A Troublesome Property Analysis

“It was not color, but crime, not God, but man that afforded the true explanation of the existence of slavery; nor was I long in finding out another important truth, what man can make, man can unmake” (Douglass 59). In My Bondage and My Freedom, Fredrick Douglass explains in detail the harsh and cruel realties of slavery and how slavery was an institution that victimized not only slaves, but slave holders, and non-slave holding whites. Fredrick Douglass could not have been more right with his observation of slavery. In my opinion, slavery is not only an institution, but is a prime example of a corrupt business model that thrives on free labor, ultimate control, and wealth.

Historical debates about the enslavement period of America is constantly being developed and refined as new primary sources and research in academic areas progress. Stephanie Camp brings a new historical perspective that attempts to build on previous historical debates by building on underdeveloped areas of America’s Antebellum Period. It is therefore vital to understand the previous historical debates and the arguments that align and contend with Camp’s argument. The broader and earlier historical contentions of the Slave South tend to focus on the behaviour and repressive nature of slaves rather than the formation of rebellion in the South. Historian Kenneth Stampp who wrote The Peculiar Institution (1956) helped to redefine and focus on

In 1928 Ulrich B. Phillips wrote an argumentative essay about the reasons for the massive support that slavery received from both slaveowners and Southerners who didn’t possess slaves. The essay was well-received and supported by critics in the 1930-s. However, closer to 1950-s critics started doubting the objectivity of Phillip’s writing. It’s important to note that Ulrich B. Phillips is a white historian from the South, writing from a perspective of a white Southerner. When he was writing his article he failed to step back from his bias and provide fully objective support for the main theme of his argument, setting a doubt to the reliability of his work.

Early American Literature reflects many conflicting differences in the presentation of slavery during that time period. Through the two chosen texts, the reader is presented with two different perspectives of slavery; Frederick Douglass’s narrative provides a look at a slave’s life through the eyes if a slave while Benito Cereno showcases the tale of a slave uprising from the viewpoint of the slave owner.. Benito Cereno’s work shows the stereotypical attitude towards African-American slaves and the immorality of that outlook according to Douglass’s narrative. Cereno portrays the typical white slave owner of his time, while Douglass’ narrative shows the thoughts of the slaves. The two stories together show that white Americans are oblivious to the ramifications and overall effects of slavery. These texts assist a moralistic purpose in trying to open up America’s eyes to the true nature of slavery by revealing it’s inhumanity and depicting the cruelty that was allowed.

There has been many historians and theorists who have tackled colonial slavery. One of them is Ira Berlin whose book Many Thousands Gone is his take on slavery diversity in American history and how slavery is at the epicenter of economic production, amongst other things. He separates the book into three generations: charter, plantation and revolutionary, across four geographic areas: Chesapeake, New England, the Lower country and the lower Mississippi valley. In this paper, I will discuss the differences between the charter and plantation generations, the changes in work and living conditions, resistance, free blacks and changes in manumission.

This is hypocritical in that the white men make these values and traditions a staple of their lives, yet when it comes to slaves, they seem to go away. He also believes that, though he will use “the severest language”(Douglass) he can, he firmly believes that “not one word shall escape me that any man whose… not blinded by prejudice, or… a slave-holder, shall not confess to be right and just”(Douglass). So he sincerely believes that the average human being also knows that the treatment of slaves is unjust and unethical, but they choose not to act on these thoughts. His view, coming from the eyes and thoughts of slaves across America, show how hypocritical the nation actually is in both one sided values and not acting upon their knowledge that what is going on is wrong.

The subject of slavery in the early 1700s had the potential to elicit an array of opinions depending upon the race, gender, and political role of the individual in question. Like the majority of white land-holding men who owned slaves, William Byrd viewed the treatment of Africans as that consistent with livestock: slaves were to do the work they were assigned and give in to every whim of their masters for fear of being severely punished. Olaudah Equiano provides a contrast in opinion to this widely accepted viewpoint. By humanizing Africans and detailing the intimate emotions experienced by them, Equiano implicitly argues against the attitudes of typical slave owners.

