Analyzing and Discussing Primary and Secondary Source Documents Essay

Analyzing and Discussing Primary and Secondary Source Documents - Essay Example Both the South and the North American sub- continent were very actively involved in slave trade and the slaves themselves who they relied on so much to work on their farms during the period of the agrarian revolution in America. Most slaves were drawn from the African continent due to the rise in the price of the slaves from the European continent (Olmsted, 1997). The next available opportunity therefore lied in Africa and as a result, a large bulk of slaves were drawn from the African continent to work on the American cotton farms that were rapidly expanding in size and increasing in demand as more industries set up their operations across the continent. Many of these slaves were kept and transported under very pathetic conditions. The slaves had totally no rights for their lives and their daily lives were determined by their masters who were as well very cruel and inhuman in the way they dealt with the slaves. However, there was a sharp and stern contrast in the manner in which sla ve trade and slavery was practiced in the southern and the northern parts of the American continent. This document will look at the underlying differences which existed in the manner in which slaves were handled in the southern as well as in the northern parts of America and the underlying factors which led to the abolition of slave trade in America in line with the views of Calhoun. As Calhoun argues slavery in North America in a rather harsh and a cruel manner that no human he says should ever be subjected to. The harsh treatment which the slaves in North America were undergoing as they went about carrying out their duties on the Americans’ farms was rather pathetic and could be ranked at the greatest point in the analysis of human injustices ever committed by man against his fellow man in the world. The slaves in North America had no rights at all and were treated by their masters as if they were animals and not human beings at all. Their masters went round in their workin g places with whips in their hands and anytime would be dreadful to any slave if at all these masters decided to use their whips on them. As DeBow notes comparing slavery in the north and that in the south during this time, he notes that the slaves in the South were treated in a better way as compared to those in the North (DeBow, 2003). That the Southern slave masters rarely used their whips on their slaves unless it was very necessary and could only be used as the last resort in case of any problem. In this was then he argues that the slaves who were working on the southerners’ farms had more freedom than those on the Northern farms. Rush justifies Calhoun’s observations by quoting the following statement â€Å"lay in northern industrial cities where exploited workers ‘toil their weary way from the cradle to the grave, and whose worn, emaciated frames†¦sink into that quiet rest never known in life† (Rush, 2002). On the other hand the slaves in the s outhern parts as Ira Berlin notes were a bit ell treated and the conditions in which they were subjected at their work places moderately better, by justiying the conditions in the southern farms, Calhoun tries to claim that the southern slavery has no problem as it is in line with human ethics (Ira Berlin et al., 1985). Having good respect and curtessy for the southern slaves would therefoe mean that the made of slavery and slave trade was actually not a crime aginst hunanity but rather the northern slavery. By Olmsted saying that the blacks