East And West Florida example essay topic
382 words
The scope of this book ranges from the year 1500-1865. It starts its beginning with Florida when it was still a territory of Spain. It is here that the Larry Rivers tries to piece together the African presents in Florida before the institution of slavery is established. The author uses a wide range of sources to his point. He utilizes a lot of research that focuses on Africans who were free when they first set foot in Florida. Starting with an overview of the institution as it evolved during the Spanish and English periods, this book looks in detail and in depth at the slave experience, noting the characteristics of slavery in the Middle Florida plantation belt (the more traditional slave-based, cotton-growing economy and society) and its distinction from East and West Florida (which maintained some attitudes and traditions of Spain). The author of this book, Larry. E. Rivers, discusses the slave family, religion, resistance activity, slaves' participation in the Civil War, and their social interactions with whites, Indians, other slaves, and masters. Rivers commences with an overview of the Spanish, who ruled Florida for nearly three hundred years until acquired by the United States in 1821. He relates that Spanish laws and customs, while discriminatory, were racially more tolerant, and provided a more humane slavery than that in the more known English colonies or the later Old South. Florida became a refuge for escaped slaves from Georgia and South Carolina. Joining their Indian allies, many served under the British in the War of 1812 and the Patriot War, but were dispersed after defeats in 1816-18.
Influenced by the Spanish legacy, East and West Florida reflected a less cruel bondage. Middle Florida, consisting of Jackson, Gadsden, Leon, Jefferson, and Madison counties, was the planter region, the "black belt", where the majority of slaves lived and worked under a bondage closer to the patterns of other Southern states. Rivers meticulously examines the slave society and culture, including work, family, religion, material conditions, physical treatment, social interaction, and slave resistance. While most slaves were employed as agricultural laborers, there were various other occupations, some skilled, all of which are described in the book. Those who read the pages of.
