Slavery In USA And Serfdom In Russia

buckle downry In the States And Serfdom In RussiaSla real, condition in which unitary world being is cede by an opposite1, has been p ruse of countless civilizations since the dawn of Mankind. From the handle and mines of Ancient Mesopotamia, by means of with(predicate) great Rome and sophistic Greece, and every(prenominal) the steering until just and a century ago in the States and Russia, buckle downholding was a basic foundation of the society. In its beginning, and several time since, slaves were kept almost as family members, plainly mostly they were put to do the embarrassing, physical proceeding. buckle downry was always weld unitedly with the economy of the owners, be it civilians or the monarch crown.Even today some thraldom mollify exists. We might hear and read rough evil criminality referred to as human trafficking, forced prostitution, child soldiers, forced and bonded labour and the use of children in inter raceal drug trade, children labour2. wi thal Conservative estimates indicate that at least 27 trillion tidy sum, in places as diverse as Nigeria, Ind whizzsia and Brazil, live in conditions of forced bondage3. International organizations homogeneous the UN, with its Anti-Slavery Commission, everyeviate fight to reverse these modern remains of slavery. In our everyday life language we endure to variediate that we are slaves of our work, our money or some other trimlance(a) enquire. Fortunately slavery in its ancient and medieval context has been extinguished in a lot the entirely world.Serfdom, condition in medieval Europe in which a tenant farmer was bound to a hereditary darn of land and to the bequeath of his landlord4, differs principally from slavery in the fact that helots obtained their subsistence by cultivating a plot of land that was owned by a lord. The supply for then comparing serfdom in the Russian imperium with slavery in the USA lies in the fact that in 18th- and frontmost fractiona l of nineteenth century Russia the nobility, the Dvoryanstvo, possessed the power to lots do everything they precious with their serfs. This power was identical to the slave owners in the S outhern States of the States, likewise in the 18th- and nineteenth century. This essay aims at showing how funda mentally different the Ameri puke and Russian society was, and, ironically, how two contained unfree human beings in downhearted conditions. The difficult conditions will be hearted at too, and the interesting difference that slew be found when comparing the fall of slavery and serfdom will be given some attention. The research question is then What were the simmilarities and differences amongst slavery in the USA and serfdom in the Russian Empire? The topic is worthy of investigation since the effects of slavery and serfdom still affect pile living in the USA and Russia today.The joined States of the StatesThe radical WorldOn October 12, 1492, when Columbus (1451-1506) reache d land in the watt Indies for the first time and met the indigenous people there, he make especially many notations in his log book. ()they native people indicated that people from other nearby islands occur to San Salvador Columbus named the island so to capture them they defend themselves the best they can. I believe that people from the mainland mystify here to take them as slaves5. Columbus log indicates that the Native American civilizations already consisted of some sort of slavery, unless Columbus own wish to get out slaves of them made him misunderstand what they were trying to tell him. Columbus thinking like this is not unreasonable, considering what we can read further in the log They ought to line good and skilled servants, for they repeat very quickly whatever we say to them and, perhaps most surprisingly I could conquer the whole of them with 50 men, and govern them as I pleased. This was day one, not counting the old age it took to sail to this new land, and alre ady some sort of prediction nigh the future of the new continent could be drawn, like in a novel consisting of foreshadowing.This was the beginning of the colonization of the atomic number 74 Indies, and later, the whole Northern- and Southern American continent. Portugal, Britain and France soon joined the scene, and successfully conquered and established themselves in the New World. Because of the cruel enslavement and barbaric behavior of the Spanish conquistadors, notwithstanding mainly ascribable to the unexpected European diseases like smallpox, typhus, influenza, diphtheria and measles, thereby killing millions upon millions of people6of the Indians. The tragical result of these biological genocides was the need for more workers, workers that would be found in Africa, and from there be brought to America.The Transatlantic Slave TradeThe Bible says that the fundament of all evil is the love lust for money7. This was the case with the Transatlantic Slave Trade, a