State v. Mann 

         In class, we divided in two teams and performed a mock trial of the famous "State v. Mann" case for the class, either defending John Mann or the slave he injured. I was put on the legal team that was defending John Mann. My task was to state an overview on the pro-slavery side of this case and what was happening in slavery at this time, 1830.  

At this day and age, slavery is a vital part of our Southern society. Slavery runs our economy, our history, and our politics as well as many other aspects. It has changed throughout the years and has recently been altered due to the abolitionists in our country. The North and South have been debating for years which side has the best morality in the aspect of slavery. Today, we will be looking over a case involving John Mann. He is a slave master who has hired a slave and chose to whip her as punishment for her outrageous acts against him. She then ran away, and he shot her for her violation of his rules. Some people believe that this is a violation of law and is a cruel punishment to the slave that was not technically his own. While others believe he has a right to punish her how he pleases because she was hired to work with him for a year. Here is what slave laws and experiences say about slavery today. 

 

This establishment of the cotton industry has set the standard for economy and the rest of our history, as well as the slave trade. People have been making things from cotton for years, but it has greatly increased since the making of the cotton gin a few years back in 1794. Great Britain is in desperate need for cotton as their textile industry is growing rapidly, and the South has the product for them. The selling of cotton in the South is how many of us make our income. Without the help of slaves on our plantations we would be broke. Slavery has been helping with the production and farming industry for years and has greatly increased the economy because of it. The cotton industry has increased the need for slaves which has also grown the slave trade across the globe. In the South, we buy and sell slaves from many different countries allowing them to make money and increasing our number of workers on the plantations. Slavery influences everyone and is an important aspect of a successful country.

 

As I said earlier, due to the abolitionists from the North, the government has made changes to slavery and how it is run. Their rules include things like slaves being solely property and nothing else, slave owners may do whatever they please with their slaves, slaves are not allowed to leave the plantation without permission, and many other laws they felt were needed. They had to clearly state slaves as property because of the abolitionist argument that they have human rights. In this case, “State v. Mann” we will see the rightful act a master has over his slave given the laws put in place on slavery at this very moment. We have lived a life where masters have sole ownership of their workers, and are in no danger of punishment because of their actions against them, why is it any different now? 

Sources:

https://www.ncpedia.org/slave-codes

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2956.html

https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/07/mississippis-1830s-cotton-bubble-an-excerpt-from-flush-times-and-fever-dreams-a-story-of-capitalism-and-slavery-in-the-age-of-jackson.html

https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/cotton-gin-patent

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/video/the-cotton-economy-and-slavery/

 

"Gone with the Wind" Reflection

In class, we watched half of a classic movie by the title, "Gone with the Wind." This movie portrays a beautiful, but confusing love story with the main character Scarlett and many different men that she marries, but does not love. 

Almost everyone you ask has either heard of this movie or seen it, but I had never. I thought it sounded boring because it was about the civil war between the North and the South, but it actually ended up being very entertaining. 

I really enjoyed Scarlett's character as she was very bold and charismatic. She is a very beautiful girl and all the boys wanted her to marry them. First she married a man named Charles Hamilton to make the man she truly loved, Ashley Wilkes , jealous. While I believe Ashley loved her as well, he married someone else. Their love was a confusing story that I would like to know more backstory on. Marrying Charles did not end up like she intended it to. Charles ended up dying a few months later in war and she was left a young widow. 

Throughout the marriage of Scarlett and Charles, a man by the name of Rhett Butler was constantly flirting with Scarlett, and even wanted to marry her. Scarlett did not like Rhett at first for he was a good bit older and liked to tease her. Their love story continued throughout the whole first half of the movie until Rhett saved Scarlett, her slave Prissy and Ashley's wife, Melanie Hamilton, and their baby.  He drove them to safety while fighting through angry Northerners. While I do not know the final result of their story, they had a kiss scene right before the intermission, and I have not yet been able to watch the second half. 

The love story was very prominent in this movie, but that is not why we watched it. We watched this in the intent of learning more about the Civil War and slavery at that time period. There are many scenes showing slavery in them, one of my favorites being with Scarlett and her personal slave, Mammy. Scarlett was often quite rude to her, but you could see how much she truly cared for her in a later scene when they are reunited. This movie shows the harshness of owners to their slaves. One scene shows Scarlett hitting one of their family's young slave, Prissy because she did not do what was asked. Another scene shows everyone running out of fright of the North, while the slaves were just walking along because no one cared if they lived or died. 

