Essays on Antebellum

Slavery was a part of the American culture for almost a whole decade (1776-1865), and during that time, many people had to suffer inhumanly for the only solid reason of being a bit different from someone else. There is no way of wiping the past from the memories of those who have struggled, which means that the terror of slavery will always be a part of the human history. As the experience shows, world history is far from being pretty. It has presented its evils so many times that merely counting them would take ages. Every major society, every ...

Introduction: Historically, female Black slaves endured the worse treatment, but have received the least amount of attention than their male counterparts in North American Slavery (Hine, 2007). There are longstanding myths that surround the experiences of female Black slaves, and struggles they face daily trying to survive. Deborah Gray White provides an intimate look into female slavery that until 1985 was long overdue. In her book she stated “Slave women were the only women in America who were sexually exploited with impunity, stripped and whipped with a lash, and worked like oxen” (White, 1999, p. 162). In the nineteenth ...

Based on the novel Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, the production of a film with the same name is world-famous. With its release date falling in 1939, the movie starred Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, Vivien Leigh, and Olivia de Havilland and went on to win multiple academy awards for its apparent ability to capture the Old South as it was before the coming of the American Civil War. Presently, the movie has become one of the classic romantic renditions of turbulent love affairs, with a particular emphasis on Rhett Butler and Scarlet O’Hara, who, as they ...

Composed by Kate Chopin a short story Désirée’s Baby presents passage from life of a girl without a name who finds her love and her bitter end. Désirée was found by Valmondé a wealthy and aristocratic family from the antebellum South who adopts her despite that fact that Monsieur and Madame Valmondé do not know girl`s origin. She is loved and admired not only by her new parents but also by Armand Aubigny a representative of another influential and wealthy Creole family in Louisiana. It seems that Désirée is surrounded by ...

Source: (Nash et al. 474)

The selected source is a Thomas Nast creation dubbed The End of Slavery? Currently, the cartoon has no copyrights after its original publication in 1867 in the Harper's Weekly newspaper. The visual primary source depicts two scenes and in both, a woman wearing a tunic sits upon a pedestal surrounded by both black and white characters, she represents American liberty. For a thorough description of the picture, there is a need to focus on the two scenes separately. On the left, there is a slave auction going on as white men stand around the raised platform, and two more ...

Rapid changes that erupted in the United States during the antebellum period in the American history brought to life several new social movements and phenomena. The new society that was formed by the Market Revolution, growth in population, change in its composition and expansion to the west showed a great desire for better life, for self-improvement and correction of the social vices of that time. These processes have resulted in the Second Great Awakening, Utopian communal experiments, temperance, women’s rights societies and other social movements. The story of the Kingdom of Matthias, or in more sober terms, a ...

The antebellum years in the American history are known as the years of rapid changes in various spheres of social life. The drive for reforms was defined by the economic, technological and social progress that deemed the existing social structure unacceptable for all member of the American society. Several factors were involved in this process. Among those were the Industrial Revolution, the religious movement that is known as the Second Great Awakening, the utopian communities, the transcendentalism intellectual movements and others. “They [the reformers] hoped to change American life by creating ‘heavens on earth’” (Foner, 2014, p.434). Prior to ...

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LIST THE COURSE LIST THE DATE THE ESSAY IS FILED The Abolition of Slavery Introduction Historians evaluate in several ways the distinctions and similarities of the North and South just before the Civil War. The North’s population was 50 percent more than the South’s. Blacks comprised just over one percent of the North’s population while about 95 percent of Southern blacks were slaves. The North emphasized manufacturing and commercial enterprises while the South focused on agricultural development, mostly with the labor of slaves (Pessen 1121). This essay discusses topics related to the important issue of slavery ...

Before the American Civil War of between 1861 and 1865, black slavery in the United States thrived on the pillars of white supremacy. Otherwise dubbed the antebellum period, the years ranging from 1820 to 1860 witnessed a gradual yet steady increase in the country’s reliance on slave labor. As per the ideologies of white supremacy, the dominance of white people warranted the inferiority of colored individuals and as a result, everyone belonging to the former group could hold those of the latter faction in bondage. Accordingly, the cultural norms of the country during the given era encompassed the ...

When the American Revolutionary War began, the then thirteen North America colonies of the British Empire were in need of a different government that would replace that of the Monarch. The Founding Father’s first try in attempting to establish the territories’ self-governance produced the Articles of Confederation proposed to the Second Continental Congress in the year 1777 at Philadelphia. The States ratified the Articles and in 1781, the new laws were active. Still, by 1789, the United States Constitution was already in place as a replacement to the Articles and for that reason alone, it was evident that ...

