Slavery in America Slavery And Injustice In America As Portrayed In Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years A Slave
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In all the English colonies, north and south, slavery got off to a slow start in the 17
th
century but increased rapidly in the 18
th
century, as the colonists recognized the need for a large labor force to develop the new continent. They looked first to the
Indians and then to Africans, who were already laboring as slaves in vast numbers elsewhere in the New World.
Over time, slavery moved to south. It was because the South planters needed many hands to clear, drain, and cultivate the fertile lands along the coast. With the
invention of the cotton gin and the boom in the international demand for southern cotton, planters turned to the Southwest for new, fertile land and to slavery to supply
the workers for this labor-intensive crop. In 18
th
century, the slavery spread throughout the American colonies because the African slaves were cheaper and more plentiful labor source than indentured
servants who were mostly poorer Europeans. But, most of slaves were treated so badly by their master.
William Goodell in the book The American Slave Code in Theory and Practice: Its Distinctive Features Shown by Its Statutes, Judicial Decisions and
Illustrative Facts. It is a key antislavery work centering on legal discourse and practice. This book gives more understanding about slave code that is used at the
time. It also shows that the slave shall always be reputed and considered as real estate; shall, as such, be subject to be mortgaged, according to the rules prescribed by
law, and they shall be seized and sold as real estate. Goodell 1853:15 said that it is often maintained that the ‘legal relation of master and slave” is not a criminal one,
and that there is no sin, or moral wrong, in the mere fact of sustaining that relation.
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According to 2 Brevard’s Digest, 229 ; Prince’s Digest, 446 in South Carolina in Goodell 1853:23 says, “slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken, reputed and
adjudged in law to be chattels personal, in the hands of their owners and possessors, and their executors, administrators and assigns, to all intents, constructions, and
purposes whatsoever.” Civil Code, Art.35 in Louisiana in Goodell 1853:23 says, “A slave is one
who is in the power of a master to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry and his labor. He can do anything, but what must
belong to his master.” Civil Code, Art.173 in Goodell 1853:23 says, “The slave is entirely subject
to the will of his master, who may correct and chastise him, though not with unusual rigor, or so as to maim and mutilate him, or expose him to the danger of loss of life,
or to cause his death.” Statue of June 7, 1806; 1 Martin’s Digest, 612 in Goodell 1853:24 says,
“Slaves shall always be reputed and considered real estate; shall, as such, be subject to be mortgaged, according to the rules prescribed by law, and they shall be seized
and sold as real estate.”
The slave codes that have mentioned before show how bad slave status and position are towards society in America. Slave as considered as an subject, a real
estate, not a human being. They are treated as a thing that can be possessed and sold by their masters. As Goodell 1853:77-78 says, “Slaves are not persons in the view
of the law, for any purposes of benefit to them; as will hereafter be more fully shown. The rights of a slave are not recognize, and no limitation of the master’s use
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of him can come from that quarter. “The slave” says the law “is entirely subject to the will of his master.” Nothing, therefore, can prevent the master from putting him
to any use he pleases.
The Slave Code places slaves upon a level with other live cattle. It never attempts or pretends to protect the slaves. It is known that they are only as mere
animals. Their rational and moral natures, not being recognized by the laws, can claim no legal protection. The slave has not equal protection, in some respects, with
other animals.
Mr. Samuel Blackwell in Goodell 1983:80 visited many of the sugar plantations in Louisiana, and says:
That the planters generally declared to him that they were obliged so to overwork their slaves, during the sugar-making season, from
eight to ten week, as to USE THEM in seven or eight years. For, said they, after the process is commenced, it must be pushed without
cessation, night and day, and we cannot afford to keep a sufficient number of slaves to do the extra work at the time of sugar-making,
as we could not profitably employ them the rest of the year.