For the most part northerners felt this treatment was immoral. Slavery became a growing rift between the North and South. It led to many conflicts of pro slavery and anti slavery. With the production of cotton in the South, they felt that slaves provided a necessary labor use. There were many battles between the pro slavery groups and the abolitionists.
Slavery soon became an enormous issue seeing as the slave owners came to treat slaves whichever way they pleased, getting away with it. Northerners did not believe that slavery was correct. In fact, they were anti-slavery, for the North, taking on Abraham Lincoln’s side, thought it should be abolished. Geography played a big role in the secession of the South; in the South the temperature is warmer, there was better soil, and also there were also many more fields and land to grow crops on. For this reason specially, Southerners became further inclined towards slavery, seeing as instead of having the slave-owners doing all the work, they would simply have slaves, without costing them a cent (DOCUMENT # 3).
“Most of the Northerners did not doubt that black people were inferior to whites, but they did doubt the benevolence of slavery(civilwar).” Slavery was so cruel that many slaves had to figure out ways to escape it. For example, slaves would destroy farm machinery, fake sick and even commit murder but the most common act of the slaves was to runaway(civilwar). In the 1860s, the Civil War in America was the start of slavery becoming abolished. Slaves in the south escaped and went to the North, where Union generals made abolitionist policies. Many Northern abolitionists became aggressive.
The north would write books, and newspapers, and give speeches about the wrongs of slavery, but the south wasn't giving in. Though slavery wasn't abolished in the south, in the north, African Americans were given the right to vote. This cause many slaves to try to escape their owners, to get to the north, where they would be free. Because African Americans now had the right to vote, women found it unfair that they still did not have the right to vote. Many women, including Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, took action to gain their right.
(Kolchin 14) This quote shows that it is believed that the color of skin served as a basis for who they were as a person during this time period. The African slaves were seen as savage and wild beasts that were only tamable through slavery. The racial distinction is what kept slavery alive because the slaves were not seen as humans and therefore deserved little to no humanity. Kolchin then goes on to describe the relationship between the masters and slaves and how these relationships varied depending upon the region. In areas such as South Carolina and Georgia, the master was not present on the plantation.
Even northerners who were prejudiced against blacks were often against slavery, because they felt slavery caused unfair competition for free laborers; this argument figured prominently in “Free Soil” ideology. Free Soilers sought to prohibit slavery in the new territories, because it interfered with free labor. Northerners believed that they could work their way up in society by hard work and many did. The most violent confrontations between people who believed in free soil ideology and people who were pro slavery took place in the Kansas territory prior to the start of the Civil War. Kansas became known as Bleeding Kansas as a result of the
Paternalism is another the reason slaves were treated badly. In Christopher Gray’s article he states, "Paternalism comes from the Latin pater, meaning to act like a father, or to treat another person like a child (Par 1).” Although during the slavery time period, it was the women who held the paternalistic role. When scolding the slave, the owners thought that this was what they were supposed to do. The women didn’t just treat them poorly but also played the motherly role as in taking care of them by keeping them healthy, keeping them organized and making sure they were doing their duty as a slave. 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.
His master enjoyed hurting the slaves, which is what he hated the most. He loved getting food and clothes, but his master hated giving that stuff up. This went for slaves at almost all plantations, unless you were lucky enough to get a master who treated you better than most did. Sadly, he didn’t get treated as well as some slaves did at other plantations. Chapter 7 Quote 7: “Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her to these heavenly qualities” (Douglass, Page 43) In this quote its explaining how his mistress was a very good person to the poor and then when slavery started it stopped her from being able to do good deeds.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin shined a light onto their cruel, abusive lives. Although this book made people feel sympathetic towards slave, it also made working-class whites aggressive towards slaves because they now felt that African Americans were competition in the working world. Because of this book people thought she fuelled this war. Even President Lincoln said, “Is this the little woman who made this great
If women did have jobs, it would be limited to a maid, a nurse or a teacher. Most of these women working before World War Two were mostly not married. In this time, they didn’t have a husband or children so they needed to support themselves by going to work. Women took these jobs because men said it was easier and they have experience with cleaning and cooking. They were maids because like in their homes, they either cleaned up for themselves or for their children.