Randolph B. Campbell is an author who carefully studied history before authoring his books. The two book reviews present Campbell as a historian author, teacher and researcher. This paper will explore what the two author’s perceived Campbell’s work. Ben Procter presents Campbell as an author who “meticulously researched” before writing the book. He notes that he studied an array of material; inclusive of newspapers, travel accounts, memoirs, government documents and manuscripts from diverse sources (Proctor 259). This implies he was a good researcher. Campbell is also portrayed as an investigator who deeply dug into Texas revolution, politics, and slave ...

The paper aims to answer the questions regarding slavery in the antebellum United States and personality analysis of character from the novel Oroonoko.

1. After analyzing the character of Trefry, it can be said that he is a person who is presented a very sympathetic person for Oroonoko in the novel.

He was the overseer of Parham Plantation, who wanted to Trefry to be free from slavery. Therefore, he attempted to free Oroonoko so that he can go back to Africa. Trefry was a kind hearted person who wanted to help slaves. For this reason, he had sympathetic feeling towards Oroonoko, and ...

Kolchin use the term ‘Paternalism’ to refer to the absolute control of all spheres of an individual’s life in a manner that he/she cannot harm himself/herself in an effort to get freedom. Paternalism therefore according to Kolchin, denies an individual the freedom and authority to make a choice. (Kolchin, 23)

The slave masters therefore exercised paternalism by denying their subjects the power to make a choice over issues that affected them. The slave masters believed that their subjects were not intellectually endowed to know anything and they should always be controlled.

He gives an example of children, because of ignorance, ...

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Heyrman Christine Leigh’s “Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt” goes hand in hand with Greenberg Kenneth’s concepts on the depiction of southern men. Both texts present the structural relationship between the social elites and those considered to be at the bottom of the societal pyramid. In this case, slaves held the last place as per the laws by the white people. Heyrman points out that the turn of the century brought changes that shook the south and said changes did not have the perfect qualities ...

Literature

Dana, a modern black woman, was celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with Kevin, her husband, when she was snatched abruptly from her home in Altadena, Los Angeles, California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, a young white boy, was drowning, and Dana jumped into the lake and rescued him. It was as though Dana had been summoned to rescue the boy. Dana was repeatedly drawn back to the early nineteenth century, to the slave quarters, where her stay grew longer and longer with each transit. Each visit grew longer, more arduous and equally dangerous for her. This continued, until, it became ...

Introduction

The American Civil War stood out as perhaps the most catastrophic historical event in the history of the United States (US). The sheer propensity of the armed conflict between Union and Confederate forces resulted to more than 600,000 deaths of soldiers from both sides – a number that rendered en masse military recruitment and conscription. The pressure to reach victory was strongly felt among the ranks of Union and Confederate forces that both sides did not hesitate to advertise their need to reinforce their respective regiments. Posters, perhaps the most sophisticated and effective advertising means at the time when the ...

Written at the precise moment in relatively recent American history, the so-called ‘women’s liberation’ movement occurred. The article associated with the fallout, or brilliant piece alluding to what the feminist movement criticized, a literary rant on wanting to have a wife and outlining the reasons why poses much fodder for contemplation. Judy Brady penned the article which appeared in ‘Ms. Magazine’ in 1972, having been later re-printed in 1990 by the same publication of ‘Ms. Magazine.’ This paper fosters an argumentative thesis that shall hold to three claims in connection to the main idea in this essay, which is: The ...

The evolution of Frederick Douglass from a slave to a man is evident in “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.” As a documentation of slavery in Antebellum America, mainly in the south, thoughts of freedom appear as the redeeming feature for the blacks. Born into slavery, Douglass gives his readers insight into how slaves lived under the rule of the whites as his owners send him from one farm to another courtesy of his masters’ whims. However, unlike most of the slaves, Douglass portrays his need to be free throughout the book by questioning the perceptions of the white Americans and ...

Born into a slave family in the year 1813 in Edenton, North Carolina, Harriet Jacobs declared the phase of entering into womanhood as a “sad epoch in the life of a slave girl.” She wrote one of the famous works, the “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” Historians during the period of antebellum documented that the racial and gender ideologies strengthened the chattel slavery, which led to the vulnerability of enslaved women, such as Jacobs to sexual exploitation and harassment. Being a slave in the free society, black in the white society and woman in a masculine society made enslaved women the most ...