fundame ntal part of the Triangle Trade. This trade incited slaves from primaeval and westward Africa across the Atlantic Ocean to the West Indies current Caribbean Islands, Brazil and North-America. It is estimated that nigh 9.4-12million Africans arrived in the New World from Africa. These were from Ghana and Nigeria, Congol and Angola. They were sold by West African kings and leaders, who often were put on the throne by the European traders themselves The principal European traders took active part in installing kings who they judged would favor their activities irrespective of whether such kings were acceptable to their subjects8. Kings send military expeditions against nearby tribes, captured their people and sold them to the Lusitanian. The Portuguese acted out of own(prenominal), but also Spanish, need for slaves9.10A group of Africans captured by African slave market suppliers.after being captured, most Africans were separated from their families, men, women and children alik e. They were then forced to walk hundreds of kilometres in order to reach the Slave Coast in West Africa, and the Atlantic Ocean. After arrival there, they were stowed unitedly on ships like animals, with almost no place to even turn around, travelling for weeks among the filth of vomit-filled tubs, blood, urin, children crying, women shrieking and the demise groaning in despair. They could feel the stench of death spreading by dint ofout the whole ship. These were the horrors of the Midlle Passage.11At any attempt of mutiny or resurrection skanky reprisals were carried out, like on the American ship Kentucky in 1844 where 46 men and one woman were hanged, tortured and mutilated and shot in the dope and the bodies thrown overboardsometimes they shot at the body speckle it still hung living, and all kinds of sport was made of the business12. One can imagine that the poor survivors of these atrocities asked themselves if the situation could get worse.Nations like Holland, Britai n, France and Spain followed up the Portuguese in the triangular trade. When arriving in America the slaves, who were in much smaler poesy than at departure, were sold profitably in auctions and the money was utilise to by sugar , tobacco and cotton. These raw materials were transported back to the individual countries of Europe and manufacture there. Sugar became rum, cotton textiles, and the tobacco used. To keep an eye on this buisness slave transport ships were sent to West Africa again with products from Europe that were desirable for the merchants and leaders that were settled there.The 13 colonies and slaveryBritain, one of the greatest colonising nations, had several colonies all around America from British Honduras Honduras in the south to Newfoundland in the north. 13 of these colonies had settled together like neighbours on the North-American continent. These colonies did not differ from others in the matter of slavery. Also here a master could enjoy absolute rights ov er his airscrew13. Two of the earliest established colonies, Virginia (1607) and Maryland (1632), were especially determined to come about down the blacks, both free and slave. This was mainly collectible to fear of slave insurrectons, like e.g at St. Domingo Haiti. Laws and codes were created, restricting assemblies of black slaves, forbidding escape and travel without move over (Virginia,1705). Any kind of delirium against the snowy owner(s) (or any other white person for that sake) allowed the owner to correct such a slave very physically, and also, if the slave died during this correction, no punishment towards the owner existed. It was ()as if such accident neer happened.14(Virginia,1705). Anti miscegenation laws were established (Maryland, 1664), not allowing sexual relations or marriage amid people of different races Declared unconstitutional in 1967. The penalization for such inter-racial marriages was that the white women who had succumbed to this terrible act, wo uld lawfully become a slave herself, and so any children that she might give birth to. To bear while (unless allowed by the owner for protection against the Indians) and witness in court legal proceeding against any but other blacks was illegal too (Virginia,1639 and Virginia,1705), as rise as any excercisement in any ecclesiastic church, civil or military office (Virginia,1705). Convertion to Christianity with baptism did not change civil rights every (Virginia,1667). nibably, greatest influence was played by the above partly mentioned Slave Codes of 1705. These subsequently came to serve as models for the other colonies. It was because of these Slave Codes that slaves would be considered by the law as real estate, property, a thing.Due to lack of co-operation and stubborness from the British Parliament and King in former taxual matters concerning the 13 colonies, militia of the New England colony surrounded the city of Boston on April 18th 1775. The flak catcher was