, but of responsible dominion over a less fortunate, less evolved people.” The slaves were given very small amounts of food on a weekly basis such as molasses, peas, greens, and some meat. The clothing for the slaves, depending on age and gender, was only distributed about once a year on special occasions.
With all these factors, they only take place because of the enslavement of Africans. Africans were shipped from many regions of Africa but mostly from those areas along the coast. The Bantu, along the Guinea coast had largest homogenous culture followed by the Mande, thus the culture of African-Americans was influenced the most by the people of these regions. In the colonies the economic demand for slaves and the demographics of the slave population had an enormous effect on the development of Afro-American culture. Never did their exist one Afro-American culture, for each area had a different social, economic, and political reliance on slavery, which characterized a unique slave culture.
Lincoln did believe that slavery was morally wrong, but there was one big problem; It was allowed by the highest law in the land, the Constitution. The nation’s founding fathers, who also struggled with how to address slavery, did not explicitly write the word “slavery” in the Constitution, but they did include key clauses protecting the institution, including a fugitive slave clause and the three-fifths clause, which allowed Southern states to count slaves for the purposes of representation in the federal government. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation as a military measure, it didn’t apply to border slave states like Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri, all of which had remained loyal to the Union. Lincoln also exempted selected areas of the Confederacy that had already come under Union control in hopes of gaining the loyalty of whites in those states. In practice, then the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t immediately free a single slave, as the only places it applied were places where the federal government had no control.
The clause allowed owners to go before a judge and provide proof of ownership, whereby, the owner then received a certificate to return to the estate with the slave. There was a penalty of five hundred dollars if anyone tried to obstruct the owner from retaking the slave or if one tried to conceal the slave. The North became upset with the clause because Northerners felt free blacks would be kidnapped and be taken to a slave holding state where the free black would be forced into slavery. The Fugitive Slave Clause was viewed to be a compromise between the free and slave holding states. The US Constitution can be viewed as an anti-slavery document too.