Slavery+Gabcast+Assignment.-AH

The “peculiar institution” known as slavery, is a controversial issue even in modern times. When it was first established, the practice of enslaving African peoples used harsh methods and sometimes affected a person for their whole life. Nearer to the time slavery was abolished, the Southern slave holders argued that the “peculiar institution” had changed for the better. Slavery is a practice that was evil, but bettered itself closer to the time of its abolishment. Historians argue about slavery’s morals up to the present time. In the 1950’s this act of evil was compared to the Nazi concentration camps that harbored the Jews. When the enslavement of black persons began, this comparison wasn’t too far from the truth. Southern slave owners were known for whipping their slaves and keeping them dark when it came to social things such as education and religion. Although, the slave owners weren’t attempting to kill their slaves. Slaves were too valuable to be beaten to death. This wasn’t the case in the concentration camps. However, slavery changed with the changing economic situation. To every story there are two sides. This is the same when it comes to slavery. There’s the side that is evil and the side that is good. Slavery only started to paint a romantic side in the early 1900’s, right after it became abolished. Slave owners argued that they took care of their slaves. Slaves in the north might be unemployed, homeless, and starving. In the south the slave owners provided employment (some even paid their slaves despite their notoriousness for not paying them), food, housing, and care when they reached old age. In the 1970’s scholars began to say that slavery had paternalism to it. The slave owners treated their slaves more as their children, coaxing them into doing work. Slaves began to be looked at as humans not cattle, and that’s when their value to the owner really began to grow. They realized that if the slave was treated well, they’d get more out of them then if they were beaten constantly.  At the time of its establishment, the “peculiar institution” was looked down upon in society. Closer to its abolishment, the societies view didn’t change, but the methods used in slavery did. Slave owners began to treat their slaves more like humans as the economic times began to change. Instead of looking at slaves as if they were cattle, owners began to view them as humans. Some went to so far as to treat and care for them as if they were they’re children. Slavery changed with the times from a beginning of evil to an ending of happiness. 