thesis for a slavery essay

thesis for a slavery essay

The Injustice of Slavery: A Call for Abolition

1. Introduction

The new abolition movements had many faces and colors, bloomed sporadically in the North and at the South, until swept away by the approaching Civil War. These movements included colonization schemes, gradual emancipations, purchase of freedom, litigation of freed blacks, and even legislative acts of states for general and comprehensive abolition in periods immediately prior to the war. These various groups and their leaders were heroic and sometimes tragic figures, particularly in this tragicomic pursuit of ancestor and much wisdom we have lost in the wrong cause.

During the revolutionary period, the process of declaring the rights of man and innovations in practice had constantly to be varied to accommodate the wide practice of Negro and white servant bond-servitude and slavery. Subsequently, the leaders of the new Republic had much occasion just to offer tepid protests when brought face to race is prohibitive for undertaking an immediate program of abolition. In 1807, there was a constitutional prohibition of importation; yet the handsomely profitable ‘illegal’ slave trade was just too profitable for any constricted measures against it.

Throughout the English-speaking American colonies, there was a deeply-seated belief in the innate superiority of the ‘masters’ over the ‘servants’. Everywhere, men contended that it was “natural” for the Negro to be enslaved and for the white servant to be bound over to service. The theory of race was elaborated as more and more justifying the prevailing attitudes. The white man had to be the master for his own good as well as for the good of the Negro. It was a great impolicy to enfranchise the blacks who would plunge into barbarism without the discipline of forced labor. The white servant had to be kept bound lest, at any chance at freedom, he too would lapse into a life of idleness and degeneracy.

2. Historical Background

The Dutch introduced slavery to England in 1655, but parliamentary attempts to regulate the personal and legal relationships of servants and slaves bungled the precise distinction of slavery from servitude, from which one could always expect the chance of freedom. During the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the specificity and connotations of the word “slave” underwent significant change. High mortality rates, wars in Africa that decimated peoples and ravaged economies, and the importation of male slaves favored fields and forced an end to gender division of labor in farming among Africans in North America. High mortality rates, wars in Africa that decimated peoples and ravaged economies, and the importation of male slaves favored.

The countries set up trading posts along the African coast where they purchased slaves from local tribal leaders. The captives were usually force-marched to the posts, often enduring many casualties. The weak and the too young to walk were left to die, and the traumas of capture were only the beginning of the pain that slaves endured. No independent European observer who experienced life as a slave in these early days ever contradicted the Africans. The first belief that the behavior of Europeans might be different was expressed half a century later, and even the benign view taken by some early eighteenth-century European writers was qualified by grim description and a variety of harsh treatment to Africans in Africa and the New World.

The migration of Africans to Europe and the New World was initiated by the Spanish, Portuguese, and the Dutch in the early sixteenth century because of exploration and the need for a labor force. Slavery was truly barbaric, and those who think that they can control what another group of people do and benefit from it are truly no different from those who thought the world was flat.

3. Impact on Human Rights

The principle of respect for human rights is excluded in the practice of slavery by its very nature. That the many deprivations of legal status experienced by the slave are the cause of the loss of human rights – no person can exercise rights which are not respected or guaranteed. The situations of forced labour and debt-bondage fall into the general category of slavery where the circumstances which bind a person to their work effectively make them the property of another and they are denied the ability to end their service. There, of course, is the denial of freedom in all instances of slavery where human beings are forced to live their lives under the control of another and are exploited through violence or the threat of it. No person shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. When dissected and examined it is clear that slavery cannot coexist with human rights. To abolish the institution of slavery will be no simple task but if human rights are to have meaning there can be no lesser goal.

4. Resistance and Abolition Movements

There was a sensationalism about these events which caused them to have an often alienated romantic view in the literature of white southerners. Often historical negationism occurred, such as the view that the Civil War was only fought because the North was trying to strip southern states of their rights.

Though the extent and violence of slave revolts was, on the whole, not very extensive (given the risk involved), it did show that resistance was not futile. There were at least 250 slave revolts in the 18th century. The earliest recorded slave revolt in America was led by Native American and black slaves from the Spanish missions of La Florida in 1526. Written documentation exists for 100 of these, and the most noteworthy was possibly the 1831 Virginia slave rebellion led by Nat Turner. The plan was to capture the armory at Richmond and from the guns captured, try to instigate a general slave uprising. The plan failed, but showed to the white population that there was indeed a limit to the oppression African Americans would endure. Turner and 56 other blacks were hanged, and in retaliation, innocent blacks were murdered by the score.

Christianity was another point of resistance for black slaves. Seeing the similarities between Christ’s persecution and their own, black slaves would adopt an alternate interpretation of the Bible which was much different than that of the white slave owner. This religion stressed freedom for the oppressed and portrayed the story of Exodus as a story of how God delivered slaves from bondage.

Southern slaves were not mindless cattle. They drew on their African heritage to create their own forms of resistance. African music, for instance, was used to help keep time in the fields. Slaves would also play their own music and dance at corn shuckings and other such events when the slave masters were not present. This would eventually give birth to jazz and the blues when blacks were finally emancipated.

5. Conclusion: The Urgent Need for Change

This document is a call for action. As you will notice, all of the articles are about different aspects of the insidious workings of slavery. At the root of the matter, we just want freedom. This is what all of the slave articles are about, no matter the topic. Whether it is about Christianity, education, family, or opportunity, it all comes down to the want of freedom. Now, the issue is before the public. It is time for a real hard-nosed look at the nature of Black/White relations in this country, past and present. No more hiding behind the shroud of myth and delusion. We want real facts and real truth. Then it will be time to sit back and ask the million-dollar question, “Is the cost and effort of maintaining a discriminatory lifestyle really worth it?” At that point, it would be time to realize that a grave injustice has been committed. Then it would be time to correct for the errors of the past, then we will feel like we are making progress. The time for a change is upon us. People need to realize that racism is a delusional self-serving mentality that symbolizes regression. This needs to be realized by all, from the highest standard of law to the people of small-town America. Now is the time to say goodbye and good riddance to the cursed peculiar institution of the past and finally lay the issue of Black/White equality to rest. Let us hope that the War of the Slave Articles will never again have to come to combat, and that the African Americans of generations to come will never face the bonds of mental and physical slavery. This is why we need the change, and this is the cause for which we write. Let no man refute.