Rebecca Taggart History 1: Chapter 11 Response Questions

1. Given by 1860 the economic investment represented by the slave population exceeded the value of the nations factories, railroads, and banks combined, explain how important slavery was to the national economy and the emergence of the United States as a great power.

Slavery back during the 1800s was the nations economy. It was integrated into everyones lives and businesses. It seemed very hard to run a profitable farm or large business, or anything that involved strenuous labor that did not involve slaves. People could not seem to even run a home without slaves both inside and outside of their household. Through slaves America was able to mass produce cotton in the south which allowed it to become one of the running products to be trading leading to America in becoming a great power.
3. Describe the paternalistic ethos the planters embraced, and explain how it both masked and justified the brutal realities of slavery.

They believed in a hierarchical or agrarian society that let them justify that they were a higher being then the slaves. Paternalism was an idea where the master of the plantation began to see that with an economic interest in mind that they needed to save the survival of their human property. This led the masters to see themselves as kind, responsible masters. But this led to the destruction of slave families and cautions that slaves could revolt if given too much freedom.
5. Compare slaves in the Old South with those elsewhere in the world, focusing on health, diet, and opportunities for freedom.

American slaves enjoyed better diets lower rates of infant mortality and longer life expectancies than their counterparts in the West Indies and Brazil. The health of the American slaves was better than in the Caribbean because of its geographical setting where the American slaves were less prone to tropical diseases.
7. Enslaved African-Americans developed their own culture. What were the different sources of this culture, and how did it vary by region?

Their culture centered on family and church which led them to survive the experience of bondage without rendering their self-esteem for generations to come and to teach them a set of ideas and values opposite of their masters (Foner 438). Their culture also derived from their mother continent of Africa. Through the African heritage the slave culture had many dances, music, worships, and herbs for diseases.