Mark Twain was a humorist, an American journalist, lecturer and a novelist. Samuel Langhorne Clemens is his real name, Mark Twain being his stage name. He acquired fame internationally for his narratives on travel. The adventures of Huckleberry Finn provide a description of his hometown and his experiences. It begins in St. Petersburg, with encounters in Jackson's Island by Huck and Jim. It then shifts its attention to a journey full of perils down the Mississippi river to the Deep South. The distance from St. Peter in this journey creates a different distance, a complex and ironic perspective of the book, which is his masterpiece ...

Introduction

Kara Walker is a modern African-American visual artist who focuses on race, sexuality, violence, identity, and race in her artworks. Born on 26 November 1969 in Stockton, California, the artist is renowned for her big tableaux of black designed paper shapes. He father was a former professional artist, university professor, and a manager while her mother worked as a secretary. Kara grew with a good relationship with his father whom she was quoted as saying that her best memories are about the times she sat on his father’s laps in the studio in their house’s garage and watch him draw. She remembers ...

Orientalism encompasses an academic discourse featuring a patronizing attitude by Westerners towards Asian and African societies. The West perceives Asian and African societies as undeveloped and static and in this way, creates a fallacious oriental culture by which Asians and Africans can be studied, shown and reproduced. On the other hand, in this fabrication by the Westerners, the West is taken to be developed, flexible, dynamic and superior. An etiological analysis of this term will suffice. Orientalism finds its origins in the word “Orient” which translates to the East, as seen by the West. Further, the term Orient has its origins ...

Kara Walker’s painting is a clear combination of techniques which can be said to have imbued the American psyche. The issue of racism is quite clear and one can feel it in the title which is ‘The Rich Soil Down There’ where the inherent racism which permeates the piece is demonstrated by its clear allusion to the agricultural labourer’s history especially in the Antebellum South. The work which is currently on display at the Museum of Fine Arts has a lot in common with other works which Walker has exhibited at a number of important museums. These include the ...

James Henry Hammond was born on 15th November 1807. In 1842, he became the governor of South Carolina whereby he highly contributed to the re-organization of the State’s militia and the establishment of the Citadel in Charleston as the state’s military Academy. James Henry Hammond was the 60th governor of South Carolina from 1842 to 1844 and served as a United States Representative from 1835-1836 (Faust 45). In 1846, James Henry Hammond’s candidacy for the United States Senate was blocked by Wade Hampton II, his wife’s brother in-law which brought his political career to a halt. Moreover, ...

Abstract

Whether or not slaves were owned by free African Americans back when slavery was actually an institution in the United States is one of the most perplexing questions in African-American history. While some Americans might not be aware of and might not have suspected this, but truth, which will be discussed in this paper, is that black people in the country indeed purchased and sold other black people as slaves. In fact, there were black slave owners in the United State since 1654 and they continued to own slaves through the Civil War. This paper will answer many perplexing ...

The origin of jazz music was reportedly traced to dates which were as early as the 1800s through an era more commonly known as “antebellum”. During those times, jazz music was already identified to be part of black music. Jazz is actually defined as “a style of music, an American culture and distinguished by flexible rhythmic tempo, as a base accompanied with improvisation of solo and ensemble on basic tunes and chord patterns” . Since its historical origin, jazz music has transcended and evolved through the creative and innovative influences of musicians and musical instruments through time. The current discourse hereby aims ...

Frederick Douglass

- Describe Frederick Douglass' early childhood. What kind of relationship did he have with his mother? Who was his father? Why did Douglass believe that slaves of mixed parentage suffer[ed] greater hardships than other slaves? Provide specific details that support your response. According to Frederick Douglass’ own account, he had no authentic record of his age. For him, it was his source of dissatisfaction not to have learned how old he really was (that is, just like most of the slaves his age or older). According to him, it is improper and impertinent for a slave like him ...

Book Review - The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War In Michael F. Holt's The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War, the American Whig Party is given a comprehensive review of its history during the Jacksonian Era. During the history of Jacksonian historiography, more and more sympathetic depictions of the Whigs have been creeping into the works of noted scholars; according to them, the Whig party staunchly defended the virtues of merchant capitalism against the Jacksonian Democratic ...

