Tous les articles sur la thématique "Fugitive Slave Law"

Underground saison 1 photo

Underground saison 1

by · Lecture: 1 minute

Underground est une série télévisée américaine créée par Misha Green et Joe Pokaski, et diffusée sur la chaîne WGN America.

La série se déroule au XIXème siècle, pendant ce que les historiens appellent l’Antebellum Era ou encore Plantation Era.

Elle suit à la fois la quête de liberté d’un groupe d’esclaves travaillant dans une plantation de coton et la mise en place du chemin de fer clandestin (“Underground Railroad”).

Un groupe d’esclaves planifie une échappée téméraire, délaissant leur plantation de Géorgie pour aller se réfugier à plus de 600 miles de là.

En chemin, ils sont aidés par un couple d’abolitionnistes secrets qui sont en charge d’une station de l’Underground Railroad. Le groupe tente par tous les moyens de fausser compagnie aux gens chargés de les ramener à la plantation – morts ou vifs.

Brother Dege - Too Old to Die Young photo

Brother Dege – Too Old to Die Young

by · Lecture: 1 minute

J’ai regardé Django Unchained avec mes Premières la semaine dernière et dans la bande originale du film, j’aime beaucoup le morceau Too Old to Die Young de Brother Dege, un artiste du deep south des Etats-Unis :

C’est catchy !

J’ai bien aimé le film aussi, pas aussi violent qu’annoncé, surtout si on le considère comme un western (qui par définition est violent).

Le traitement de la question raciale et du racisme aux USA aide bien à la prise de parole. Je m’arrête là, sinon je vais faire la critique du film ;-)

Life in the Plantations photo

Life in the Plantations

by · Lecture: 3 minutes
  1. Introduction to Puritanism and Expansionism
  2. Antebellum South
  3. Life in the Plantations
  4. USA: North and South
  5. O’Sullivan’s Manifest Destiny
  6. The social context of America in the early 19th century
  7. The American Civil War: 1861-1865
  8. America: The New Nation
  9. After the American Civil War: The Reconstruction
  10. America: West to the Pacific
  11. Years of Growth

Introduction

Most slaves were forced to work long hours under close supervision. Most slaves could rely on their masters for basic welfare: clothes, food, and shelter.

On many plantations, slaves grew their gardens and some even enjoyed a few holidays or received some rewards.

Subjugation and resistance

Concerning the problem of subjugation, the slaveholders tightly circumscribed the world of their slaves: they had to carry passes with them when they were off the plantation and were forbidden to go out at night.

There were slave patrols, vigilant in finding offenders. Punishment was severe and quick.

As a means to prevent communication, the Slave Code forbade teaching slaves how to read and write; but about 10% of the slaves risked punishment to achieve literacy: the ability to read and write was understood to be the key to freedom.

Concerning resistance, the degree to which slaves resisted their subjugation reinforced the police state (1831: Nat Turner’s rebellion). Either they resisted or ran away.

A successful escape was very difficult. Despite the number of punishments, there were always runaways willing to take the chance of escaping and reaching the North.

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North and South photo

USA: North and South

by · Lecture: 6 minutes
  1. Introduction to Puritanism and Expansionism
  2. Antebellum South
  3. Life in the Plantations
  4. USA: North and South
  5. O’Sullivan’s Manifest Destiny
  6. The social context of America in the early 19th century
  7. The American Civil War: 1861-1865
  8. America: The New Nation
  9. After the American Civil War: The Reconstruction
  10. America: West to the Pacific
  11. Years of Growth

The cotton industry

Cotton was the main crop in the South and the first industry in Georgia. Georgia planters exported their cotton to England but it was not treated.

Thanks to Whitney’s invention, the “Cotton Gin” (Cotton Engine – 1793), which separated the seeds from the fibres, a huge increase in the amount of cotton produced was made possible. In 1820, the output was 8,000 times higher than in 1791.

The increase was achieved by bringing in more slaves to pick the cotton. The prosperity of the planters depended more and more on slavery and Southerners broke away from the US.

Slavery is the root of Southern wealth and industry. It is an institution in the South, as well as their peculiar way of life. The “Cotton Gin” brought about slavery and the Civil War.

In 1810, there were 7,2 million people in the USA and among those people 1,2 million black slaves.

Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, owned slaves himself and had a black mistress with whom he had children. Georges Washington, as a land owner, owned slaves too.

Southerners defending the right of slavery asked an unanswerable question: how could they cultivate their fields of tobacco, rice, and cotton without slave workers?

The situation was different in the North: the climate was cooler and the farms were smaller so there was no need for slaves. Many Northerners were abolitionists.

By the 19th century, many Northern states had passed their laws to abolish slavery inside their boundaries. In 1808, they persuaded Congress to make it illegal to bring in new slaves from Africa. Gradually, North and South opposed each other.

The Missouri Compromise

In the 1830s, Northern and Southern politicians kept arguing: is slavery permitted in the new territories being settled in the West? The discussion focused on Missouri, which was part of the Louisiana Purchase.

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