In 1824 a young Virginia aristocrat named Richard Thompson Archer migrated to Mississippi. Joining in the boom years of expansion in the Magnolia State in the 1830s, Archer built a vast cotton empire. He and his wife, Ann Barnes, raised a large family at Anchuca, their home plantation in Claiborne County, Mississippi. From there Richard Archer ruled a domain that included more than 500 slaves and 13,000 acres of land. On the eve of the Civil War he was one of the wealthiest men in the South. This work examines the life of Richard Archer from his origins in Amelia County, Virginia, to his death in Mississippi in 1867. It takes as its thesis the theme of Archer's life: his burdens as proprietor of a vast cotton empire and as father figure and provider for a large extended family. This theme weaves together the strands of Archer's life, including his rise to the position of great planter, his duties as husband and father, and his political beliefs and activities. Archer's story is told against the background of the history of Mississippi and of the South, from their antebellum heyday, through the Civil War, and into the early years of Reconstruction. Archer was an aristocrat but also a businessman, a paternalist but also a capitalist. He enjoyed his immense wealth and the power of his position, but he maintained a heavy sense of the responsibilities that accompanied that wealth and power. Archer pursued his business and his family interests with unyielding tenacity. To provide for the well- being and security of his large extended family and of his slaves was his life's mission. Although the Civil War destroyed much of Archer's empire and left him in a much reduced financial state, his family survived the war and Reconstruction with several of their plantations intact and with their social position preserved.

Republicanism, a long-standing ideology, which embodied political liberty, virtue, and constitutional law, shaped America’s political culture from the country’s inception. The Republican Party’s formation in the 1850s was no exception to this rule. Paying close attention to the social and political climate in Massachusetts, this thesis will journey through the United States’ turbulent antebellum years and examine how the abolitionist organization known as the Boston Vigilance Committee (BVC) fashioned the contours of this anti-slavery party. Although scholars debate the committee’s origins, by 1846 members increased and expanded their activism in protecting escaped slaves from being returned to slavery and in assisting fugitives to freedom. By standing on moral, economic, and legal ground, Vigilance Committee members transformed Boston’s political culture and helped mobilize Northern support for an anti-slavery agenda that founded the Republican party and ultimately culminated in slavery’s eventual demise. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This dissertation reveals the origins of one of early US history’s most frequently evoked concepts: the northern “free state.” Beginning in the colonial era and ending with the Civil War, “Slavery Is Slavery: Early American Mythmaking and the Invention of the Free State” follows two threads simultaneously: first, the changing meaning of the term “free state,” and, second, the politics of enslavement and freedom in New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, the three states whose relationship to slavery seemed most unsure at the Founding. Relying on the methods of conceptual history, this dissertation reveals that for the first several decades of US history, “free state” signified a self-governing, republican entity, and the phrase only came to be associated with slavery after around the year 1820. Even then, the exact geography it represented remained contested, especially in the lower Mid-Atlantic. The confluence of a developing free labor economy and growing northern antislavery sentiment combined to create the conditions for the “free state” to take on a new meaning—the one historians have inherited and continue to employ today.

Bibliography: pages 164-177. / This dissertation is primarily concerned with the functioning of the law in the Cape Colony in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as it pertained to slaves and masters (and to a lesser extent Khoi servants). It examines the operation of the law in one particular rural district, namely, Stellenbosch in the years c.1760-1820. The chief primary sources include criminal -- and on a smaller scale civil -- records of the local and central courts of the colony. Travellers' accounts have also been utilised. The study of one particular rural district reveals the extent to which the law was intricately woven into the fabric of the settler 'community'. Despite differentials of wealth, the settlers in Stellenbosch district were essentially part of a community of slaveholders. The contours of the settler community fundamentally influenced every step of the legal process. Members of the settler community were in a situation of face-to-face interaction. This meant that often, in conflicts between settlers, recourse to the law was seen as a last resort and mo.re emphasis was placed on the maintenance of personal social relationships. However, this community, of which a landed elite stood in the forefront, had discordant features and domination of the poor by the rich did not go without any struggle. The features of the settler community also fundamentally influenced the position of slaves in the law. Access to the courts for the slaves for complaints against their masters was very significantly determined by conflicts which existed amongst slaveholders. In court the extent of solidarity amongst members of the community could ultimately determine the chances of success for slaves. Another way in which concerns of community influenced the legal process was by the importance which was attached to the reputations of individual slaveowners. Often such concerns overrode strictly legal ones. Even in determining the severity of sentences in criminal cases reputations of individuals were of primary importance. The VOC not only served to bolster the authority of slaveowners but also to keep the wider society in control. Therefore, it could not allow slaveholder tyranny over their labourers to go unchecked. Moreover, the legal system had to be more than simply an instrument in the hands of the master class. At the local level, the VOC could be seen to be acting in the interests of the wider society by listening to the complaints of slaves and prosecuting individual masters. Roman common law, as opposed to statutory law, was the law most commonly used in criminal cases involving slaves. This had two important implications. Firstly, Roman law did not deny the slave any personality and prosecutors constantly reminded slaveowners that slaves were persons. Secondly, Roman law had an apparent universality in that its dictates were made applicable to all in society. These factors combined to make the law perform a hegemonic function.

No description available.

