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History in the Making

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Slavery, in and of itself, is a despicable institution. It degraded the enslaved and inflated the power of the owners to near omnipotent levels. Slavery has been portrayed in two different ways: one, as a fantasy on thinking where slavery was a benevolent institution that taught slaves how to be civil and Christian, while the other takes a more realistic approach exposing the harsh brutalities of slavery and the adverse effects that the institution had on the enslaved. This paper seeks to give the reader a more thorough understanding of slavery as it existed in the antebellum South Carolina and how the conditions of slavery worsened as the nation grew further disunited. Research for this study draws from major authors throughout the twentieth century, such as Charles W. Joyner, Ulrich B. Phillips, Herbert Aptheker, and Kenneth M. Stampp all of whom played a major role in shaping American thought on slavery. The research encompasses why slave treatment worsened, the punishments handed down upon the slaves, and the general treatment of slaves during these changing circumstances in antebellum South Carolina.

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