Slavery in America
Anti-slavery in America stated to escalate from the 1830s to the 1860s. This was nearly two centuries after the beginning of slavery in 1619. Although slavery had been abolished in 1808, the trade continued to flourish. Slave trade superseded the previous years in the 19th century. By 1860, there were almost 40 million slaves in the country, a third of which lived in the Southern States (Cobb, 2016). This was after the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney that was a breakthrough to increase in cotton production to the large plantations in the West. The invention of the cotton gin gave way to the invention of other machines that consequently led to a dramatic increase in the production of cotton. More slaves were thus imported to work in the increased cotton plantations.
The Westward expansion that led to a surge in the number of slaves, most especially in the South, that led to the Abolition Movement in the mid-19th century. Moreover, black rebels began to slowly rise in the South. One particular one that led to the death of nearly 60 whites, which was the revolt led by Nat Turner that gathered nearly 75 blacks in August 1831, Virginia. They were however brought to a stop when the state’s militia forces intervened (Baker, 2017). The incident formed an even stronger basis to the whites in the North as to why slavery should continue. They claimed that blacks were irrational barbarians who needed to be restrained to behave. More restrictions were hence placed on slaves, restricting their movement, denying them education and even severe punishment, an act that angered the Northerners.
These heated debates between the North and the South led to the popularity of anti-slavery trade in the country. One particular one was the Underground Railway where free blacks such as Frederick Douglass and whites such as William Lloyd help almost 40,000-100,000 slaves escape north from the Southern plantations (Knowles, 2018). The Underground Railway encouraged more whites in the North to fight the injustices of slavery. This was, in turn, a threat to the economy of the South because of the shortage of labour they began experiencing. The debates on slavery consequently led to the Civil War.
Another landmark in the journey towards anti-slavery is the Kansas-Nebraska Act that opened the two states to slavery. This was after a supreme court decision was made after one black man sued his master for his enslaving with the complaint that he had shipped him into a slave-free country. The pro-slavery and anti-slavery arguments with considerable bloodshed after the act led to the formation of the Republican Party in 1857 that was purely by the Northerners which helped to spark the fights against slavery emancipation (Cobb, 2016).
The Civil War was also one particular milestone in the journey to a slave-free country. Three years later that is in 1960 the Southern flames towards anti-slavery were conflagrated after Abraham Lincoln a member of the Republican Party was appointed as President (Bessler, 2018). Although Lincoln’s arguments on slavery were well established, in just three months, seven countries seceded from the Confederation of States. Later on, four other states joined them and this marked the commencing of the Civil that is the deadliest and bloodiest war in American history after the loss of nearly six million lives form 1860 to 1865. However during this period, Lincoln gave out an Emancipation Proclamation that led to the liberty of almost 3 million slaves living in the rebel countries. This was in the year 1863.
The Reconstruction Era then brought the issuing of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments that promoted blacks’ freedom, citizenship and voting rights. The era began immediately after the Civil War in 1865 to 1877. This was the time when America was trying to reorganize its political system with the accommodation of the states that had broken off before the war, and the freed slaves. Andrew Johnson, the President then was more lenient in the anti-slavery protests which therefore made the Southern states make strict codes that made blacks available for labour. The anger of the Northern states towards this then later led to the issuing of the 13th amendment that was meant to completely abolish the slave trade in all the states. Thereafter there was the 14th amendment that was meant to give citizenship to the freed slaves and therefore protect every citizen of the country under the laws of the constitution. This was in the year 1869 (Bessler, 2018). A year later the constitution made the 15th amendment that allowed the blacks to vote. These events were, therefore, significant steps towards anti-slavery in the United States.
Contrary to all the efforts that had been made towards the end of slavery, this was not the end of the oppression that blacks received. It was only the end of the more rigorous torture and the entry of discrimination, segregation and disenfranchisement. Shortly after the 15th amendment in the country, groups whose purpose were to discriminate the emancipated were formed. One prominent group is the Ku Klux Klan that became very popular by 1877 (Cobb, 2016). This meant the rebirth suppression of black rights and freedom. The constitution did not also clearly address the challenges that the blacks which passively deemed these acts as permissible. It was therefore not until the 1960s that there was a significant change in the black’s involvement in America’s political life.
In the 1960s many activism groups began to rise and black rights were the most prominent of them. With the leadership of great movers and shakers such as Reverent Martin Luther King, the African-American Society was able to feel their protection in the American land under the constitution. This was mainly after the coming in of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 that gave way to other amendments such as the Homestead Act that enabled the country to get better houses more easily (Fairfax, 2019). This social activism era was a stepping stone towards a significant decrease and change of beliefs towards racial criticism.
