Slaves in Industry

Slaves in Industry

American history in the 19th century revolved around the controversy of slavery. As early as 1784, there were blacks living, as free men in the north, but the south grew far more limited to their slavery-run economy. These free and enslaved blacks had many complaints, limitations, successes, and opportunities in this shaky era of our nation’s past. The people and the events of the 1800’s would change America forever.

The first Africans to land on American soil arrived in Virginia in 1619. In Europe, the Portuguese and the Dutch had already been dealing in the African slave trade, traveling back and forth across the Atlantic for over half a century. Shortly afterward the French and the British took over this trade industry. America was growing and was in need of cheap labor for economic, geographic, social and agricultural reasons, especially in the southern states. In the south, the climate and soil was very helpful to farming and the plantation owners needed a great number of men to work the land consequently making it the majority importer of slaves. Between 1700 and 1810, the slave traders had carried close to 7 million Africans to America to fulfill the requirements of these tasks. The high demand of the slave trade industry would change African tribes and cultures significantly. In America, these captives would develop new cultures and lifestyles of their own. After our country won its independence, our nation would endeavor to find a new form of self- government; the northern states had conflicting views on the commerce and ownership of slaves while the southern states endorsed slavery. Since the turn of the 19th century, the morality issue of the slave industry had become very controversial.

In 1784, Massachusetts became the first state to abolish slavery, therefore making it illegal to own or trade slaves. Twenty years later, every state north of Delaware would ratify similar laws. Some laws consisted of a gradual termination of slavery promising eventual freedom to blacks and their children. In the south, there were some plantation owners who valued their slaves and set them up on a task system. “The whole intent of a task system was to encourage slaves to accomplish a set amount of work in a given time and then to work beyond that minimum point in order to earn compensation for themselves. Employers stood ready to pay industrial slaves whenever they exceeded their assigned tasks. They often were allowed to raise pigs, calves, chickens or foodstuffs on plots of land provided by their employers. The slaves’ earnings and their expenditures were recorded in ledgers kept by their employers, and these “Negro Books”, as the volumes were generally labeled, constitute some of the most valuable documentary evidence we have concerning slavery in the Old South. Extraordinary value of these overwork ledgers derives from the insight they provide into slave life.” (University Publications of America, 1997)

However, there were some dishonest plantation owners who would do whatever they needed to do in order to maintain a profitable business. For them the slave industry was proving to be a profitable business for both them as well as the slave traders. Often times slave auctions of the south made the life of a slave brutal. A famous quote from a slave once read, “Without a struggle, there can be no progress.”(1999-2005). The slaves had no real chance of a lasting marriage or the formation of a family. If it would be beneficial to the slave owners of the south, they would separate husbands from their wives and children from their parents. Being sold at an auction was a real possibility due to the rapid reproduction of slaves and the overpopulation of plantations. Between 1790 and 1820 plantation owners relocated over 250,000 slaves mainly to the cotton belt in the westward states of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. In 1809, Congress would pass laws ending the Atlantic Slave Trade, forcing further westward expansion of enslaved African-Americans.

While the slaves were being shifted around in the south the free black population rose from eight percent to thirteen percent of the African-American population. Most of the free blacks lived in the northern states where they had much success setting up black schools, churches, and communities. This provided education to free blacks and would prove to be helpful in the Civil War. “Lieutenant Colonel Alexander T. Augusta was one of eight black surgeons enlisted in the Union Army.” (1997-2005). Although blacks were free in the north, they still faced many limitations and they often worked the most tedious jobs. Free blacks were not allowed to have a U.S. Passport, work for the government; claim public lands, or sit next to white people in church. They were forbidden to vote in most states and could not testify against whites. Vermont and Maine were the only