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The Peculiar Institution

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The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South
By: Kenneth M. Stamp
Published by Vintage Books of New York

The book The Peculiar Institution takes an in-depth look at slavery in America from the beginning. The author tells the story after doing a lot of research of how the entire south operated with slavery and in the individual states. The author uses a lot of examples from actual plantations and uses a lot of statistics to tell the story of the south. The author’s thesis statement throughout this book is stated in the title of the book that tells that slavery is a peculiar institution, which also means that it is a very interesting form of service. There are many strange events that not only led up to slavery but that …show more content…

The woman is not only no longer able to work as hard as she once did but also requires an additional ration of food. It makes sense why when women because child bearing age that they were considered “useless tools” and why so many of them faked a pregnancy to get out of work. Faking sickness was also a common practice among slaves who were worked too hard. There was also the psych battle between the farm owners and the overseers of the slaves. I can understand why the ones managing the slaves progress where only ever at a single farm for a year or two before parting ways. Not only is it a physically demanding job but it isn’t a very rewarding one. Those who got paid based on production couldn’t stay at one place for a very long time because more than likely they drove the slaves too hard and risked their health. The book talks of owners who purposefully pushed their slaves to exhaustion for a time period of 7 years only to get rid of them and get others to do the same. I know that they would beat them for disobeying but I don’t know why they wouldn’t want to protect their assets as much as possible, although the reward for doing so must have been great. I greatly enjoyed reading this book and did so relatively quickly. This not only was a interesting subject manor but the author used a lot of statistics which I appreciated and it was told in a way that made you wanted to read on. I liked how he compared many of the regions

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