History
John Hope Franklin & Loren Schweninger, In Search of the Promised Land: A Slave Family in the Old South
Do not use or consult any other materials, including any websites.
our analysis must specifically answer each of the following questions:
How did the Thomas-Rapier family complicate definitions of black and white, along with slavery and freedom?
How were the boundaries between slavery and freedom enforced?
What were the experiences of the Thomas-Rapier family in non-slave states compared to slave states?
What were the experiences of the Thomas-Rapier family in the Americas (outside the United States) as a whole?
Essay Structure:
Your analysis should have an introduction paragraph that briefly places the antebellum era in historical context and ends with a thesis statement consisting of one to three sentences that coherently and succinctly provides your answers to the required questions. Rephrasing the required questions is not a thesis statement. I am requiring you to go a step further and incorporate your answers to the required questions in a way that encapsulates your analysis.
Well-structured body paragraphs that concisely answer the questions in more detail with sophistication and nuance should follow, with your analysis ending in a conclusion paragraph that recaps your thesis. Your work must include examples from the sources to analyze. You are welcome to make broad statements (e.g., “Enslaved black people were exploited in the antebellum South…”), but you must cite specific examples from the sources as evidence. You are encouraged to include information from class lectures and other required readings when relevant. On the whole, a solid paper displays critical thinking through creative analysis that interrogates the sources and uses the knowledge gained from our course.
Length, Formatting, & Submission:
In Word Document format of 800-1,000 words submitted via the “Assignments” tab on Blackboard. Double-spaced, 12-point font with your name and date at the top of the first page and word count listed at the bottom of your essay’s conclusion
ANSWER
Slavery and Freedom in Search of the Promised Land
Introduction
In the book In Search of the Promised Land, Franklin and Schweninger Sally Thomas’s journey from being a slave to owning her own business and securing freedom for her three sons. The book offers an explanation of Sally’s family life and that of slaves before the antebellum. The Thomas-Rapier family experienced their fair share of slavery, from witnessing the breakup of black families, limitation of slave movement, owning property, earning money, securing an education. Franklin and Schweninger capture the hope and fears of the Thomas-Rapier family as they struggle to find their place in a world full of systematic inhumanity and injustice.
How the Thomas-Rapier family complicated definitions of black and white, along with slavery and freedom
The idea of slavery creates an image of African-Americans working in the native plantation fields while enduring harsh conditions and beatings from their owners. However, the Thomas-Rapier family depicts slavery in the antebellum period and the civil war eras differently. Slavery was not simply an issue of blacks and whites; instead, it was complicated with different variations of slaves. While some slaves had the freedom to move about and run their businesses, others were tied down to plantations and could only leave for family visits. For instance, Sally Thomas was a quasi-slave; therefore, her master allowed her some freedom, although she lacked formal emancipation from the state (Franklin & Schweninger, 2005). As a result, Sally was free to move about, run a laundry business, and even own property through her freedom. Sally Thomas shows the determination, resilience, and sacrifice of a mother to navigate through slavery so that her children and grandchildren can get to the promised land.
How the boundaries between slavery and freedom were enforced
The boundaries between slavery and freedom were enforced by the illustration of the experiences of quasi-free slaves. Sally was an example of a quasi-free slave; her owner allowed her freedoms that other slaves lacked. For example, Sally owned and ran her own laundry business and earned profits. Nevertheless, she was not entirely free like her sons when they eventually gained freedom since she was still owned by her master (Watkins, 2016).
Nevertheless, Sally was careful to use her freedom effectively and avoid offending her owner or customers and endanger her quasi-slave status. Through her determination and hard work, Sally Thomas saved enough to buy her sons’ freedom. In 1834, Sally encouraged her son Henry to run in search of freedom which he did, and settled in Canada and started a barbering business. Her other son James through the help of a white lawyer, petitioned for his freedom and won. James also set up a barbering business which prospered to the point of serving senators and governors.
Experiences of the Thomas-Rapier family in non-slave states compared to slave state
When James and John Rapier jr. traveled to Nicaragua, they discovered that the lives of free blacks in the non-slave states were not as desirable as they had thought. The free blacks experienced high poverty levels, while two-thirds of the deaths were from preventable diseases such as diarrhea, dysentery, and malignant fevers. Consequently, James preferred his life in the slave states and viewed slavery as better than freedom since the slaves led a better life than the free blacks. As a result, James returned to Nashville since he lacked the haven he was looking for and instead experienced death and destruction (Franklin & Schweninger, 2005). In Nashville, Sally hired out as a laundry lady with her master’s permission in addition to doing other businesses such as renting out a two-story house and manufacturing her soap state (Franklin & Schweninger, 2005). While her youngest son helped run the laundry business, her eldest hired out as a waiter, while her middle son hired out as an errand boy for white gentlemen. Their experiences in slave states were far much better than the non-slave states.
The experiences of the Thomas-Rapier family in the Americas (outside the United States) as a whole
John Rapier prospered in his barber business in Alabama and saved up to $500, with which he bought a white frame house and made it his place of residence and business. John Rapier had a successful family life, having married a black woman, Susan, with whom they conceived four children state (Franklin & Schweninger, 2005). After Susan’s death, he married a second wife, Lucretia, a slave, and they conceived five children. Rapier immersed a lot of wealth, including real estate holdings, and railroad stock, becoming one of the wealthiest blacks in Alabama. Henry Thomas, on the other hand, also opened a successful barbershop in Niagara. He married a black woman, and they had eleven children. Later, Henry relocated to the black community of Buxton in Canada, where he bought a piece of land and built a log house state (Franklin & Schweninger, 2005). Although miles away, the Thomas-Rapier family was maintained close ties and kept in touch with one another. Sally Thomas, a woman of outstanding dedication and sacrifice, saw that her children gained freedom and led successful lives.
Conclusion
Franklin and Schweninger offer a broader perspective to the theme of slavery through Thomas-Rapier’s journey to freedom. The authors shift the narrow-minded inaccurate idea of slavery and introduce the quasi-slave term, where one is permitted some form of freedom without formal emancipation from the state. Although they hated their life as slaves, once John and James Rapier traveled to Nicaragua and discovered how undesirable the lives of the Blacks were, they went back to Nashville, where there were more opportunities and better standards of living. Sally worked hard, and she was determined to buy her freedom and that of her sons. Eventually, her children and grandchildren gained freedom and led prosperous lives, including setting up businesses.
References
Franklin, J. H., & Schweninger, L. (2005). In Search of The Promised Land: A Slave Family in The Old South. Oxford University Press, USA.
Watkins, D. J. (2016). Slavery and Freedom in Theory and Practice. Political Theory.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26419441
