What is SLAVERY?

1
What is SLAVERY?
How do you define slavery?
2
Methods

• Historiography- Pigmies placed on the shoulders
  of giants see more than the giants themselves.
  (Didacus Stella).
• Contextualization- Working with what you know.
• Role-shifting- What would it take to make you a
  slave?

3
Which is a Slave?
Marriage Slave?
Minor Slave?
African Slave?
Wage Slave?
Penal Slaves?
4
How do you Define Slavery?

• A system for extracting free labor?
• Loss of personal freedom?
• Arbitrary power held by one person over another?
• A system for enforcing the superiority of one
  race over another?

5
Defining Slavery

• You know the worst thing about being a slave?
  They make you work but they don't pay you or let
  you go. Futurama, A Pharaoh to Remember.
• An obligation to serve another for life, in
  consideration of diet, and other common
  necessaries. (Hugo Grotius, 1583-1645, para.).
• Perfect slavery is an obligation to be directed
  by another in all one's actions. (Dr. Thomas
  Rutherforth, 1712-1771, para.).
• The establishment of a right, which gives one man
  such a power over another, as renders him
  absolute master over his life and fortune.
  (Baron Charles de Montesquieu, 1689-1755, para.).
  
• Slavery was instituted not merely to provide
  control of labor but also as a system of racial
  adjustment and social order. (Ulrich Phillips,
  The Central Theme of Southern History).

6
How do you Define Freedom?

• Mobility? Freedom of movement.
• Association? Freedom to attend religious
  services of your choice, to meet with friends, to
  date/marry a person of your choice.
• Ownership? Freedom to inherit, possess, and
  dispose of property
• Voting Rights?
• General Choice? Freedom to choose your vocation,
  to labor (or not labor), to live where you
  choose.

7
Perspective by Contrast

• all men are created equal, that they are
  endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
  Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
  the pursuit of Happiness. Declaration of
  Independence, July 1776.

8
General Characteristics of Slavery

• Obligation of perpetual service at the will of
  the Master alone.
• Such obligation is reached in an arbitrary
  manner.
• The slaves degraded condition descends from
  parent to child.
• Master has near limitless power to restrict and
  correct the slave.
• No acquisition of property without owners
  assent, and even then no recognized right.
• Furthermore, the slave is alienable similar to
  other forms of property.

9
Control of Movement
Numerous entities and systems worked together to
limit the mobility of slaves

• Private
• Search dogs
• Neighbors
• Private slave hunters
• Plantation informants
• Public
• Constables
• Patrols
• Night Watch

10
Control of Movement

• RUN away from the subscriber, a Virginia born
  Negro Fellow named WALTON, 23 Years of AgeAs the
  said Fellow ran away without receiving any Abuse,
  the Taker up is desired to give him ten Lashes
  every ten Miles. (Virginia Gazette, Dec. 1,
  1774).
• Runaway, a negro named Hambleton, limps on his
  left foot where he was shot a few weeks ago,
  while runaway. (Miss. Vicksburg Register, Sept.
  5, 1838).
• Runaway, a negro boy named Mose, he has a wound
  in the right shoulder near the backbone, which
  was occasioned by a rifle shot. (Columbus Ga.
  Southern Sun, Aug. 7, 1838).
• Run away from the subscriber in Charles City
  county, the 14th of April last, a VIRGINIA born
  Negro fellow named PETER, about 44 years of
  agethe said Negro is outlawed and I will give
  10 to any person or persons that will kill him
  and bring me his head, separate from his body, or
  40s. if delivered to the subscriber near the Long
  Bridge. (Virginia Gazette, May 11, 1769).

11
The Ability of one man to Arbitrarily Punish
Another.
The end of slavery is the profit of the master,
his security and the public safety... therefore
the power of the master must be absolute, to
render the submission of the slave perfect.
State v. Mann, 13 N.C. 263 (1829).
12
Slave as Property
A slave is alienable in a manner similar to other
forms of property.
13
Slaves for Sale

• "TO BE SOLD, On Saturday the 27th Instant, at the
  London Coffee House, TWELVE or Fourteen valuable
  NEGROES, consisting of young Men, Women, Boys and
  Girls they have all had the Small Pox, can talk
  English, and are seasoned to the Country. The
  sale to begin at Twelve oClock. (The
  Pennsylvania Gazette, July 18, 1765).
• "TO be sold by public Venue, at the London Coffee
  House, on Saturday the 30th Instant, a likely
  negroe Wench, fit for Town or Country Business.
  She has had the Smallpox and Measles. N.B. She is
  not sold for any Fault, but on Account of the
  Decease of her Master." (The Pennsylvania
  Gazette, January 28, 1762).
• The subscriber has just received and offers for
  sale at his old standin New Orleansthe
  largest lot of NEGROES in the city, consisting of
  house servants, field hands, and mechanics. They
  will be sold on reasonable terms for cash or good
  paper. (New Orleans Daily Picayune, March 20,
  1852).

14
What Makes a Slave, a Slave?

• Black Skin?
• Physical weakness/strength?
• Mental inferiority?

• The Law !

15
Constitution of the Carolinas

• Every freeman of Carolina shall have absolute
  power and authority over his negro slaves, of
  what opinion or religion whatsoever. John
  Locke, The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina,
  110, 1669.

16
Sommersetts Case

• The state of slavery is of such a nature, that
  it is incapable of being introduced on any
  reasons, moral or political, but only by positive
  law, which preserves its force long after the
  reasons, occasion, and time itself from whence it
  was created, is erased from memory. It is so
  odious, that nothing can be suffered to support
  it, but positive law.

17
No Slave Shall
2 kinds of statutes

• Those which forbid certain actions.
• Possess weapons (firearm, sword, etc.)
• Meet together
• Travel without a pass
• Learn to read and write
• Trade or barter

• Those which excuse
• certain actions.
• Capturing a slave
• Punishing a slave
• Keeping a slave
• Selling a slave
• Killing a slave

18
Equivalents of the Slave Code

• Capturing a slave Kidnapping
• Punishing a slave Assault
• Keeping a slave False Imprisonment
• Selling a slave Human Trafficking
• Killing a slave Homicide

19
The Testimony of Fountain Hughes

• Enslaved in Charlottesville, Virginia.
• Interviewed June 11, 1949.
• Grandfather belonged to Thomas Jefferson.

20
Slavery Defined?

• How has your original definition changed?
• Surprise, I wont give you a definition of
  slavery! (Hint it may be on the final).

21
Which is a Slave?
Marriage Slave?
Minor Slave?
African Slave?
Wage Slave?
Penal Slaves?