This dissertation focuses on the human experience during enslavement in nineteenth-century Puerto Rico, one of the last three localities to outlaw the institution of slavery in the Americas. It reviews the history of slavery and the plantation economy in the Caribbean and how the different European regimes regulated slavery in the region. It also provides a literature review on archaeological research carried out in plantation contexts throughout the Caribbean and their findings. The case study for this investigation was Hacienda La Esperanza, a nineteenth-century sugar plantation in the municipality of Manatí, on the north coast of the island. The history of the Manatí Region is also presented. La Esperanza housed one of the largest enslaved populations in Puerto Rico as documented by the slave census of 1870 which registered 152 slaves. The examination of the plantation was accomplished through the implementation of an interdisciplinary approach that combined archival research, field archaeology, anthropological interpretations of ‘material culture’, and geochemical analyses (phosphates, magnetic susceptibility, and organic matter content as determined by loss on ignition). Historical documents were referenced to obtain information on the inhabitants of the site as well as to learn how they handled the path to abolition. Archaeological fieldwork focused on controlled excavations on four different loci on the site. The assemblages recovered during three field seasons of archaeological excavations served to examine the material culture of the enslaved and to document some of their unwritten experiences. The study of the material culture of Hacienda La Esperanza was conducted through the application of John C. Barrett’s understanding of Anthony Giddens’ theory of structuration, Douglas Armstrong’s cultural transformation model, and Paul R. Mullins’ notions of consumerism and identity. Research results showed that the enslaved individuals of Hacienda La Esperanza were active yet highly restricted participants and consumers of the local market economy. Their limited market participation is evidence of their successful efforts to exert their agency and bypass the administration’s control. As such, this dissertation demonstrates that material life, even under enslavement, provides a record of agency and resistance. The discussion also addressed the topics of social stratification and identity. / Anthropology

A study of the influence of Negro slavery on Emerson's concept of freedom.

The relationship between Texas Baptists and slavery is studied with an emphasis on the official statements made about the institution in denominational sources combined with a statistical analysis of the extent of slaveholding among Baptists. A data list of over 5,000 names was pared to 1100 names of Baptists in Texas prior to 1865 and then cross-referenced on slaveownership through the use of federal censuses and county tax rolls. Although Texas Baptists participated economically in the slave system, they always maintained that blacks were children of God worthy of religious instruction and salvation. The result of these disparate views was a paradox between treating slaves as chattels while welcoming them into mixed congregations and allowing them some measure of activity within those bodies. Attitudes expressed by white Baptists during the antebellum period were continued into the post-war years as well. Meanwhile, African-American Baptists gradually withdrew from white dominated congregations, forming their own local, regional, and state organizations. In the end, whites had no choice but to accept the new-found status of the Freedmen, cooperating with black institutions on occasion. Major sources for this study include church, associational, and state Baptist minutes; county and denominational histories; and government documents. The four appendices list associations, churches, and counties with extant records. Finally, private accounts of former slaves provide valuable insight into the interaction between white and black Baptists.

Modernt slaveri är ett samlingsbegrepp innefattande människohandel, tvångsarbete och slavliknande metoder och utgör ett globalt problem av mycket allvarlig karaktär. Även i industriländer såsom Sverige och Storbritannien förekommer offer för modernt slaveri. Förekomsten av modernt slaveri är dock som störst i utvecklingsländer, framförallt i Asien, där många multinationella företag har sina leverantörer. I oktober år 2015 trädde brittiska Modern Slavery Act 2015 i kraft, som omfattar företag verksamma i Storbritannien med en omsättning över 36 miljoner pund. Det medför att även stora svenska företag såsom H & M, Sandvik, IKEA och Saab omfattas av lagen. Lagen innebär att berörda företag måste publicera ett uttalande för varje räkenskapsår avseende de faktiska steg företaget tagit för att säkerställa att modernt slaveri varken förekommer inom den egna organisationen eller i dess leverantörskedjor. Har inga sådana aktiviteter företagits, måste företaget likväl enligt lagen publicera ett uttalande som i sådant fall redovisar just detta. Det ställer krav på företagen och deras hållbarhetsarbete, både ur aspekten att det blir enklare för konsumenter att jämföra företag sinsemellan men också genom en ökad press på företagen att kunna redovisa faktiska åtgärder. I uppsatsen undersöks hur två stora svenska företag, IKEA och Saab, arbetar med socialt hållbarhetsarbete idag, i syfte att analysera de troliga konsekvenserna för berörda svenska företag av Modern Slavery Act 2015. Vidare besvaras i uppsatsens analys frågan om Sverige bör införa motsvarande lagstiftning i syfte att utvidga svenska företags sociala ansvarstagande. Slutsatsen är att Modern Slavery Act 2015 kommer innebära att berörda svenska företag är tvungna att se över sitt hållbarhetsarbete. Hur stora konsekvenserna blir beror på vilken bransch företaget verkar i, vilken förväntan samhället har på företaget sedan tidigare samt hur omfattande företagets befintliga hållbarhetsarbete är. Det torde vara en fördel för Sverige att införa liknande lagstiftning, framförallt ur aspekten att problemet med modernt slaveri konkretiseras, uppmärksammas och uppmuntrar företagen till att vidta faktiska åtgärder.

The overall aim of the study is to investigate how 12 Years a Slave can help raise awareness among upper secondary students about racism and to inspire sympathy with the characters presented in passages regarding the cruelty and injustice of slavery. The study is based on literary didactics methods, applied to the textual analysis of the passages, to create a hypothetical scheme for teachers that can be used to work with slave narratives in the classroom. The analysis of the passages, in conjunction with the literary didactics methods used, provides methods through which students may increase their awareness of racism and sympathize with the characters in the book by creating their own plays, reenacting the cruelty committed against slaves. Also, when dealing with the injustice of slavery, students can imagine themselves being present even though they will not be able to experience it physically. This may help students sympathize with the main character and help them understand racism from the victim’s point of view.