BLST101: Discussion 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Includes discussion prompts and answers (Graded A by Prof. Cook) / 2022

Discussion 1 Slavery destroyed the Black family. Up until 1640 black people had existed in America as servants rather than slaves; “only starting in the 1640s do records indicate a prediction toward making black people slaves rather than servants” (57). Thus during that decade the idea of black people being sold for lifetime service to their masters began to grow within the white population. This meant that men, women, and children could be sold separately at a high price. While slaves of African descent tried to maintain their family ties through naming and retaining extended family ties similar to those of native Africa, slavery strained their efforts extensively. Families could be broken up by the selling of a father or the son to another plantation. Moreover, “enslaved Africans in plantations suffered a high mortality rate from diseases, overwork, and poor treatment” (62). Thus many families had a single parent, mostly the mother. With ever increasing deterioration in their living conditions under slavery, black families tried to preserve their African traditions and to forge stronger bonds with each other. However, the Black family was still under constant strain from slavery. For instance, women who worked as house maids and helps were often sexually abused by their masters. This resulted in increased “psychological damage on African-American women and their mates” further straining their families. “In particular, the sexual abuse of black women by white men disrupted the emerging black families in North America because black men usually could not protect their wives from it” (71). When slavery eventually came to an end, most black families were broken up by hardships caused by limitations to their socio-economic possibilities further destroying the black family. Discussion #3: Was the Civil War fought over slavery? While there are a number of factors that led to the civil war, there is no doubt that the civil war was mainly fought over slavery. The conflict and the lack of sympathy between the northern and southern states was precipitated by each sides view on slavery; with the south strongly advocating for slavery while the north pushed for abolition. As discussion three reading notes, the push for secession in the southern states, which eventually led to one of the most brutal wars in American history, was as Jabez L. M. Curry, stated in 1860 that “secession meant deliverance from abolition domination because under Republican rule the South’s slave-based social system would be assaulted, humbled, dwarfed, degraded, and finally crushed out” (316). Thus the whites of the Southern states felt that abolition of slavery as a consequence of the rise of Republicans in Washington, mostly Northerners, would bring equality between former slaves and their masters effectively threatening their power and authority.