Escaped Slave example essay topic

AFS 300 Lesson 4 MASTERS OF THEIR OWN FATE Throughout the South, a continuing power struggle raged in which slaves strove to increase their independence and masters strove to limit this independence. The security and stability of these families faced severe challenges: no state law recognized marriage among slaves, masters rather than parents had legal authority over slave children, and the possibility of forced separation, through sale, hung over every family. When resistance occurred, it was always quickly suppressed and followed by harsh repression designed to discourage repetition. The most noted uprisings included the Stono Rebellion near Charleston, and the Nat Turner insurrection that rocked Southampton County, Virginia, in 1831. Like other slave uprisings in the United States, it caused enormous fear among whites but did not seriously threaten the slave regime. Just after the revolutionary war ended, the institution of slavery in the North started to change.

In 1784, "gradual emancipation" was passed in Connecticut (and Rhode Island). This law was intended to slowly "phase out" slavery, and would become the primary mechanism of abolition throughout New England. The day-to-day resistance was the most common because everyone could participate in it. Plantation workers found limitless ways to sabotage work: tools would inexplicably break, supplies were wasted, lost, or stolen; gates were left often and horses and cows ran away; work would slow down whenever an overseer was not present; workers would pretend not to understand their orders and do the wrong thing. It also included small-scale resistance by individuals who fought back physically-at times successfully-against what they regarded as unjust treatment. The saddest form of resistance was the harm slaves did to themselves.

Most severe were the cases where mothers killed their own children to save them from the horrors of a life of hopeless and unending slavery. But the most common form of resistance was flight. About 1,000 slaves per year managed to escape to the North during the late antebellum period. Black women slaves played a huge role in the suppression of slavery. America's first published black poet, Phyllis Wheatley became a sensation when she was only 20, when a volume of her poetry was published in London.

Harriet Tubman's life was a monument to courage and determination that continues to stand out in American history. Born into slavery in Maryland, Harriet Tubman freed herself, and played a major role in freeing the remaining millions. Strong black women were sold as breeders valued for their reproductive as well as productive capacity. It is a system that came to be known as plac age. It was established in New Orleans to enable wealthy white men to set up a double household.

Haiti became one of France's richest colonies in the 17th century, with the development of large coffee, cacao, and sugar cane plantations, worked by slaves imported from western Africa by the French owners. However, by the latter part of the 18th century Haiti decaying racial relations along with corrupt and demoralizing social conditions was looking ominous. Each class hated the other with consuming passion, making this country a perfect breeding ground for slave revolt. Ultimately such a revolt came to pass in the last years of the 18th century and first years of the 19th centuries. During this revolution, one Negro figure began to emerge as a leader of the blacks. He was Pierre Francois Dominique Toussaint.

Toussaint was born in 1743 as a slave on the Breda plantation near Cap Haitian. Fighting vigorously with the blacks, he soon began to emerge as a national leader and military and political strategist. On Feb. 4, 1793 the National Convention in France abolished slavery in all its colonies. The French Civil Commission named him a General of Brigade in recognition of his outstanding military leadership. By 1801, he had consolidated his position to the point where the French officials were virtually without authority. A government of local autonomy had been established under a constitution that named him Governor General for life.

One of Toussaint's lieutenants in the final years of his campaigns was Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Dessalines was born a slave in 1758. Acquiring skill in the leadership of men, he joined Toussaint's forces when the revolt against the French began. He followed Toussaint in his various allegiances and became one of his principal officers. He accepted appointment as a general in the French army and served as Governor of the southern part of the island. When Toussaint was made a prisoner, Dessalines resumed the fight against the French.

He fought with savage courage and cruelty. Perhaps the most fascinating of Haiti's early heroes is Henri Christophe. Born a slave on the British island of St Christopher on Oct. 6, 1767, he took his surname from the country of his birth. He ran away to sea when he was 12 years old by stowing away on a French brig. He eventually purchased his freedom, joining Toussaint in the early days of the revolt. Almost seven feet tall and possessed of great dignity, Christophe was a commanding figure and quickly achieved a conspicuous place as one of Toussaint's trusted lieutenants.

Along with Dessalines he capitulated and joined the French in 1802 when so authorized by Toussaint. After Toussaint was taken prisoner and the struggle against the French resumed, Christophe again fought the French, primarily in the north. After the French were expelled and the new republic proclaimed under Dessalines, Christophe became general-in-chief in the north. As king, Henri ruled with an iron hand. Christophe's health and mind simultaneously began to give way; he became partially paralyzed.

As tradition has it, he loaded a pistol with a silver bullet and took his own life on Oct. 8, 1820. Thus perished the last of Haiti's three major leaders (Toussaint, Dessalines, and Christophe), three of whom became chiefs of state after the revolution that won Haiti its freedom from France. The Fugitive Slave Act (1850) demanded that if an escaped slave was sighted, he or she should be apprehended and turned in to the authorities for deportation back to the "rightful" owner down south. It was thought that the Fugitive Slave Act would diminish the incentive for slaves to attempt escape but the abolitionists mainly consisted of Puritans, Pilgrims and Quakers, helped establish what was known as the Underground Railroad. While the Underground Railroad movement was not underground and railroads were not used, it was appropriately named for the purpose that it served. What the Underground Railroad did was help escaped slaves make their way from the slave-owning southern states up through the northern states and eventually into Canada and freedom.

This was accomplished by secretly transporting the fugitive slaves from safe house to safe house, steadily moving north until freedom was secured. This shows that the slaves were starting to get some sympathy from some people and they found ways to move on to better and bigger things with their freedom.