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1. Auflage1 Version 1 | 2020
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Satz: Satzkasten, Stuttgart
Illustrationen: Christa Janik, Leinfelden-Echterdingen
Umschlaggestaltung: Elmar Feuerbach
Umschlagbild: alamy / North Wind Picture Archives
Textillustration: Walter Rieck, Heilbronn
Kartenskizze: Gottfried Wustmann, Mötzingen
eISBN 978-3-12-909086-2
Introduction
A Slave Runs Away
Railroad to Freedom
The Burning Question
Brother against Brother
The Slaves are Free
A. E. = American English
B. E. = British English
Ant = antonym ['æntənım]
Cf = compare vergleiche
In 1776 Britain’s thirteen American colonies decided to break away from the mother country and call themselves the United States of America. After more than five years of bitter struggle they won their freedom, and the world recognized them as a new and independent republic, founded on the principle that all men are created equal.
All men are created equal. These famous words were written by Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence. It was a proud beginning for a new nation. America was the land of equality, the land of freedom. No American doubted it in those early days of independence. But it was again Thomas Jefferson who reminded his countrymen not many years later that in the land of freedom there were over 700,000 men, women, and children, who lived as slaves. They were the negroes in the South. They had no rights; they could not vote; the law did not recognize them as human beings, but only as ‘things’ that could be bought and sold.
Jefferson was a southerner himself. He came from Virginia and he knew how the slaves lived. “I tremble for my country,” he said in 1784, “when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep for ever.”
Jefferson’s anxiety about slavery was shared by many Americans, both in the North and the South. They looked on it as an evil custom left over from the old days of Colonial rule and they hoped that it would gradually disappear as the new American nation developed. What happened, however, was exactly the opposite.
In 1790 the large majority of the slaves worked on the southern cotton plantations, mainly in South Carolina and Georgia. The growing textile industry in England and the north-east of the United States made cotton-planting the most profitable occupation in the South. In 1793 the cotton gin was invented. This machine for cleaning the cotton fibres could do the work of fifty men in one day. More and more cotton was grown. More and more slaves were needed for the cotton fields. Cotton-planting spread westwards into Alabama and Mississippi. The South grew rich, and the powerful cotton planters became its leaders. By 1850 the cotton belt stretched from South Carolina on the Atlantic Coast to Arkansas, Louisiana, and eastern Texas. ‘Cotton is King!’ said the southerners. The whole life of the South depended on King Cotton – and on the work of his toiling black slaves. In 1860 at the height of the cotton boom, there were nearly 4,000,000 negro slaves in the South.
Thomas Jefferson’s warning came true. For eighty years the dark shadow of slavery lay over the young, free nation who believed that all men are created equal. Sometimes they tried to pretend that the problem did not exist; sometimes they tried to compromise with it. But in the end no compromise was possible between freedom and slavery. It was a terrible test that they had to face.
to recognize ['rekəgnaız] to be willing to accept anerkennen
independent not controlled by others unabhängig
to create [kri'eıt] to make schaffen
equal of the same quality, the same gleich
equality Gleichheit
to doubt s.th. [daʊt] to think that s.th. is perhaps not true an etwas zweifeln
slave Ant: a free man; Sklave
to vote to elect wählen (Politik)
human being person Mensch
to tremble to shake with fear or cold zittern
to reflect to think deeply, to consider überlegen, nachdenken
just fair gerecht
justice fair treatment Gerechtigkeit
anxiety [æŋ'zaıəti] fear, uncertainty Angst, Besorgnis
to share to have in common teilen
evil ['i:vəl] Ant: good; schlecht, übel
gradually adv. step by step allmählich
to develop to grow sich entwickeln
majority [mə'dʒɒrəti] the greater part Mehrzahl
cotton Baumwolle
plantation Cf: plant (Pflanze); Pflanzung, Plantage
occupation work Beschäftigung
gin machine for separating cotton from the seeds Entkörnungsmaschine
to invent to make s.th. which did not exist before erfinden
fibre [faıbə] Faser
belt a wide strip of land Gürtel
to depend on abhängen von
to toil to work hard schuften, sich plagen
height [haıt] highest point Höhepunkt, Höhe
boom in business a time of great activity and quick money-making wirtschaftlicher Aufschwung, Hochkonjunktur
to come true to really happen wahr werden
to pretend to act falsely vortäuschen, tun als ob
to compromise Entgegenkommen zeigen
What was life like on a big cotton plantation in the days of the ‘old South’?
The master’s house was large and had usually ten or twelve rooms, often luxuriously furnished. Broad stone steps at the front of the house led up to a porch, which was supported by tall, white pillars.
The ‘big house’, as the slaves called it, was surrounded by wide lawns, trees, and well-kept flowerbeds. Behind it were orchards, vegetable gardens, and stables. Then came fields of watermelons, sweet potatoes, and corn. Beyond these the broad cotton fields stretched away to the forest in the distance. Near the cotton fields was a group of small, whitewashed buildings, made of wood. These were the one-roomed cabins of the slaves.