a result of a confiscation and arrestation attempt in union15. Armed clashes between the British man and the colonies began the American diversityary state of war (1775-1783). The sec Continental sexual relation met the same year. This Congress formed the Continental Army and fought the British Army. What is highly relevant to my research question is what the Second Continental Congress did but a year after its gathering. They wrote and write the most meaning(a) act in American history, on July quaternary 1776. It was the United States Declaration of Independence.Second Continental Congress16In the blurb sentence of this document we find the famous wordsWe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their agent with certain unalienable justs, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. One could pay that this clear separation from Imperial England and forming of a new nation base upon such beautiful words an d honorable ideals must have contributed instanter towards abolishment of slavery in the United States of America. The great paradox is that it didnt. Yes, the Revolutional ideas helped the Quakers together with Tomas Jefferson and Luther Martin in their pro-abolishment fight, resulting in illegalisation of slave trade in New York and Pennsylvania, but not much more. South Carolina temporarily illegalized the trade, while Massachusetts were hypocritical in their law by only prohibiting slave trade at one time from Africa. Eli Whitneys cotton gin invention strenghtened the economic foundation of slavery in the Southern states and restored the African slave trade in North-America. Apparantly the former made changes affects did not last long. Officially only South Carolina had restored the slave trade, but the rest of the States smuggled in slaves and used them as well.The Bill of Rights (1789), the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution from 1787, guaranteed the white people in the United States that The Congress shal make no Law respecting the Establishment of Religion, or prohibiting the free Exercise thereof or abridging the Freedom of Speech, or of the Press, or to the Right of the People peaceably assemble17. Through this they layed down a democratic foundation and example for the whole modern world. The United States should have been preferably perfect, only that the great paradoxal and moral occupation of slavery due to racial discrepancy persisted.The Russian EmpirePart of the cultureRussia as a nation has gone through many changes throughout its history. The Kievan Rus state, which started in the 880s, contained the predecessors of several Slav people and is the oldest Russia we know of. Prince Vladimir (978-1015), a successor of the Kievan Rus crown, converted to Christianity and Eastern Orthodoxy. It was through this conversion and acceptance of Eastern Orthodoxic religion that the Byzantine culture, statecraft and art came to Kievan Rus. T hese three were mixed with the Slavs culture and thereby created traditions which influenced the rise of the Russian exacting state18. Russias autocratic system in the 19th century was and then quite old.The medieval state of Kievan Rus disintergrated in the end though, starting to set apart into principalities in the 12th century because of domestic conflicts. The Mongol-Tartar invasion, starting with an attack in 1223, did not improve the situation. The Mongol-Tartars destroyed Kiev along with many other cities at the time, so that many of the Slav people, mainly peasants, became homeless and had no choice but to move and settle on the land of ladened Russian princes and nobles. A starting serfdom was therefore partially one of the consequences of the Mongol-Tartar invasion. The peasants-serfs, became attached and dependent upon the mercy of higher ranked Russians.As the Mongol-Tartars power diminished, especially with the defeat at the Battle of Kulikovo (1380), the yard pri nces of Muscovy Moscow, had created a heavy and wealthy Grand Duchy. Ivan III (ruled 1462-1505), one of the most successful grand princes there, was the first Muscovite ruler to use the titles of tsar and Ruler of all Rus. He had the right to claim it, Muscovy trippled in size under his rule. In order to confine strict order and reject any small princes who claimed to rule specific territories, Ivan the III forced all lesser princes, the nobility, to greet him the sole and unquestionable ruler of Muscovy. This would also count for his heirs.Ivan IV19The organisation of the very powerful and autocratic tsardom came to exist. With Ivan IV, grandson of the III, the word autocratic was no endless only a property of an independent ruler, it came to mean unlimited rule. amid 1565 and 1572, under Tsar Ivan the IV the Terrible, none in Muscovys prosperous and important district was safe. The Tsar, for uncertain reasons, started killing advisers, government officials and the aristocra ts (boyars/nobles) The peasants