Slavery In The Old South

In the Old South, the act of slavery was routine, with many slaves and slaveholders whom affected much of the U.S. population. The author of the narrative, Frederick Douglass, was born into slavery, and travelled much of the South due to being traded from plantation to plantation. Culture in the corrupt Old South affected slaves and slaveholders in many ways: morally, socially, and economically. Although the slaves accomplished impressive amounts of work, the negative effects of the harsh trade outweighed the positive effects.
For many of the Old South, the idea of slavery did not seem cruel, as they viewed blacks as “less than human,” and believed their slaves were treated well, with some even teaching them to read and write. An example of this demonstrated in The …show more content…
Slaves worked on plantations, and were also sen to work jobs for which they returned profits to their masters. On the other hand, white and black workers did not get along, and many fights and disputes occured on the job. “All at once, the white carpenters knocked off, and said they would not work with free colored workmen. Their reason for this, as alleged, was, that if free colored carpenters were encouraged, they would soon take the trade into their own hands, and poor white men would be thrown out of employment. They therefore felt called upon at once to put a stop to it. And, taking advantage of Mr. Gardner’s necessities, they broke off, swearing they would work no longer, unless he would discharge his black carpenters. (Douglass 81-82). This illustrates the negative economic effects slavery caused. The slaves lost money due to the requirement that it was to be given to their master, so all work was unrewarded. For slaveholders, many lost money due to quarrels in the workplace which caused stoppage of work and destruction of materials. Economically, slavery was good for field labor, but where skill and money were involved, problems were