We began our topic on slavery by discussing how in the late nineteenth century, slavery had become entrenched in American society, both economically and politically. The essential question for this lesson was, “How did slavery become entrenched in American society, both economically and politically, by the early 19th century?” We started the lesson by reading clauses from the Founder’s Constitution. These clauses described the bands on slavery on the societal effects. For example in Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1, it states the following, “The migration of 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.” This clause explains that minimally, for the next twenty-five years, people can import slaves, but after these twenty-five years, the congress can prohibit the importation of slaves. However, the Congress can tax the importation of slaves for at least the next twenty-five years, but the tax cannot exceed ten dollars. We then watched a video, Learning about the Cotton Gin, which depicted a man operating an original cotton gin. The cotton gin was a machine that extracted seeds from cotton. This revolutionary invention changed slavery. Next, we read an article titled, “Cotton is King: Slavery is Entrenched in American Society.” In the eighteenth century, people believed slavery was decreasing and going to be abolished because slaves escaped during the French and American revolutions and a slave master freed 10,000 slaves. These facts made it seem likely that slavery was disappearing, but the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney caused slavery to increase dramatically instead. Between the time Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1792 and 1794, the price of slaves doubled. The prices of slaves was not the only factor growing, the number of slaves was, too. We then completed an activity called, The Spread of Cotton and Slavery, which gave us some astonishing statistics. In 1800, the total slave population in the United States was 893,000. Most slaves were located east of the Appalachian Mountains. But, by the year of 1860, the population of slaves had risen to 3,954,000 and slaves were now widespread throughout the southern states. As more pounds of cotton were being produced throughout these decades, due to the cotton gin, the dollar value of exports also increased. This caused the revenue in American to be dominated by the production of cotton. Slavery became entrenched economically because the cotton gin required that more slaves work on plantations, increasing the production and exportation of cotton. Slavery also became entrenched politically in America by the nineteenth century because slaves were working on plantations all throughout the southern states. Slavery was an awful time in history, that plagued America.
This image shows where cotton was produced in the year of 1800.
This image shows where slaves were located in the year of 1800.
This image shows the correlation between the spread of cotton and slavery by the year of 1860.
This graph shows the statistics of how much money was made in exports due to the amount of pounds of cotton made in that year.
The next topic we discussed in class was the morality of slavery. The essential question was, “How does a system of slavery based on race affect human dignity? What human characteristics does such a system tend to ignore?” We defined human dignity as the value of human individuals. The first activity we completed in class was reading three documents on Frederick Douglass, George Fitzhugh, and John brown. Each group was assigned an individual, completed research on the figure, and found a picture of him, and decorated the portrait with descriptive phrases and words. My group was assigned John Brown. He brought eighteen men of mixed race to Harpers Ferry, Virginia. He wanted to start a slave revolt, but instead his men were killed or captured and he was tried for treason. He was eventually hung. His idea sparked mixed reactions in the north and fear and revolts in the south. John Brown was willing to kill for the sake of slavery; he believed a passive, peaceful technique would not abolish slavery. John Brown is an example of someone who ignored their human dignity and ignored innocent people. Frederick Douglas escaped slavery and became an abolitionist. This document in his speech he gave on July 5, 1852, stated that people should not celebrating their freedom because not everyone is free; the slaves are still bonded to their masters. George Fitzhugh was pro-slavery and wrote articles claiming that slaves lead better lives than free men because they were treated better than workers in the north who were free and getting paid. He believed that slaves were the happiest. Of course, we recognize that Fitzhugh was completely oblivious to the reality of society, demonstrating a different effect of human dignity. Slavery allowed some to live oblivious to the harsh circumstances they lived in. We then read an articled titled, “Comparing 18th-Century Futa Jallon to Antebellum Mississippi.” We learned that slavery in Futa Jallon, Africa was much different than slavery in Antebellum, Mississippi. In Futa Jallon slavery was based on religion rather than race. Slaves were non Muslims. Slaves worked to obtain their own food and they could own property. Also, if one of your parents were free you were also free and could reach the highest ranking in society. Slavery in Mississippi was much different. Slaves worked on cotton plantations and households. Slaves in Antebellum were fed by their owners. We then watched the movie, Prince Among Slaves. This movie followed the life of Abdul Rahman, who was a twenty-six year old prince in Futa Jallon. He was returning from a battle when he was captured by African slave traders and eventually brought to Natchez, Mississippi. The movies follows his life in Mississippi and his fight for freedom. The system of slavery tended to remove human dignity from people, not allowing them to value every individual. This system tended to ignore human characteristics such as humanity, respect, kindness, and guilt. If only more people could have used the system to fuel themselves to fight for the end of slavery in a dignified manner.
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