Caputo’ Mac, Mr. Knudson,Ms. Dickerson’s Class: Where We are going in February
February is Black History Month and this year 2013, is part of the the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. (1861 -1865)
We are going to start by taking a look a the institution of slavery in America, then go into the Abolitionist movement and then finally the civil war, the war that would end slavery.
We start with the Institution of slavery what it really was, how it got started and how it evolved into a way of life in American by 1861 with 4 million african-american people living in bondage. The picture of this man’s back horribly scarred from so many beatings tells you a main part of the story of slavery, slavery was brutal plain and simple. Look at the picture and you learn the first thing you have to about the slavery.
Now lets talk about what it meant to be a slave. It meant that you were owned for life, it meant that your children were owned. You had no rights. The slave could not own property or decide how to live your life. You were there purely for the profit of your master and could not do what you wanted or go where you wanted. You could be beaten. If you died as a result of these beatings your owner would and in most cases could not be held responsible. You could be Sold away and separated from your family. The slave was property in the same way you own any object. If I own an item like a pencil or book I can do anything I want to this inanimate( not live) object because I own it. I can sell it, or destroy it because I own it. One of the best ways perhaps to look at the institution of slavery is people even children like these slave children in the photo were treated like inanimate objects. But the most important thing to remember about the institution of slavery is that it was for profit. In 1861 the richest (worth the most money) resource the United State had was the 4 million african american slaves living in the southern states. They were worth more than the land, the gold, the silver or the factories. Humans enslaved at a price of between 300 to 2000 dollars times 4 million was where most of America’s wealth ( money) was concentrated. So the first fact that we begin about slavery is that slavery was brutal and cruel, and the second fact about slavery is that it was about was money. Money and profit.