PBS PROJECT

SLAVERY IN THE CONSTITUTION

• The word slavery was kept out of the constitution and that is very significant.
• Many people were sensitive to that word and felt it wasn't appropriate to be in the constitution.
• The word brought a tremendous amount of shame.
• "Slavery" or "slave" never appears in the constitution as a word.

SLAVES IN THE CONSTITUION

• the time these words were written, more than 500,000 black Americans were slaves.
• Jefferson himself owned more than 100.
• Slaves accounted for about one-fifth of the population in the American colonies.
• Most of them lived in the Southern colonies, where slaves made up 40 percent of the population
• (Outside source)

SLAVERY IN THE CONSTITUION

• Many colonists, even slave holders, hated slavery.
• Jefferson called it a “hideous blot” on America
• George Washington, who owned hundreds of slaves, denounced it as “repugnant.” James Mason, a Virginia slave owner, condemned it as “evil.”
• (Outside source)

Untitled Slide

SLAVERY IN THE CONSTITUTION

• Although four key provisions of the Constitution dealt with slavery, the words "slave" and "slavery" were not mentioned a single time.
• In each case, "Person" or "Persons" appear as euphemisms for slaves and slavery.

RELIGION ( outside source)

• Religion was also a driving force during slavery in the Americas. Once
• although the assertion of evangelisation was one of the justifications for enslaving Africans, very little missionary work actually took place during the early years.
• In short, religion got in the way of a moneymaking venture by taking Africans away from their work.
• It also taught them potentially subversive ideas and made it hard to justify the cruel mistreatment of fellow Christians.
• However, some clergy tried to push the idea that it was possible to be a 'good slave and Christian' and pointed to St Paul's epistles, which called for slaves to 'obey their masters', and St Peter's letters (1 Peter 2: 18-25), which appeared to suggest that it was wholly commendable for Christian slaves to suffer at the hands of cruel masters.

CHRISTIANITY AND RELIGION

• The possibility that conversion to Christianity might result in the freedom of their enslaved people meant that the majority of rice planters, indigo planters, [and] sugar planters were absolutely opposed to any and all attempts to Christianize their slaves.

Untitled Slide

CHRISTIANITY AND SLAVERY

• This was not a distant, far-away God in some kind of institutional church, but it was a God, said the evangelicals, involved in the daily lives of people, involved in every thought and every deed of your life.
• ...There had never been anything like it. Here's a meeting of 3,000 people out in a field, blacks and whites together, listening to a preacher who says, "Here in my message is a new life for you, here's a new chance for you. Here's a God who had your interest at heart. Here's a God who may deliver you. - David Blight, historian
• Converting to Christianity became part of accepting America as home.
• Africans brought to America initially resisted giving up the religions of their forefathers, but over the years, and with the birth of new generations on American soil, accepting Christianity became part of accepting America as home
• Over time, large numbers of slaves found the biblical message of spiritual equality before God appealing and found comfort in the biblical theme of deliverance

CHRISTIANITY TO SLAVES

• Not all slaves were Christian, nor were all those who accepted Christianity members of a church, but the doctrines, symbols, and vision of life preached by Christianity were familiar to most.
• Regular Sunday worship in the local church was paralleled by illicit, or at least informal, prayer meetings on weeknights in the slave cabins.
• Slaves forbidden by masters to attend church or, in some cases, even to pray, risked floggings to attend secret gatherings to worship God.
• Slaves faced severe punishment if caught attending secret prayer meetings.
• (Outside source)

CHRISTIANITY TO SLAVES

• Slaves devised several techniques to avoid detection of their meetings.
• One practice was to meet in secluded places—woods.
• Sometimes they would … want a real meetin’ with some real preachin’.… They used to sing their songs in a whisper and pray in a whisper.”
• (Outside source)

FAMILY AND SLAVERY

• Family created a world outside of work for slaves.
• It allowed for significant others.
• It allowed a male slave to be more than just a brute beast. It allowed him to be a father, to be a son.
• It allowed women to be mothers and to take on roles that was outside of that of a slave, of a servant.
• But in allowing for that, they allowed for a whole world to develop, because out of families came communities.

FAMILY IN SLAVERY

• It is sacred because these are people who one eats with, one worships with, one commiserates with.
• They are people to whom one can take one's sorrow to.
• They are people who take care when slavemasters whip.
• These are people who will soothe and administer.
• It's from the slave community, and particularly from the women of the community, that most of the health care comes from.

MARIAGE AND FAMILY IN SLAVERY

• Even after a slave's marriage, his or her master still commonly decided when slave husbands and wives could see each other, if and when they could live or work together, the fate of their children, and sometimes even the number of children they had.
• One's master might have had the final authority, but there also were other slaves and slave institutions that exerted influence, perhaps more influence than masters realized.
• The act of “jumping the broom” as part of slave marriage ritual is important to consider, not only because it was a popular practice,

INCIDENTS IN SLAVE FAMILY

• My food was passed up to me through the trap-door my uncle had contrived; and my grandmother, my uncle Phillip, and aunt Nancy would seize such opportunities as they could, to mount up there and chat with me at the opening.
• This was not safe in the daytime. It must all be done in darkness.
• we were alone in the world, and we had left dear ties behind us; ties cruelly sundered by the demon Slavery.

IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY TO SLAVES

• "Although slave marriages and family ties lacked legal sanction, and owners were free to sell husbands away from wives and parents away from children, most African Americans married and lived in two-parent households.
• In 1850, approximately 64 percent of all slaves lived in two parent families and 25 percent in single-parent families.
• (Outside source)

John A. Copeland: LAST WORDS TO FAMILY

• In a letter written to his parents, brothers, and sisters from within a Charlestown jail cell -- just a few hours before his execution -- Copeland explained that he blamed no one but himself for his fate and that "we shall meet in heaven, where we shall not be parted by the demands of the cruel and unjust monster Slavery."
• John A. Copeland, a member of John Brown's band of men who raided the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, was captured, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death by a court in Charlestown, Virginia
• But think not that I am complaining, for I feel reconciled to meet my fate. I pray God that his will be done, not mine.

CITATIONS

• Data, Slave. "Slave Marriage and Family Relations." Slave Marriage and Family Relations. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2013.
• Oliver, Horton J. "The Constitution and Slavery." - Constitutional Rights Foundation. N.p., 2005. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.
• "The Secret Religion of the Slaves | Christian History." The Secret Religion of the Slaves | Christian History. Christianity Today, n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2013.
• African-American Families." African-American Families. Fact Book, n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2013.