Slaverys Impact

This is an image of Frederick Douglas

Slavery has always been a controversial topic. In class we studied slavery in the late nineteenth century, and discussed how slavery has become entrenched in American society, economically and politically. The essential question for the lesson was, “How did slavery become entrenched in American society, both economically and politically, by the early 19th century?” To start the lesson my class read the Founders Constitution. The founders Constitution described the bans and restrictions on slavery. For example, “Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3: No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.” This quote explains that if one slave were to escape, the consequence would be discharged to the owner of whom the slave belongs too. After we read the articles we watched a video about cotton gin, The video showed a man operating a cotton gin, the cotton gin was a machine that extracted seeds from cotton. The invention of the cotton gin made slavery more crucial. After the movie, we read an article called, “Cotton is King: Slavery is Entrenched in American Society.” People believed slavery was abolished in the 18th century because many slaves escaped during the revolutions. Slavery was on a decline but the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney made the importance of slaves incline drastically. The cotton gin required a demand for slaves, because the cotton gin can work faster so more slaves were needed to pick the cotton. Our teacher had our class complete an online activity called, The Spread of Cotton and Slavery. This activity helped show us the astounding facts about how the population of slavery and slaves grew over time. In 1790, the total slave population in the U.S was 690,000 slaves, most of the slaves were located in the Chesapeake and Carolina areas.  By 1810, the population of slaves boomed and was  now 1,191,000. Slavery became economically entrenched because the cotton gin required more slaves to pick and help the production of cotton. Slavery was entrenched politically because in the 19th century slaves worked long days on the plantations.

The next lesson we discussed in class was the mortality of slavery. the essential question for this lesson was, “How does a system of slavery based on race affect human dignity? What human characteristics does such a system tend to ignore?” The first activity we did in class was split up into groups and read an article you were assigned. There were three articles on, Frederick Douglas, George Fitzhugh, and John Brown. My group was assigned Frederick Douglas. Frederick Douglas escaped slavery and became an abolitionist. He made a speech on July 5, 1852 stating that people should not be celebrating the country’s freedom if not everyone is free. We then read an article called “Futa Jallon to Antebellum Mississppi”  Slavery in Futa Jallon was much different than slavery in Mississippi. In Africa slavery was based off of religion, if you weren't a muslim you would become a slave, whereas in Mississippi slavery was based off of race. In Futa Jallon, slaves could own property and slaves were considered free if one of your parents was. In Mississippi it was a much different story. Slaves could not own property, they had to work on plantations and had many restrictions. We watched a very fascinating video in class called “ Prince Among Slaves.” The movie was about a young prince in Futa Jallon named, Abdul Rahman. He was returning from battle when he was captured by African slave traders and was sold. The movie talks about how Abduls life changed drastically and how he fought for his freedom. People looked over slaves as if they weren't human too, slaves fought for their freedom and earned the respect of many.

Gender Equality

In mid-nineteenth century America, women did not have equality. Women were taken for granted and viewed as inferior to the man. Women were stereotyped by society to be stay at home mothers, that were in the shadows of their husband. In class, we viewed an image called “The Sphere of Women.” The image depicts a woman holding her baby whil

Sphere of Women

e she looks on her other children who are reading a book. The baby and the book are put in the image to represent it was the woman's job to take care of the children and to educate them. Also in the image there is a broken kite, the kite is there to depict that the women is there to help mend the broken things. This image demonstrates all the responsibilities the women were expected to do in the mid-nineteenth century. The Rights of Women: Law and Practices it states the laws and conditions that restricted women during this time period. Many laws state the difficulties women had to overcome. For instance one law states, “Until 1839, women were not allowed to own property in any state in the United States.” Women were not allowed to own their own property, which demonstrates the male dominance during this time period. A practice that was stated was, “it was considered improper for women to speak in public.” Women became tired of being treated this way and became involved in the Seneca Falls Convention, which resulted in the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. The declaration stated all the laws men had placed upon women and how they were resolved. The responses were both positive and negative. One article, the Oneida Whig article had a negative response. It states, “If our ladies will insist on voting and legislating, where, gentlemen, will be our dinners and elbows?” Men thought they were superior to women and this quote shows how women were not as equal to them. Not all responses were negative, the National Reform had many positive comments. The National Reform said that “their standard is now unfurled by their own hands. the convention of Seneca Falls has appealed to the country.” The mid-nineteenth century society reacted to the woman's demands for equality in many different ways. Some acknowledged that the women wanted gender equality while others still viewed women as less than them.

In the twenty-first century, I believe the society still reacts differently men and women. It has improved greatly since the nineteenth century, but society still reacts differently. Men are seen as more dominant than females. The men are known to be stronger, and paid more than females. In the Philippines Pantene Commercial, it shows how society views men and women differently. OUr society has made significant improvement in gender equality and their are still much more progress to be made.