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What were the most important factors affecting the slave experience?
When considering the elements of the 19th-century environment that defined the experience of slaves, one must bring up the economic specifics of the area. Seeing that the South was primarily known as the area for agricultural resources, the necessity for manual labour was always high. Therefore, maddening and exhausting work on plantations was the direct result of the characteristics of the local economy.
Furthermore, apart from the economic aspects of the South, the cultural elements thereof need to be bought up. With the propensity to justify the relationships between a slave and a master, the local traditions affected the opportunities that African Americans faced in the United States at the time. Therefore, the culture- and traditions-related factors could be deemed as the primary determinants of the deplorable state in which slaves found themselves (Miller et al. 00:04:50-00:08.12).
In what ways were slaves able to shape their own world?
However, slaves managed to make their voices be heard. The statements made by African American people reached not only those who were willing to help but also the members of the population that needed to be persuaded to accept the concept of equality. The identified effect was truly unprecedented given the level of oppression that slaves had to deal with in the 19th century.
Several autobiographies of former slaves helped shed light on the atrocities of slavery. Furthermore, the interviews that the authors of the autobiographies had with other former slaves allowed painting a rather gloomy yet nonetheless accurate picture. The portrayal of the despicable acts of cruelty to which the African American population was subjected allows understanding the subject matter better.
Finally, the culture of African American people portrayed the changes in their mindset, traditions, beliefs, and perceptions. Specifically, the ability of the identified members of the American population to retain their culture specifics such as the gospel music showed that the people were ready to fight against the oppression.
In what ways were slaves able to resist the oppression of slavery?
Despite the terrible injustice and violence that the African American population faced at the time, people managed to rebel and resist the oppression. For instance, the tendency for maintaining family and preserving the family values warranted the title of the defining feature of relationships between slaves in the 19th century (Miller et al. 00:19:06-00:23:57). As a result, the significance of family bonding grew exponentially in the African American culture.
In a similar way, the importance of religion increased significantly among African Americans. Drawing parallels between the oppressed Jewish people and the situation in which they were in the identified time slot, slaves drew inspiration from the Biblical stories. Therefore, religion became the source of the spiritual strength and the power to resist the oppression that helped African Americans survive the horrifying era of slavery.
What important points stood out to you from the video, Slavery: The South and Slave Culture? Why did you find them significant?
Personally, I was very curious to learn how the myth about the content slave that was unwilling to change the social relationships between the members of the American population in the 19th century was subverted. Seeing that the myth was extraordinarily popular among the proponents of slavery, altering peoples perception of the situation was unbelievably challenging (Miller et al. 00:22:01-00:24:12). Therefore, showing how the process of resistance worked, the video became the foundation for building an understanding of the process of the social change. The description of the struggle was both inspiring and terrifying. The narration helped embrace the scale of the social alterations and the immense effort that had to be made to make the oppressors hear the voices of their victims.
Works Cited
Holitz, John. History From the Bottom up: Historians and Slavery. Thinking Through the Past, edited by John Holitz, vol. 2, Cengage Learning, 2014, pp. 227-248.
Miller, Donald L., et al. Program 9: Slavery/The South and Slave Culture. Learner.org, n.d., Web.
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