The Relationship Betwen Masters

& Slaves Till 1861 Essay, Research Paper

It is possible to say that the period between the end of the Revolution and the beginning of the Civil War was the most important in terms of the development of the so called ” Peculiar Institution ” of slavery. In order to define the changing master – slave relationship, one must look at the historical background to Southern slavery. The defining characteristics or outside influences provide the key to an understanding of the master – slave relationship during this period. __Slavery seemed a very mutable institution which changed constantly to adapt to the different situation. The main contention of this essay is that, what started off as an essentially economic institution in order to help boost production of staple crops like, cotton, sugar, and tobacco, developed into the definitive characteristic of the emerging Ante – Bellum South. As the Civil War seemed inevitable in 1861 one of the key questions was whether the South would be able to protect it’s ” Peculiar Institution.” __Although slavery began in 1619, it was essentially confined _ ð73 _Što the Eastern seaboard states throughout the Seventeenth, and most of the eighteenth century. It wasn’t until after the Revolution that slavery really became the major source of Southern labour. Due to the continuing geographical expansion in the South the mainstay of the economy became the growing of staple crops like, sugar, tobacco and, later cotton. Along with certain technological inventions made it seem more likely that the Southern economy was going to be based on slave labour. As Boles argues in _Black Southerners_ ” before 1800 technological breakthroughs at both ends of the South made possible the remarkably rapid rise of a slave-staple crop society in the deep South.” _1_ __At the end of the Revolutionary period in 1790 there were 657,527 slaves, and by 1810 there were 1,163,854 _2_ This massive expansion meant that the key to success was in controlling these slaves, and making the most of of a profitable form of labour. This is one of the key elements to the development of the master slave relationship, a good planter was a man who ultimately had the most efficient and profitable plantation or small holding, in order to have this there had to be a certain degree of good slave management. There were many books written by Southerners on the effective management of slaves, this to some extent must have influenced the inter-relationship of master and slave. __One of the first points of the relationship was that of the slaves as property. They were afforded the same status of any other property, and slaveholders saw it as their right and duty to rule over ” their people “. A conservative constitution also made it possible for the masters to have total control over their property. This was the main argument that Southerners used in defence of slavery, that it was essentially their right to govern their property how they saw fit. __One very important point to make about the nature of the master slave relationship is it’s heterogeneity, each situation was slightly different, much of the nature of these relationships depended upon the personal actions of the master. it is very difficult to generalise about such a disparate number of states and masters. A common mistake is to accept the image of the large plantation of the Deep South with hundreds of slaves, this sort of plantation was definitely in the minority. The realities of slave life were very different. The majority of slaves, three quarters in fact, lived on plantations with less than 50 slaves, and the median amount of slaves on a plantation or farm was 23._3_ __With this smaller number in mind it is easier to see how a relationship was forged between master and slave. On many of the smaller plantations the master would work alongside the slaves with his direct authority over them first hand, as opposed to the larger plantations where quite often the owner was absent or not involved with the day to day running, handing over authority to a white overseer. __As slavery became a more widely used labour force so the terms and conditions they worked under changed. A hierarchy of power was set up in order to maintain an organised workforce that would bring in the highest profit. Slaves were roughly divided into either field hands or domestic servants. A domestic servant was looked upon as far better than a field hand as they were _ ð73 _Štrusted, loyal slaves, who because of this trust were allowed a relative amount of privileges and seemed to have a better standard of living. The slave masters soon caught on to the fact that in dividing the slaves into distinct groups and awarding greater privileges to some, and not others was an effective means of control. __After the initial period of development of the slave system, it becomes easier to see which direction the master – slave relationship was going. The phrase that many historians use for the relationship between slave and their masters is paternalism. This is the suggestion that some slaves were allowed a certain familial relationship with the owner of the land they worked on, and that through this paternalism slavery flourished. One can see that there was quite a concerted effort on behalf of Southern whites to foster this image of the comfortable, paternal relationship of master and slave during the mid nineteenth century. Much of this paternalistic philosophy was