“Almost all the blacks in his book are victims, almost all the whites villains. This is not history; it is advocacy.” From a review released by The Economist of Edward Baptist’s latest book, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism (2014), this one sentence spawned a massive conversation online regarding the reality of slavery’s brutal nature and its standing in the economic development of, not only the South, but the nation. The incorporation of economics into the conversation on slavery dates back to 1965 with the publication of Eugene Genovese’s first book, The Political Economy of Slavery, wherein he argues that economic development in the South was handicapped by slavery, which caused the birth of a distinct precapitalist society. Few contemporary historians argued against him, which made Genovese an authority in the field for many years and culminated in his most significant book, Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made (1974). Genovese’s ideas regarding paternalism and precapitalism in the South shaped the traditional historical narrative until 1999 with the publication of Walter Johnson’s Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market. This book resurrected the conversation about the brutal nature of slavery and directly challenged Genovese by arguing against his ideas of a distinctive South, slave agency, paternalism, and precapitalism. For the purpose of this essay, we will examine the drastic shift seen in the

A lot can be said about America in the 1800’s; manifest destiny, innovations, the president’s, civil war, and slavery. Three stories, “12 Years a Slave”, The Narrative, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin explain to us how crucify slave owners were to their slaves, but how other slave owners were gentle at the same time. It’s hard to believe that slaves were treated like dirt, and even our founding fathers owned slaves. The three tales explain their own, personal experience with slavery, in the eyes of a slave. Although the three writers weren’t together, they have many in common with each other, in common with one another, and share many differences as well.

A slave narrative is a work of literature that tells the first hand account of slaves. Slave narratives are in a sense they autobiography for slave culture. Slaves in these stories usually go through great turmoil and stress, overcome many obstacles, and contribute many a tale of the perseverance of their culture, family and religion. All these characteristics are found in the story of Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings, as well as the narrative of Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Both of these real life accounts have these tropes, but in comparison do not exclusively only both contain these points. The narratives of both these men have a great deal in common even though Equiano’s death and Douglass’ birth were separated by twenty-one years, though Douglass’ birthdate is debateable; for even he does not know his own date of birth. Both Equiano and Douglass use a great deal of religious moments throughout their stories, Equiano having a great deal more points on the subject as his story was written longer and was infused much more with religious stories and voice. These writers also both put an emphasis on the acquiring of literacy even during their time as slaves, though there most common comparison has to be their stories containing their childhood moments. These men did a great deal to get their stories out to the world and had to show utmost poise in order to be taken seriously by a largely

Throughout this semester we have read material focusing on slave narratives, authentic and fictionalized. Three very important pieces of literature during the period in which slavery was alive and well in this country that will be examined are: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, David Walker's Appeal and Henry Highland Garnet's An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America. Each of these pieces proved to be material that was considered incendiary and blatantly militant for its fervor and rhetoric of resistance.

In the book titled The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South, author John Blassingame’s theme, focused on the history of African slave experience throughout the American South. After much research, the author said in the preface that most historians focused more on the planter instead of the slave. He also pointed out that most of the research on slaves by previous historians was based on stereotypes, and do not tell the real history of slave life and a slave’s inner self. Most of these historians, who focused on antebellum southern history, left out the African-American slave experience on purpose. Through much gathering of research, Blassingame hoped to correct this injustice to the history of African-American slaves, and show how slavery affected slaves, but also American life, culture, and thought.

In a Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave written by himself, the author argues that no one can be enslaved if he or she has the ability to read, write, and think. Douglass supports his claim by first providing details of his attempts to earn an education, and secondly by explaining the conversion of a single slaveholder. The author’s purpose is to reveal the evils of slavery to the wider public in order to gain support for the abolition of his terrifying practice. Based on the purpose of writing the book and the graphic detail of his stories, Douglass is writing to influence people of higher power, such as abolitionists, to abolish the appalling reality of slavery; developing a sympathetic relationship with the

Eugene Genovese argues that slaves used a strong sense of community as a defense against economic exploitation and dehumanization in his work “The Black Work Ethic”. Kenneth Stampp in his work, “A Troublesome Property”, said that slaves desired freedom, and exhibited many methods of resistance in response to their exploitation. Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman in “The Quality of Slave Labor and Racism” argued that the plantation system was an intricate system focused on management as a key role in expending slave labor, making it efficient and highly profitable. Although all four historians provided substantial evidence to backup their standpoint, Genovese had the best interpretation as to how slaves viewed their experiences of work; slaves used camaraderie as a beacon of hope in order to survive and endure everyday life within their restraints.

After watching the video “Slavery and Freedom” I learned that in the nineteen-century the economy and culture of the southern states depended on the slavery industry. I learned that the slave owners sought to make their slaves completely dependent on them by prohibited them from learning to read and write. Also, many masters took sexual liberties with slave women such as Harriet Jacobs’s case. Black and white writers such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, and Harriet Beecher Stowe responded to the cruelty of slavery by creating a revolutionary literature committed to the overthrow of slavery. All of these abolitionist texts written by these writers participate in the effort to convince readers that slavery is unjust by appealing to their