Abstract
This paper examines how women and African-Americans represented two groups with limited rights in antebellum America. It looks at how, socially, both were considered to have a role and a place and how neither had complete rights when compared with white men in the same society. It also examines how both women and African-Americans were marginalized by both Northern and Southern society for the entirety of the antebellum period and how the marginalization of blacks and women allowed for a social hierarchy wherein every member of society had a clear place.

From the Paper
"The availability of social function to white women was not unlike the availability of religion to African Americans. Even on slave plantations slave owners considered it important to impress Christian values on their slaves. In James Mars' exploit, he explains how the minister who had owner his parents had arranged and carried out their marriage so that they could live a Christian life (3-5). That the slave-owners felt any importance in this is particularly interesting, in that Mars' mother already had a child by a previous white owner (Mars, 4). Previous sexual relationships or children would have been unacceptable in a white women looking to marry; however, the sexualization of African American women allowed white individuals to look the other way."

Tags:slaves, north, south, independence, cicil, war

Abstract
This paper focuses on the family structure of antebellum slave households, aiming to disprove the claim that male slaves intentionally designed their families to be matriarchal, without fathers. The paper contends that least half of U.S. Southern slave families were headed by two parent households and another 12 to 15 percent consisted of one part time parent, usually from another plantation who would visit regularly. The paper also asserts that slaves developed persistent family ties despite the threat of separation by sale and forced migrations. The paper concludes that the adversities faced by generations of slaves, designed to keep them chattel and perceived as less than human, did not deter their desire to seek mates, court, marry, and have children.

From the Paper
"The master's involvement in slave marriage was dependent on his involvement within the plantation. A present master had a more active approval of slave unions but the unions were not singularly dependent upon the approval of the master. Many could and did occur without his approval but usually with his knowledge. Unfortunately, sexual exploitation of the slave woman tended to be at the heart of asking permission. The sexual exploitation of slave women, prevalent throughout the slave holding community and evident in birth records, did not deter the slave's desire to engage in a loving, respectable relationship as much as an exploitive master would have liked. Even in these cases, slave men and women sought loving relationships and marriages outside of the masters' dominance. Dictated by respect for kinship elders or out of fear of the master, slaves sought approval to marry but generally did not seek approval to court or be courted by a potential mate. Permission to marry usually came after the establishment of a relationship and according to slave narratives, tended to surprise, and could enrage a master. Harriet Jacobs' master was told of her intention to marry a man of her choosing and his threatening reply included an offer to marry one of his slaves but she stood fast against his will. "Do you suppose, sir, that a slave can have some preference about marrying? Do you suppose that all men are alike to her?...If he is a puppy then I am a puppy, for we are both of the negro race. It is right and honorable for us to love each other." "

Tags:racism, plantation, slavemaster, southern

Abstract
This paper reviews and discusses the role of plantation wives and black slave women in the Antebellum south and examines various literary works written on this subject. The paper concludes by saying that the 1850s saw the end of slavery and Southern women produced novels describing plantation life in idyllic terms, obliquely responding to the abolitionists' critique of slave law.

From the Paper
"Despite the available sexual buffet the white male plantation owners have with their wives and female slaves, the "grin-and-bear-it" attitude of the plantation wives continues since outside the home abode the oldest profession was available to satisfy the variety needs of the alpha male. In Delfino and Gillespie Neither Lady nor Slave: Working Women of the Old South (2002), they acknowledged that there were "women who were 'unacknowledged professionals,' focusing on three lines of work that were open to women in the antebellum South. Two of these, at least, were viable options for women long before the market revolution: prostitution and convent life. E. Susan Barber argues that earlier historians, beholden to cultural narratives that denied interracial sex and exalted the sexual purity of white women, largely ignored the evidence of sexual commerce in the antebellum South. As she reveals in her exhaustive analysis of census records from Richmond, prostitution thrived in the city and could be particularly lucrative for women who owned brothels. (Delfino and Gillespie, 2002)" This clearly points out the supreme dominance of men in the area of sexual prowess because the availability of prostitution catered not only to the working man but all men in the strata of the society. "

Tags:women, freedom, civil, rights, slavery, black, slave, patriarchy, civil, war

Abstract
Slavery has been of significant importance in American history. During the antebellum period (1812 to 1864), slavery supported the economy of the United States, dominated politics, and eventually led to the war between the North and South. The paper shows that even after the Civil War, the legacy left behind by slavery continued to influence American history, from the Reconstruction era of the 1860s and 1870s to the struggle for civil rights during the 20th century.

From the Paper
"Slavery did not become as vital and profitable to the western Virginia economy, and this led many to believe that slavery actually harmed the economy and discouraged immigrants from settling in the region (West pg). Henry Ruffner and other abolitionists based their beliefs on economic and political ramifications rather than moral arguments."

