Half a Person: Do You Want the Top or Bottom Half?

Slavery became economically ingrained in American society during the 19th century. Slaves brought to the United States from Africa were needed for many tasks in the southern United States. Slaves worked in the fields, picking and growing crops, they served as blacksmiths, potters and weavers and they worked in the homes of their owners. As the 19th century progressed and the cotton gin was invented, slaves played a vital role in the Industrial Revolution which fed into America’s exports. Slaves were especially needed to grow and pick cotton so that it could be used in textile factories in the northern United States. As the demand for textiles increased, the demand for cotton grew, and the demand for more slaves to grow the cotton increased. Those living in the southern United States depended on slaves to work in their fields and homes, and to make them money. People living in the northern United States depended on slaves to grow the cotton that was needed for their factories, so that they could make money. As a whole, the United States economically depended on slavery during the 19th century.

These maps show the population of slaves (brown) in 1790 and 1860 compared to the 

amount of cotton grown in 1790 and 1860. As the amount of cotton being produced in

the U.S. increases, the number of slaves found in the areas that cotton is being

produced increases. Slaves were needed to grow cotton  for the Northern textile factories.

A system of slavery based on race greatly affects human dignity.  Slaves were considered to be property by their owners and by the U.S. Constitution during the 19th century. Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution states:

No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.

This clause is clearly stating what should happen if a slave were to run away. If a slave runs away from the their owner and flees into another state, they will not be freed. Instead, they will be returned to their owners. They are still their owner’s property.

Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution refers to a slave as less than one person.

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.

This clause explains that the amount of money paid as taxes in an individual state depends on the state’s population. Each free person is considered to be one person. Each indentured servant is considered to be one person. Native Americans are not counted as any people, and each slave is considered to be three fifths of a person.

By referring to a person as property or as less than one person, slaves are not treated with dignity. They were still human beings, but they were being treated like they were less than human.

A system of slavery like that of the United States during the 19th century tends to ignore the fact that no matter the heritage, color, or social standing of a person, all people deserve to be treated equally with the same rights and privileges as those around them. It tends to ignore the fact that a slave’s dignity and a freed person’s dignity are fundamentally the same.