...The experiences that women of the antebellum period were similar because all female were denied of rights that the men had the privilege to. During the antebellum era, women of both colors, black and white, experienced the same segregation from men. All women of color were responsible of domestic work such as taking care of the children, the house, and the whole family in general. “All women were expected to be the guardian of nursery and companion of childhood.” (Doc F) This caused the women of the antebellum period to be confined in their homes and rarely show their faces to the public much less have a part in politics, leaving them with little to no opportunities that are given to the men. Which leads to the next topic about equal opportunities...
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...How justifiable is the claim that slavery was a "benign" institution in the antebellum South? Slave labour was a significant economy contributor to slaveholders in the antebellum South and slaves were exploited in order to benefit their masters. Abolitionists perceived the institution of slavery as a non-Christian practice that openly dehumanised people due to their skin colour. They believed that slaveholders treated their slaves ferociously and that slavery had no place in the states. Eugene Genovese has since investigated the master-slave relationship. Although he agreed with the general view that slavery was a harsh, unjust institution, Genovese believes utmost forms of mistreatment were uncommon. Genovese established slave-owner “paternalism”; the concept that masters took a personal interest in the lives of their slaves. This idea of paternalism was, with few exceptions, not a predominant practice in the South. The underlying concept of slavery was simple – slaves were treated as property and their status as property was more than often enforced by violence at the hands of their master. The ideology of paternalism implied masters took care of their slaves as a result of personal attachment to them. Genovese believes this practice as slaves were fed frequently to ensure their strength was maintained. He also states that medical care on plantations surpassed that of whites in the South as well as declaring slaves had outside contacts with whites which extended beyond...
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...ANTEBELLUM TEXAS. In the drama of Texas history the period of early statehood, from 1846 to 1861, appears largely as an interlude between two great adventures-the Republic of Texas and the Civil War.qqv These fifteen years did indeed lack the excitement and romance of the experiment in nationhood and the "Lost Cause" of the Confederacy. Events and developments during the period, however, were critical in shaping the Lone Star State as part of the antebellum South. By 1861 Texas was so like the other Southern states economically, socially, and politically that it joined them in secessionqv and war. Antebellum Texans cast their lot with the Old South and in the process gave their state an indelibly Southern heritage. When President Anson Jonesqv lowered the flag of the republic for the last time in February 1846, the framework for the development of Texas over the next fifteen years was already constructed. The great majority of the new state's approximately 100,000 white inhabitants were natives of the South, who, as they settled in the eastern timberlands and south central plains, had built a life as similar as possible to that experienced in their home states. Their economy, dependent on agriculture, was concentrated first on subsistence farming and herding and then on production of cotton as a cash crop. This meant the introduction of what southerners called their "Peculiar Institution"-slavery.qv In 1846 Texas had more than 30,000 black slaves and produced an even larger number...
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...TOPIC ONE: SLAVERY During the first half of the nineteenth century, the South was dominated by an elite group of White men who made their profits off the labor of Black slaves. Only 12% of southern white slaveholders owned twenty or more slaves, the amount used to distinguish between a planter and a farmer. Planters owned more than half of all the slaves and produced three-quarters of the South’s cotton, making these men very wealthy and allowing them to establish the social, political, and economic tone of the antebellum South. The pre-civil war North and South, separated by the Mason-Dixon Line, shared three essential political, economic, and social differences. The North started to rely on industrialization, shifting away from an agricultural economy to one based on wages and the exchange of goods and services. The South, on the other hand, continued to rely agriculture, primarily the cotton that had earned it the title of the Cotton Kingdom. In addition to cotton, Southerners also grew tobacco, rice, and sugarcane. Northerners were in favor of free labor—that is work conducted free from constraint and in accordance with the laborer’s personal inclinations and will—while Southerners heavily invested in slave labor. The Northerners complained, “Slavery was a backward labor system and compared to the North, Southerners invested less of their capital to industry, transportation, and public education.” (CITATION). However, Southern planter’s decision to keep reinvesting in...
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...Chapter 10: Democracy in America 1815 – 1840 The elements of freedom in America included the market revolution, territorial expansion, and political democracy. Property qualifications were challenged. Men who did not own property argued for their voting rights. Property qualifications for rights to vote became less and less common in the states. However, instead of being withheld voting rights based on property ownership, men who could not sustain ‘personal independence’ were not seen as being fit to certain rights. This push for the reduction in qualifications for individual rights, demonstrates the change in political ideals. Slaveholders and individuals, who hold hefty influence in the politics, resisted the requests for more rights. Freedom in America became increasingly more democratic during this period. The market revolution, territorial expansion, and political democracy were the driving elements of freedom. The property qualifications for voting rights were challenged. Men who did not own property, argued that they were just as competent as property owners and they should not be denied the rights of citizens. As these qualifications were challenged, more states did away with the property qualifications. This demonstrates the ever increasing democratic stance of the country. While freedoms were requested, slaveholders and wealthy men with strong political influence resisted the changes. The democratic stance on issues generally left choice in the hands of the individual...
