Lawrence R. Tenzer has devoted a great deal of time and energy to
studying what he believes is a sadly overlooked aspect of the slavery issue
and its impact on the minds of Northerners and Southerners alike. This is
the topic of white slavery. Tenzer argues that many contemporaries knew it
existed and were deeply shocked. This helped to lead them to oppose the
extension of slavery into the western territories and thus was a significant
cause of the Civil War. Tenzer emphatically states that the possibility of
white slavery is a definite contribution to tensions of civil war.
White slavery resulted from the strict laws and social practices of
the South. There was so little tolerance of racial mixing and such a
desperate effort to protect slavery that the South strove to ensnare all
people of even slightly dark blood in the institution. Anyone who had at
least one eighth black blood in their veins was defined as a negro or a
mulatto. If the mother was a slave then the offspring was defined as a slave
regardless of how little black blood they may have. Observers often noted
seeing slaves with facial features and skin color that were indistinguishable
from whites.Tenzer assembled a great deal of evidence.
He has the historical documentation to show that the eroding line
between slave and free was much on the mind of the average person and
contributed to the country's willingness to take up arms over an issue that
had so far only risen to the level of a disagreement. He surveyed personal
accounts, travel literature, published essays, census data, the activities of
the illegal slave trade after 1808, and abolitionist newspapers and
pamphlets to amass a mountain of proof that Northerners and Southerners
(including Abraham Lincoln) discussed white slavery at...
Eh
You seem to have a lot of one-liners without definition and subsequently do not transition well. The thesis is also unclear...
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