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From VOA Learning English, welcome to The Making of a Nation, our weekly
program of American history forpeople learning American English. I’m Steve
Ember inWashington.
We have been talking about the Compromise of 1850. In September of that year,
the United States Congresspassed five bills that sought to settle the issue
ofslavery. All five became law after the president signed them.
Owning another human being was legal in many parts of the U.S. at that time.
Most American slaves or their ancestors originally came from Africa. Manyslaves
worked for white landowners in cotton or tobacco fields. Some, likePhoebe Boyd
of Virginia, worked in the family’s home.
“Had to clean up, and set the table, tote in the eating.”
That recording comes from the Voices from the Days of Slavery Project at the
U.S. Library of Congress. Ms. Boyd was speaking in 1935, remembering
herchildhood as a slave. She said she had to clean up, set the table, carry
thefood, and, afterwards, prepare the bed.
Harriet Smith of Texas was another former slave. She said in a 1941recording
that she did not go to school.
“Nuh huh. Uh, uh, they didn't know nothing about reading and writing. All that
Iknowed they teach you is mind your master and your mistress.”
Aunt Harriet, as she was called, said she did not know anything about readingor
writing. She said she was taught only to obey the slave owners.
Slaves were considered property, like farm animals or furniture. Slave
ownerscould do anything they wanted with their slaves — including separate
themfrom their families, sexually abuse them, hurt or even kill them.
Harriet Smith said her owners treated her well. But she heard about slaveswho
were mistreated.
“Yes, I know of times they, when, when they mistreated people, they did, and
Ihear our folks talk, you know, about them whipping, you know, till they had
togrease their back to take the holes from the, the back.”
Some slaves were beaten so badly, she said, they had to repair the holes in the
their backs with grease.
By 1804, all Northern states had banned slavery. But northern whites still didnot
accept blacks as their equals.
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And slavery was still legal in Southern states for most of the 1800s.
Slaveowners there said they needed slaves to work on large farms or for
othereconomic reasons.
But other Americans said slavery was immoral. Or that it gave the South
theunfair competitive edge of low-cost labor. The Compromise of 1850,
then,attempted to balance the desires of those who supported and those
whoopposed slavery.
Politicians were not the only ones who struggled with the issue of slavery in the
United States. Slaves, for example, had been fighting the system forsome time.
Many slaves resisted their owners in small ways. They broke or hid tools. Orthey
worked slowly or claimed to be sick, even when they were not.
A few answered the violence of slavery with violence. They planned — butrarely
succeeded — to kill their masters and escape.
A man named Nat Turner led one of the best known slave rebellions. Turnerwas
born in 1800 in the slave state of Virginia. Unlike most slaves, he couldread. He
also believed that God had given him a special purpose.
In 1831, Turner saw what he described as a sign from above. The sign toldhim
it was time to rebel against slavery. He gathered several men and, in themiddle
of the night, killed his master and his master’s family in their beds.
Turner and his men continued to another house, and then another. They
killedevery white person they found. Other slaves saw what was happening
andjoined Turner. By the end of the raids, 40 blacks had stabbed, beaten, or
shotto death an estimated 55 whites.
A local white militia moved to stop Turner and hisgroup. Almost all the attackers
were captured quickly. Some were killed. Others were sold and sent awayfrom
their families.
But Nat Turner escaped capture. For a month he hidaround his master’s farm.
Finally someone found him. Turner was jailed, tried, sentenced, and hanged.
Afterhe died, his killers pulled off his skin and removed hishead.
The historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr. studied NatTurner’s slave rebellion. He
wrote that blacksremembered Turner for his personal war againstslavery, his
violent methods, and his harsh treatmentafter death. But whites had a different
reaction. Frightened white mobs killedanother 200 blacks to answer the
rebellion. Most of these blacks had no partin the rebellion.
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After Nat Turner’s rebellion the state of Virginia passed stronger laws tocontrol
slaves. The legislation included bans on reading, gathering, andtraveling.
