What is SLAVERY?

1. What is SLAVERY? How do you define slavery?

2. Methods • Historiography-Pigmies placed on the shoulders of giants see more than the giants themselves. (Didacus Stella). • Contextualization- Working with what you know. • Role-shifting- What would it take to make you a slave?

3. Which is a Slave? Marriage Slave? Minor Slave? African Slave? Wage Slave? Penal Slaves?

4. How do you Define Slavery? • A system for extracting “free” labor? • Loss of personal freedom? • Arbitrary power held by one person over another? • A system for enforcing the superiority of one race over another?

5. Defining Slavery • “You know the worst thing about being a slave? They make you work but they don't pay you or let you go.” Futurama, A Pharaoh to Remember. • An obligation to serve another for life, in consideration of diet, and other common necessaries. (Hugo Grotius, 1583-1645, para.). • Perfect slavery is an obligation to be directed by another in all one's actions. (Dr. Thomas Rutherforth, 1712-1771, para.). • The establishment of a right, which gives one man such a power over another, as renders him absolute master over his life and fortune. (Baron Charles de Montesquieu, 1689-1755, para.). • “Slavery was instituted not merely to provide control of labor but also as a system of racial adjustment and social order.” (Ulrich Phillips, The Central Theme of Southern History).

6. How do you Define Freedom? • Mobility? Freedom of movement. • Association? Freedom to attend religious services of your choice, to meet with friends, to date/marry a person of your choice. • Ownership?Freedom to inherit, possess, and dispose of property • Voting Rights? • General Choice?Freedom to choose your vocation, to labor (or not labor), to live where you choose.

7. Perspective by Contrast “…all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” –Declaration of Independence, July 1776.

8. General Characteristics of Slavery • Obligation of perpetual service at the will of the Master alone. • Such obligation is reached in an arbitrary manner. • The slaves degraded condition descends from parent to child. • Master has near limitless power to restrict and correct the slave. • No acquisition of property without owner’s assent, and even then no recognized right. • Furthermore, the slave is alienable — similar to other forms of property.

9. Control of Movement Numerous entities and systems worked together to limit the mobility of slaves Private • Search dogs • Neighbors • Private slave hunters • Plantation informants Public • Constables • Patrols • Night Watch

10. Control of Movement • “RUN away from the subscriber, a Virginia born Negro Fellow named WALTON, 23 Years of Age…As the said Fellow ran away without receiving any Abuse, the Taker up is desired to give him ten Lashes every ten Miles. (Virginia Gazette, Dec. 1, 1774). • “Runaway, a negro named Hambleton, limps on his left foot where he was shot a few weeks ago, while runaway.” (Miss. Vicksburg Register, Sept. 5, 1838). • “Runaway, a negro boy named Mose, he has a wound in the right shoulder near the backbone, which was occasioned by a rifle shot.” (Columbus [Ga.] Southern Sun, Aug. 7, 1838). • “Run away from the subscriber in Charles City county, the 14th of April last, a VIRGINIA born Negro fellow named PETER, about 44 years of age…the said Negro is outlawed; and I will give £10 to any person or persons that will kill him and bring me his head, separate from his body, or 40s. if delivered to the subscriber near the Long Bridge.” (Virginia Gazette, May 11, 1769).

11. The Ability of one man to Arbitrarily Punish Another. The end [of slavery] is the profit of the master, his security and the public safety... [therefore] the power of the master must be absolute, to render the submission of the slave perfect. – State v. Mann, 13 N.C. 263 (1829).

12. Slave as Property A slave is alienable in a manner similar to other forms of property.

13. Slaves for Sale • "TO BE SOLD, On Saturday the 27th Instant, at the London Coffee House, TWELVE or Fourteen valuable NEGROES, consisting of young Men, Women, Boys and Girls; they have all had the Small Pox, can talk English, and are seasoned to the Country. The sale to begin at Twelve o’Clock.” (The Pennsylvania Gazette, July 18, 1765). • "TO be sold by public Venue, at the London Coffee House, on Saturday the 30th Instant, a likely negroe Wench, fit for Town or Country Business. She has had the Smallpox and Measles. N.B. She is not sold for any Fault, but on Account of the Decease of her Master." (The Pennsylvania Gazette, January 28, 1762). • “The subscriber has just received and offers for sale at his old stand…[in New Orleans]…the largest lot of NEGROES in the city, consisting of house servants, field hands, and mechanics. They will be sold on reasonable terms for cash or good paper.” (New Orleans Daily Picayune, March 20, 1852).

14. What Makes a Slave, a Slave? • Black Skin? • Physical weakness/strength? • Mental inferiority? The Law !

15. Constitution of the Carolinas “Every freeman of Carolina shall have absolute power and authority over his negro slaves, of what opinion or religion [what]soever.” – John Locke, The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, § 110, 1669.

16. Sommersett’s Case “The state of slavery is of such a nature, that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political, but only by positive law, which preserves its force long after the reasons, occasion, and time itself from whence it was created, is erased from memory. It is so odious, that nothing can be suffered to support it, but positive law.”

17. Those which forbid certain actions. Possess weapons (firearm, sword, etc.) Meet together Travel without a pass Learn to read and write Trade or barter Those which excuse certain actions. Capturing a slave Punishing a slave Keeping a slave Selling a slave Killing a slave No Slave Shall… 2 kinds of statutes

18. Equivalents of the Slave Code • Capturing a slave = Kidnapping • Punishing a slave = Assault • Keeping a slave = False Imprisonment • Selling a slave = Human Trafficking • Killing a slave = Homicide

19. The Testimony of Fountain Hughes • Enslaved in Charlottesville, Virginia. • Interviewed June 11, 1949. • Grandfather belonged to Thomas Jefferson.

20. Slavery Defined? • How has your original definition changed? • Surprise, I won’t give you a definition of slavery! (Hint: it may be on the final).

21. Which is a Slave? Marriage Slave? Minor Slave? African Slave? Wage Slave? Penal Slaves?