Overall, I really enjoyed watching this movie, and I am going to end up watching the next half.

Reflection of The Fredrick Douglass Game:

 Today in class, we played a game called "The Fredrick Douglass Game." In this game we had an official town hall meeting where we stood in front of the class acting like a well known historical figure who was either against slavery or pro-slavery. Here is what I learned from the abolitionists side. 

I heard a lot from former slaves such as Harriet Tubman and Fredrick Douglass himself. In Fredrick's address he stated that slaves do not know their actual birthday because no one back then cared enough to know the birthdays of African Americans. I found this very sad that they have to pick a random day to actually be their birthday. Harriet Tubman claimed she was first sold when she was a mere five years old. To think kids that young kids were taken from their parents and put to work makes me sad to be from the south and that's our history. 

Another impactful aspect of the abolitionist movement is the writing of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." This piece was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe that practically made her a celebrity in the 1800s. This book revolutionized the abolitionist's movements. I really enjoyed hearing the story of why Harriet decided to make this book. She had a son who had died at an early age due to a fatal disease. After this happened, she then felt the same pain of the mothers whose kids got taken from them and put into slavery to get beaten or maybe even killed. This book changed thousands of lives and some even claim it started the civil war.

One of the speeches that stuck with me the most was the speech from Sojourner Truth. Her story was very meaningful and really connected the audience to her feelings. She stated that her kids were taken away from her and she never knew them. I tried to imagine what that we be like if I were in her shoes, and I can't. No person should have to go through that. She then said that her owner had abused and raped her many times before. Knowing that she has been through all of these things and slavery itself, I think it is an amazing accomplishment how much of an impact she ended up having on America as an abolitionist and a women's rights activist. 

 

The Fredrick Douglas Game 

In class we were assigned a project called, "The Fredrick Douglas Game." The class was split into two parties: the abolitionists and the pro-slavery activists, and then of course Fredrick Douglas. We had to research about a person of our choice from the parties we got. I chose George Fitzhugh. Here is my speech   to go along with this assignment: 

         Hi, my name is George Fitzhugh, I am an American writer from Prince William County Virginia. I am well known in my town for my published books on the topic of slavery in America titled “Sociology for the South” and “Cannibals All!” In these books, I write all about why slavery is an impactful element of America and why it should not be abolished but rather enhanced. 

         As I have stated many times in my writings, I believe that “slavery is better than liberty and equality.” While this might be a daring claim to some, I will explain why I think this. 

         First, I believe that without the participation of owning slaves, our country will have an increased number of crimes and riots due to differing opinions and freed slaves that have held grudges over their former owners. Right now, the South is at harmony with one another because everyone is doing their duty as an American. We have had slavery for years why should we stop now?

         Second, I would like to address the assumption that all slaves are depressed and mistreated. This could not be farther from the truth. As I am a slave owner myself, I can attest to slaves being well fed, happy, and healthy. While I cannot speak for every master, if he mistreated his slave to an extent, then he would no longer have any workers for his household. After all, slaves have a better life in America than they would anywhere else. All around the world there are places with harsh punishments for slaves and do not feed them or give them breaks. Each worker here only works for nine hours a day and has time to themselves. They even have most holidays off.  

         I believe it should be known that African Americans are like children and their masters are like their parents. Without the mentorship of the master, they would not survive on their own in society today. Their owners have shaped who they are and have given them the rightful morals of America. 

         Slaves have not had much of an education throughout the years, and I think this is for the best. If they had an education, their skills for labor would not be as good or efficient as they need to be. We are doing them a favor by not putting them through teachings. 

         In this age of America, there should be no one person who is not working or taking care of something. Everyone has a job to do, and slaves have theirs as well. If we run society the way it should be ran, then there should be no idlers among us.

         Whether our government decides to abolish slavery or not, I will always stand by my beliefs and writings that slavery should stay a vital part of American society. 

         

 

Bible Team Challenge

by Shelby Caruso & Samantha Keever

Religion is a large part of many people’s lives. In almost every time in history, religion has had an effect over different events for different reasons. Slavery has not been an exception. If anything, religion has had an extremely large background in the history slavery.

