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The Role Of Punishment In The Antebellum South

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The antebellum period brought about years of economic gain for the American south causing a divide between the United States. While northern states shifted to industrial labor, southern states were dependent on cotton production. Because agriculture became the main source of income, slavery became a way of life for the American south. Slaves were forced to do domestic and agricultural labor producing crops such as rice, tobacco, sugar, and cotton. Over half of the slaves during the antebellum period lived and worked on plantations producing most of the agriculture in the south. With fear of revolts among the slaves, the infliction of physical punishment was the most effective form of coercion masters used to control their slaves. It allowed them to show their superiority over the slaves while controlling them. …show more content…

Steven Mintz states, “A Master’s authority rested on the threat of physical pain. To discipline slaves, plantation owners set up private jails, confined slaves in stocks and shackled them with chains and iron collars.” Punishment was not only used to discipline slaves, but it was a way for slave owners to show their dominance. Slave owners asserted their power over the slaves in any situation they did not agree with. In “Instructions to his Overseer”, James Henry Hammond states, “The following is the order in which offences must be estimated & punished:1st Running away. 2nd Getting drunk or having spirits. 3rd Stealing hogs. 4th Stealing. 5th Leaving plantation without permission. 6th Absence from house after horn blow at night. 7th Unclean house or person. 8th Neglect of tools. 9th Neglect of work.” Slaves were required to work nonstop to meet the financial needs of the people they worked for. They were not allowed to do anything that would anger their master and constantly feared the backlash they would

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