Slavery during antebellum and post antebellum

8/19/2019 Slavery during antebellum and post antebellum

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Chapter 1

Main Idea: Slave narratives

varied before and after the Civil

War. Read through the chapter to

analyze the differences.

SLAVERY DURING

ANTEBELLUM ANDPOSTBELLUM ERA

Significance: Written accounts of

first-hand experience as slaves

changed the way Americans

viewed it as an institution and

catalyzed the abolitionist

movement.

Key terms: Frederick Douglass,

Harriet Jacobs, slave narratives,

antebellum, post-bellum, Civil

War


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Slave and ex-slave narratives are what helped define

African-American history and literature. These primary sources

were critical in understanding the invaluable first-hand experi-

ence of slavery during the last two centuries. They were sold in

exponential amounts, many of which became best-sellers. But

more importantly, they opened to the academia of U.S. history,

the complexities of the dialogue between whites and blacks. Nar-

ratives by fugitive slaves recorded the disparities between Amer-

ica’s ideal of freedom and the reality of racism in the so-called

“free-states” (“The North American Slave Narratives”). After

the Civil War, documentation of slave experiences continued as

a reminder of the lingering threat that had difficulty dying off

in American society.

Slave narratives, during the antebellum period, have been

examined by scholars and literary analysts in order to determine

common themes and characteristics. Most narratives portrayed

a purpose of opening dialogue between blacks and whites about

slavery and freedom, topics that were feared to discuss in person

between the two races. These written works served as an indirect

medium to avoid confrontation and risk of any form of rebel-

FOCUS QUESTIONS

! What were some of the differences in treatment ofslaves before and after the Civil War?

! How did the narrative styles in these accountscompare?

! What were the reasons that contributed to thedifferences in slave narratives during the antebellum

and post-bellum period?

2

Introduction


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lion by slaves because they simply informed readers on the

slave experience in a literary manner. This was an important

spark that helped ignite the abolitionist movement because it

increased awareness of racism to many Americans and chal-

lenged their conservative

views. Most of these narra-

tives were written in a linear

structure, by creating the

story of an individual’s jour-

ney from enslavement to free-

dom. The individual estab-

lishes his or her identity and

then describes life as a slave

filled with emotional lan-

guage detailing the horrors

of family separation, the sex-

ual abuse of black women,

the inhuman workload, the

brutality of flogging, and the

severe living conditions of

slave life (“Publishers’ Bind-

ings Online: Slave Narra-

tives”).

After the Civil War, the enthusiasm for the slave narra-

tive waned. The antebellum narrative served as a disclosure

on the horrors of the “peculiar institution,” but after the

Civil War settled the issue of slavery, the sympathy and enthu-

siasm elicited by former writers such as Frederick Douglass

and Harriet Jacobs seemed to decline. However, former

slaves continued to record their experiences to prevent the dis-

sipation of painful memories from the American public. In

addition, narratives produced post-bellum were meager in

number compared to the plethora of antebellum narratives.

Themes differed between the two as well. The narratives now

were more exclusive to nostalgic feelings and use of vivid im-

agery deteriorated as stories told simply became reaffirma-

tions of past life. There was an attempt to use such nostalgic

memories as a form of validation in conquering the hard-

ships endured by many African Americans. Ultimately, post-

bellum slave narratives became an argument on the readiness

of the freedman and freedwoman for full participation in the

post-Civil War social and economic order (“North American

Slave Narratives”).

3

The original book cover of “Narrative of the

Life of Frederick Douglass”. (Douglsass,

1999)


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During the first half of the nineteenth century, Freder-

ick Douglass was one of the most influential slave narrative

authors in the crusade for abolition. As a former slave, he de-

tails the origins of his life and describes events that recounts

the horrors of slavery in many of his written memoirs and

narratives

Douglass was born into a life of slavery in Talbot

county, Maryland. He was the son of a slave mother and a

white man, whom might have been his first owner. Through-

out his youth, he labored on farms. Some of his tasks in-

volved “driving up the cows at evening, keeping the fowls out

of the garden, keeping the front yard clean, and running er-

rands for his old master’s daughter” ( Douglass, 26 ). As Doug-

lass grew older, his daily tasks expanded to a variety of jobs

including labor on a plantation field, work as a house servant,

and a skilled craftsman in a Baltimore shipyard. And in his

spare time, Douglass learned how to read and write with the

help of his owner’s wife and local white children ( Foner, 395 ).

