Slavery In Early American Society

1695 Words7 Pages
Slavery in Early American Society, a Remembering Many topics of American history raise debate and controversy. From the taking of land from the native to election processes, and even terrorism, most of these can be viewed from many political and moral viewpoints as wrong, necessary, immoral etc… Most of these seem to pale in comparison to the ideology of slavery in our history. Whether thought of in modern society as wrong from a moral perspective, curtailment of human rights, slavery existed for reasons of the time and abolished some time later for other reasons that are surprising to some. From the emergence of written history we see evidence of slavery, in one form or another. The most ancient civilizations--ancient Mesopotamia, Old Kingdom…show more content…
Slaves constructed more than 9,500 miles of railroad track by 1860, a third of the nation's total and more than the mileage of Britain, France, and Germany. (digitalhistory.uh.edu) The nature of the black man was not only misunderstood, but used to keep him in bondage. During it’s span, American slavery did have some resistance. Slaves engaged in at least 250 shipboard rebellions. Whether in the form of revolts within their own land borders or on a larger scale with rebellions, one of the most notable being that of Nat Turner. Some resistance was kept more quiet such as Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad, though valiant in retrospect seldom were successful, Turner’s rebellion numbering only in seventy plus slaves who although killing many whites was thwarted by the militia in short order. The mindset of the times was the larger obstacle as efforts of rebelling slaves only steeled the ideology that the black man was ultimately a savage animal without the mental wherewithal to control himself needing someone to keep him in line. By this time in history, we were a nation to ourselves pecking out a constitution and bill of rights, state and federal legislatures and government. These precepts were hammered out by men who were aristocratic and affluent in the cultural setting of the time. Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, and the remainder of our founding…show more content…
In fact, the common idea that the Civil War was fought over slavery is in great part a falicy. While being a portion of what was fought over, the abolition of slavery which was not a moral dilemma in society at the time seem small when compared to things like expansion westward and cession of the southern states from the Union, forming their own constitution, printing currency and even electing their own president, were much bigger issues, which without ironing out, would have made the US much smaller and arguably weaker than it is

More about Slavery In Early American Society

Open Document