Introduction
The state of oppression made the vulnerable vulnerable to mistreatment by the affluent. The Civil War was a battle that happened in the United States of America between the Southern and Northern states. The struggle began due to a non-compromise between the enslaved people and the free states regarding the national government’s authority to prohibit slavery in territories that were not yet republics.
The dispute over whether captivity would be allowed into the Western territories’ extension was the leading cause of the warfare. The Northern leaders wanted an economic expansion to alter the slave-holding Southern way of life. The primary objective of the conflict was to abolish slavery and its associated economic consequences. Although some strivers remained in their areas of captivity, they took advantage of the fighting to acquire some measure of their autonomy. The wartime actions exhibited their strong desire for freedom, with some who did not escape welcoming the Union army as their liberators.
The Difference Between Small Farms and Big Plantations Lives
The Southern white small farmers did not enslave people, while the plantation owners possessed numerous enslaved people since they were wealthy. It was expensive to lease or buy one since the owners had to balance the cost of an extra labor force against the profit they would generate. Sometimes, they engaged a few enslaved people and their children to work on the tobacco acres.
Little planters had fundamental civil rights, including voting, unlike the free African-American people. Enslaved people who worked on small farmsteads suffered, including sleeping in small cabins near their boss’s houses, in the kitchen, and sometimes in outbuildings (Franklin 118). They enjoyed a closer relationship with their masters, unlike those who worked in big ranches. In large farmhouses, the enslaved were many, and they lived in staff quarters, far from their master’s home but under the watch of an overseer.
Small Farmers’ Slaves’ Lives
During the growing seasons, the small farmers temporarily lease enslaved people to help in the fields. Most enslaved people worked in the tobacco fields, as that was where their labor was most needed from morning to evening. Some women were engaged to assist with laundry, cooking, child-rearing, and gardening.
Most males would help with drying, hanging, packaging the baccy, and building and repairing the farms for planting. Finding husbands and wives on these farmsteads was challenging since the masters owned only a few enslaved people (Miller 1600). Some of them had families on nearby lands. Therefore, their masters permitted them to visit one another. However, some farm owners split up relatives and sent them to work elsewhere.
Small farmers allowed workers to attend to their personal needs during holidays or weekends. Some would spend this period with their families, doing household chores and tending their gardens. Other activities they could carry out while off duty from the farm included planting tobacco, maintaining parks, and raising chickens.
Sometimes, rulers tolerated the sale of goods to generate revenue for themselves (Johnson 110). Many of these farms were in rural areas where reading and writing were not highly valued, so they did not need to be taught these skills. There was little opportunity for them to learn, although some learned through their own means. Those who worked where the master’s family was not well educated did not stand a chance at school.
Enslaved people, including small farmers, could spend their free time with their family or friends engaging in enjoyable activities, such as making music and telling stories. They enjoyed some of these events, which combined the traditions of the Virginia colonists and African cultures. The enslaved people used numerous musical instruments similar to those used in Africa. For instance, the banjo, which is made from a gourd, and the drum were commonly used by those strivers to create the melody.
The enslaved blacks in Virginia kept their religious African practices (Franklin 135). Their lives were often brutal and cruel, but their spiritual beliefs enabled them to endure the suffering and reminded them that their existence was dignified and meaningful.
Big Plantation Workers’ Lives
Several kinds of crops were grown on extensive plantations, and therefore, they required a large number of workers. The enslaved people were engaged in various types of labor, as there were other jobs on the farm beyond planting and harvesting. They could cut and haul wood, dig ditches, clear new lands to increase the area of farming, repair buildings and tools, and slaughter livestock (Johnson 115). The strivers could work seven days a week, regardless of whether they were doing manual or domestic labor. In case of broken regulations, the victims would undergo punishments and sometimes violence from other plantation workers or overseers.
More extensive plantations’ working conditions were harsher than those on small farms because the enslaved people were treated brutally. Overseers were typically assigned to oversee the performance of enslaved people’s duties. Their living quarters were small, and therefore, they were congested. Their food consisted of bread and a few morsels of meat (Johnson 115). These manors had enslaved household people who carried out duties that involved preparing the master’s meals, attending to guests, maintaining the house, and caring for the master’s children. The domestic strivers had better diets than the farm enslaved people because sometimes they were considered part of the family.
Enslaved people in large plantations had a chance to learn how to read and write. Some who worked as urban merchants could be employed in their master’s shops. This kind of exposure enabled them to acquire marketing skills, thus providing greater freedom than those who worked on small farms (Franklin 130). They would meet more people, which would increase their experience. Some even dared to use the opportunity to escape slavery for their freedom.
Internal Slave Trade
In January 1808, the slave trade was banned, and enslaved people could no longer be imported from Africa or the West Indies. The end of the oppression business meant a new norm for Americans. This was a turning point for the people who had suffered captivity.
The Congress of the United States condemned the practice, labeling it illegitimate, immoral, and worthy of prohibition. This was the time when slavery was abolished, and the enslaved were freed. Although this regulation took effect in the Northern part of the U.S., the domestic slave trade flourished in the Southern region (Payne et al. 11697). Two decades after the Constitution’s ratification, political tensions arose between the proponents and abolitionists, who debated the admission of new territories to the Union as Either Free states or states with enslaved populations, ultimately leading to the Civil War.
