The Challenges of Being a Slave
Finding the Strength through Hard Times: Slaves who lived in fear turned to religion for inspiration and solace. Some Africans practiced different religions. They held their private and secretive meetings where they spoke of the New Testament promises of the day of reckoning and of justice and a better life after death. These practices gave the African's the strength to resist and become united to seek this happiness; it resisted the African community as a whole.
Small Drops of Hope, the Abolistionists: By the 1820s more than 100 antislavery societies were advocating for resettlement of blacks for the belief that their race is inferior to the white society. At the time like Charles G. Finney, a white supporter for abolition termed slavery as “a great national sin”. Abolition had been a movement that called to outlaw slavery. |
AbolitionLife as a slave consisted with remorseful challenges that constantly placed difficulties to their lifestyle. Slaves lived in crude quarters that would lead them vulnerable to bad weather and diseases, they had little clothing and were demanded to work for long hours. Slaves did not have the sufficient nutrition therefore they were prone to many diseases and illnesses. Slaves in America ranged from working on small farms, large plantations, in cities and towns, in homes, out in the fields, to working in industry and transportation. Although there were in different work and workplace the treatment towards these workers had no difference. Slaves were considered property, and they were property because they were black. Because of racism slaves weren't considered as human but rather as savages who needed discipline and need to be domesticated- like animals. Slaves weren't allowed to read or write, they weren't allowed to leave their owner's land, to meet in groups, or to buy or sell goods. Slave owners broke apart families by selling husbands without their wife or children without their parents. Slaves who did try to revolt these regulations were brutally punished. A slave cannot imagine a brighter future because they realize that they will always be a forever slave. Former slave Fredrick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) states that he had been "about twelve years old, and the thought of being a slave began to bear heavily upon [his] heart" (Learning to Read and Write). Slaves were burdened with the idea of being property not worthy enough to be treated as an equal.
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William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator:
“[I]s there not cause for severity? I will be harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject [immediate emancipation], I do not wish to think or speak or write with modification… I am in earnest- I will not equivocate- I will not excuse- I will not retreat a single inch- AND I WILL BE HEARD” William Lloyd Garrison had lived in poverty; his father had abandoned his family when he had been only three. Garrison educated himself and supported himself as a journalist and editor of a weekly reform newspaper. His knowledge of slavery had given rise to his ardent temperament and stubbornness. William Lloyd Garrison was the most radical white abolitionist and editor of The Liberator, to deliver the harsh truth that society is committing. William Lloyd Garrison argues that slaves must be subjected to an immediate emancipation, freeing slaves with no payment to slaveholders. Garrison seeks for people in the South to recognize and to remind the North the criminal and sinful act against slaves because of color; he wants to educate individuals about the brutal treatment implicated upon the slaves through his newspaper, The Liberator. William Lloyd Garrison, radical abolitionist and founder of Anti-Slavery Society, critics the Constitution for condoning slavery. William Lloyd Garrison illustrates the idea that the Declaration of Independence is the foundation of antislavery and abolitionist thoughts. Slavery is a "deadliest curse" against American ideals. Through Garrison's point of view and exposure to the community he influenced the growth of opposing to slavery. Garrison influences the idea that "all men are created equally" by stating that he will do what he can to "secure the colored population of the United States, all the rights and privileges which belong to them as men, and as Americans". Garrison has given the slaves a justified argument through the use of American regulations and beliefs in the Declaration of Independence. |
John Brown
John Brown was also another abolitionist who believed slavery was a sin. Brown moved to Kansas after the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Bleeding Kansas which was the name for Kansas because of too many battles resulted in too many killings which were caused by the voting on slavery. This created two Kansas governments one for and one against slavery. This situation resulted in the Kansas-Nebraska Act which created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska for settlement and determining through Popular Sovereignty whether slavery should be allowed within each territory. When Brown moved to Kansas, which was pro-slavery, he wanted to turn Kansas into a free state. Brown was involved in many anti-slavery activities; after a group of pro-slavery destroyed many public places and business of the town Brown lead a group of men to attack Pottawatomie Creek. He believed that he should start an army that would wage war against slavery. He lead 20 men into Harper's Ferry, Virginia, to steal armors and lead slaves into a rebellion against their owners. Brown's belief, action, and determination to end slavery had caused the government to hang him. John Brown wanted to abolish slavery; he wanted to give slaves power through the possession of weapons which gives them the strength to threaten white people and lead a revolution into freedom, unfortunately 17 men were killed in the incident. Therefore Brown was tried and found guilty for treason, conspiracy, and murder, the government hanged Brown on December 2, 1859.
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Congress tried to prevent war by compromising, but compromising wasn't sufficient because Southerners did not want their way of life changed because slaves did much of the physical work and the North believed that slavery is immoral and should be terminated. The compromises weren't enough there were many riots, slaves resisted- the gained hope, strength, and knowledge.
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