Courtney Krebs
Kieke UTL 303
April 7, 2010
Sample Document Based Question
Throughout history governments, groups, and individuals have violated basic
human rights. The United States also, has violated human rights at various points
throughout our history. One instance of this is the slavery of Africans during colonial
times until 1863. What was the purpose of slavery in the United States up until the
Emancipation Proclamation in 1863?
Instructions: Answer the question “What was the purpose of slavery in the US?”
using the following documents and discuss how slavery was a violation of human
rights?
Document 1
"Defense of Slavery in Virginia"
REVEREND PETER FONTAINE'S DEFENSE OF SLAVERY IN VIRGINIA (1757)
As to your second query, if enslaving our fellow creatures be a practice agreeable to
Christianity, it is answered in a great measure in many treatises at home, to which I refer
you. I shall only mention something of our present state here.
Like Adam, we are all apt to shift off the blame from ourselves and lay it upon others,
how justly in our case you may judge. The Negroes are enslaved by the Negroes
themselves before they are purchased by the masters of the ships who bring them here. It
is, to be sure, at our choice whether we buy them or not, so this then is our crime, folly,
or whatever you will please to call it.
But our Assembly, foreseeing the ill consequences of importing such numbers among us,
has often attempted to lay a duty upon them which would amount to a prohibition, such
as £10 or £20 a head; but no governor dare pass such a law, having instructions to the
contrary from the Board of Trade at home. By this means they are forced upon us,
whether we will or will not. This plainly shows the African Company has the advantage
of the colonies, and may do as it pleases with the Ministry.
Indeed, since we have been exhausted of our little stock of cash by the war, the
importation has stopped; our poverty then is our best security. There is no more picking
for their ravenous jaws upon bare bones; but should we begin to thrive, they will be at
same again. All our taxes are now laid upon slaves and on shippers of tobacco, which
they wink at while we are in danger of being torn from them, but we dare not do it in time
of peace, it being looked upon as the highest presumption to lay any burden upon trade.
This is our part of the grievance, but to live in Virginia without slaves is morally
impossible.
Before our troubles, you could not hire a servant or slave for love or money, so that,
unless robust enough to cut wood, to go to mill, to work at the hoe, etc., you must starve
or board in some family where they both fleece and half starve you. There is no set price
upon corn, wheat, and provisions; so they take advantage of the necessities of strangers,
who are thus obliged to purchase some slaves and land. This, of course, draws us all into
the original sin and curse of the country of purchasing slaves, and this is the reason we
have no merchants, traders, or artificers of any sort but what become planters in a short
time.
A common laborer, white or black, if you can be so much favored as to hire one, is 1s .
sterling or 15d. currency per day; a bungling carpenter, 2s. or 2s. 6d.. per day; besides
diet and lodging. That is, for a lazy fellow to get wood and water, £19 16s. 3d. current per
annum; add to this £7 or £8 more and you have a slave for life.
Subject: Justification of Slavery
Time: 1757
Place: Virginia
Point of View: Slave Owner
Main Point: In order to survive it was necessary to own a slave and more economical
than hiring a common laborer.
Document 2
Subject: Broadside Announcing Sale of Slaves
Time: 1769
Place: Charleston, South Carolina
Point of View: Company Providing Slaves
Main Point: Exposed slaves to Small Pox while on ship from Gambia because once a
person is exposed and survives they cannot get Small Pox again.
Document 3
FROM CASSIUS M. CLAY.
CINCINNATI, (OHIO,) Nov. 21. 1853.
GENTLEMEN:
Your kind letter of the 10th ints., inviting me to attend the Twentieth Anniversary of the
American Anti-Slavery Society, is received. I should be proud to be with the pioneers of
the cause of Liberty, on such a day, did time allow; but it does not. There is something
significant in your going South. You have "conquered a peace" in Boston. When you
were driven from New York, a few years ago, you immediately came in close sympathy
with a large class of stern men and women, who before stood aloof in their countenance
of your movement. New York is now won; and Philadelphia must now determine
whether gracefully, or no, she will submit to the unconquerable truth, and the progress of
the age! You are right when you class me with those who contend for "the speedy and
eternal overthrow of Slavery in our land, by all rightful instrumentalities." I value it
above all other questions. You fight outside of the Union; I within. So long as we agree in
purpose, we will agree to disagree in the means. I love "the Union" as much as the "Silver
Grays" or Southern canters; but I love it not for itself. I love it as the means to an end. I
love it as the exponent and conservator of the principles of man's equality and selfgovernment. I love it as the legacy of fathers who avowed that government had only its
authority from the consent of the governed. I love it as the guardian also of religious
liberty, and the true Christianity—that religion is between man and his god, and that no
man can rightfully, in this respect, exercise censorship over others. I love the Union as
the banner-bearer of the aspirants of Freedom of all ands and nations—lovely in order to
be loved. But when it fails in these "glorious" ends—and in these only "glorious"—then,
say I, let it perish for ever!
