Jack George
October 12, 2015
Ms. Clark 1B
Honors U.S. History
American Slavery 1619-1877 American Slavery written by Peter Kolchin was published in 1993 depicting is a book about the absolute horrors of slavery and their role in the development of America today. Kolchin uses a very analytical and almost detached way of describing the alve culture and what it meant to be a slave. Of all the things America has accomplished and endured, slavery was absolutely the most dishonorable. Kolchin also describes how slavery follows a sort of geographical gradient in that the further south a slave were to get, the longer the hours and the harsher the conditions. One important thing that Kolchin stresses is the difference of slavery depending on where …show more content…
Even then, the price of a slave didn’t increase dramatically until the transatlantic slave trade was restricted in the 19th century and the value of cotton went up. With this the North turned to industrialization and with it came social reforms. The south however stuck to the slave trade where the relatively affluent slave owners eventually dominated the southern state governments. The book is especially good about pointing out how the different states lived, and how the early stages of slavery were very different than what we stereotypically think of slavery today. It was very interesting to me that early in American history, the people forced into free labor were actually indentured servants from …show more content…
For example, it shows that the Caribbean slaves were generally found in larger masses where most other slaves were in much smaller populations ranging anywhere from one to about fifteen. What set American slaves apart from other countries that relied on slavery was that American slaves had a very low life expectancy and a huge fertility rate. This was heavily effected on the rape and sexual exploitation that white men had used on their slaves. In these smaller settings masters had a more personal relationship with the slave owners, even though they did not even see them as human beings. There are many accounts of slave children playing with the owner’s children as well as owners working in the fields with their slaves. Still, mistreatment and degradation was a result of the perversion of slavery. It is still unclear what the final cause of the civil war was, but there is no doubt in any historian's mind slavery had a massive impact on the war. The major difference between the south and north was plainly that the south had slaves and north had cities. The book makes it very clear that slaves played a big role in the civil war. Hundreds of thousands of slaves fought in the civil war and among them were black men that had escaped their plantations to fight in the war. This compounding effect of losing workers and gaining enemies is what led to the defeat of the
October 12, 2015
Ms. Clark 1B
Honors U.S. History
American Slavery 1619-1877 American Slavery written by Peter Kolchin was published in 1993 depicting is a book about the absolute horrors of slavery and their role in the development of America today. Kolchin uses a very analytical and almost detached way of describing the alve culture and what it meant to be a slave. Of all the things America has accomplished and endured, slavery was absolutely the most dishonorable. Kolchin also describes how slavery follows a sort of geographical gradient in that the further south a slave were to get, the longer the hours and the harsher the conditions. One important thing that Kolchin stresses is the difference of slavery depending on where …show more content…
Even then, the price of a slave didn’t increase dramatically until the transatlantic slave trade was restricted in the 19th century and the value of cotton went up. With this the North turned to industrialization and with it came social reforms. The south however stuck to the slave trade where the relatively affluent slave owners eventually dominated the southern state governments. The book is especially good about pointing out how the different states lived, and how the early stages of slavery were very different than what we stereotypically think of slavery today. It was very interesting to me that early in American history, the people forced into free labor were actually indentured servants from …show more content…
For example, it shows that the Caribbean slaves were generally found in larger masses where most other slaves were in much smaller populations ranging anywhere from one to about fifteen. What set American slaves apart from other countries that relied on slavery was that American slaves had a very low life expectancy and a huge fertility rate. This was heavily effected on the rape and sexual exploitation that white men had used on their slaves. In these smaller settings masters had a more personal relationship with the slave owners, even though they did not even see them as human beings. There are many accounts of slave children playing with the owner’s children as well as owners working in the fields with their slaves. Still, mistreatment and degradation was a result of the perversion of slavery. It is still unclear what the final cause of the civil war was, but there is no doubt in any historian's mind slavery had a massive impact on the war. The major difference between the south and north was plainly that the south had slaves and north had cities. The book makes it very clear that slaves played a big role in the civil war. Hundreds of thousands of slaves fought in the civil war and among them were black men that had escaped their plantations to fight in the war. This compounding effect of losing workers and gaining enemies is what led to the defeat of the