Slavery
Slavery in America thrived and continued to grow because there was
a
scarcity of labor. Cultivation of crops on plantations could be supervised
while
slaves used simple routines to harvest them, the low price at which
slaves could
be bought, and earning profits as a bonus for not having to pay
hired work. But
in the beginning half of the 19th century a strong push for
slavery's final
straw was coming. The people of the South tended to be more
genteel, and seemed
not quite adjusted to hard work, but more to giving
orders. The idea of telling
people how to do their work just seemed to fit
all too well into this scenario.
Slaves lived under virtually unsuitable
conditions. Douglass' account of a
slave's life told of the trying times on
the plantation. An allowance was given
to the workers. A monthly allowance
consisted of mostly of pork and corn meal
but also some money. Yearly slaves
were given clothes, a couple shirts, and two
pairs of pants-one pair of pants
for winter and one pair for the other times of
the year. They were not given
beds to sleep on but rather a blanket for the
floor. On top of lack of basic
necessities slaves were forced to work around the
clock. If they were not at
their total output for the minute their owners they
would be forced by the
whip and "encouraged" to work harder, as an
owner might feel. They were
always subject to profanity from their masters and
treated more like horses.
Just like horses they were bred to be strong, in the
mindset of outputSlave
owners would also sexually take advantage of women
slaves. Slaves turned to
freedom for more than this reason though. Some were
obsessed with being free
and living a life where they were not told how to
live-and who wouldn't be?
Then there were some that were treated so cruelly,
that it forced them to run
just to stay alive. Since coming to America as slaves
even back as far back
as when the first colonies began, slaves wanted to escape.
They wanted to
get away from the situation they were forced into. The North was
angry about
the treatment of the slaves and was not happy about owners being
allowed to
come into their states to take the slaves back. It is amazing there
were not
more slave uprisings. But finally, the North decided to do something
about
it. They would help the slaves escape to freedom. The slaves were now
angry,
scared, and confused. Hearing of the Underground Railroad, they slowly
began
to run more and more. But in the North there was still a very strong
double
standard. Prejudice and discrimination ran freely against blacks, they
were
not given all rights of the white man or women for that matter.
Professions
for blacks were very limited. So leaving the plantation for the
North wasn't as
appealing as one might think for a slave. Plantation owners
went to great
lengths to keep their slaves from leaving. They had trained
dogs that would
attack at an instant if called upon. If slave would manage to
get far enough
away from the dogs, bounty hunters would be sent after them
still. The North was
not as bad as the South but at least the Southerners
were not hypocrites.
Although plantations were reaping the profits more
than ever, this constant
pressure was setting the stage for change and change
was going to have
enormous
expenses.