Difference between every opposition period.
Anti-slavery in the antebellum was mainly the opposition between the Northern states and the Southern states. There is very little black involvement because of the fear of punishment. Most of these slaves were also denied education and were very restricted making the formation of rebel groups harder. Slave rebellions are seen, for example, the rebellion organized by Nit Turner that killed the most whites, but it is however brought to a halt after the state’s militia comes in. We, however, see free blacks in the north such as Frederick Douglass taking part in the Abolition Movement (Fairfax, 2019). The conservative members of the North felt that slavery was a sin because of the regression it involved and had no economic significance. Another significant characteristic of anti-slavery efforts in the 19th century was that it was mainly done physically, for example through the civil war, which despite its fatality, still fails to end it completely. There are however organizations formed to bring slavery to an end, for example, the Republican Party.
Contrary to this period, efforts towards a slave-free country in the 20th century was mainly done through negotiation processes. Reverend Martin Luther King, for instance, forms, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to enable be able to present the blacks pleas towards a country with increased equality (Fairfax, 2019). Students also make collective efforts towards the struggle towards black freedom through the formation of groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The negotiations are also made easier with America’s need to promote capitalism culture to the rest of the world amid its rivalry with the Soviet Union during the cold war. The talks and dialogues eventually lead to policies that help at the end of racial discrimination.
Groups that articulated the Era’s Attitudes.
Examples of groups and people who articulated the era’s attitudes were the slave rebellions in the early 19th century, the Abolition Movement, the Republicans and social activism groups in the 1960s. The Slave rebellions particularly showed the physical oppression that slaves faced while working in the cotton plantations in the South. The slaves had to work under very harsh conditions to meet the country’s target for cotton production, precisely why groups like Denmark Vesey’s group in Charleston and Nat Turner’s revolt rise during these periods to rebel against the treatment by attacking the whites (Baker, 2017).
The Abolition Movement by the Northerners also stipulated that slavery was inhuman and not right. Unlike the southerners who saw blacks as forms of labour, the northerners saw it as a grace and therefore the basis of their opposition. The Abolition movement gave rise to the Republican Movement that also had the same views. The last groups, however, articulated more rights of the Black Society. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee that was being led by students, wanted equal treatment of all whites and Blacks in the education institutions. Equal education rights also meant equal job opportunities for the blacks, jobs that considered their knowledge and not their skin colour. Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership national Conference that was the major black opposition party during the period (Davies, 2017). The movement wanted the Black’s freedom from segregation, disenfranchisement, quality education and good housing and freedom to take part in the political affairs of America. The movement slowly led to the implementation of this wants to begin from the Civil Rights Act earlier that year.
The last two periods defer in the way in which anti-slavery rights were articulated. In the 19th century, anti-slavery rights were demonstrated through physical and mostly violent means, as mentioned earlier, while the one in the 20th century was mainly through boycotts and street rallies. After the abolition of slavery education became more available to the blacks that led to the rise of leaders who articulated specific wants in the best ways possible.
Abolition was so unpopular during the antebellum period because of the pro-slavery stereotypes that were engrained in people’s minds then. The Liberty Party formed by abolitionists never won a majority in any race (Bessler, 2018). Abolition was considered to be a bad one and no one wanted to associate with it. Moreover, at the beginning of the Civil Rights, the Republicans were looking to fight abolitionism and not slavery, precisely the reason why the slave trade continued as normal even after its ban. Though the part eventually led to changes such as the emancipation of slaves, it was mainly unpopular because of the disgrace it was associated with.
References
Baker, H. R. (2017). The Birth of a Nation, Nat Turner, and Slave Trials: A Teaching Moment for Social Studies Teachers. Social Education, 81(1), 6-9.
Bessler, J. D. (2018). The Abolitionist Movement Comes of Age: From Capital Punishment as Lawful Sanction to a Peremptory, International Law Norm Barring Executions. Mont. L. Rev., 79, 7.
Cobb, A. (2016). Women and the Domestic Slave Trade in the Antebellum South. Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History, 6(2), 97-102.
Davies, T. A. (2017). The Chicago Freedom Movement: Martin Luther King Jr. and Civil Rights Activism in the North ed. by Mary Lou Finley, Bernard Lafayette Jr., James R. Ralph Jr., and Pam Smith. Journal of Southern History, 83(2), 473-475.
Fairfax, L. M. (2019). Social Activism Through Shareholder Activism. Wash. & Lee L. Rev., 76, 1129.
Knowles, T. (2018). The Machinery of Progress: review of Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad. Fantastika, 2(1), 162-164.