Three Perspectives on The
Peculiar Institution of Slavery
Mr. Daniel Lazar
Slaves Were Submissive and Accommodating.
Why? Six Factors…
1. Economic Reasons
2. Sociological Reasons:
– Cooley’s Looking Glass Self & The Social
Construction of The Self
– Broken Families
3. Geographical Reasons
4. Intellectual Reasons:
–
–
Soft Sciences, e.g. Fitzhugh
Hard Sciences, e.g. Harvard Cranial
“Studies”
1. Slaves Were Submissive and Accommodating. Why? Six Factors
5. Psychological Factors
– Socialization from Cradle
to Grave
– Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
– Bigotry of Low
Expectations
– Slave Auctions
– Chris Williamson
Slaves Were Submissive and
Accommodating. Why? Six Factors
6. Religious Factors
• When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod
so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be
punished. If, however, the slave survives for a day or
two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own
property. (Exodus 21:20-21)
• You may purchase male or female slaves from among
the foreigners who live among you. You may also
purchase the children of such resident foreigners,
including those who have been born in your land. You
may treat them as your property, passing them on to
your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat
your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your
relatives, must never be treated this way. (Leviticus
25:44-46)
Slaves Were Submissive and
Accommodating. Why?
6. Religious Factors (cont.)
• Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and
fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ.
(Ephesians 6:5)
• Christians who are slaves should give their masters full
respect so that the name of God and his teaching will not be
shamed. If your master is a Christian, that is no excuse for
being disrespectful. You should work all the harder because
you are helping another believer by your efforts. (1 Timothy
6:1-2)
• "Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to
try to please them, not to talk back to them" (Titus 2:9)
• "Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it,
not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but
with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord."
(Colossians 3:22)
Really?
…Were slaves submissive and
accommodating?
No.
…Resist by any means necessary!
Acts of Individual Resistance
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Sit-down Strikes
Laziness, Stubbornness & Faking Illness
Suicide & Mutiny on the High Seas
Abortion and Baby Killing
Self-Inflicted Wounds
Arson
Poisoning Masters
→Celia: Ground glass and spiders in buttermilk
Breaking Tools
Acts of Individual Resistance
• Runaways
– To Canada, Mexico, FL & LA (before they were slave states)
– To the North
• Underground Railroad
• Worked for abolitionists
• Became lawyers in the North
• Joined Union Army
Acts of Individual Resistance
The Power of the Pen
• Olaudah Equiano
• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• David Walker ($10,000 alive, $1,000 dead)
Organized Rebellion: Amistad Case (1839)
Organized Rebellion: Gabriel Prosser (1800)
Organized Rebellion: Denmark Vesey (1822)
Organized Rebellion: Nat Turner (1831)
Organized Rebellion: John Brown (1859)
Why Rebel?
• Obvious response: hard times and a desire for justice
• The rhetoric of freedom, independence, equality, liberty
and democracy
• Rumors of conspiracy and insurrection elsewhere.
Sometimes started by fearful whites.
• Slaves often raised in a culture of violence.
• Increased education
• For public sympathy
• The racism of white abolitionists left many slaves
seeking an alternative
→Hard to say whether or not such rebellions were
productive or counterproductive.
• Why do we hear so little of slave revolts?
• Maybe because these are exceptional
situations and NOT the norm?
• So were the slaves best characterized as
rebellious revolutionaries?
No…
3. Peaceful Cohabitation: The Overlooked
Peculiarity of the Peculiar Institution
• A slave was worth US$60,000 in today's money
(Princeton)
• Neither slaves nor slave-owners were ignorant
of a simple fact: times were tough, the were codependent and they had to make the best of
challenging circumstances
→poetry, music, art, magic, worship, dancing…
• “The cotton was high and the corn was growing
fine.”