Even with stronger laws in place, many slaves continued taking huge risks in an
effort to win their freedom. From about the end of 1700s to the middle of the
1800s, thousands escaped slavery on what came to be called the "Underground
Railroad."
The Underground Railroad was not a real railroad. It was a group of people,both
blacks and whites, who secretly helped slaves escape to the North.
Members of the Underground Railroad helped slaves leave the places wherethey
lived and worked. These “conductors” took the escaping slaves to a safehouse
or business, called a “station.”
“Stationmasters” hid the escaped slave. Then at night, a different
conductortook him or her to another hiding place farther north. The process
wasrepeated every day and night until the escaped slave was safe in a free state,
or even in Canada.
A black woman named Harriet Tubman was perhaps the most famousconductor
on the Underground Railroad. She had been born a slave around1820. She
worked first in a house, and then in the fields, for an owner in theslave state of
Maryland.
Harriet Tubman was known for her bravery. One story people told about
herhappened when she was a teenage girl. An overseer — someone
whocontrolled the slaves in the field — became angry with another slave.
Hethreatened the man with a heavy weight.
Young Harriet stepped between the overseer and the other slave. Theoverseer
threw the weight. It hit her in the head. For the rest of her life HarrietTubman
suffered from the injury. It caused headaches, strange dreams, and — from
time to time — made her fall deeply asleep.
When Tubman was about 29, she suspected her owner would sell her. Soshe
decided to escape instead. One night she secretly walked away. Shewalked over
200 kilometers, following the North Star. Eventually, she arrivedin the city of
Philadelphia in the free state of Pennsylvania.
A year later, Tubman returned to Maryland. Shehelped her sister and her
sister’s children escape. Then she helped her brother and two other men.
Shehelped her parents, who were over 70 years old. And she helped many
others. In all, Tubman made as manyas 19 trips to the South. She led about 300
slaves tofreedom.
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Tubman and her “passengers” were never caught. Butif they had been, they
would have been severelypunished. Former masters were likely to beat, or
cutoff the hands of, escaped slaves.
The Compromise of 1850 made escaping slavery evenharder. One of the bills
Congress passed was theFugitive Slave Act. It said anyone who helped a
fugitive-- that is, an escaped slave -- would be fined. And, itsaid fugitive slaves
must be returned to their owner,even if they had escaped to a free state.
Fugitive slaves had no right to a trial. Because theycould not defend themselves
in court, even freed blackscould be kidnapped and enslaved.
In 1852, a white woman published a book about slavery. She called it
"UncleTom's Cabin."
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the book for one reason. She wanted to show how
cruel slavery was. Fugitiveslaves also published books about their experiences.
The stories painted a picture of slavery that mostpeople in the North had never
seen. They wereshocked. Public pressure to end slavery grewstronger.
Anti-slavery activists called Abolitionists wanted to freeall slaves immediately.
But even if that could be done,there was the question of what to do with the
freedslaves. In many places, it seemed impossible thatblacks and whites could
live together peacefully and infreedom. The best answer, some people thought,
was to free the slaves and help them return to Africa.
It was not a new idea. In the early 1800s, a group ofleading Americans had
formed an organization for thatpurpose. They called it the American
ColonizationSociety.
In 1820, the Society began helping to send blacks toAfrica. The blacks formed a
government of their own. In 1847, they declaredthemselves independent. They
called their new country, the Republic ofLiberia. The country had a constitution
like that of the United States.
By 1854, 9,000 blacks from the United States had gone to Liberia. Some
hadtechnical skills. They knew how to make iron. They knew how to use
steamengines and other machinery. The American Colonization Society hoped
theywould use their skills to help improve life for the African people.
But it could not be denied that the plan was a way to get black people out of the
United States. Many whites refused to accept the fact that most freeblacks did
not want to go to Africa. They had grown up in the U.S. For betteror worse, it
was their home.
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The continuing struggle over slavery will be our story next week. I’m
SteveEmber, inviting you to join us next time for The Making of a Nation —
Americanhistory from VOA Learning English.
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