history 2

Running header: MALE AND FEMALE SLAVE EXPERIENCES 1

MALE AND FEMALE SLAVE EXPERIENCES 2

Male and Female Slave experiences in the 19th Century

Abdullah Al Bahrani

Dr. Jane Dabel

June 3, 2019

Slavery as from definition is the act of owning human beings as property and one can use them as forced laborers. The slaves are assumed to have n rights and the masters can use them the way they wish without being questioned by anyone. The practice was so common among the Americans in the 18th and the 19th century because as history reveals the slaves had to go through lots of harsh life and lots of oppression. For instance, we can look at it in different perception. We always go to work have a salary, can quit the job at any time but it was the thing for the slaves. They were taken or even traded from Africa and used for activities like working in the farms. The good thing is that the slave trade ended in the civil war and we can only talk about it and discuss the experiences of both the male and female slaves. Although men and women at times faced so much devastating experiences and encounter under slavery and had to endure in similar ways, never the less there is an arguable evidence to prove that different sexes experienced different experiences because the types of labor activities they did differed, when it came to rebellion they all rebelled in very different ways and even punishment was totally different in terms of extremes which one had to be punished.

Contrasting the duties and types of work in terms of sex, according to Foner, the work for male slaves were tied to working mostly in the farms, his would include plantations and did activities like weeding and ploughing under forced labor from their masters. The women on the other hand nevertheless were not spared when the male were working in the farms they made food for their masters[footnoteRef:1]. Male workers worked also as personal servants of their masters[footnoteRef:2] and this would mean the masters would do anything they wanted for them, they waved for their masters as wells and worked in their shoe making factories[footnoteRef:3], as well as artisan shops[footnoteRef:4] in the ships offloading and loading goods which was a very tiresome work entirely. [1: White, D. G. (1999). Ar’n’t I a Woman?: Female Slave in the Plantation South P.142] [2: West, T. M., & Douglass, F. (1999). Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass P. 142 ] [3: Douglass P. 142] [4: Douglass P. 146]

(#)The women slaves also were not only used for cooking as Foner explains in page 142, they were also private maids[footnoteRef:5] which means they would do anything the masters wished including sexual acts even against their will and also did crafting and sewing clothes for their masters (White, 1999 p.142). The slaves found their ways to America under different situations. Initially it started as just a set of contract as the people were escaping poverty from their native homes and offered to serve to cater for transportation all the way long to America it changed and it was no longer a contract but it became trade and real slavery. The acts led to rebellions which were approached at different angels in terms of gender. [5: Ar’n’t I a Woman? P.142]

Rebellion was factored by many factors such as population increase among the slaves which paved way for overcoming the master class. The Indians also encouraged the slaves to rebel so much and work towards their freedom. The males were very rough in terms of taking revenge and rebelling (Foner, 2014, p 149). The book Give me liberty it highlights that they killed the whites[footnoteRef:6] and also did away with their masters and became freemen and that was the first thing they did. Their efforts did not stop there as their masters were busy taking colonies from different parts of the world, they stopped working in the plantations and caused food and crop shortage and this weaken the colonies and they wouldn’t continue taking more slaves. [6: Foner. P.149]

Nevertheless, men didn’t rebel alone, the women did burn the plantation[footnoteRef:7] and caused food shortages, poisoned the masters and their families through the food they prepared for them. To support their male counterpart slaves, they gave the men food when their masters were not around and that made them so strong[footnoteRef:8]. (add more information on women rebellion and topic sentence ) [7: Ar’n’t I a Woman? P.165] [8: Ar’n’t I a Woman? P.79 and P.155]

The activities and rebellions led to punishment which served as a way of making the lower down their levels of rebellion and scare them from fighting for their freedom. The level of punishment also was depended on gender. The males were forced to work under very dangerous conditions which one could not even endure nor work under them [footnoteRef:9]and also very harsh weather conditions, for instance the works of Douglas in the book Narrative of life of Fredric Douglas, discuss different types of punishment each slave was exposed to. Mr. Covey was forced to work under different working conditions, when it’s raining and very cold [footnoteRef:10]. Another instance which served as punishment to men slaves included denial of resting days and offs so they would work for long periods of time without rest. An instance is explained by Douglas in his book of Demby who was also whipped to the point of jumping into water to cool himself showing how severe the punishments were. Under severe conditions Douglass indicates the white men did kill those slaves they served as much potential threats. [9: Douglass P. 65] [10: Douglass P. 55]

The women on the other hand however received a different type of punishment which was also very severe, Douglass highlights in page 21 that the corpse of the slaves were not respected considering how the slaves valued and respected the dead and at times worshiped them as part of ancestors which caused much rebellion among the slaves. The masters distanced the women from their relatives, and this made them get lonely and had to act accordingly to receive back the privileges of even being together with their families[footnoteRef:11]. Sexual assault and rape was common as part of punishment to all in which Douglas defines it as bad manners. Douglas explains about a girl who was killed at her young age and broke her nose and breastbone[footnoteRef:12]. The punishment was severe to the slaves than one can imagine. [11: Douglass P. 43] [12: Douglass P. 21]

In summery and conclusion, although both the men and women had to persevere very severe and nasty situations, there was a great distinction between the roles, modes of rebellion and punishment served to the slaves. The masters were brutal and killed the slaves when they felt its appropriate. The conditions they went through were unimaginable now at the modern state and no one would wish to experience now.

Bibliography

Foner, Eric, 1943- author. (2014). Give me liberty! : an American history. New York :W.W. Norton & Company.

West, T. M., & Douglass, F. (1999). Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass: a graphic classic ; based on the autobiography of Frederick Douglass. New York: Scholastic Inc.

White, D. G. (1999). Ar’n’t I a Woman?: Female Slave in the Plantation South (1st ed, Vol. 92). New York: Norton.