Slaves and Masters essays

Slaves and Masters essays Masters attempted to gain absolute control over slaves' lives but were often frustrated in this by the tactics of resistance the slaves employed. I. Motives of Masters in controlling slaves: The paternalistic idea masters held was that they wanted absolute control over their slaves lives as well as the "fruits of their labor." Out of this derived the shape paternalism took for a long timeout became "system class rule" it was a way of life. The masters lived off the work of their slaves. The system class rule made the slave master relationships ambiguous and complex. Masters had many advantages over slaves one was that they got paid off the their slaves work. By definition and in essence it was a system class rule, in which some people lived off the labor of others. "American slavery subordinated one race to another and there by rendered its fundamental class relationships more complex; but remained class relationships. To insist upon the centrality of class relations as manifested in paternalism is not to slight the inherent racism or to deny the intolerable contradictions." II. Tactics of control employed by masters: the paternalism encouraged by the close living of masters and slaves was enormously reinforced by the closing of the African slave trade, which compelled masters to pay greater attention to the reproduction of their labor force. Wherever paternalism exists, it weakens solidarity among the oppressed by linking them as individuals to their oppressors. "The racial distinction between master and slave heightened the tension inherent in an unjust social order." The slaves of the old south displayed impressive solidarity and collective resistance to their masters, but in a web of paternalistic relationships their actions tended to become defensive and to aim at protecting the individuals against aggression and abuse. Black leaders won the loyalty and respect of slaves and free blacks because the...