Asher Sisneros

There is often the misconception that slavery was beneficial for the slave owners and destructive for the slaves. That is only a half-truth. Booker T. Washington, who was born a slave in the south, beautifully laid down his case for why slavery was adverse for both parties. In this lesson, I’ve been tasked with explaining Washington’s rebuttal of the entire slave system. I will focus particularly on why it was destructive for everyone.

One of the major problems for the slaves circled around marriage. Because the slaves were just property there was no guarantee of married couples staying together. One of them could be sold and the family would be torn apart. For that reason, there was not a significant emphasis on the family as a whole. Booker Washington for example, never knew his father. There was also the problem of people who weren’t wealthy starting plantations. That was the case for Booker. His cabin was more akin to a tool shed, and there was no stove. Instead, his mother had to cook on an open fire on the ground. The conditions were even worse for field slaves.

As for the slave owners, over the long term, they also suffered. Booker pointed out that children on the plantations couldn’t perform the most basic necessities. They couldn’t cook; they couldn’t fix fences; they couldn’t even do laundry. Why would they? The slaves could do it for them. What started out as a luxury quickly became a curse. Booker pointed out that the plantation owners would grow dumb and never learn occupational skills. They were book smart, but when it came to manual work they were useless. The plantation owners had no mechanical skills, it was all intellectual. Through their academic skills, they were able to profit from forced labor, but they couldn’t do anything with their hands. When slavery was eventually abolished, all of that became especially problematic for the plantation owners.

Even with slaves though, there was one problem. The slaves were motivated to work through fear, a desire for bread, and appeasing their master. In the slave system, people don’t do work because they enjoy it. Neither did they work out of a desire to protect their property. It was just “because they had to.” That’s ineffective work. People don’t work effectively when they’re forced to do it. The entire slave system completely undermines the idea of effective work.

In conclusion: Slavery is not only unethical, it is flawed. In Booker’s autobiography he lays down multiple good points on why slavery doesn’t work for either party. It causes laziness on part of the slave owners and makes them reliant on the slave system. When got abolished, the slave owners were left in problematic situations. As for the slaves, in addition to the unethical abuses, it produces a bad culture. It produces a weak family. The whole system is flawed. It is because of all these previously mentioned reasons, and more, that we can conclude that slavery is a bad system.