Three%20Perspectives%20on%20The%20Peculiar%20Institution%20of%20Slavery

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Three Perspectives on The Peculiar Institution of
Slavery

• Mr. Daniel Lazar

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Slaves Were Submissive and Accommodating. Why?
Six Factors

• Economic Reasons
• Sociological Reasons
• Cooleys Looking Glass Self The Social
  Construction of The Self
• Broken Families
• Geographical Reasons
• Intellectual Reasons
• Soft Sciences, e.g. Fitzhugh
• Hard Sciences, e.g. Harvard Cranial Studies

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1. Slaves Were Submissive and Accommodating. Why?
Six Factors

• 5. Psychological Factors
• Socialization from Cradle to Grave
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• Bigotry of Low Expectations
• Slave Auctions
• Chris Williamson

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Slaves Were Submissive and Accommodating. Why?
Six Factors

• 6. Religious Factors
• When a man strikes his male or female slave with
  a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand,
  he shall be punished.  If, however, the slave
  survives for a day or two, he is not to be
  punished, since the slave is his own property. 
  (Exodus 2120-21)
• You may purchase male or female slaves from among
  the foreigners who live among you. You may also
  purchase the children of such resident
  foreigners, including those who have been born in
  your land.  You may treat them as your property,
  passing them on to your children as a permanent
  inheritance.  You may treat your slaves like
  this, but the people of Israel, your relatives,
  must never be treated this way.  (Leviticus
  2544-46)

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Slaves Were Submissive and Accommodating. Why?

• 6. Religious Factors (cont.)
• Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep
  respect and fear.  Serve them sincerely as you
  would serve Christ. (Ephesians 65)
• Christians who are slaves should give their
  masters full respect so that the name of God and
  his teaching will not be shamed.  If your master
  is a Christian, that is no excuse for being
  disrespectful.  You should work all the harder
  because you are helping another believer by your
  efforts.  (1 Timothy 61-2)
• "Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in
  everything, to try to please them, not to talk
  back to them" (Titus 29)
• "Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything
  and do it, not only when their eye is on you and
  to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart
  and reverence for the Lord." (Colossians 322)

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Really?

• Were slaves submissive and accommodating?
• No.
• Resist by any means necessary!

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Acts of Individual Resistance

• Sit-down Strikes
• Laziness, Stubbornness Faking Illness
• Suicide Mutiny on the High Seas
• Abortion and Baby Killing
• Self-Inflicted Wounds
• Arson
• Poisoning Masters
• ?Celia Ground glass and spiders in buttermilk
• Breaking Tools

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Acts of Individual Resistance

• Runaways
• To Canada, Mexico, FL LA (before they were
  slave states)
• To the North
• Underground Railroad
• Worked for abolitionists
• Became lawyers in the North
• Joined Union Army

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Acts of Individual Resistance

• The Power of the Pen
• Olaudah Equiano
• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• David Walker (10,000 alive, 1,000 dead)

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Organized Rebellion Amistad Case (1839)
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Organized Rebellion Gabriel Prosser (1800)
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Organized Rebellion Denmark Vesey (1822)
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Organized Rebellion Nat Turner (1831)
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Organized Rebellion John Brown (1859)
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Why Rebel?

• Obvious response hard times and a desire for
  justice
• The rhetoric of freedom, independence, equality,
  liberty and democracy
• Rumors of conspiracy and insurrection elsewhere.
  Sometimes started by fearful whites.
• Slaves often raised in a culture of violence.
• Increased education
• For public sympathy
• The racism of white abolitionists left many
  slaves seeking an alternative
• ?Hard to say whether or not such rebellions were
  productive or counterproductive.

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• Why do we hear so little of slave revolts?
• Maybe because these are exceptional situations
  and NOT the norm?
• So were the slaves best characterized as
  rebellious revolutionaries?
• No

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3. Peaceful Cohabitation The Overlooked
Peculiarity of the Peculiar Institution

• A slave was worth US60,000 in today's money
  (Princeton)
• Neither slaves nor slave-owners were ignorant of
  a simple fact times were tough, the were
  co-dependent and they had to make the best of
  challenging circumstances
• ?poetry, music, art, magic, worship, dancing
• The cotton was high and the corn was growing
  fine.