What were the differences between Indentured Servants vs. Slaves? Similarities
Indentured servants and slaves were similar in many respects yet different in others. For a start they carried out work for which they were not paid and lived in the master’s quarters. However servants were not bonded and had certain rights and liberties, for example they could not be sold or their families split apart.
Who was Olaudah Equiano? Explain in Detail
Olaudah Equiano was a slave who gained his liberty after running away from the South where he witnessed unspeakable horrors and great brutality. Eventually he put down his experiences in a book which became a best seller and which was one of the prime movers for Britain to abolish the slave trade. Equiano also became active in the abolitionist movement.
Explain the Baltimore Alliance.
The Baltimore Alliance was an agreement wherein fugitive slaves who were found to have run away from Southern states could be returned to their masters. In practise the Alliance did not work very well as the Northern states were predisposed against slavery and would do anything to keep the runaway slaves away from certain death or gross mistreatment.
What was the Emancipation Proclamation? Why is the 14th Amendment important?
The Emancipation Proclamation was announced by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 promising all slaves freedom at the end of the Civil War. The 14th Amendment enshrines this proclamation accordingly although in the South it was to take almost another 100 years before blacks could really experience freedom with the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.
Bibliography:
Equiano, Olaudah (1999). The life of Olaudah Equiano, or, Gustavus Vassa, the African. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications. ISBN 048640661X.
Equiano, Olaudah (2005). The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. Gutenberg Project. http://books.google.com/books?id=4GM6AAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover.
"The True Story of Equiano". The Nation. November 21, 2005. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051121/blackburn.
Equiano, Olaudah (1789). The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African. p. 109.
