Civil war and Slavery

Introduction:
Both civil war and the churned up slavery appeared as a consequence
of various events in the past. It was the development of southern and
northern section of United States along different set patterns which led to the
conflict of settlement upon issues such as tariffs, internal improvements,
taxes and the comparison among states and federal rights. The Southern
section preeminently stood as an agrarian economy and on the other hand
Northern section became more and more industrialized
(Hummel,pg.67).However, the issue that seriously brought about the
disruption was the discussion about what the future of slavery would be. The
situation in South was such that they brought Africans to work for them in
their large plantations and perform duties. It was so entwined in the
economy of south that the slaves who , though owned by a smaller social
group in population, were the mark of respect and esteem for the one who
owned them. In addition, it added so well to the corporate persona of people
that the prices of slaves soared more than those of land and cotton and
people owned them as their personal or business property. This period of
slavery began in America in the beginning of 17th century but it remained
there for more than two hundred years afterwards. The abolitionist
movement emerged in the late eighteenth century and subsequent
movements by influential writers like Harriet Beecher Stowe and Abraham
Lincoln as well as the narratives that is the autobiography of slaves like

Harriet Ann Jacobs and Frederick Douglass and enlightened people with the
harsh life situations faced by them.
Thesis Statement:
Lincoln's and Stowe's writings raised voiced for the abolition of slavery and
emancipation while the narratives of Douglas and Jacobs discussed the harsh
experiences.
The period of slavery gave rise to the indigenous genre i.e. slave
narrative in the written form of literature. However, the most eminent
narratives were by Fredrick Douglass (1845) and Harriet Jacobs (1861) and
were most precisely termed as the slave narratives of the fugitives. The goal
of writing these narratives was to abolish the culture of slavery from society
by giving accounts of the actual experience of slavery from where they
saved themselves. They were forced to write their narratives by following the
conventions and taking part in spreading the propaganda but both these
fugitives found it a task of personal nature and insisted on writing what they
thought to be the identity which was snatched from them. Both of the
Douglass and Jacobs work reflected the same formats prescribed to them
and their publication got governed in the light of these formats. Moreover,
they were required to come up with the accuracy of details of circumstances
and places, the sufferings inflicted upon them by cruel masters and their
inner willingness to get themselves free. The literary nature of the work
required them to give dramatic account of the events which in their case was

precisely established as against the writers who were in favor of slavery. The
difference in this autobiographical account, however, can be observed in the
time period when both piece of arts were written where Jacob's narrative had
no further publications or editions. The incident that were explained in the
life of that slave girl were more under the impression of the period during
civil war while Douglass, on the other hand, explained more about the
movement of Abolitionism and how it rose as a political movement for gain.
The major differences that arise in both the narratives are also due to the
gender difference of both the writers. Jacob, being a women, wrote more of
domestic and sentimental novel with an emphasis on sexual abuse and
exploitation (Warner,pg.324).In contrast, Douglass drafted it as a sermon and
explained his struggle to gain freedom and manhood. But , freedom was the
matter of life and death for both of them yet it was depicted differently by
both of the writers where Douglass described his effort to convert his life
from a slave to a free man through physical effort but Jacob's gender set a
different course for her desire to get herself free from the clutches of slavery.
She, pregnant with a child, not only had to saver herself from her master
who intended to sell her but also search for a secure home to give her child a
future. She put it as "ties of life" while describing the necessity to put her
own safety behind and find a husband who could own her. Her struggle was
more tiring on a double-edged sword and acclaimed more empathy
(Home,pg.223).Douglass's narrative has an end like a speaker giving a
speech to an audience who is eager to listen and leaving him with a feeling

like that of a free man who finally got a freedom of speech

(Douglass,pg.5).The path for both Jacob and Douglass were quite different
from each other but the common proclaim in both of these literary pieces
was their strong will and determination to fight for their freedom from this
pathetic nature of enslavement while gaining the respect for humanity for
themselves and their fellow men and women. Both of these pieces of art
stressed upon the human dignity and freedom for every human irrespective
of their social position, color of skin and race and pretty much passed on this
strong message to the coming generations.
Apart from these fugitive slaves who narrated their own accounts of
slavery, the notable influential writers like Abraham Lincoln and Harriet
Beecher Stowe contributed a lot to give an upheaval to the abolitionism
against slavery and their work proved to be a last nail on the coffin of
slavery. Stowe wrote one of the most remarkable, influential and well-known
book in the history of United States. Being a abolitionist herself, she
acquainted millions of the people to understand the pain and sufferings of
the slaves. It later helped in galvanizing the movements against slavery in a
dramatic manner through the portrayal of the lives of slaves
(Gracia,et.al,pg.23).Many contemporaries were of the view that the
formulation and implementation of Law for Fugitive Slave of the year 1850
was addressed aggressively in her book. Lincoln described her as a little lady
who brought about the war but the actual details refer that hr novel "Uncle
Tom's Cabin" was not responsible for initiating the war but it did unravel the

brutality faced by the slave and helped in creating the wide gap between
North and South in the subsequent years after 1850s. She made it event
through her piece of writing that it is evil to keep slaves and it is against the
belief system of Christians so it is not tolerable in the civil society.
Lincoln, being the 16th president of United States, had seen Civil War
with his naked eye and contributed a lot in the endeavor of abolishing
slavery from the society. He took many controversial yet effective measures
to maintain union and give an end to the ritual of slavery. The significance of
the announcement made by him for " Emancipation Proclamation" ,through
his excellent writing effort and a definitive study, goes without saying as it
gave way to the implementation of constitutional rights i.e. Thirteenth
Amendment and did abolish slavery. He was so pithy and playful with words
that his unforgettable and tremendous speeches such as the Second
Inaugural and Gettysburg Address were sufficient to prove his eloquence to
achieve everything through the power of his words (Paradis,pg.27). He, on
the other hand saved union by planning a reconstruction for charitable fund
to help the nation rise as united again (Lincoln,pg.2).
Conclusion:
Through a deep analysis of the pieces of literature, the narratives of
Douglass and Jacob appear to be creating a scenic perception in the minds of
the reader which cleared the image of a brutality in the life of slave and what
causes the urge to gain freedom through struggle. It can be considered as an

effort to create empathy through the autobiographical account. While the

great work by Stowe and Lincoln through their books did actually emancipate
the slaves from the bounds of enslavement. Stowe's work stirred up the
agitation for the pro-slavery concepts while Lincoln's work brought about the
much needed radical steps to put an end to slavery and balancing the need
of union and the abolishment during the crucially tense period of civil war.

Work Cited
Douglass, Frederick. Frederick Douglass on Slavery and the Civil War:
Selections from His Writings. Courier Corporation, 2014.

Garcia, Claire Oberon, Vershawn Ashanti Young, and Charise Pimentel,

eds.From Uncle Tom's Cabin to The Help: Critical Perspectives on WhiteAuthored Narratives of Black Life. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
Home, My Southern. "Slave NarrativeS, 18651900." The Oxford Handbook of
the African American Slave Narrative (2014): 219.
Hummel, Jeffrey. Emancipating slaves, enslaving free men: a history of the
American civil war. Open court, 2013.
Lincoln, Abraham. Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address. 4Q, 2013.
Paradis, James M. African Americans and the Gettysburg Campaign.
Scarecrow Press, 2012.
Warner, Anne Bradford. "Harriet Jacobs at Home in Incidents in the Life of a
Slave Girl." The Past Is Not Dead: Essays from the Southern Quarterly 45
(2012): 324.