started moving away in fear their problems with unpayed taxes. In order to prevent them from moving, the Tsar started binding them to the land, bring the russian peasantry closer and closer to legal serfdom.Boris Godunov20The consequence of such a fools rule was constant chaos from 1598 to 1613. Despite the frequent change of tsars, tsardom itself survived and was fused as peasantry went through a gradual enserfment. Boris Godunov (1551-1605), brother-in-law of Ivan IVs mentally ill heir to the throne, practically became the Tsar of Russia from 1584-1605. In 1597 a decree made by him to attach peaseants to the land on which they lived and worked with was set out. Peasants could no longer move from one landlord to another as they wanted. This was done in order to keep country-bred stability in Russia. Godunov formed serfdon in its most authoritarian form, while at the same time the rest of Europe was acquiring rid of domestic serfdom.The Legal Code of 1649, which further legalised the attachment of serfs to the land, came about because the state prepared the serfs with land as presents of compensation for the new nobilities, the Dvoryanstvo, but also presents for acts of loyality and military service21The main factor in this maturement was the governments central bureaucracy, which had expanded significantly by the 1650s. There were many peasants who act to run away, becoming fugitives. Anyhow, thousands upon thousands of Russians became enserfed and controlled by other Russians. It was in racial aspects different than the situation of the African slaves in the US. But, like slaves in America, the now legimite serfs also started making riots, some more serious than others. The tsar and the government managed to keep their power though, through the nobility, the Russian Orthodox Church and autocracy.Backwardness motherfucker the Great (1672-1725) indirectly separated the Russian serfs culturally from theDvoryanstwo through h is westernisation of Russia. He forced the nobility to wear westward dresses, tastes and social customs, splitting the Dvoryanstvo with serfdom even more. In 18th century Russia metallurgical and textile industries used serf labour, and practically all of agriculture used serfs. It was possible to maintain the artless with this system of serfs, but from then on Imperial Russia would be backwarded compared to Western Europe with its Industrial Revolution.Russian serfsRussias westernisation was based upon the governing elites of Western Europe like e.g in France, but in 1789 with the French Revolution at hand, the Russian Tsar would not and could not keep conform to with countries like France. When Tsar Nikolas I came to the throne he thought that all contact with Western Europe had to be sensured or stopped.The central shit of the Tsar was His Imperial Majestys Private Chancery. The Third Section was in iron boot of state security. Tsar Nicholas I (1825-1855) was especially afra id of revolts against him because of the Decembrist revolt in 1825. This was a military protest in St. Petersburg by Russian array officers and intellectuals who had been affected by liberalism in Western Europe, deriving mainly from France through the Napoleonic struggles. These officers had realised the backwardness of Tsarist autocracy, and now sought to abolish serfdom, as an obstacle to economic prosperity, and modernize Russia through western skilful and philosophical ideas. This was, ironically, the same thing that Peter I had wanted to do. The problem this time was that the Tsars autocracy was at stake.Nikolas I regarded the West as his personal enemies, and therefore ordered the Third Section of his Chancery to use censoring and surveillance methods in order to strictly limit reports of events in Western Europe and to suppress criticism of domestic social conditions. The criticism revealed itself through works of people like Alexander Pushkin and Pyotr Chaadaev, but als o through the plays of Nikolai Gogol, who satirised the institution of serfdom in his novel Dead Souls. This is highly correspondent to what was happening in the USA, where Slave narratives like Uncle Toms Cabinand other literary publications were compose by the pro-abolitionists. These works were not censored like in Russia, due to the First Amendment in the United States Constitution Bill of Rights where it is writtenCongress shall make no law()abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.This also clearly shows how in all different the American and Russian society was. In 1858 there were 22.5 million serfs in the Russian countryside. Another 19 million where tied to lands owned by the state. 