Slavery was a problem for people both in the Southern and Northern States, and it mainly affected black people whom white people enslaved. The white people enslaved people for free labor, forced sexual relations, and business. In the Southern states, slavery was always economically significant compared to the Northern states. This was evidenced by enslaved people not having any power to protect their morals, physical integrity, or of their children. In the Northern states, slavery was mainly initiated after freedom for the enslaved people by denying them access to a free life. Even if they did not physically enslave them, they found other ways to make the lives of the blacks hard.
In the Southern states, the economic importance of slavery was based on taking away the enslaved people’s children and selling them off to potential buyers. In a detailed and unfortunate book by Harriet Jacobs, she explains her ordeal as a slave girl between 1853- 1858 and how it affected her family directly and other surrounding families of African-American people. Harriet, through her thoroughly detailed narrative, criticizes slavery for corrupting the morals and the families of all it affected, whether white or black, rich or poor. One enslaver in this case, James Norcom, was fifty-two years old, yet he kept trying to seduce Harriet, a thirteen-year-old girl. These rich white men owned large plantations, and the enslaved people were forced to work there regardless of age. Norcom exiled the young girl Harriet to the plantations mostly because she would not give in to his sexual demands and also so that his son John would not notice her. This shows that not only did the white enslavers benefit economically from the labor output of the enslaved people, but also endlessly tried to and sometimes managed to assault the enslaved people sexually and brutally.
Harriet states, “I tried hard to preserve my self-respect; but I was struggling alone in the powerful grasp of the demon Slavery, and the monster proved too strong for me” (Jacobs 18). Harriet’s grandmother had been sexually abused by Norcom, among other dozen or so slave women that were also raped and impregnated. She sold thttps://essaywriter.pro/samples/economic-slavery…-northern-states/hem off, and they did not have obvious family connections. Harriet had to make a difficult choice between two older stalkers, Norcom and his son John; it was better to pick John rather than Norcom, who was a rapist, but nothing could be done about it since it was too costly for any enslaved person to report him and because of his reputation of as a gentleman. Men like Norcom took advantage of their slaves and then sold them off. To make matters worse, they sold off the women and their children separately to earn money from each which is despicable and which led to permanent family separations.
Enslaved people had to work twice as hard to get just enough money to buy back their children, that were sold to other enslavers. It was not enough that the labor that the rich enslavers got from the enslaved people was free; they also sold their children. Harriet’s grandmother saved up three hundred dollars she intended to use to buy back one of her children that had been divided amongst her master’s children. Benjamin was the son she wanted to buy back, but her mistress at the time tricked Harriet’s grandmother into loaning her the money promising to pay her soon, but that was never true. At that time, the Southern laws stated that an enslaved person did not have the right to own any property; thus, the grandmother could not claim the money through the authorities if her mistress refused to pay her back. The Sothern states made all their money off the enslaved people’s forced labor. Also, they took away anything that belonged to them, so they owned the enslaved people and all they possessed, be it family, money, or even houses, for those lucky to have any.
On the other hand, the Northern states practiced slavery but were not as economically compared to the Southern states. Even after the enslaved people, black people gained their freedom. Life did not get any easier outside the plantations since the white people were still the majority population that dominated every industry in most cities. In a way, they were still slaves to the white people since they still needed them to get jobs, houses, and food, which had some black people wish that they were white since it seemed you had white skin, then you were instantly regarded as necessary. The color of the skin created inferiority, and the freedman, for a while, did not even realize that they were free from slavery since they could own property no matter how little no one could take that away from them. The freedman could have a family and stay together without being sold away, leading to family separation. For a while, the white Northerners kept teasing the freedman by asking him what price tag he now bore to determine if the freedman knew what freedom meant.
The white people had a problem with allowing black soldiers to join the army, saying they felt threatened by giving black soldiers positions in the government in a crucial department, security. According to Leon, “They often recognized among them those who had once been their servants” (Litwack 25). No matter how well the black soldiers conducted themselves, their presence violated tradition and provoked those who viewed armed blacks as a threat. All the freedmen were trying to do was start making a living and earn money to sustain themselves and their families, and the army was an excellent opportunity to earn good money. The whites perceived the armed blacks as a threat because they consciously knew how much abuse and torment they put them through, and maybe they feared that the armed black soldiers would attack them in search of revenge. They were wrong since the black soldiers were wise enough to know that revenge would not fix anything, but instead, they worked hard to earn equal treatment in society and the country.
Black soldiers faced so much scrutiny during military service under the command of white men. They were given more laborious tasks and severe treatment, mainly to make them give up and leave the white soldiers to dominate the army. Most of these black soldiers were at crossroads about what to do after leaving military service since they did not want to be under white people again. However, they still wanted to serve the country to represent their fellow black people. The whites kept detesting the blacks and took it to the extent of just shooting them without any consequence. Once the whites made it hard for the blacks to retain jobs or even decent living, they started shooting them down to eliminate them to keep the jobs, thus the money too. One white person said that he would shoot a black man just as he would shoot a dog; this shows how much white people disregarded the black mostly because they could not control them anymore by enslaving them.
In the Northern states, discrimination against black people still exists even today where racism still sores. Only this time, white people have decided to discriminate against all other races, including blacks, Asians, Indians, and Latinos, in simple terms, anyone who is not white. People of color are very underprivileged in all societal aspects, including; schools and jobs, which makes their lives very hard; even after freedom was declared years ago, white people still chose to be selfish. White folks want to have total control over their countries’ economic status for them; sharing the capital will mean giving control to equality they refuse to give. Humanity will always be more significant than any economic status. It is about time the white folks realize that other people from different races are better skilled and could benefit from working with them.
Jacobs, Harriet A. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Penguin Books, 1861.
Litwack, Leon F. Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery. Vintage, 1980.