| Slavery in the
USA
By Sam Vaknin
Author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited"
Spanish settlements in the territory of the current-day USA owned slaves
as early as 1526. Twenty one African chattel slaves were
first brought to British North America ( to Jamestown, Virginia) in 1619.
They joined white indentured laborers (servants) from all over Europe as
well as Indian (Native-American) and Caribbean slaves. All the colonies
legalized race-based (black) slavery and introduced "slave codes" by 1670.
In total, 10-13 million Africans were abducted (mainly by other Africans
and Arabs) and sold as slaves (mostly in the Americas) between 1620 and
1880.
The slaves were transported across the ocean in especially fitted ships.
They were kept lying on narrow ledges, chained, but were brought above
deck in good weather. Women and children were not shackled. Even these
harsh conditions did not prevent the would-be slaves from frequently
attempting to rebel, though, usually, unsuccessfully.
Overcrowding, minimal and monotonous diet (two meals per day and a pint of
water), poor hygiene, epidemics, and lack of physical activity decimated,
on each and every 1-2 months long trip, a whopping one seventh to one
fourth of the "cargo" and one sixth to one half of the crew. Another 10%
of the slaves died during the process of "seasoning" - getting used to
local conditions in their destinations.
Initially, all types of unfree workers, regardless of color, were treated
the same way: bought, sold, and worked, sometimes to death. Gradually,
starting in the 18th century, light-skinned slaves ("house negroes") and
whites were tackled more leniently. Surprisingly, slave rebellions were
rather rare - perhaps because
cruel slave-owners were socially ostracized and miscegenation (white-black
sexual liaisons) was frowned upon.
Most slave-owners regarded themselves as custodians of their slaves. They
properly fed the working adults (though children usually went
malnourished), allowed them to grow vegetables in their own garden plots,
provided them with clothing (four suits) and housing (one wooden cabin per
family). In wealthier and larger plantations, the slaves were cared for by
qualified physicians. The master felt it his obligation and right to
constantly intervene, interfere, and meddle in the lives of his inferiors.
Slave life was richer than portrayed in literature and cinema. Slaves
belonged to churches and were ordained as ministers and preachers. A few
learned to read and write. Music was a favorite pastime. Understandably,
so was drinking. Slaves were allowed to moonlight or work on their own
free time.
Actually, only a minority of the white population in the south were
slave-owners (347,525 out of 6,000,000 in 1850). Only 1,800 people owned
more than 100 slaves. There were 250,000 freed slaves in the south by
1860. The average cotton plantation had only 35 slaves, about 50-60% of
them engaged in the production of the immensely profitable crop and its
processing.
Still, slaves constituted more than half the population in some southern
states (South Carolina, Mississippi) and two fifths of the
total southern populace (compared to an average of 5% in the north and 10%
in New-York). Of the first 12 Presidents of the USA, 8 were slave-owners.
Some slave-owners were themselves black and former slaves.
The Law, even in the Deep South, recognized slaves as both chattel and
human beings. Slaves were held responsible for criminal acts they had
committed, for instance, and enjoyed many human rights (e.g., the right
not to be killed, tortured, or beaten brutally, to be cared for in old age
or sickness, to receive religious
instruction, to bring suit and give evidence in some cases). Case law and
non-binding custom endowed them with additional privileges: the right to
marry, own private property (peculium), have free time, enter contracts,
and (if female or child) be consigned to lighter labor. Still, a minority of slave-owners ignored these legal protections and
social censure and indulged their sadistic urges and sexual appetites. In
some plantations, nutrition was so lopsided or deficient that slaves
resorted to eating clay to supplement their diet. In others mutilation,
branding, chaining, torture, murder, and rape - all criminal acts
prohibited by Law - were common.
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But while individual slaves were, at least theoretically, protected by law
and social custom - not so the Negro family. The owner had the right to
sell his slaves separately, regardless of their familial ties. Some
states, like Louisiana in 1829, passed legislation prohibiting the sale of
children under the age of ten. Others (Alabama and Georgia) forbade the
separation of inherited slave families. But these were the exceptions to
the widespread practice.
Though not recognized or protected by Law, many slaves accumulated
property. A few hundred slaves even purchased their freedom from their
white masters. Slave-owners in the USA usually retained ownership of sick,
disabled, or infirm slaves and took care of them. Suicide among slaves in
the USA was a rarity. Many slaves (especially in the coastal areas of
Georgia and South Carolina) were free to do as they chose once they had
completed their daily assignments (the "task system").
On the eve of the American Revolution, c. 400,000 slaves amounted to one
fifth of the population of the rebellious colonies. Slavery in
the USA was abolished in stages and decades after it was eliminated in
Britain. Rhode Island banned it as early as 1774. Pennsylvania, New-York,
and New Jersey followed suit. In 1787, the Continental Congress prohibited
the practice in the Midwest. The slave trade - or, more precisely, the
importation of slaves into the USA - was banned altogether in 1808. Even
so, between 1808 and 1865, traders smuggled 270,000 slaves into the USA.
But the major engine of growth of the slave population was reproduction.
Twenty thousand slaves were born every year during the 1790s - and 70,000
annually in the 1840s. As a result, the ratio between the sexes was equal
and the slave population skyrocketed from 1.2 million in 1810 to 4 million
in 1860. Some slave-owners even established "breeding farms" and sold the
off-spring in the markets of "deficit" states.
Gradually, all the states north of the Ohio River and the Mason-Dixon line
became slave-free. Northerners resented the presence of fugitive slaves
(about 1000 per year) who crossed the Ohio River in what was known as the
Underground Railroad, but they often clashed with federal authorities when
the latter tried to extend their jurisdiction to the escapees under the
Fugitive Slave Laws.
Most abolitionists - as well as President Abraham Lincoln (who was never
one) - wanted to repatriate the blacks (return them to Africa) and, in any
case, expel all free blacks from northern and, later, southern
territories. The African nation-state of Liberia was established
specifically to accommodate former North American slaves.
It was widely acknowledged that slave-owners should be compensated for the
loss of their property. Not a single abolitionist supported or even
discussed reparations (compensating the slaves for their free labor,
denial of freedom, brutal treatment, and hardships). It was accepted
wisdom that blacks - both slaves and free - should never be allowed to
carry arms.
Slaves in the South (the Confederacy) were finally emancipated in 1863,
during the Civil War. But, even then, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation
did not apply to some states within the Union. These other slaves remained
in slavery until December 1865, when the Thirteenth Amendment to the US
Constitution was adopted.
AUTHOR BIO (must be included with the article)
Sam Vaknin ( http://samvak.tripod.com
) is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After
the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He served as a columnist for Global
Politician, Central Europe Review, PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb,
a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the
editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open
Directory and Suite101.
Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of
Macedonia.
Visit Sam's Web site at
http://samvak.tripod.com |
