The White Southern Slavery Analysis

During the 1800s leaders of the North began to condemn slavery and adopt the idea of abolitionism. Despite their efforts, the cruel and inhumane act of buying and selling human property continued to flourish in the South. Slaves on cotton plantations endured the harsh Southern weather as well as regular beatings from their masters which left many infertile. White southerners argued that the enslaved were well treated and taken care of by the masters; this, however, is absolutely false. Although many defended the practice of slavery, enslaved African Americans of the South were deprived of their cultural beliefs and family, used and mistreated by their masters, and deprived of basic human rights. Slavery was often portrayed as better for …show more content…
The White Southerners’ Defense of Slaveholding Article 3 claims that, “the wretched lot to which these poor fugitives are abandoned by the abolitionists, after they are stolen away from their comfort and protection of their Southern homes. "While it is probably true that freed slaves and free blacks were discriminated against in the North, it is preposterous to say that that discrimination was worse than the absolute lack of rights as a slave. The moment a person of color stepped off the slave ships onto the “land of the free” better known as America, he was deprived of his basic human rights. Slaves in the South had none of the rights that people associate with freedom. For example, an Alabama law stated, “It is illegal for more than 5 male slaves, either with or without passes, to assemble together at any place off the plantations where they belong.” One of the very first rights added to the Constitution was the right to assemble, yet slaves were not even allowed to gather in small groups. Thomas Johnson, a slave to Virginia, would often, "steal away to Jesus with other slaves, to some quiet place for prayer, over the stable, or in the kitchen when the master and mistress were away, though [they] knew that if [they]were discovered [they] [would] be locked up for the night, and that the next morning we should receive from five to nine or even thirty lashes for unlawfully assembling together.” The first amendment claimed that anyone in the U.S could utilize their freedom of speech at any time, however, Octavia, a slave girl from Oklahoma, recalls, “the slaves [being] punished for stealing, running off, not doing what their master told them and for talking back to their master.” The freedom of speech and assembly were basic humans rights that were given out to all those in the U.S. The Southern states,