He took an opportunity to escape north around the age of

twenty and settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts where he

took advantage of his liter-

acy to become one of the

greatest advocates of racial

equality. Douglass, an active

member in reform move-

ments, published “Narrativeof the Life of Frederick

Douglass” that describes a

vivid imagery of slavery and

the condemnation of ra-

cism.

In “Narrative of the Life

of Frederick Douglass”, this

slave narrative focuses on

the conflict between African

Americans and the oppres-

4

Frederick Douglass: Antebellum slave narrative

A mistress is reading to slave children

around the mid-nineteenth century.

(Adams, 2004).


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sive social order in the South during the antebellum era.

Many aspects of daily life, treatment, and insights of slavesbefore the Civil War can be found in this work. Douglass

notes the coerced separation between slave mothers and their

children that was a common custom in Maryland. “Before

the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken

from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance

off, and the child is placed under the care of an old woman,

too old for field labor”, says Douglass (2). The reasons for

separation is not concrete but he claims that it is most likely

to hinder the development of the child’s affection towards its

mother. Douglass adds that he only saw her mother no more

than four or five times and each visit was very short . This is

only the beginning regarding the type of treatment received

by slaves at the time. Douglass goes on to describe some of

the violence and physical hardships encountered by typical

slaves from cruel masters and overseers. Many were whipped

for mere pleasure and Douglass accounts one permanently

engraved memory on the torture received by his aunt. “I

have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most

heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he sued

to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was

literally covered with blood. No words, no tears, no prayers,

from his gory victim seemed to move his torn heart from its

bloody purpose. The louder she screamed, the harder he

whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped

longest. He would whip her to make her scream, and whip

her to make her hush; and not until overcome by fatigue,

would he cease to swing the blood-clotted cowskin.” (Doug-

lass, 6). Not only his aunt but also many others were perse-

cuted with this level of physical abuse under a vast majorityof Southern masters and overseers.

Douglass writes about the living conditions of many

slaves as well. He informs his audience that their was a

monthly allowance of food and yearly clothing distributed to

slaves but it was incredibly inadequate to live on. A typical al-

lowance of monthly food included “eight pounds of pork, or

5

A sketch of Frederick Douglass from “Narrative of

the Life of Frederick Douglass. (Douglass, 1999).


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its equivalent in fish, and one bushel of corn meal.” (Doug-

lass, 10). Yearly clothing consisted of “two coarse linen shirts,

one pair of linen trousers, like the shirts, one jacket, one pair

of trousers for winter, made of coarse negro cloth, one pair

of stockings, and one pair of shoes.” (10). This was all in

which was offered to get by for only one year. In addition,

Douglass mentions that the children unable to work in thefield had neither “shoes, stockings, jackets, nor trousers, given

to them: their clothing consisted of two coarse linen shirts

per year.” (10). Regardless of the season, these children were

seen almost naked year round.

Aside from lack of food and materials, sleeping condi-

tions were even worse. No beds were given to slaves. After

their days work in the field, slaves returned “one common

bed –the cold, damp floor, -each covering himself or herself

with their miserable blankets; and here they sleep till they are

summoned to the field by the driver’s horn.” (10). Often, doz-

ens of slaves were crammed into close quarters and many

were sleep deprived in order to prepare the field for the next

day.

6

A typical slave quarter during the mid-nineteenth century. (Adams,2004)


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Antebellum slave, Harriet Ann Jacobs, captured her life

story in the autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl .

Through first hand experiences, she highlighted the sheer

brutality that slaves received from their masters, before the

American Civil War. Jacobs was born a North Carolina slave,

and when she was only six years old, her mother died. Jacobsworked for her mother’s mistress until she died when Harriet

was twelve years old. Up until that point, Harriet was treated

fairly and her needs were met. However, all of that changed

with the death of her mistress. After her mistress died, Har-

riet was sent to serve her former mistress’s sister and hus-

band. ( Jacobs, 11-16).