Throughout time, Christianity has had many instances of slavery being a part of their daily lives. My argument is that Christianity has condoned slavery in its history. One of the more extreme examples is in the 1600s and 1700s, when the majority of slavery was happening in the Caribbean colonies. The Caribbean became the epicenter of slavery during that time, done by the English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, and Dutch. In Jamaica during the year 1688, Jamaica made a law that all slaves were to be made ready by their masters to follow Christianity. The end result would eventually be the church performing a baptism on slaves. So not only did Christianity affect the performance of slavery, but slaves were also required by law to convert to Christianity in some places. There weren’t many people at the time who would offend the public majority's opinion. Not until the 1800s would the idea of slavery being lawful be challenged by those who were brave enough.

Bible Excerpt from Leviticus 25: 44-46

Overtime the views of slavery in Christianity has changed drastically. There have been instances where Christians have believed slavery to be a sin and other times where majority of Christians believed slavery to be okay. For instance, in the 1600s until the 1800s, slavery was accepted by a lot of Christians. Throughout the 1800s to the 1900s, the number of Christians who thought it wasn’t bad dwindled. Eventually, after slavery was abolished in most places, Christians overall idea of slavery changed. The majority began thinking that it wasn’t acceptable.

-Shelby

Slavery was a big issue in our world throughout several decades, primarily the 1600s-1800s. A lot of people reinforce the idea that many religions including Christianity support slavery and actively partake in it. However, I do not agree with this proposition. I argue that Christians have condemned slavery. Most of these people look at the surface of the Bible’s message and see the words, “slaves and indentured servants” and assume the worst. They do not see the rules and regulations the Bible puts on the act of owning slaves. In several instances, the slave only has to work for seven years, and even got benefits from working, such as crops and livestock. After these years are up, the slave can be free. While there are examples in the Bible of the harsh kind of slavery we had in American history, it was not condoned Exodus 21:16. Christians even played this out through the abolishment of slavery. One example of this is the Grimké sisters. The famous Grimké family is known for their various abolitionist acts, a very famous one being Angelina Grimké’s letter, "An Appeal to Women in the South", that was published in “The Liberator.” This letter impacted many people within the church and the rest of society and is still a key part of history today. 

-Samantha

Political Cartoon Concerning Slavery and Christianity (Image Found Here)

Mostly everyone in today’s world can agree that slavery is harsh and unjust, and quite a lot of these people come from some sort of religious background. Before slavery was abolished, people manipulated the Bible and its context to fit whatever their belief was at the time; some still do to this day. As societies standards of slavery grew to where they are now, so did the Christian’s beliefs on it. I feel that the general public had a greater influence on them than their religious morals did. 

Sources:

Slavery and Christianity in the British West Indies on JSTOR

Christianity and Slavery in the British West Indies 1750-1865 on JSTOR

Leviticus 25:44-46 NIV - “‘Your male and female slaves are - Bible Gateway

Angelina Grimke Goes Public | American Experience | Official Site | PBS

Anti-Abolitionist cartoon, via Library of Congress · Young American Republic (msu.edu)

Why It’s Wrong to Say the Bible Is Pro-Slavery (thegospelcoalition.org)

 The Reality of Supreme Court Knowledge 

 My whole life I never knew much about the Supreme Court, or anything about the legal system for that matter. After watching this video, and reflecting my prior knowledge, it got me thinking about just how many people walk around without any understanding of how the legal system works. In this survey done by the "National Constitution Center,"  they state that 44% of people either did not know who Antonin Scalia was or did not have an opinion of him. National Constitution Center Survey. I will be the first one to admit I had only learned of who he was in my senior year of high school. I feel as the knowledge of the government among Americans is slowly declining. 

This brings me to what I learned from the informative Supreme Court video we watched in class. Supreme Court Part 1. Supreme Court Part 2. I had learned in my high school civics class that the president's nominate the Supreme Court Justices, but what I did not know was that they only accept about 100 court cases per year. This was a little shocking to me, but they have to out in a lot of thought and effort for each case. The video states that they meet weekly to discuss and vote on which cases they should accept, and discuss current court decisions. 

John Marshall should be a rather famous name among Americans, as he lead the path for future supreme court justices today. He was in office at the time of the popular "Dred Scott v. Sanford" case, and revolutionized the world of segregation. The impact of this case caused the amending of the Constitution to free slaves. 

In reality, most people get upset with the way the government or the Supreme Court works, while not putting in the time to actually learn about them. The justices do so much for our country that goes unseen and unheard that people should educate themselves with. Our justice system isn't perfect, but without them we would not have as much of a fair legal system.

Sources:

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/dred-scott-case

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWRoXYRsaeo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca8qSuWxcG8&t=622s