Unit 1 Test

Slave narrative

- Autobiographical -> a person writing about their own life - Focused on a period or event of historical significance - All published for abolition - Women appealed to these - Historical Primary sources 1970s

Contemporary Language of Racial Identity

- Blood -> DNA - No legal marriage -> Anti-miscegenation laws: against the mixing of the races, can't marry someone from another race - Unapologetic racism -> Jim Crow (lots of violence, lynching) -> 1970s (fight for equal rights) -> institutional racism (where we are now) - Appropriate terms: Afro-American, African-American, Black (Black Power Movement), Person of Color (goes along with DNA), Brown People

What about whipping? Isn't it too cruel?

- In this time, anyone could beat you - Abolitionists say that we are slaves and God is the master (in Parable) - if the slave does something willingly wrong, yes (can whip a lot) - if the slave does something unknowingly wrong, yes (can whip a little) - if the slave does something willingly and correctly, no

Law of Love

- Mark 12 - Abolitionist idea - If you love God, you can't enslave other people - If you love your neighbor as thyself, you can't enslave them - Slaveholders like Dr. in the Jim story thought they were upholding this

State slave codes

- Southern states didn't want free Blacks living there (no manumission) - required 3-5 signatures of prominent, local white men (sign a letter that X is exceptional and deserves freedom) - leave state or be re-enslaved (no slave can mail a letter and wouldn't be able to go back and see family) - Pay passage to Liberia

Laws and slavery

- State Slave Codes - The child follows the condition of the mother - It is illegal to teach a slave to read - Any white person can demand to see a slave's pass or papers - No legal marriage for slaves

Can we enslave Christians?

- Yes, can still have christian slaves, but you need to treat them very well -Paul tries to convince Philemon to treat Onesimus very well and sends him back to Philemon after he became a fugitive christian slave (Paul is head of church at this time) - slaveholders use this as proof that christians can be slaves

Antebellum Language of Racial Identity

- boy: denial of privileges of being a man, undermines your abilites - n-word: saturated in hate - negro and colored: trying to be polite - Mulatto (1/2), High yellow (1/2), Quadroon (1/4), Octoroon (1/8): indicate an amount of "black blood," trying to be polite, believed blood of parents mixed in child - No legal marriage - Unapologetic racism

Abolitionist groups

1. American Anti-Slavery Society: wanted freed slaves who got legal protection in a mixed-race society (legal education, marriages), thought abolition should be immediate 2. American Colonization Society: wanted slaves to be free and be brought/migrate to Liberia, thought abolition should be gradual (avoid drain of social resources) *Both groups wanted slavery to end and thought it was wrong, just had different ideas on how to go about it*

Common sense reading of the bible

1. God gave us the Bible 2. He wouldn't make it hard to read 3. The Bible means what you think it means *If it's in the Bible, it's okay* *If it's not in the Bible, it's not okay*

Types of manumission

1. Overlapped with self-purchase -> made a deal with your owner to pay for manumission (HAD to pay for it) 2. old-age -> if you weren't getting good labor from someone of had to pay large medical bills, manumit someone because they were costing you more to keep than to free

Plantation authority hierarchy

1. Owner 2. Overseer (white) 3. Driver (African-American) -> whipped people who fell behind or lingered 4. Patrols -> owners took turns patrolling to make sure nobody was moving around the neighborhood

Five myths about slavery

1. Slaves never rebelled 2. History has been well taught 3. House slaves were treated better 4. Abolition ended racism 5. Slavery doesn't exist today

1865

13th Amendment, ended slavery

Autobiographies

A story of a person's life written by that person

Debt bondage

Arranging to be put into slavery as a way of paying of debt, your labor in exchange for debt forgiveness, regulated by filing a suit and someone with too much debt to pay off would give themselves (or likely a daughter) up as a slave, could get out of the slavery if someone could pay the debt, still going on and hasn't really changed

Ancient Language of Racial Identity

Boy was the racial insult at the time

Slave cabins

Held field slaves and overseer (possibly driver too)

Big house

Held the owner, mistress (meant wife at this time), and house slaves

Slave conditions

House slaves: none of them had rooms, slept in the hallway or floors of kids rooms (if they took care of them), got better food and clothes, much more susceptible to abuse Field slaves: dirt floors, shared furniture, overcrowded, list of jobs, called by overseer, worked all day