What factors led the US to follow Hamilton's vision of a market based economy over Jefferson's vision of an agrarian based society? Thomas Jefferson who was born in 1743 always favoured a strong agrarian approach in his politics. The third President of the United States is also remembered as the mastermind who negotiated the Louisiana Purchase and was also the chief author of the Declaration of Independence. While Thomas Jefferson sought about sending Lewis and Clarke on their expedition to explore the new west, Alexander Hamilton foresaw the problems with the new Confederation and saw the necessity for centralization. In ...

Brothel prostitution dates back to the 1840s. The increase in the vice in the area was enhanced by the inflow of immigrants to the region. The population of New Orleans grew from 102, 193 in 1840 to 168, 675 in 1860 due to the increasing number of immigrants (Schafer 10). It has long had a reputation for being wicked and a vice-ridden city. The city leaders during that time granted licenses for the operation of brothels an aspect that played a pivotal role in the increase of brothel prostitution in the city. Other factors that propagated the vice included excessive drinking and ...

Introduction

The social consequences of slavery in both the colonial and antebellum America were profoundly immense. This essay reviews the nature and impact of slavery throughout the Colonial and Antebellum America in accordance with the information contained in the historical primary sources detailed in Eric Foner’s Voices of Freedom. The four primary sources reviewed in this essay include Colloquy with Colored Ministries, Mississippi Black Code, Sharecropping Contract and the Composite Nation. All the documents in Foner’s book are documents of considerable length containing words spoken or written by the American men and women enmeshed inside America’s dark ...

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: An Overview

Before considering the conditions in which African American women lived during Colonial America as slaves, it is significant to understand the Trans-Atlantic slave trade that started in the 15th century and continued till the 19th Century AD. The trans-Atlantic African slave trade was an occurrence that was unique in the world history. Moreover, the number of Africans forcibly shipped to the American continent is unparalleled in the human history. It is thought that that about two hundred million enslaved Africans laborers lost their lives within the transatlantic slave system (See Angelo 1989). The studies estimated that more than ...

The word “slavery” evokes many emotions: shame, anger, empathy, and pride. We have come a long way from slavery; imagine what slaves would think if they found out that America is ruled by a Negro president. They would produce a new Negro spiritual song that no one has ever heard. In that song they would sing about the cruelty, they endured and at the end of the song they would sing with great gusto, Free at last! Free at last!

Slaves faced unusual hunger every day of their lives. They were underfed, and even if they were given adequate food while they ...

The United States experienced several social and economic changes during the antebellum period. During this period there were several religious revivals, which started off with the Second Great Awakening, marked by preachers travelling in vast places spreading various gospels, thereby attracting several converts to the denominations they represented. During this period Reverend Charles G. Finney was popular for his crusades in which he converted thousands of Americans to Christianity. America is a democratic country and she supports the freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom of movement and the freedom of association among other freedoms; hence, these freedoms and the ...

During the antebellum era, Americans vigorously debated the limits of freedom for poor whites, Indians, immigrants, women, and slaves. Discuss these controversies and how they erupted from the social, political, and demographic changes of this era.

Introduction:

Although most of the Negro population was enslaved in the antebellum era this did not mean that there wasn’t any form of debate regarding their freedom which was a great preoccupation for many whites of the upper classes. Naturally enough the plantation class did not want their slaves to be freed so there was an intense debate on this score with the result ...

John Wesley Blassingame is an American historian, writer and scholar whose work on African American is recognized till date. He discarded earlier theories on African slaves that they were willingly serving their masters. John Wesley studied the issue deeply and done a number of researches to find a true picture of slavery among this community. He presided over as chairman of African American studies for almost a decade. The author in his book The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South has tried to thrust aside earlier version of historians that African slaves are happy to serve their masters in ...

On reading Herman Melville’s novella Billy Budd it becomes obvious that the story’s implications reach greatly beyond that of a simple tale of a mutiny and hanging at sea. The story is provocatively double layered, heavy in its symbolism and meaning, in which the author’s interest rests, among other things, on a clash of conscience and law, on a never ending war between the individual and the society, the vulnerability of innocence and the final question of whether the readers are to condemn captain Vere for his decision or to respect him. This idea is closely intertwined with the question ...

“Everyday Use” By Alice Walker

Introduction

On the book review of “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, different authors have expressed their views on the themes and symbolism expressed in the novel. I will discuss on the viewpoints of the different authors and compare to see whether there are any similarities and differences. The novel is written by an African American. It is set at a time in American history when the black community was trying to understand its identity.

Analysis of the Book Reviews

David White in 2001 published an article titled, “Everyday Use: Defining African-American Heritage” in the Purdue North Central Literary Journal where he discussed the theme of ...