Slavery Comparative Analysis - Essay Example

? Running Head: Slavery Task Introduction The origin of the American civil war has been debated for many years, especially afterthe realism that slavery was a foremost issue in the war. The war, which started in 1861, was between the US and several Southern states slaves, with the prime cause being the forbearance of slavery in the South. However, due to the extent of the event and the varied consequences during and after the epoch, the happenings have been captured in diverse ways, often with some contradictions between authors. In this essay, I will give a comparative analysis of the construal of slavery in two books, James Macpherson’s ordeal by fire and Stanley Elkins’ slavery. Stanley Elkin was born in the 1930s in New York, and later became a Jewish American writer and a short tale novelist. Stanley Elkin is the writer of Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life (1959), describing the narration of slavery in Americas work was described as the most controversial and faced a lot of criticism. His writings motivated mostly by Tannenbaum’s study of slavery in North America and Brazil, “Slave and Citizen (1948)”, compared his study with the modern world to establish why the American slavery was exclusive. He died in May 31, 1995 after suffering multiple sclerosis since 1960. James McPherson was born in October 11, 1936 in valley city, North Dakota. He is an American civil war historian and is the George Henry '86 Professor Emeritus of United States olden times at Princeton University where he has taught since1962. He placed an added fifty years into learning American Civil war, in 1982; he wrote the ordeal by fire describing the American civil war. His other books comprise of, Marching Toward Freedom: Blacks In The Civil War, Ordeal By Fire: The Civil War And Reconstruction, Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution (1991); For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought In the Civil War (1997), Which Won the Lincoln Prize In 1998; Crossroads Of Freedom: Antietam (2002); Hallowed Ground: A Walk at Gettysburg (2003); and Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander In Chief (2008), Which Won The Lincoln Prize For 2009. Professor McPherson directed the AHA from 2003 to 2004. James McPherson’s ordeal by fire describes the societal, economic, political and ideological differences that led to a disastrous and intermediary event in American history. Modernization theme is carried out all through the book. McPherson explores the origin of war; slavery associated with war and at the start of war itself and later describes the consequences of the war. He disputes that the war and rebuilding were part of the stages in America’s modernization and that the Republican Party was the motivating force behind the idea of modernization. He proceeds to associate modernization with religion whereby Protestants were its main supporters while Catholics and southerners were against the idea of modernization, thus the vast difference between North and South America in terms of development. Stanley Elkin’s slavery book emphasized that there is a coercive nature in slavery and used the Nazi resemblance to make comparisons. Elkins focused on the effects because of slavery and the effects the camps had on the slaves too, which made them become more resistant, hence the harsh treatment by the slaveholders. He compared the slavery in the south to Nazism and in many ways, the slaves in the North were far much better than those in the south (Elkins, 1959). The shared mechanism that he believed emerged in both institutions was “infantilizing trend of complete authority”. They were referred to as property of their slaveholders. Elkin suggested that a major part of North American slavery lacked traditional checks of religion and law on the power of slave owners. Elkin combined knowledge of the history of the holocaust and slavery, he compared the outcome of the holocaust with American slavery something the earlier historians had left untouched. The religious society also had an immense influence on slavery; they contributed on how they felt about slavery. The southerners felt that slavery was a providential thing that was commissioned by God himself and was quoted in the scriptures (Elkins, 1959). According to McPherson, many movements were formed at the beginning of the Second Great Awakening, their main objective was to end slavery and eliminate racism and constitutional rights to all whether black or white. Slavery in the modern world is still believed to exist especially in the poorly developed south. The Ecclesiastical Council exempted itself from acting on the removal of the slave trade, arguing that slavery was a political institution and had no powers to legislate against it. As popularity on the elimination of the slave trade continued to widen, the Southern and Northern worshipers began conflicting. Northern preachers spread the gospel against slave trade and later led to the division among denominations, making the nation become more divided. The Baptists in the south extensively supported slave trade maybe because of economic reasons, while those in the north advocated against slavery and claimed that God could not condone inequality. The Catholic Church, conversely, partly supported slavery, some of the priests kept slaves at the same time others were against slavery. The Catholic Church of Mexico did not allow slavery and encouraged slaves to attend the services in the church though the slaveholders were