Jacobs spoke of sexual harassment and harsh verbal

treatment she received from her master, starting at the age of

fifteen. In one instance she claims, “But I now entered on my

fifteenth year—a sad epoch in the life of a slave girl. My mas-

ter began to whisper foul words in my ear. Young as I was, I

could not remain ignorant of their import. I tried to treat

them with indifference or contempt. The master's age, my ex-

treme youth, and the fear that his conduct would be reported

to my grandmother,

made him bear this

treatment for many

months. He was a crafty

man, and resorted to

many means to accom-plish his purposes.

Sometimes he had

stormy, terrific ways,

that made his victims

tremble; sometimes he

assumed a gentleness

that he thought must

surely subdue. Of thetwo, I preferred his

stormy moods, although

they left me trembling.

He tried his utmost to

corrupt the pure princi-

ples my grandmother had instilled. He peopled my young

7

Harriet Jacobs: Antebellum slave narrative

Image of Harriet Jacobs. (Jacobs).


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mind with unclean images, such as only a vile monster could

think of. I turned from him with disgust and hatred. But he

was my master. I was compelled to live under the same roof

with him—where I saw a

man forty years my senior

daily violating the most sa-

cred commandments of

nature.” (Jacobs, 44-45).

Furthermore, instances of

degrading verbal abuse oc-

curred. Jacobs states, “He

told me I was his prop-

erty; that I must be sub-

ject to his will in all

things. My soul revoltedagainst the mean tyranny.

But where could I turn for

protection? No matter

whether the slave girl be

as black as ebony or as

fair as her mistress. In ei-

ther case, there is no

shadow of law to protecther from insult, from vio-

lence, or even from death; all these are inflicted by fiends

who bear the shape of men” (Jacobs, 45).

Furthermore, Jacobs uncovered that slave masters cre-

ated lies about the North, to insure that their slaves would

not attempt to escape. Jacob described one instance in these

terms. “

A slaveholder once told me that he had seen a run-

away friend of mine in New York, and that she besought him

to take her back to her master, for she was literally dying of

starvation; that many days she had only one cold potato to

eat, and at other times could get nothing at all. He said he re-

fused to take her, because he knew her master would not

thank him for bringing such a miserable wretch to his house.

He ended by saying to me, “This is the punishment she

brought on herself for running away from a kind master.

This whole story was false. I afterwards staid with that friend

in New York, and found her in comfortable circumstances.

She had never thought of such a thing as wishing to go back

to slavery. Many of the slaves believe such stories, and think

it is not worth while to exchange slavery for such a hard kind

of freedom.” (Jacobs, 67).

Beyond her own, personal treatment as a slave, Jacobs

documented the brutality suffered by other slaves, in roughly

the same location. Jacobs wrote, “He had six hundred slaves,

many of whom he did not know by sight. His extensive plan-

tation was managed by well-paid overseers. There was a jail

and a whipping post on his grounds; and whatever cruelties

were perpetrated there, they passed without comment. He

was so effectually screened by his great wealth that he was

called to no account for his crimes, not even for

murder.

Various were the punishments resorted to. A favorite

one was to tie a rope around a man's body, and suspend him

from the ground. A fire was kindled over him, from which

was suspended a piece of fat pork. As this cooked, the scald-

8

Cover page of “Incidents in the Life of a

Slave Girl”. (Jacobs).


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ing drops of fat continually fell on the bare flesh.” (Jacobs,

72).

Due to the self- written, autobiographical nature of the

book, there is very little room for doubt regarding the truth

of these instances. From sexual harassment to brutal physical

abuse, Jacobs provided detailed accounts of slave life duringthe antebellum period. One might question Harriet Jacob’s

accounts due to the book having been edited and published

by L. Maria Child in 1861. Due to Harriet Jacobs lack of

education, L. Maria Child edited the book for organization

purposes but did not alter any events or stories. Harriet Ja-

cobs wrote the book on her own, after escaping to the North.

