From: Tim Patterson
Date: 4/11/00
Time: 12:56:32 AM
Remote Name: 155.247.168.59
How well did African Americans cope with being slaves in the American South? Did free blacks suffer as well as slaves? Explain. African Americans in the South coped with slavery in many ways. A grueling institution brings out really the strongest emotions in people, and they were people, they had to laugh and love and survive. Masters tried to control their slaves through fear and religion. They wanted their slaves to believe that God had ordained them slaves that they were to obey their masters no matter what. The slaves were able to keep their own sense of identity and they had their own practices of Christianity which taught them that their lives were valuable in God’s eyes. Some slaves openly resisted their master’s will by rebelling. There are many documented cases where slaves took arms and defended themselves against their white masters. Most of these rebellions were bloody losses for the slaves and the US army was required to out them down, like when hundreds of slaves marched on New Orleans in 1811. Loss or victory, the lives of plantation owners became more difficult and fearful of rebellion. To compensate and calm these fears, slave owners would become harsher in their measures to suppress their slaves. Many slaves were able to join another suppressed group, the Native Americans in the Second Seminole war and resist removal to Oklahoma. For the Blacks involved it was a battle for their own freedom. Many thousands of slaves resisted their masters by running away and heading for either the North or Mexico. Many didn’t get far form the plantation, others took the Underground Railroad to freedom. Many had trouble leaving because they feared being caught and punished, others had families that they felt they couldn’t leave. Many who didn’t leave resisted in more subtle ways. Slaves would work slowly or fakes injury. The whole plantation suffered and thus the masters became less wealthy. Others faked illness or stole from their masters. Some broke tools or neglected animals. Others poisoned there masters because many slaves were learned in folk medicine. The idea is the same in every case of resistance; the slave used what he or she had to keep the master from using the slave for he intended to use him for, productive work. Free blacks suffered also. Many of them were virtually slaves by having white guardians who basically controlled their lives. In the South they were seen as outcasts and rarely give jobs or any social opportunities. In the North the story wasn’t much different. African Americans still didn’t have actual citizenship and were subject to extreme discrimination. But in the North they had some social distinctions that allowed them to join the movement for abolition.