reluctant to bring them. The Methodists did not believe in slavery and thought that it was against the religion. They were in the forefront to form antislavery movements and helped slaves run away from their masters. Its founder, John Wesley believed that slavery was the greatest form of evil ever seen and therefore, greatly condemned the vice. Some of the denominations in the south, which were associated with Methodist church include, African Methodist Episcopal (AME) and African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ). The slaves did not have any authority on their masters and, they had no freedom too since they were viewed as their master’s property; although a lot depended on their masters. McPherson says “For the slaves, there was no paradox: slavery was slavery, and freedom was the same” (Pp, 38). They would do anything they wanted with the slaves, be it sexual harassment or even murder. The slaves were not permitted to get married, earn money or even learn to read and write, if their masters found out that a slave had a family he would be punished or even killed for going against the law. Some of the slaveholders, though, permitted their slaves to have families and earn a little money to sustain their families. Later on occurrences, such as the Compromise of 1850 helped improve the conditions of the slaves and added to them some freedoms (McPherson, 2009). Despite the fact that they went through many challenges, they still had hope that slavery had an end. McPherson describes this as an “impressive example of survival in the face of adversity (McPherson, 2009).” They worked hard for the development of America despite the problems they faced. America was founded on the plan that the government was to play minimal responsibility in the affairs of culture and the economy, and is not supposed to take sides on any idea or view raised. This clearly defines the concept of liberalism, the idea of laissez-faire approach to both monetary and social strategy. America’s loyalty to laissez faire did not assist in alleviating slavery, and improving the conditions of the slaves, it made the government a ‘free environment’ that could not support or dismiss slavery. McPherson claims that capitalism worsened slavery; it did nothing to stop the slave trade as a result, the economy in the south was at its worst. The slaves in the south overworked to meet the demands of the Nothern’s industries that required raw materials. Conditions such as slavery, augmentation in the banks, America’s drive to grow its economy made capitalism increase. Laissez-faire economic strategy prevented the government from interfering with the affairs of their people, the white people who owned slaves in the south were wealthy while others suffered. It contributed in the destruction of independence, self-reliance and courage, this later developed to hatred, fear and ignorance among the slaves towards the whites. This explains the problem of racism in America; the whites still view the blacks as their property. One of the significant gains of capitalism for laborers is that workers are free to sell their skill to the employer who gave them the finest deal; this kind of freedom was limited, as they had to make a choice between feeding and working. The slaveholder would sell the slave for money, machinery or livestock. Stanley Elkins in his book focused widely on slavery while James McPherson did a fantastic job on the American civil war, its causes, effects, reconstruction and its association with slavery. McPherson does not consider slavery extensively; this makes Elkins the better author who talks about slavery although both authors tried to tackle the issue of slavery. He makes use of stories to examine the issue of slavery and focuses on how it started up to how they eliminated it. This answers on the question of the better author concerning the issue of slavery. The evidence provided by Elkins is quantifiable as it ensures that no aspect of slavery is left ‘untouched’ although he relied on other several authors to complete his work making it to a lesser extent anecdotal. McPherson does not rely heavily on other people’s writings making his substantiation more of quantifiable rather than anecdotal. Elkins argued that American slavery was more intense than the Latin American was (Elkins, 1959). Anecdotal writings are brief and give an account while quantifiable writings determine the amount. It is essential to study history of the country, so that we will be able to know historical dealings. In America, slavery is the most extensively studied aspect, before this it was considered as an irrelevant aspect of the American history. It is widely studied so that the students will be able to embrace forgiveness and make racism history amongst them. Slavery played a prominent role in economic and political development of the current world, though the slaves suffered from harassment, lack of food, clothes and housing. As for the church, it accommodated slavery and did not caution the slaveholders that it was not right to keep slaves; the church thus was active in encouraging slavery and keeping slaves. However, not all religious groups supported slavery in the north and south. The church of today is supposed advocate against slavery and the slave trade since they know the harm it can cause and it is against human decency. References Elkins, Stanley (1959). Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. McPherson, James (2009). Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction. New York, McGraw-Hill. Read More