May I add a question regarding slavery, as it's presented to us as a catalyst for the civil war.
New Orleans auction of 18 enslaved persons from Alabama, 1858 (*)
When I read this sale post, I notice a few things.
The list mentions to the reader if the slave is Black. Examples:
No.9 DAN, Black, aged 23 years
N0.10 LEWIS, aged 35 years
No.7 POLLY, Negress aged 23
No.8 GEORGE, Griff, aged 23
Some are labelled
Black/Negress, some labelled
Griff, and
most are simply not labelled.
"Griff" I found to mean =
light skin, or mixed race.
Why bother making the distinction, if all slaves should be Black? Seems like the non-black slaves are the "default", while blacks/mixed have to be mentioned so.
Do we find an indication that practically any race member could've been under "slave" status prior to the abolishing?
(* Notice how the source website has copied the text onto the webpage, but omitted the parts that mention race.)
We also see that slaves are talked of professionally, and some even gracefully if they're excellent.
Interestingly, No.8 GEORGE, 23, is
married to his wife and has four children., oldest being 7.
Articles I've found on the subject, claim that slaves did not have a legal right to marry, and that was in very rare cases.
Mr. George apparently is recognized as a married person. Possibly since age 16.
Could it be there's actually no historical difference between "slaves" , "serfs" and "indentured servitude"?
Does this coincide with the
1861 Emancipation of Russia which took place de facto in
1864?
Parallel to the Civil War years. We also have Poland's
January Uprising 1863-1864 on the same years.
While I don't see wiki linking the uprising to emancipation, I also fail to understand its explanation for the uprising motives or catalysts.
This could be part of the same scenario that created the Confederacy, a secession from an Empire that is changing its social structure.