(Jacobs, 5-7). With that being said, there is no question that

these events took place, and the face of slavery before the

American Civil War was that of brutality, unfairness, and vio-

lations against human rights.

9


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Ex-slave, Dora Franks was interviewed in the late 1930s

regarding her time as a slave and her time after emancipa-

tion. She begins by saying she does not really know how old

she is but knows that she was old enough to marry just two

years after the end of the Civil War. She explains she was dif-

ferent from the other children growing up because her fatherwas a white man, who happened to be her master. She calls

him, Marster George Brewer. The fact that she was of mixed

raced caused her to be ridiculed by the other children. How-

ever she was allowed entry into the house because of her

mixed race. Franks spent most of her time with an older

woman named Miss Emmaline, who taught her to weave and

spin better than most of the older woman. An event she goes

into detail about where Miss Emmaline had gone withGeorge Brewer and his wife and left Franks with another

woman is quite striking. Franks says she asked the new

woman for a piece of bread from the kitchen and was struck

by the woman multiple times. Upon the return of Brewer,

they found out what had happened and had the woman

whipped.

Franks goes on to explain that the slaves on her particu-

lar plantation did not have weddings, church services, and

were not allowed to visit other plantations. But she mentions

that sometimes the masters would take her with them when

they visited other plantations. She recalls an incident in

which a man named Uncle Alf who had run off to anotherplantation during the night to see a woman at another planta-

tion and was caught. He was whipped a hundred times and

sent instantly back into the field. When he finished his work

he ran again and truly escaped this time; they believed he

lived in a cave somewhere around the plantation.

Franks goes on speaking about the war and seeing sol-

diers passing by and sometimes raiding the plantation. She

talks about the end of the war and how she found out theywere free. Her brother came into the house where they lived

and told them they were free and to be gone from the planta-

tion by morning. She claims there wasn’t one slave left on the

plantation after that. Franks describes working in the fields af-

ter being freed and hating it because of the heat. She also de-

scribes her fear of the Kl Klux Klan but that she wasn’t not

10

Dora Franks: Post-bellum slave narrative


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too worried about them because the KKK knew the workers

at Davis Cox’s house were decent blacks. Finally, she ends her

interview by saying that the white folks living among the

black folks is a bad influence because black people don’t al-

ways know right from wrong. She claims because they do not

have masters to teach them, these white people can be bad

influences. But she ultimately says she is glad slavery is over

because the bible does not say it is right.

Franks, who clearly had a different experience than most

slaves, says, “Dem was pretty good days back in slav’ry

times”. The fact that she was a mixed race slave made her

life easier than the other slaves. She was allowed to be in the

house when she wanted, was taken on trips by the master and

his wife and was protected physically by the master. This is

not because her Master George Brewer was a nice slave

owner, as we can see from the two stories Franks describes

about whippings, it was because she was his own blood. At

the end of her interview it almost seems as if she wouldn’t

have cared if slavery kept going because it almost didn’t af-

fect her. She faced more problems after her emancipation

with field work and the KKK. But she saves herself, slightly,

in the end by saying she is glad slavery is over because the Bi-

ble never mentioned it being allowed. Obviously Franks was

someone who truly did not take in the experiences of other

blacks on the plantation. She witnessed multiple whippings,

slaves being chased by “nigger hounds” and the suppression

of any type of culture for the slaves. As stated earlier, Franks

is a unique case within antebellum slavery who seemed to be

happier as a slave than as a free woman. Yet even though she

is a unique case it is important to look at her experience to

see that not every experience with slavery from the black per-

spective is as we expect.

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On May 19th, 1937 in Rockingham County, Miss

Nancy Watkins interviewed ex-slave of North Carolina, An-

derson Scales, at the age of 82. Anderson was born to a

slave mother, and to a father with the last name Edwards.

He was first a slave of William Scales, the largest manufac-

turer of chewing tobacco at that time in Madison, NorthCarolina. He lived in Madison for all of his life. As a young

child he was taught good manners and to be of good service.

