Slavery and its roots in the 19th Century

Slavery was once sadly a normal part of American society. It was not uncommon for people to own slaves or even to sell them to neighbors and give them to your family. How was it that slavery was able to become entrenched in American society, both economically and politically by the 19th century?

This question can be answered by looking into the constitution. For one, in Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1  The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person. This states that the importation of slaves can not be prohibited or taxed before 1808. After 1808 congress is able to put a tax on the importation of slaves, but the tax can't be above $10 per slave. This act of congress shows that slavery importation is not against the law, and has become economically sound that the government is willing to tax slave trade. In politics slavery was hardly ever disputed on whether or not it should exist in America. Most politicians had slavery and they became too important to the nation's economy to try to dispute whether slavery should be abolished or not.

How does a system of slavery on race affect human dignity? The dignity of the race that are able to be slaves is greatly diminished. Slavery gives unfair and unjust power to the owner of a slave for a slave is someone that is owned by another person. This power that is given to the owner is taken away from the slave diminishing the slaves persona  and personality. This system tends to ignore all characteristics regarding a human’s inner thoughts, ideas, and personality. A robot can be given a slave’s task and complete it just the same as a slave would. Slavery ignores who the person is and takes the body to do the work the owner doesn't want to do. The story of Prince is a prime example of this phenomenon. Prince became a slave in America and was used to work the fields and deliver crops to the market, but until later they found that he was an African Prince.  Slavery was an awful and cruel and it shall continue to be abolished and destroyed in the rest of the world.

http://mappinghistory.uoregon.edu/english/US/US18-00.html

shows how important economically slaves were to the cotton production in the south

Women's Rights

How did mid 19th century American society react to women's demands for equality? Even though women started to have a strong movement to gain women's rights, men are still viewed as being better than women. Women still had to do a majority of duties around the house, while men went to work. Women had take care of children and dogs, make clothes, and other housework. The women also had to entertain everyone in the house as well. Laws were also set up so that women are not treated the same as men.  It was considered improper for women to speak in public, and until 1839 women were not allowed to own any property. In a majority of states it is legal for a husband to beat his wife, and women could not vote on any state in the union. These are just some of the many unfair laws that are set up by the government. Does 21st century society react differently to women and men. Personally, I feel that it is mostly equal treatment between men and women, but there are certainly some differences. For example the treatment of women and men when it comes to dating and relationships they can be seen as very different. If a man goes on a lot of dates he is considered  as more of a positive than if a women were to go on a lot of dates. A Philippines commercial shows some of these differences on how women and men are thought as in the same scenarios.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K2kfgW7708&feature=youtu.be
http://www.edline.net/files/_AIGnD_/6df91fdbe19f85633745a49013852ec4/Laws_and_Practices.pdf