Today, we are supposed to research about the different systems of slavery used during the 1800. My assignment is to write a blog entry about slavery whipping.
The law provided slaves with virtually no protection from their masters. On
large plantations this power was delegated to overseers or people who look over slaves and control them. These men were under considerable
pressure from their owners to maximize
profits. They did this by bullying the slaves into increasing productivity.
The main method used to control the behaviour of slaves was the threat of
having them whipped. The number of lashes depended on the seriousness of the
offence. As they knew that as blacks were unable to give testimony against white
people in court, overseers knew that they were fairly safe in handing out these
whippings. In September, 1844, the St. Louis Republican reported that a eight
year old black girl had been whipped to death. However, the master of the girl
was acquitted.
Women as well as men were whipped. This was one of the reasons why slaves
preferred to marry women from other plantations.
States with large numbers of slaves introduced their own slave codes. The
main idea behind these codes was to keep the slaves under the tight control of
their owners. The death-penalty was introduced for a whole range of offences.
Slaves could be executed for murder, rape, burglary, arson and assault upon a
white person. Plantation owners believed that this severe discipline would make
the slaves too scared to rebel.
here is the link of the picture and also source information:
http://ptcworldliterature2.blogspot.com/2010/10/physical-abuse-described-in-douglass.html
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASwhipping.htm
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