Slavery In The United States and How Anti-slavery Movement Was Born

For roughly two hundred and forty-four years, Racism and slavery have been two very sensitive subjects in the United States and there are many different ways to look at these issues. Men such as Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Cartwright, and Benjamin Rush had opinions based on how they felt and what they thought was right in regard to these problems. Two of these men believed that Slaves should be treated more fairly but should remain a slave and the other believed that slavery should be abolished all together.

One of the most influential people that led to the growth of this country was Thomas Jefferson. He is a man that believed in equality of all people and believed that the reason why the country was divided was because certain people (mostly slaves) did not have proper access to education. In order to try and improve this he attempted to create an act for slaves to improve their education. “He believed that all slaves that were born after the act that was being prepared, was passed should be freed. an amendment containing it was prepared… [It] further direct[ed], that they should continue with their parents to a certain age, then be brought up, at the public expense, to tillage, arts or sciences, according to their geniuses,” (Jefferson). He thought that by doing this it would allow the slaves to fully experience what it is like to be a citizen in the country that they are living. Therefore, driving the economy in a positive direction and the overall well-being of the country by making opportunities for education open for all people, not just whites. Thomas Jefferson also made a comparison between slaves and whites. “Comparing them by their faculties of memory, reason, and imagination, it appears to me, that in memory they are equal to the whites” he says this to further the fact that all people are the same, the only thing that makes them different is the color of their skin. He furthers his idea of limited education for slaves by going on to say that the only difference between the races is their access to education.

Although Thomas Jefferson had many ideas to improve the lives of slaves, Dr. Samuel Cartwright had his own opinions on slaves and how they should be dealt with. Cartwright diagnosed slaves with two different types of diseases. One disease was called, “Drapetomania” which he used to justify why slaves ran away. He explains throughout the excerpt that the reason why slaves ran away is because they are mistreated and that, “if his master or overseer be kind and gracious in his hearing towards him, without condescension, and at the same time ministers to his physical wants, and protects him from abuses, the negro is spell-bound, and cannot run away” (Cartwright). He figured that the way to cure this disease was by catering to the basic needs of all human beings and treating them like people and not property. The other mental illness was called, “Dysaethesia Aethiopica” which was basically a scientific term for slaves being lazy or unmotivated to do anything. However, he states that it is much different than any other mental disease that he had ever seen because, “it is accompanied with physical signs or lesions of the body discoverable to the medical observer, which are always present and sufficient to account for the symptoms. It is much more prevalent among free negroes living in clusters by themselves, than among slaves on our plantations” (Cartwright). This part of the excerpt shows that the only slaves that suffered from theses mental illnesses were the ones that were mistreated and beaten for not obeying their master. However, they were only not obeying their masters because they did not want this for their life, they wanted to be free to do what they pleased and as many other people did. These people did not realistically have any mental illness they just wanted to be treated normally. Dr. Samuel Cartwright only created these diseases to justify their actions for their true desires.

Benjamin Rush was a chemist and one of the signers of the constitution that was an advocate of the black community at this time. He argued biologically, slaves were not inferior to whites in any way and that they were only inferior intellectually because they were not given any opportunities to expand their educations. In the excerpt he argues, “that it would be impossible to carry on the manufactories of Sugar, Rice and Indigo, without negro slaves” (Rush). The slaves were the ones that did all of the manual labors to support these plantations and grow all of those resources. Slaves at this point in time were vital factor in the nation’s economy because they did the field work to contribute to the agriculture of society. If there were no slaves, the economy would collapse and fail. He also argues that if plantations had more limited freemen only employed in working them, the product would be more, even though the individual profit would be less, it would cause more of an equal distribution of money and property creating more of a general welfare of society (Rush). He believed that by eliminating slavery it would cause more people to generate income because the slaves would be freely employed also making money. This would cause more people to buy property due to the dispersion of income also affecting the overall economy in a positive way.

The main difference between these three men were their views on slavery. Jefferson although he was pro-slavery and personally owned slaves. However, he wanted them to be educated so they can contribute to society in different ways. Cartwright also had pro-slavery views, his “treatments” for the slave’s mental disorders was for them to be treated better, so they were “spellbound” forcing them not to run away (Cartwright). However, Rush was anti-slavery and wanted them to be freed so they can make money and better contribute to society. In addition, Considerations of racial differences between blacks and whites are debated between people who are pro-slavery. The difference in opinions based on slavery between Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Cartwright and Benjamin Rush show that views on the concept of race was not stable. For example, Jefferson and Cartwright both share the idea of pro-slavery; however, they differ from the article of Benjamin Rush. Jefferson was aware that there was a huge economic benefit from owning slaves. He actually even owned slaves personally owned slaves because he was aware that they lead to a huge economic profit. In his opinion, he did not want to end slavery because he was positively impacted by it so much. obviously if slavery was positively impacting his own life, he would not want it to be abolished since he had to do little work and was still making money. Cartwright’s views were that black slaves had mental illnesses because of their biology and anatomy, and since it was different than whites it was impossible for whites to have the same mental disorders. However, Rush’s took the angle of being anti-slavery. His view was that slavery had no business being a part of the society and especially the Christian religion (Rush). If slaves were converted to Christianity, it is stripping away their identity and they would not be considered slaves anymore. He believed that slavery should be put to an end, because slaves are people too

Jefferson, Rush and Cartwright attempted to positively impact the lives of slaves and the effects racism when the United States was developing. They felt as though everyone should have the right to the same opportunities and made strides to help their lives improve. Although slavery is what this country was founded upon and it aided in the successful development of the United States, these men knew that it was morally wrong to own another being, so they made every effort possible to try and help them.