Slavery;+Before+the+Civil+War

= Slavery: Before The Civil War = =﻿ By: Ally Oldiges :) =

// Slavery before the civil war, what you need to know about what happened in the subject of slavery before the civil war, Slavery completely changed during the civil war and after the civil war, slavery was the worst before the civil war. Slaves would be beaten for trying to read and write. Sometimes they would have one of their fingers or toes cut of. If they tried to run away and got caught they would most likely be killed or beaten. Slaves would sometimes sing a song that had hidden clues so that they could tell their fellow slaves if they going to run away or do something like that. Many slaves tried to escape through the underground railroad, some were lucky and got through but some got caught and killed and if not killed they were beat and had body parts like fingers and toes cut off. Slaves desperately wanted freedom but the government kept making up rules to prohibit slaves from getting that right. //



Slaves were willing to do anything to be free, they had to work out in the fields in the hot sun with no shoes and ripped up clothing, they barley ate, and they worked all day long. Some slaves would try to escape, some would make it, and some wouldn't, they would be killed or beaten almost to death. Slaves worked on plantations that made cotton or tobacco, The invention of the cotton gin increased the demand for slaves. The Cotton Gin was invented by a man named Eli Whitney. The cotton Gin was used to pick grass, stems, dirt, seeds and any other thing that was stuck to the cotton that slaves had to pick out, You might be thinking, how would the Cotton Gin increase the demand for slaves when it would seem like it would make the slaves do less. Slaves didn't like the cotton Gin because it made them have to pick more cotton then they usually had to because it took less time to do cotton picking with the cotton Gin. The underground railroad was not underground or even a railroad, it was a path from whatever state they were in up into Canada or New York, It worked because there would be Quakers, and the slaves had to knock on their door and if they would say "who is it", the slave would say "A Friend" Then the Quakers would let them in. The Quakers would give them food, water, and shelter. If the police or the slave owners forced the Quakers to let them look around they would let them because the slaves were hiding is secret rooms in the walls, ceilings or basements. Sometimes the Quakers would give Slaves new clothes because their clothes would be ruined. If someone on the underground railroad wanted to turn back then Harriet Tubman would shoot them so they wouldn't tell about the secret underground railroad. All this was ran by a woman named Harriet Tubman. Slaves wanted so bad to be free, when they came from Africa to America slaves were auctioned off. Slaves were often sold away from their families. The slave code was a system that basically told slaves what they couldn't do, which was a lot of stuff, they weren't allowed to get married, they weren't allowed to own guns, take breaks when they wanted, ETC. Slaves wanted the things that people have now days but don't appreciate, especially voting, people now days don't realize that every vote counts, slaves wanted the right to vote because there was a man named Abraham Lincoln who wanted to end slavery, in the south they didn't even put his name on the ballot yet he still won. He waited two years before trying to end slavery because he didn't want Europe to get involved.