Tags:slaveholders, secessionism

Abstract
This paper explains that, although there were tremendous differences in the everyday lives of free blacks and slaves, both groups faced considerable discrimination and were disadvantaged compared to similarly-situated white people. Next, the author relates the many different opportunities that free blacks had as compared to the situation of slaves. However, the paper underscores that, despite facing tremendous legal and social limitations, both slaves and free blacks have made enormous contributions to American society not only by supplying the labor to grow the economy but also by providing the social and political leadership to build communities, such as New Orleans.

From the Paper
"Obviously, for slaves the biggest complaint would be that they were treated as property. While pro-slavery advocates contended that this treatment did not bother slaves, one need only look at things such Dred Scott suing his master in an attempt to obtain freedom to realize that slaves did, indeed, desire freedom. However, while no complaint may have been as philosophically large as the fact that they did not have freedom, many slaves had a wide range of smaller complaints that probably took on greater importance in their daily lives."

Tags:harassment, new orleans, communities property, civic rights

Abstract
This paper summarizes three documents, which explain the social and political feelings of this era. It shows that the first is an article by a prominent doctor, Dr. Samuel Cartwright, entitled, "Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race". It was his purpose to validate the ownership of slaves as a means of providing shelter and industry to a race handicapped to such a degree that it could not prosper on its own. It then explains that the second document is the opinion of Justice Taney in the "Dred Scott v. Sanford" case of 1857. Here, it is legally determined that blacks of the pre-Civil War era do not have the rights of an American citizen. Finally, it discusses the third document, which is a speech presented to the United States Senate on March 4, 1858, by James Henry Hammond, wherein he argues that the black race is a slave race through natural law. All of these documents were written in the belief that slavery was a legitimate social institution based on the inferiority of the black race.

From the Paper
"The Southern plantation system was socially and economically dependent on slave labor to continue. The chattel slave was owned and had absolutely no rights, including the right to life, that was not controlled by the owner. The plantation owners did not consider slave labor to be 'free' inasmuch as the care and upkeep of the slaves was their responsibility.

In the 1840's a physician, Samuel Cartwright, created a psychiatric diagnosis called "drapetomania? that was specific to slaves - most notably found among freed slaves. The disorder was characterized by "a partial insensibility of the skin, and so great a hebetude of the intellectual faculties, as to be like a person half asleep, that is with difficulty aroused and kept awake. It differs from every other species of mental disease, as it is accompanied with physical signs or lesions of the body discoverable to the medical observer, which are always present and sufficient to account for the symptoms" (Internet source). The diagnosis is, of course, specific to the times. It was a way that the institute of slavery could be rationalized - by 'blaming the victim' - for the natural reactions to an unnatural situation."

Tags:abolition, south, north, black, race, Cartwright, Taney, Scott, Sanford

Abstract
This paper explores how female slaves in the South sought to rebel against their masters and their overseers in order to prove that their subtlety was more effective than techniques employed by rebellious male slaves.

From the Paper
"This essay investigates Ira Berlin's thesis (1974, 1976) that free Negroes in the antebellum United States formed a caste distinct from free whites and black slaves, and that this caste contained three distinct regional subcastes, in the North, the Upper South, and the Lower South. The investigation, using more recent and more detailed historiography, will consider whether Berlin's categories remain viable, whether they need to be replaced in toto, or whether they need merely further elaboration, and, if so, what sorts of elaboration will be needed.
The general perspective arrived at here is that Berlin's categories need detailed elaboration within each of his three major regions. Freed African-Americans formed local communities and unique personal identities that cannot be forced into Berlin.."

Abstract
This paper explores the movement towards abolition in Britain prior to the U.S. civil war. It compares the movement to that in the U.S. and the specific factors that brought upon the end to slavery in Britain.

From the paper:

"Abolition in Britain did not arise as a movement merely out of the goodness of people?s hearts but was rather the result of a number of complex forces. Abolition became a popular cause in part because of other reforms that were occurring in British society and politics at the time and in part because it was no longer economically advantageous to Britain ? as well as because it was to many morally repugnant."

Tags:Slavery, England, Politics, Quaker

Abstract
This paper consists of the transcription of an American antebellum letter from a daughter to a mother. Additionally, an analysis is conducted of what was being discussed in the letter in terms of the context of American antebellum and Civil War history as well as women's history and the way in which illness in nineteenth-century America was contracted.

From the Paper
Note to Client: There are a few blank spaces left in the transcription of the letter because I just couldn't make out the word(s) in those places. You might be able to figure out these few words on our own, but if not, let your teacher know you tried. Thanks. Letter to Mrs. Caroline Webb, From her Daughter Louisa This letter was sent to Mrs. Caroline Webb, of Glenn Springs, South Carolina. The letter reads as follows: Dear Mother, I received your letter by Grandmother and was glad to hear from you. I think if the water helps you any you ought to stay. Give our love to Pa we

Tags:antebellum, letter, illness