history question: slavery in the us?

Question

first of all, i'm not very knowledgeable on this (also, i'm not from the states) so i apologize if my question will come across as too naive. basically, i like to think everything is possible for everyone as long as you're alive. so, was there any way for people to escape from the south to the north where they could get an education/decent job and live a dignified life. or if not, was there any way they could get a decent job in the south. thanx and happy holidays xxx

Answer 1

um. i guess there must'v been a way, but it may be a risk as you may die if you tried to escpae.
good question!

Answer 2

Slaves could and did escape to the North, many via the Underground Railroad, which was a network of sympathetic people willing to help them on their way. Many of these did obtain education. and led dignified jobs. Frederick Douglass is an outstanding example. However, after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, they were in constant danger of being caught and forcibly returned to slavery. In the South, slaves could sometimes be hired out, keep their earnings (or a portion of them), and eventually buy their freedom. Ironically, however, after the Civil War, the jobs available to blacks in the South were only the most menial, even to people who had skills.

Answer 3

Blacks in the south had it very bad. If you were Free in the South you could always get pulled back into slavery. This was the same for the North even though Some blacks were free in the North there was also slaves in the north. During this time period Black people were treated bad no matter were they were. We were treated as second class citizens, and treated worse than dogs. Life in America has always been rough for Blacks and still is. Racists would hang black for century's after slavery in the North and South. Some got jobs some did not. But they would kill a black man just for looking at a white woman. It is very deep and we are owed because this country was built on the backs of slaves and Black people free of charge. They would rape our women, and kill the men without consequence.

Do some reasearch on the subject because if you see some of the pictures of how slaves would get whipped, hanged, burned alive, and shot. White prople had no respect for Black life. Also Slaves where killed and beaten for trying to read they kept us ignorant to reading and writing and any kind of basic education. Because knowledge is power! There were no decent jobs for us. The only job you could have is if you owned your own land and raised your own goods, or if you had a trade.

White people hated Blacks and did everything to keep us down for over 400 years, we just recently have gotten the same rights as everyone else in this country before the 1970's Life for a Black person in the US was horrible whitepeople will deny that any of this happened and soon want us to forgett about slavery, Jim Crow laws.....and the unethical treatment of Black People in the US.

Answer 4

As a young black educated man myself your commentary is very offensive!!! I don't know if this is some type of joke or your a troll but this discusses me about the tea party even more. To sit here and boldly try to hide the fact that this heinous abuse took place is not only racist but un-American. It's like you tea party creatures are just pushing and pushing for some type of race war despite the fact that you have a few black coons on your side. Knowledge should never be limited in our text books because it already has....I bet you still believe George Washington was the first president of the USA if that's the case you need to study and this is the effect of hiding info.

Answer 5

http://www.freedomcenter.org/
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses that 19th century African slaves in the United States used to escape to free states (or as far north as Canada) with the aid of abolitionists.[1] The term is also applied to the abolitionists who aided the fugitives.[2] Other routes led to Mexico or overseas.[3] At its height between 1810 and 1850,[4] one report estimated up to 100,000 people escaped enslavement via the Underground Railroad,[2] though census figures only account for 6,000.[5] The Underground Railroad has captured public imagination as a symbol of freedom, and it figures prominently in African-American history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_United_States

read this site

Answer 6

The US was not the only country to have slavery, so you have to specify your time period more precisely. The ability to 'follow the drinking gourd' (follow the north star to freedom) came a long time after slavery was institutionalized.
Some slaves were manumitted, or freed, and they were able to hold jobs. Not great jobs, and they certainly never became plantation owners, but they did start small businesses.
Happy holidays to you, too.

Answer 7

As others have said, it was possible for some slaves to escape to the North. Obviously, this was easier for slaves in the northernmost slave states, who had a relatively short distance to travel to reach free soil. For slaves in the deep South, escape was not impossible, but it was incredibly difficult.

Under federal law, escaping to a free state did not win a slave permanent freedom. Escaped slaves could be captured and returned to bondage in the South. Recaptured runaways were punished savagely to discourage them from future escape attempts and to frighten other slaves so that they would not try to escape. Slaves who managed to escape all the way to Canada could remain free, since they were no longer subject to U.S. law once they made it across the border.

Another important point to consider is that racism was a reality even in free states. Many white Americans believed that slavery was wrong, but also believed that blacks were inferior. So free blacks did not have all the "dignified life" opportunities available to whites.

Answer 8

no. if you were black and in the south, your life was terrible. You were free in the North. Ever heard of the underground railroad, Harriet Tubman? Kansas Nebraska act?

Answer 9

Yeappp there was it was called the Underground Railroad fixed up by Harriet Tubman. The slaves would run away too but, sometimes the slaves thought there owners were good to them and didn't want to run away. [They thought the slave next door was getting it hard so they didn't want to run away and recieve worse punishment]

Answer 10

you could escape slavery, or even buy your way out if you managed to get money somewhere
but mostly only way was to get to the north
the south got the fugtive slave act passed that made it illegal for northerners to help slaves, or not report possible escaped slaves

Answer 11

actually, some slaves escaped on the Underground Railroad, which led them to freedon in the north US/Canada.