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...beautiful. Due to this historical inequality and unequal opportunities, black dancers have been prevented from pursuing training and performance opportunities in dance. Institutionalized racism exists in the dance world due to a Eurocentric standard of beauty and dance which gives unequal attention and advantage to dancers based on their race. To start with, there is a Eurocentric ideal of beauty in the dance world that prohibits black dancers from accessing the same opportunities as their white counterparts. In her Op-Ed, Theresa Ruth Howard summarizes the image of the ballerina by writing that “The ‘ballerina’ represents the unattainable ideal of woman: the chaste, fragile beauty,...
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...the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were accountable for the stoppage of vast opposition to the civil rights movement and the fitting fusion into the American Society by African Americans. By way of the Acts, public facilities that avidly participated in segregation became outlawed. Throughout the nation, as a result of the enforcement of the Acts, the former, not so easily attainable education opportunities and employment prospects that consistently had been refused, now, awarded African Americans impressively large supporting political control. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 pioneered immeasurably. Women were given distinctive safeguarding subject to employment discrimination law. Emphatically, invigorating the women’s movement, consequently, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 served movements of other ethnic civil rights. (p. xvi) VOICE OF OMISSION No other group in America has so had their identity socialized out of existence as have black women. We are rarely recognized as a group separate and distinct from black men or a present part of the larger group “women” in this culture. —Hooks (1981, p. 7) An accepted wisdom of the civil rights movement consciously tends to relish the significant task of the familiarity of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and distinguished men, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,...
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...The Southern whites tried to maintain their status quo of supremacy. The following will describe techniques that the southern whites used in an effort to keep the south as it was in the antebellum. Laws were enacted to protect the civil rights of the freed people and those born in the United States. In some case these laws were stricken down by the Supreme Court. Laws were also created in the south to minimize the freedoms of the newly freed people. These laws were called “Black Codes” and “Jim Crow Laws.” In America’s south was the first domestic terrorist group the Ku Klux Klan which started as a social club in Tennessee. This paper will describe some of the issues that started in the nineteenth century and carry on today. In the south the wealthy and politically connected white people refused to let go of their way of life after the Civil War. The southerners did all they could to maintain a status quo. In their minds the war did not change anything. After the Civil War the white southern power structure used the following techniques to make the exercise of freedom for the former slaves challenging. The first technique I will discuss is a political fashion when the local and state governments in the south instituted Jim Crow Laws and Black Codes. Jim Crow Laws and Black Codes limited black Americans’ capacity to dispute inequalities. Essentially the former slaves were now free from slavery; however these instituted laws of inequality...
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...Our Souls Perseverated On Freedom! A Report Highlighting the Desperate Acts of Blacks as they Perseverated on Freedom 1877-Civil War Rolanda E. Lively African American History, CRN 32427 Tues-Thurs Ms. Carmen Thompson August 4, 2011 African Americans perseverated on freedom! As we explore the lives of African-Americans and their experience in the place we now call the United States of America, we will see how black people perseverated on freedom and risked their lives for freedom during the following significant historical periods; Horrifying middle passage of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, Religious Great Awakening 129, and lastly the Bloody Antebellum period. The past comes back to life, through first person quotes of courageous men and women who bared their souls. We all bare witness to voices of African American Hero’s each one never shifting their gaze from the golden gates of freedom. One of the first times that we see the preservation on freedom is during the middle passage of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The middle passage is steeped in unimaginable inhumane atrocities that no person or living thing should ever endure. For many, death and suicide became viable options for freedom in the face of captivity and the unknown. The planks of the slave ships hemorrhage with the blood, flesh, tears, and screams from Africans, who endure the torture bestowed on them by the slave ship crew. Africans of all ages were shackled and packed into the belly of...
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...Code Noir & Plaçage: The Influence of Race and Gender in Antebellum Louisiana Since the founding of Louisiana in 1682, various countries and systems of law have presided over it, creating a diverse social and legal culture that has always been unique in comparison to the rest of colonial America. Equally as diverse as the different power structures which existed in Louisiana is its racial composition: a myriad of groups such as Mulattoes, Quadroons, and Octoroons. Louisiana presented an interesting social dichotomy: freed people of color arguably experienced the best standard of living in comparison to the rest of colonial America, whereas the lives of the enslaved were some of the most brutal and repressed. However, to reduce Louisiana to solely a colony that struggled with race-related issues oversimplifies something inherently more complex; antebellum Louisiana was an intersection of social class, gender, and race both politically and socially. Each cultural nuance of Louisiana contributed to the creation of plaçage, which...
