Maggie Bradley
Professor McKinney
Slavery in the United States
October 15, 2014
Regaining Humanity
African Americans struggled to find their place in a setting where independence reigned supreme. Even though Americans adopted the phrase “all men are created equal,” slaves certainly faced severe inequity. It appeared that as long as the institution of slavery persisted, African Americans would be stripped of a human status and denied the unalienable rights of men. However, with strong creativity and determination, African Americans were able to regain some of their humanity and autonomy during a time when freedom was legally denied to them.
In generating a written Constitution, the founders perpetuated the unjust institution of slavery. The framers of the Constitution never explicitly mentioned slavery, but the majority of principles included in the document were concerned with the practice. In fact, eleven clauses have direct implications on slavery. Clauses such as the three-fifths, full faith and credit, fugitive slave, and slave trade all obviously pertain to the institution of slavery. In the three-fifths compromise, the framers decided to treat those in bondage as three-fifths of a person in order to determine the representation of a state based on its population. Despite the clause identifying slaves as part of a person, they were still not considered human; “rather, their presence was being acknowledged as a source of power and wealth, for their owners”. In the full faith and credit clause, states were required to recognize the official documents of other states. Therefore, all states had to accept the legitimacy of slavery. The same principle applied to the fugitive slave clause. No states were authorized to harbor fugitive slaves. Instead, they were required to recognize that the slaves were property that had been stolen and needed to be returned to their masters. These two clauses precluded any kind of freedom by ensuring bondage for life. In addition, the members of the Convention decided to let the slave trade continue for twenty years, an amount of time that Madison said would “produce all the mischief that can be apprehended from the liberty to import slaves”. Throughout the Constitution, the framers continued to promote the inequality and injustice of slavery. The document may have provided white citizens with freedom, but, by preserving the practice of slavery, it simultaneously bestowed unfreedom on African Americans.
Despite efforts to silence African Americans, they made their voices known by constantly finding ways to fight the repression outlined in both the Constitution and society. Some wrote formal petitions for freedom, expressing that they “were unjustly dragged by the cruel hand of power… [and] deprived of everything that hath the tendency to make life tolerable”. Others, such as Nat Turner, Gabriel Prosser, and Denmark Vesey, planned violent insurrections in order to obtain liberty. Sometimes, slaves like York or Harriet Jacobs would weigh all options and decide to run away in search of independence. Ultimately, all African Americans demonstrated that they were “willing to sacrifice” in order to prove their humanity and right to freedom.
Religion also played an extremely important role in the African Americans’ expression of their independence and humanity. Slaves were able to incorporate their own traditions into Christianity, resulting in an enriched form of religion. The slaves reclaimed control over their faith by devising this novel form of worship in which “they reinterpreted the elements of Christianity in terms of deep-rooted African religious concerns”. The traditional African idea of spirit possessions became an essential part of the conversion to Christianity. The call and response format of African music was incorporated into the prayers and sermons at Christian churches. Through the fabrication of alternative narratives of the faith, African Americans were able to include their experiences as slaves in religion. In these narratives, slaves began to believe that they were God’s chosen people who He would rescue from oppression. For those reasons, joining the Christian Church allowed the slaves to obtain some liberty. Thomas Cobb says, “Christian enlightenment elevated the slave from a position of mere chattel, and recognized him… as a person”. The Great Awakening promoted this notion of rehumanizing slaves. Preachers like George Whitefield began to see African Americans as worthy Christians. Whitefield even speculated that “negro children, if early brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, would make as great proficiency as any people’s children”. Christianity enabled African Americans to learn to read, bring forward grievances against whites, and cause others to question the righteousness of slavery. Thus, Christianity created a realm in which some equality between blacks and whites was possible. Although there was never total equality, the Christian Church definitely supplied African Americans with the opportunity to reassert some freedom and humanity.
In addition, masters’ attempts to treat slaves more paternalistically permitted African Americans to take advantage of even more opportunities for self-sovereignty. This kind of paternalism caused masters to view slaves “as inferior members of their own extended families”. Although slaves may have been inferior, masters believed that, as members of the family, they still required “care and support”. This kinder outlook restored the African Americans to a human status. Additionally, the new benevolent system presented African Americans with greater possibilities to exercise autonomy. Some masters switched to a task-system in which a slave was given a task to complete each day. As soon as the task was completed, the slave was free to stop working and fill the rest of the day in whatever way he or she saw fit. Masters would occasionally let slaves cultivate crops on privately owned plots or own horses. Consequently, individual African Americans could acquire some wealth that could be passed down to family members. In allowing the slaves some control over their lives, masters recognized the humanity of the slaves, thus reversing the process of commodification.
White slaveholders consistently attempted to exercise complete control over the slaves and render them invisible. African Americans refused to give in to this notion though. No matter the risk, they took every opportunity to fight to be seen as human beings. By constantly choosing to oppose subjugation and inequality, African Americans were able to regain their humanity. This victory prevented the completion of commodification, resulting in an institution that became much harder to justify and continue.
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