Slavery's Impact

The essential questions for this lesson were How did slavery become both economically and politically entrenched in American society by the early 19th century, how does a system of slavery based on race affect human dignity, and what human characteristics does such a system tend to ignore. To start this lesson we read passages from Founders’ Constitution. One of the three sections that my group read and analyzed was Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1, “The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.” After reading this we decided that it is saying, before 1808 the government was prohibited from imposing a tax on the importation of slaves but after 1808 the government could impose a tax on the importation of slaves. They could make you pay no more than $10 per slave. The second section my group analyzed and read was Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3, “No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.” This is saying that if any slave escapes into a different state, they will not be set free, but they would be returned to their owner. Overall this is saying that there is no way to escape once you become enslaved. We also read an article called Cotton is King: Slavery is Entrenched in American Society. This article talked about how people thought that slavery was declining and on the road to extinction. Then the cotton gin was created by Eli Whitney. The cotton gin would roll seeds out of the cotton so the cotton could be used to make cloth. This obviously helped the cotton production go faster so the need for more people to pick the cotton increased to keep up with the production. Between 1792, which was when Whitney invented the cotton gin, and 1794 the price of slaves doubled. Field hands who had brought $500 apiece in 1794 were worth $1500 by 1825. The number of slaves in the U.S. rose by 33% during the first decade of the nineteenth century. Along with these 2 articles we did an online activity called the Spread of Cotton & Slavery Activity. This talked about how cotton dominated the Southern and Northern States due to slavery and that even though the north did not have slaves they were still economically benefiting from the slave labor taking place. The pictures below are from this website.                                                                                  

The one above shows the slave population in 1790 which was approximately 690,000. 

The picture below shows the slave population in 1860 which was approximately 3,954,000.                                                         

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_(abolitionist)

To start off the second part of the lesson, helping to answer the other 2 essential questions, we divided into groups and each group researched someone who was related to slavery prior to the Civil War. My group was assigned John Brown. John Brown was a radical abolitionist who had a lot of hatred for slavery and he believed in the violent overthrow of slavery. He was a conductor of the Underground Railroad and he established the League of Gileadites which was an organization established to help runaway slaves escape to Canada. He also freed many slaves and murdered slave owners. In 1859 at Harper's Ferry, him and his men raided the Federal Arsenal in hopes the slaves would become armed and join and start a rebellion. The rebellion was suppressed and he was captured. He was charged with Treason and then was hanged. Two of his sons were killed during the rebellion attempt. After exchanging notes with others in the class who researched the other two people, Fredrick Douglas and George Fitzhugh, we could move on. Next, we compared what slavery was like in Futa Jallon and what it was like Natchez. According to an article called ComparingSlavery, in Futa Jallon society was mainly divided by religion (Muslim or non- Muslim) and ethnicity had little relevance. While in the United States the slavery system was based on racial distinctions and permanent bondage. To wrap up this lesson, we watched a movie called Prince Among Slaves. This film was about the true story of Abdul Rahman, a Futa Jallon Prince, who was captured and brought to Natchez, Mississippi to then be sold to a white slave owner for a few guns, powder, and rum. He tried to tell Foster, his slave owner, that he was a prince and Foster gave him the name Prince. They cut off his hair and his hair was an important symbol of status. After escaping, he was on the run for weeks but he had nowhere to go and no food. He returned and was not punished. He got married to Isabella and had many children. Foster even gave him and his wife land to grow potatoes to sell for their own profit. Dr.Cox, someone Prince had helped back in Futa Jallon, tried to buy his freedom but died unsuccessful. Prince eventually got freed and had enough money to free his wife as well. Prince ended up dying in Liberia.  Every activity that we did during this lesson helped to answer the essential questions and to prove that race mattered and really demonstrated how horrible slavery was and how the slaves were treated.