Jim Crow

Laws designed to enforce segregation of blacks from whites, lead to mistreatment, terrorism, literacy tests before voting, suppression, most violent at its beginning, started after the Bureau was pulled, made African Americans more vulnerable than they were while in slavery

Manumission

Legal freedom from slavery

Amelioration

Make everything better

Human trafficking

Modern day slavery, buying and selling people into slavery

Chattel slavery

Moveable property, no longer legally classified as human, no protections of being human, reclassified as a piece of property, normally get into this slavery by being shipwrecked, kidnapped, or attacked by pirates

Why Africans?

The mark of Cain: - the mark is black skin, chattel slavery is punishment for the first murder, objections: the mark is to protect him, banished from field work, not common sense reading -Africans are the descendants of Ham: Noah cursed him that him and his ancestors would be slaves, divided people into 3 groups, some will be slaves because they are a certain type of people, objection: this is actually Iraq not Africa -Abolitionist response: the "blood" of Ham is diluted with the blood of his brothers -> mixed race people/rape culture

Slavery's universal truth

The most vulnerable are the ones who are enslaved, these are those that aren't valued or are vulnerable in any way, vulnerability changes but it's always the most vulnerable (no matter what else they are)

Antebellum Period

The period of slavery before the war (1830-1861/1865)

Epigenetics

Trauma shuts down certain genes

Freedmen's Bureau

Tried to provide legal protection, legally married people, set up jobs for freed slaves, tried to accomplish the Anti-Slavery Society goal, had to deal with tricky marriage situations (De facto death), only worked while offices were in the South

Abolition

the action or an act of abolishing a system, practice, or institution, movement to end slavery

Serfdom

An entire community would be enslaved, typically happened after a war, enslaved in place, you continue your life, can't leave, and someone else profits (IL wins war with WI and all WI citizens keep working and living in same place but they can't leave WI and IL gets all the profits from WI)

1830

Antebellum Period: 30 years before the Civil War), all slaves were born here, spoke English as 1st language, and were Christian, slaves understand U.S. is a democracy and all people are equal but they have slaves, slaves start to fight for abolition

1830-1861

Antebellum: Domestic Slave Trade, slave traders travel the region and buy slaves from jails or plantations (buy them, store them in slave pens, cross country walking in a coffle or on a steamboat (being sold to Georgia = death), people with special skills, young men, and young women who already have 1 child go the highest prices

1863

Emancipation proclamation, slaves from seceded states are free, as south moved up everyone was free - but he didn't have authority, didn't end slavery U.S.

1808

End of the Atlantic slave trade

Abuse

It was widespread, 30 whips was a moderate punishment, 3-500 whips for escaping

Closed system

No way out of the system, escape and overt resistance were nearly impossible (ex: slavery, Nazi death camps)

Overt Resistance

Obvious resistance, what most historians look for (ex: escape, rebellion)

De Facto Death

Person is declared dead, even though that person is either alive or there's no way to know whether that person is alive. No slave was ever legally married, but churches did marry enslaved couples, and they expected slaves to honor their marriage vows. Used by churches that allowed a person to remarry if their spouse had been sold away. Sale was treated the same as death, so the "til death do us part" of the marriage ceremony was honored. After the 13th amendment ended slavery, and the Freedman's Bureau was legally marrying those formerly enslaved, some people had two living spouses in the eyes of the church

1808

Slave trade is banned in the U.S., agreement is signed that you can't go kidnap people from Africa and sell them, all slaves after this have been born in the U.S., doesn't say slavery is wrong just stops kidnapping

Presupposed

Something that has always existed, can't find the start of it

Covert resistance

Subtle resistance, what most slaves did (ex: stealing food, truancy, work stoppage, lies, using periods or pregnancies to get out of work)

1861-1865

The Civil War, war was about slavery, after Lincoln was elected the 1st southern state seceded, slavery ended with the 13th amendment, not Emancipation Proclamation

Characteristics of slavery in the U.S.

Unique from all other forms, slaves were born here, all spoke English, chattel slavery, one race enslaving another, slaves allowed to form family units, slaves were christian