Slavery Paper

2 Pages 554 Words

During the period of slavery, slave owners came up with many methods of controlling their slave. One of the most effective methods they used was the method of the slaves being completely dependent of the owners. They controlled every aspect of the slave’s life, and the slaves depended on their masters. For the most basic, but important things. Without their owners where could they get food, shelter, and clothing? Slaves hated that they had no freedom, but they realized that they were very much in need of these basic things their owners provide. This method of control proves to be very affective, like the saying goes “ Don’t bite the hand that feeds you” if the slaves bit the handoff their masters they would have no food, no place to sleep, or no clothes on their backs. When someone who you are completely dependent controls you on you have to obey what you are told to do, and that’s what slaves came to realize.

The previous three methods were all rules that were made to try and control slaves. They were three methods that owners used to make slaves do what ever they wanted them to do. In some cases that’s all that the owners had to do to control their slaves. However, if the slaves did not obey the rules, or their minds weren’t controlled slaves owners had many methods of using punishment to control their slaves. The most effective punishments the masters would use were to whip or beat their slaves until they did what they wanted them to do. If slaves refused to work or the masters thought that they weren’t working as hard as they could the owners would whip them. When slaves tried to runaway they would be taken to the whipping post where other slaves could watch them be beaten. This combines the mind control method with the discipline method. If other slaves see what happens when they don’t obey then they are less likely to break the rules. This method of discipline slaves can be catorigized as intimidati...