Slavery and Abolition

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Slavery and Abolition

• Will Scheiman
• Beth Boyer
• Michael Falahee

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Economics

• Slavery is desirable for land owners when land is
  abundant but labor is not, low wages due to the
  competition.
• It is much more difficult and costly to check
  that slaves are doing their best and with good
  quality when they are doing complex tasks.
• Thus, slavery tends to decrease with
  technological advancements requiring more skilled
  people, even as they are able to demand high wages

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Private lives of slaves

• Family and Religion were most vital of slave
  institutions
• Under law slaves were members of the plantation
  over which the owner exercised absolute
  authority.
• Some slaves were alowed to marry but certain
  things were omitted in order to let the slaves
  know the this was not a legally binding ceremony
• Unlike the norm for southern whites, slaves never
  married their relatives

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Slave Theology

• Slaves interpreted and used the message of
  Christianity in their own ways
• The biblical notion that slavery could be
  punishment for sin and the white southern notion
  that that god intended blacks to be slaves never
  took root among enslaved Christians
• Slaves used religious ideals and practices that
  mostly derived from West Africa
• Spirituals-slaves religious songs

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Treatment

• Slaves were subject to extremely harsh treatment.
  
• Many of these treatments lead to death or extreme
  anguish and left slaves physically and mentally
  altered for their whole lives
• Slave holders believed they had the right to
  coercive sex
• Often times, slave holders threatened to break up
  slaves families in order to demand obedience
• Slaves traded labor and obedience for privileges
• Slaves painfully learned that they were not
  members of the family and that they were property
  and could be bought or sold

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Views of the North

• Against slavery
• Republicans
• Thought that slavery was not dependable for the
  countrys future
• Thought that it denied the freedom of the
  individual and was not just

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Views of the South

• Pro-Slavery
• Democrats
• Viewed slaves as property
• Life was not about freedom, social progress
• Believed that slaves needed to honor the
  obligations to which they were born
• Plantation masters were seen as most elite people
• The desire for power and money led to the
  ownership and need of slaves

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Cause of Abolition of Slavery

• Social evil in the North
• Slavery was abolished and looked down upon in
  other parts of the world
• Lincoln believed in the abolishment of slavery

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Effects of Abolition of Slavery

• Civil war
• Started large communities of freed slaves
• Southern plantation life dissipated
• Country was separated at first, later unified

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Question

• What were the differences between slave treatment
  and views on slavery by the north and the south.
  Expand on the differences.