Book review: Slavery

Book review: Slavery

Main arguments of the reading

The author bases the chapter on civil war and claims that racial factors did not motivate slavery but economical. Zinn also talks about how slaves tried to resist and the various ways they used. Although they did not succeed, they still found ways of maintaining their dignity as human beings. Throughout history, historians have painted slavery as an isolated evil that was practiced in the southern states. However, Zinn states clearly state that this was not the case. On the contribution of white abolitionists, Zinn claims that black abolitionists were more involved and committed to the cause than their white allies. The author also argues that Lincoln was a skillful politician and a pragmatist, and not a heroic figure as people portrayed him to be.

Main evidence

He suggests that Americans created racism as a way of covering up for the brutality of African people through slavery. The slaves tried to resist to their owners with no effort. However, they used art, family, and friendship to maintain their dignity as human beings. They referred to this as “brief flashes” of freedom as it was the only way they felt free. The slave owners, however, feared the slaves’ resistance, so they found ways to divide them, thus conquering them.

They separated the white slaves from the black ones to prevent them from luring the white slaves into the resistance. This way, the black slaves ended up losing the strength due to a lack of reinforcements and enough workforce.

He states that the northern states, with the help of the U.S government, perpetuated slavery by cooperating with southern slave owners. This Act prolonged slavery in the SouthSouth of countries, which led to the toxic environment after the civil war. On Lincoln, the author claims that he was not heroic, but a pragmatist whose primary motivations for waging the civil war were preserving the Union, not ending slavery. Other writers like James Loewen claimed that Lincoln was a conflicted figure who largely transcended racism toward the end of his time in the white house.

 

Arguments and evidence

Slavery was a way of the Americans to mistreat the Africans into working for them. They tried to base slavery on a racial perspective when, in the real sense, it was an economic factor. The Americans needed to grow their businesses without working for it; therefore, they needed people to work for them, thus bringing in the Africans to work for them in the form of slavery.

Slavery was evident in the southern states, and it was conducted with the help of the U.S government. This means that Americans in power had the power to end slavery, but they chose not to due to the Act of racism, which they decided to practice over the Africans.

With these examples of evidence and arguments, I was able to understand how slavery came about in the 18^th century. I was also able to know why it lasted for so long as the Act passed in 1850 was supposed to end slavery, but instead asked the slave owners in the North to return them to the SouthSouth where they belonged.

 

Questions

Considering the slaves were to be compensated with land and money after the war, why did they choose to give the property to the slaves’ next of kin and not the original slaves who worked hard for that land?

Despite slavery ending and some slaves joining to fight the union army, how come the black soldiers were not being treated equally despite joining the war to fight for equality?

 

 

References

Arn, J. (2017). “A People’s History of the United States Chapter 9: Slavery without Submission, Emancipation without Freedom.” Litcharts. Litcharts, LLC.

Course Hero. (2019). A People’s History of the United States Study Guide. In Course Hero.