In the early nineteenth century a black man could be whipped for no reason, he could be beaten, stripped or tortured for the entertainment of his master. A black woman could be sexually harassed, assaulted, beaten or raped at anytime without question. The institution of slavery was the most disgraceful and inhuman institution in the history of the United States.
             Slavery had existed long before it had made its way to the Western Hemisphere, and had been a way of life in the South ever since Europeans had begun to work the land. Slavery by the nineteenth century had become an essential part of the southern culture as well as its economics.
             The Southern economy was agriculturally based, most of its profit coming from the cotton production. The wealthy southerners had almost all of their money in their land as well as their slaves. Those who were not wealthy did not own slaves and the majority of Southerners, contrary to popular belief were not slaveholders, nor were they rich (Two-thirds of white Southern families did not own slaves at all). The Southern rich slave holders were the aristocrats of the South. These planters were powerful property owners who dominated the South's political agenda. Part of their agenda was to continue to nourish the institution of slavery.
             Slavery was established by law as well as regulated. There were strict slave codes prohibiting slaves from doing things such as leaving their master's premises with out permission, holding property, being out after dark, bearing arms, striking a white, reading and writing, marriage and many more. Some slaves were luckier than others, in that some had more liberty, if they had a more lenient master, or if they were privileged enough to work in the cities.
             According to the escaped former slave Frederick Douglass, there were two main "classes" of slaves, those who worked in cities and urban slaves. " A city slave is almost a freeman. Com
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