As her grew older, he was sent to different houses in the

Scales family. He upgraded to sweeping floors, getting fire-

wood, gathering water from the well, and taking out the gar-

bage. Both during and after the war, things began to change,

and so did his jobs.

The war caused an increase in the mail that needed tobe sent from place to place and to reach the soldiers. Ander-

son Scales was contracted by many white men to be their

mailman, so he traveled by horse for deliveries during the

war up until the 1880s. Railroads and freight trains also

changed the way that the world ran, as they became more

popular during the war for delivering supplies. Anderson

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Anderson Scales: Post-bellum slave narrative

Digital image of Anderson Scale’s slave narrative.

(WPA, 2010)


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started his own horse and wagon service to take people to

and from the train stations. This sustained Anderson for

most of the rest of his life, until he handed the business down

to his son-in-law. After the war, his son-in-law turned the

company into an auto-truck hauling business. His son-in-law

also had the opportunity to learn to read and write at a Ne-

gro free school, which changed the way that he was able to

leave his life of slavery as an educated young man.

Anderson Scales ends his interview by stating that the

depression of 1930-1934 did not injure “this energetic black

man” (WPA, 2010). His story outlines how a slave who

started in a small cabin, now can sleep comfortably on his

own front porch.

The way that Miss Nancy Watkins relayed Anderson

Scales’ descriptions of slavery, make it sound as if he almost

enjoyed the ride from slavery to freedom. When he was born

into slavery, he was named by the Scales’ family, rather than

by his own father of the name Edwards. Anderson then de-

scribed to Watkins that he taught all of his manners and life

lessons from the Scales’ family and his various jobs. He al-

most seems to say that his slavery before the civil war made

him the hardworking man that he is today. In reality, slavery

was much harsher in the south than described by Anderson.

This may be due to the family that he was born into, or it

may have been lost in the translation of the interview. How-

ever, the social stigmas of the time are clear through the inter-

viewee’s writing when it is stated that he lived by the “free

white schoolhouse,” that was called just the “schoolhouse”for the white children (WPA, 2010).

Anderson Scales does not speak of the moment when he

was freed from slavery. His interview tells the story of a man

who already seemed to know that freedom was coming. An-

derson Scales took charge of his freedom in America by start-

ing his own business. Starting a business might not feel like

much to us today, but for a man that was born into slavery,

this was a huge feat for both America and mankind. After

the civil war, Anderson Scales says that he lived a life in

which he was respected by both white and colored people

alike (WPA, 2010).

13

A drinking fountain outside the Halifax County Courthouse in North

Carolina

in

April of

1938,

one year after

Anderson

Scales

was

interviewed

by Miss Nancy Watkins. (WPA, 2010)


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1. Adams, Julie. "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl." American Stud-

ies at the University of Virginia. 1 Feb. 2004. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.

.

2. Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Ox-

ford: Oxford UP, 1999. Print.

3. Foner, Eric. Give M e Liberty!: An American History. Seagull Third ed.

New York: W.W. N orton, 2012. Print.

4. Kolb, Richard, ed. Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal

Writers' Project, 1936-1938. Washington, D.C.: Library of Con-

gress, 2001. Print.

5. Jacobs, Harriet A., and Lydia Maria Child. Incidents in the Life of a

Slave Girl: Written by Herself. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP,

1987. Print.

6. "North American Slave Narratives."

North American Slave Narratives.University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, 1 Jan. 2004. Web. 11

Apr. 2015. .

7. "Publishers' Bindings Online: Slave Narratives." Publishers' Bindings

Online: Slave Narratives. The University of Alabama, 1 Jan. 2005.

Web. 11 Apr. 2015.

.

8. WPA. Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United

States From Interviews with Former Slaves, North Carolina Narra-

tives, Part 2. Project Gutenberg, 2010. Print.

9. Yetman, Norman. "Slave Narratives: An Introduction to the WPA

Slave Narratives, P2."

Slave Narratives: An Introduction to the WPA

Slave Narratives, P2. 1 Jan. 2001. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.

.

xiv

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Slavery during antebellum and post antebellum

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Slavery during antebellum and post antebellum