The internal slave trade accounts for the forced migration from the upper South to the deep region of the cotton plantations before the outbreak of the Civil War. Several people moved from Virginia to Louisiana to work on the farms (Payne et al. 11695). The domestic strivers’ business provided economic benefits to the entire Southern section. The traders accrued substantial wealth by transporting helots from the upper areas to the lower areas by purchasing them.
In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase led to a new economic boom, provoking the Great Migration to the Southern region. Many planters left their impoverished lands due to the reliance on single-crop agriculture and moved to the lower Mississippi River. The increased demand for labor pushed up the market price of enslaved people, particularly in Orleans.
Slave traders purchased the enslaved people from the upper class at lower costs and sold them at a profit after transporting them further south. It is believed that the sellers were breeding helots for export. The reproductive capacity of enslaved women was even advertised as a selling feature that increased the value of the strivers (Payne et al. 11695). The main reason for the exportation process was to enable the landowners to pay off loans and use the enslaved people as a substitute for cash. The practice contributed to the growth of the domestic slave trade.
Free Blacks in the South: Lives and Work
Black Southern people who were freed continued to live under slavery’s shadow. They could not assemble or travel freely like those in the North. They could also not organize or sustain social groups, including schools, churches, or fraternal orders (Suryanarayan and Steven 570). Many African Americans faced difficulties when they were set free because they had to find a way of forging economically independent lives in the presence of hostile white people.
Some of the free people of color in the South became affluent farmers and businesspeople. They became landowners and started the slavery trade, whereby, in some cases, they purchased their family members to protect them until their time to be set free. Others had to join the Navy or the merchant marine career path. Another group became artisans and craftsmen, or provided unskilled labor for tasks that whites could not perform (Jones-Rogers). The federal government established temporary Freedmen’s Bureau agencies to assist with food, medical care, and clothing. Some African Americans in the South moved to cities in the Northern regions to find jobs.
Roles of Slaves in the Military Campaigns in the Southern Armies
In the American Revolution, the people of color and the whites fought to abolish slavery. There was real hope for the blacks enslaved in the South and those free in the North that they would create a pathway to emancipation through another fight. During the Civil War, enslaved people were forced to join the operations of the Confederate army (Suryanarayan and Steven 570). They served as cooks, teamsters, laborers, and body servants. They performed all noncombat duties to sustain the military, including nursing, intelligence gathering, chaplaincy, security, and carpentry.
As the war escalated, African Americans were recruited to become part of the army. Many enslaved people found an opportunity to serve in the Navy, where fighters were needed most during the early years of the battle. It was impossible to practice racial segregation because of the nature of the tight quarters of the ship. Integrating the blacks and the whites became most harmonious as they fought, worked, and lived side by side.
Black soldiers participated in the Civil War even though the activity threatened their lives (Suryanarayan and Steven 573). There was a threat from the Confederate government that enslaved people would be sold; therefore, the majority opted to join the forces for a fight. This made Lincoln respond by promising to retaliate against prisoners of the Confederacy whenever people of color were enslaved or killed.
The black troops repeatedly faced humiliation within the ranks because most were assigned fatigue jobs and kept in the rear-echelon. They were punished by being tied by their thumbs or whipped, and if captured by the Confederates, they met execution. During the war, they encountered discrimination in medical care, promotions, and pay.
Although they had been promised equal treatment as they joined the force, blacks were given separate regiments commanded by white senior soldiers. They received lower salaries than the American soldiers, poorer food, inferior benefits, and low-quality equipment. Despite all these trials, African American soldiers won their right to equal pay, and they were later allowed to serve as line officers (Suryanarayan and Steven 570). Most of the former troops became leaders in the community during reconstruction, thanks to the training and education they received in the military.
Conclusion
The Southern plantations used slave labor to generate crops for export, which made the American colonies lucrative, including tobacco, indigo, forest products, and rice. The status of slavery within the boundaries became a hot issue between the Southern and the Northern regions, and a new agreement was required to clarify the rules. There was a need for admission of the new states’ territories, an assurance that the Congress would allow the transportation of enslaved people in the South, and the fugitive slave law to be made stronger. Additionally, the captivity trade was prohibited in the District of Columbia. The Civil War benefited the enslaved people since some got the opportunity to be freed and became soldiers and community leaders who fought for the autonomy of African Americans.
Works Cited
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Johnson, Erik. “Slavery, Tourism, and Memory in New Orleans’s “Plantation Country”.” Africa Today, vol. 65 no. 4, 2019, p. 100-1517551 18. Web.
Jones-Rogers, Stephanie E. “They were her property.” They Were Her Property. Yale University Press, 2019. Web.
Miller, Melinda C. “Destroyed By Slavery? Slavery and African American Family Formation Following Emancipation.” Demography, vol. 55, no. 5, 2018, pp. 1587-1609. Web.
Payne, B. Keith, Heidi A. Vuletich, and Jazmin L. Brown-Iannuzzi. “Historical Roots of Implicit Bias in Slavery.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 116, no. 24, 2019, pp. 11693-11698. Web.
Suryanarayan, Pavithra, and Steven White. “Slavery, Reconstruction, and Bureaucratic Capacity in the American South.” American Political Science Review, vol. 115, no. 2, 2021, pp. 568-584. Web.