SLAVERY & its DISCONTENTS

The North

• Not the promised land; violence toward free Blacks & general segregation
• 1860 – 225,000 Blacks in North (=1% pop)
• Many negative racial images (immature, indolent, good-for-nothing, simply unfit, naturally lazy, childlike);
•  Yet also feared as criminals (& as threats to “racial purity”) à segregated schools

SLAVES – forced to work; FREE – couldn’t get jobs (except menial labor)

The South

• 1860 – 35% population (4,000,000 Blacks) = slaves

5.5% of Southern White pop was slaveholders

• Slaves = labor force for tobacco, hemp, rice, sugar, & esp. cotton
• Most Blacks in South live on plantations (though some are urban)
• plantation = agricultural production with at least 20 slaves
• Plantation Life
• Grueling work from before dawn until late at night (minutes to swallow minimal food)
• Highly regimented (manuals explain how to work / treat slaves)
• “Not permitted to be a moment idle until it’s too dark to see”
• Methods of discipline / control
• Kindness (like with pets or horses)
• Strict discipline “draw reign tighter & tighter”
• Brainwash to believe in racial inferiority /suited for bondage
• Kept illiterate, ignorant, incapable of caring for selves

“SAMBO” = childlike, irresponsible, lazy, affectionate, happy personality = “boy,” “girl” (incapable of handling freedom)

• Believed in by many Whites
• Image used by White Masters to claim bonds of affection between selves and slave “children”
• Betrays nervousness / hysterical fear (of Black “giddy multitude”)
• Presents relationship in most positive way in face of whole Western world who opposes slavery (even owners have some moral misgivings)
• In fact many apparent “Sambo” slaves take every opportunity to rebel (they were playing role) or strike back
• Many destructive, lazy, lying behind Masters’ backs (to avoid work / undermine system)
• Some flee during Civil War; others listen attentively & hope for freedom; join Union lines

URBAN SLAVES – 1860 – 70,000 who labor in textile mills, iron furnaces, & tobacco factories (some could earn own wages after paying share to owner)

WOMEN SLAVES – extra burden of rape & bearing Masters’ children (who were often sold)

·        1808 – African slave trade prohibited by Fed. Gov’t. = need to breed new slaves = increase in number of children of slaves sold (devastating to many mothers)

·        Women slaves bodies regarded as property for erotic pleasure of masters

Many mixed race (slave sons; white fathers) like Frederick Douglas

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