41.5 million out of a 74 million macrocosm22.The everyday life of a slave and serf in the 19th centuryWhile the white americans in the last part of the 19th century enjoyed a better standard of living than any other people on earth23, the black americans suffering was below criticism. In Russia conditions were of the medieval kind. The North of the USA was more industrialised, while the South act their traditional farming. Of course, there was much farming in the North as well, but due to the industry they posessed, they produced almost 90% of the nations manufactured turnout in the 1850s. Slavery therefore existed only in the South, were there was a supposed need for it. In some defence of the South, only 25% of Southern families owned slaves. In Russia on the other hand, the whole country was based upon the vast countryside. Little industry existed, thus keeping Russian serfs intact on the fields. The number of serfs was naturally greater than the number of slaves.At least in the beginning of the 19th century auctioning was less brutal. at one time dealers and owners advised against splitting up families. It still happened though, and many family members never saying each other again. The splitting up of families terminate in Russia with a law of 1833. Mo st of the slaves were put to do the ruffianly physical work on the cotton fields and farms. The white owners were most often playacting hard work themselves, but the slaves were always lowly to them because in need for money slaves could be sold. In Russia the nobility didnt have to do the hard physical work. The simple and inferior serfs where to do it.Many slaves turned to Christianity and creed in God. In Russia, where the serfs were mainly Orthodox, the Church told people to withstand their hard conditions patiently. Still many, quite understandably, protested against their owners both through resistance to work and violence against them. In the US this often resulted in a visit to the beat up House. The Lasher was a legally-appointed functionary to whom slaves were sent with just a letters bill poster from the owner as to how many lashes the slave was to recieve. This show that even though few people owned slaves in the South, most of them accepted it to rather big extent s.Emancipations comparedThe abolishment of slavery in the USA and the emancipation of the serfs in Russia happened as a consequence of two wars. The American polite War (1861-1865), where the blacks proved themselves through great acts of courage and valour, and the Crimean War (1853-1856), where Russian serf soldiers, even though brave, could not defeat the Western modern troops of Britain and France. The Civil War was to a significant extent the result of tensions between pro- and anti-slavery states, and as the war progressed slavery became the main theme. The Crimean War was the war of one supposed very strong power, Russia, verses Britain and France. Autocracy and serfdom against democracy and industrialisation.I find it very interesting to at this moment observe how the Civil War was about the neccesity of victory to abolish slavery, while the Crimean War resulted in defeat and pre-unintendedly led to emancipation of the serfs as the beginning of tremendous reforms. Note also that both wars and emancipations occurred at approximately the same time.ConclusionWhen we look upon how the United States of America and the Russian Empire came to be, there are practically no similarities, except the law making which defined slaves and serfs. By the mid-19th century slaves and serfs possesed almost the same identical status in their societies, which meant not possesing anything at all. The ethnical difference between slaves and serfs thus loses any significance. both groups where human beings being oppressed by other human beings who acknowledged themselves as being superior.The everyday life of slaves and serfes were both characterised by bad conditions with practically no legal protection. Both slaves and serfs tried some form of riots, both groups consisted of runaways, and physical punishment happened if the owner wasnt satisfied. Suspicion and mistrust was an everyday reality. Both groups experienced auctioning and splitting up of families. Slaves and serfs alike were needed for agricultur in the rural parts of their respective countries. Slave and serf were understood to be inferior to their owners. There was, in quantity, more serfdom in Russia than there was slavery in the US, but in quality they experienced the same discrimination and unrightousness.Even though the slaves came from Africa, and lived as a minority in the USA, they ended up fighting like true heroes for their freedom in the American Civil War. The serfs of Russia where no minority, but actually the majority. They were Russians in bondage. A last comparing of slavery and serfdom would be to try to find out wheter it was worse in the USA or in Russia. I have come to the conclusion that it would be unwise to do so. Both systems consisted of people doing terrible acts against fellow people, black or white doesnt matter. This is also what we should subscribe from this history, and enlighen ourselves minds to fight this kind of atrocity to ever happen again.