And as I thus love it, I shall make eternal war upon all those canting scoundrels, whether
in Church or State, who would pervert its true prestige to the retainment of Slavery, and
its extension and perpetuity. I return the war of lynchers and "respectable" mobs! I return
the war of those, however powerful, whose main business it is in these States to "crush
out Abolitionism!" I return the war of those who would, by sermons, tracts, or literature,
aid the reaction of anti-revolutionary avowals. I return the war of those, who, under the
hallowed names of Democracy and Republicanism, stand by foreign depotisms, and who,
amid blood and prisons, bear banners described with "law and order!" I return the war of
the supreme Courts of the United States, who, under the pretence of devotion to law,
pervert every principle of justice; of the President, of the slave Power, and of a servile
congress! With a manly heart, which may be beaten down, but never conquered, I shall
stand by you and all true men; and my voice shall ever be, "Don't give up the ship."
I am, truly, your friend, C. M. CLAY
GARRISON, President.
PHILLIPS, E. QUINCY, S.H. GAY, Secretaries
Subject: Abolitionist Movement
Time: 1853
Place: Cincinnati, Ohio
Point of View: Abolitionist
Main Point: Encouraging those in the Abolition movement.
Document 4
The Emancipation Proclamation
By the President of the United States of America:
A Proclamation.
Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United
States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the
people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then,
thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States,
including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the
freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of
them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate
the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then
be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof,
shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by
members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such
State shalamationl have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing
testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not
then in rebellion against the United States."
Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power
in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time
of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and
as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of
January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in
accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one
hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and
parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against
the United States, the following, to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson,
St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St.
Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama,
Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight
counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac,
Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of
Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as
if this proclamation were not issued.
And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all
persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and
henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States,
including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the
freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence,
unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when
allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be
received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations,
and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the
Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and
the gracious favor of Almighty God.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States
to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this first day of
January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the eighty-seventh.
By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
Subject: Emancipation Proclamation
Time: 1863
Place: United States of America
Point of View: President of the United States
Main Point: Freed all slaves in the United States and made all in suitable condition
eligible to enter the Armed Services.
Document 5
Subject: Abuse
Time: ?
Place: ?
Point of View: Slave
Main Point: Shows the abuse of slaves by whips.
Document 6
The Selling of Joseph
Forasmuch as Liberty is in real
value next unto Life: None ought
to part withit themselves, or
deprive others of it, but
upon most mature
Consideration.
The Numerousness of Slaves at this day in the Province, and the Uneasiness of them
under their Slavery, haht put many upon thinking whether the Foundation of it be firmly
and well laid; so as to sustain the Vast Weight that is built upon it. It is most certain that
all Men, as they are the Sons of Adam, are ; and have equal Right unto Liberty, and all
other outward Comforts of Life. God hat the Earth [with all its Commodities] unto the
Sons of Adam, Pal 115.16. And hat made of One Blood, all Nations of Men, for to dwell
on all the face of the earth, and hat determined the Times before appointed, and the
bounds of their habitation: That they should seek the Lord. Forasmuch then as we are the
Offspring of GOD &c. Act 17.26, 27, 29. Now although the Title given by the last
ADAM, doth infinitely better Mens Estates, respecting GOD and themselves; and grants
them a most beneficial and inviolable Lease under the Broad Seal of Heaven, who were
before only Tenants at Will: Yet through the Indulgence of GOD to our First Parents after
the Fall, the outward Estate of all and every of the children, remains the same, as to one
another. So that Originally, and Naturally, there is no such thing as Slavery. Joseph was
rightfully no more a Slave to his Brethren, then they were to him: and they had no more
Authority to Sell him, than they had to Slay him. And if they had nothing to do to Sell
him; the Ishmaelites bargaining with them, and paying down Twenty pieces of Silver,
could not make a Title. Neither could Potiphar have any better Interest in him than the
Ishmaelites had, Gen. 37, 20, 27, 28. For he that shall in this case plead Alteration of
Property, seems to have forfeited a great part of his own claim to Humanity. There is no
proportion between Twenty Pieces of Silver, and LIBERTY. The Commodity it self is
the Claimer. If Arabian Gold be imported in any quantities, most are afraid to meddle
with it, though they might have it a easy rates; lest if it should have been wrongfully
taken from the Owners, it should kindle a fire to the Consumption of their whole estate.
ÔTis pity there should be more Caution used in buying a Horse, or a little lifeless dust;
than there is in purchasing Men and Women: Whenas they are the Offspring of GOD, and
their Liberty is,
....Auro pretiosior Omni.
And seeing GOD hat said, He that stealeth a Man and Selleth him, or if he be found in his
hand, he shall surely be put to Death. Exod. 12.16. This Law being of Everlasting Equity,
wherein Man Stealing is ranked amongst the most atrocious of Capital Crimes: What
louder Cry can there be made of the Celebrated Warning…
BOSTON of the Massachusets
Printed by Bartholomew Green, and John Allen, June 24th, 1700.
Subject: Slavery
Time: 1700
Place: Boston
Point of View: Anti-Slavery Judge
Main Point: Refutes arguments for slavery using biblical passages.