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...and passed in 1870. The premises of the 13th Amendment was to abolish slavery. It was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, by the House on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, abolished slavery as a legal institution. But at first, the 13th Amendment had a different purpose. It was to guarantee the legality and perpetuity of slavery in the slave states, rather than to end it. This caused complicated sectional politics of the antebellum period, and a futile effort to preclude Civil War. Under presidential war powers, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1,...
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...linen scarves and purchase expensive mourning clothes to show their grief and status. As the population in cities grew, the living were increasingly pushing out the dead of city spaces. It became popular among wealthy and middle-class people to bury their dead in a rural, tranquil, and private cemetery. People also wanted their dead to be buried underground to preserve the beauty of the cemetery. Upper-class people’s desire for a tranquil and garden-like cemetery stems from Romanticism. People’s respect and awe of nature are incorporated into death practices. Also, the coffin was now called a casket, emphasizing the special nature of the remains. Upper-class people’s newfound desire for respectability and prestige in death was a business opportunity. The industrialization of the North saw the rise of entrepreneurs who were ready to provide services for a changing society. Entrepreneurs responded to the upper class’ desires for respectability. Hearse and coffin businesses boomed. Instead of the family dealing with organizing everything for a person’s funeral, people could now lend some of those responsibilities to others for a...
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...declared “Every generation has the opportunity to write its own history, and indeed it is obliged to do so.”1 The social and political revolutions of 1960s have made fulfilling such a responsibility less daunting than ever. Invaluable references, including Darlene Clark Hine, ed. Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004); Evelyn Brooks Higgingbotham, ed., Harvard Guide to African American History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001); Arvarh E. Strickland and Robert E. Weems, Jr., eds., The African American Experience: An Historiographical and Bibliographical Guide (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2001); and Randall M. Miller and John David Smith, eds., Dictionary of Afro- American Slavery (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1988), provide informative narratives along with expansive bibliographies. General texts covering major historical events with attention to chronology include John Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr., From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans (Boston: McGraw Hill, 2000), considered a classic; along with Joe William Trotter, Jr., The African American 1  Experience (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001); and, Darlene Clark Hine, William C. Hine, and Stanley Harrold, The African American Odyssey (Upper Saddle River: Printice-Hall, Inc., 2000). Other general texts not to be overlooked are Colin A. Palmer’s Passageways: An Interpretive History of Black America Vol. I: 1619-1863 and...
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...the class of “Black World Studies” taught by Professor Coates. Coates gave me the intelligent insight on how Africans-Americans were able to succeed through the tough times of learning even when they could die from learning how to read. It was a sacrifice the slaves had to do that the time. When I read more articles and watched more movies, it showed determination, courage, heart, and attitude. When reading, it switched to a period of slavery to a period of the Civil War. After that I came to an author named Jared Diamond that gave his view on the world of slavery. In the article “How Africa Became Black” by Jared Diamond he argues that diversity resulted from the geography of Africa. Africa is home to five major human groups, blacks, whites, African Pygmies, Khoisan, and Asians. Thirty percent of the world’s language is in Africa. But as the years goes on were losing about 2 per week. Soon as the world gets older there wouldn’t be any languages in Africa. As race continues to grow in Africa there will be different types of languages being made and the previous groups (ethnic groups of language) wouldn’t exist anymore. As said in paragraph 8 of “How Africa Became Black” races are stereotyping, from Black to White, to putting the Zulu, Masai, and Ibo into a black category and Africa's Egyptians and Berbers with each other and with Europe's Swedes with the whites. The question that pertains to this is why are people being judgmental of other races and confusing blacks to whites even...
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...Americans used to own other blacks as slaves is an ironic peculiarity of U.S. history that Edward P. Jones probably contemplated for a long time. Beginning with the life and death of Henry Townsend, a black slave master, Jones’ novel explores a fictional county in antebellum Virginia over several decades. Jones writes about the fictional Virginia county of Manchester and flourishes it with a host of vivid characters and their interrelationships. When Henry Townsend bought his freedom from slavery, he followed in the footsteps of his mentor, white slave-owner, William Robbins. Henry runs a plantation of over 30 slaves, an irony that is not lost on the slaves themselves nor on Henry's father, Augustus, whose principled stand against slaveholding by free blacks costs him very dearly. When Henry dies, his wife is unable to cope with her grief and life for his slaves is turned on its ear as slaves run away, an ambitious overseer plots to fill Henry's shoes, and slave patrollers descend with a vicious brutality. Perhaps the predominant theme in The Known World is the nature of the power and distinction that human beings desired to hold over one another in the southern United States during the period leading up to the Civil War. The novel’s central subject, African American ownership of other African Americans as slaves, encourages the reader to concentrate not only on the relationship between particular races, but on the fundamental desire to own other people. Blacks like Henry may have fostered...
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