After finishing our readings for Tuesday of this week and comparing them with the early chapters of Thomas Slaughter\u2019s, The Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier Epilogue to the American Revolution<\/i>, I noticed contrasts in the use of the word \u2018slave\u2019.\u00a0 In the first chapter of Slaughter\u2019s book he states, \u201cDuring the seventeenth century (in England), opponents denounced the excise tax as \u2018the Devil\u2019s remedy\u2019 and the \u2018high road to slavery\u2019\u201d (13).\u00a0 Later on when the American protests against the Stamp Act are being discussed Slaughter writes, \u201cSome Americans believed that when Parliament sought \u2018to establish stamp duties and other internal taxes\u2019 for the colonies, it threatened to reduce Americans to \u2018the miserable condition of slaves\u2019\u201d (21).\u00a0 These quotes, from both English and American men, are very interesting when put looked at next to the very real use of the word slavery in our previous readings.<\/p>\n
Almost all of the runaway slave advertisements use the world slave.\u00a0 They are publishing reports of their missing property and referring to them as slaves. \u00a0Therefore, it is striking that, presumably similar, men would describe their situation involving Parliament and internal taxes as a threat to \u201creduce them to the miserable condition of slaves\u201d.\u00a0 My first thought is that the men who used slavery to describe tax conditions where simply using hyperbole.\u00a0 They were trying to drum up support against the oppressive government and using the word \u2018slave\u2019 was striking enough to grab attention.\u00a0 I figured that this was probably true for most of the situations where the slavery was used in Slaughter\u2019s book.<\/p>\n
Mr. Michael Lamoureux, in his blog, discusses how the slaves were described as property and objects.\u00a0 Slave masters described human beings just as I would if I lost a cell phone and described it as an ‘old, white, iPhone’.\u00a0 Michael does a good job discussing the ambiguity found in some of the ads.\u00a0 He makes an excellent point that with some of the ads, it seems very possible that any black man could be returned to an owner for a reward.\u00a0 This could, unfortunately, very well happen to a freed black man.\u00a0 Michael\u2019s thoughtful and creative argument led me to think about the levels and degrees of freedom that we discussed in class on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
As I continued to think about our talk in class about \u2018unfreedom\u2019 and the Gwenda Morgan and Peter Rushton article and David Waldstreicher\u2019s piece, I realized that there may have been more to the usage of \u2018slaves\u2019 by white men than just hyperbole for effect.\u00a0 We discussed how there were people in America that were not just free or enslaved, instead there were degrees to people\u2019s freedom.\u00a0 Most people were in a constant battle to protect whatever freedoms they had against an ever-infringing society.\u00a0 Using this rationale and line of thinking, it seems more plausible that some Americans truly did believe that losing the right to local internal tax levying could very well lead to a form of slavery.\u00a0 An American, Stephen Hopkins, argued that allowing Parliament all of the central authority would, \u201cthreaten the property and hence the freedom of the colonists.\u00a0 They who have no property, can have no freedom, but indeed are reduced to the most abject slavery\u201d (22).\u00a0 It seems that some Americans were afraid to lose money unfairly to a government and in turn property and in turn their freedom.\u00a0 So while it seems ironic and self-centered for a white man to use the term slavery, it is very possible that they were truly afraid of becoming enslaved (to a certain degree) by British Parliament and excise taxes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After finishing our readings for Tuesday of this week and comparing them with the early chapters of Thomas Slaughter\u2019s, The Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier Epilogue to the American Revolution, I noticed contrasts in the use of the word \u2018slave\u2019.\u00a0 In the first chapter of Slaughter\u2019s book he states, \u201cDuring the seventeenth century (in England), opponents denounced … <\/p>\n