The Slavery in Circassia and the United States (1850–1860-ies years): General and Special

• Main Authors: Mikhal Smigel, Aleksandr A. Cherkasov
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sochi State University 2016-12-01
• Series: Bylye Gody
• Subjects: slavery; Circassia; Russian Empire; the slave-owning South of the United States; historical-comparative study
• Online Access: http://bg.sutr.ru/journals_n/1480334412.pdf

The article provides a comparative analysis of slavery in Circassia and in the territory of the slave South in the United States in 1850–1860-ies years in the context of the fight against the slave trade and slavery in the world. The article discusses the Russian-American general trends for the prohibition of slavery and the slave trade. Among the materials are Russian and foreign archival sources, documents of personal origin (memoirs, diaries) of travelers as well as scientific research. The methodological basis of historical-comparative study are the principles of objectivity and historicism, suggesting an unbiased approach to the analysis of the studied problems, a critical attitude to the sources, making judgments as a result of the analysis of a set of facts, and displays the slave of phenomena in the development and the context of the historical situation. In conclusion, the authors note that slavery and the slave position in the United States and the Circassia had their differences in 1850–1860-ies. Such differences included the inability of the transition to the United States from the status of a slave in the state of the dependent peasant, which was the norm in Circassia. In the United States the slaves were brought from outside, while in Circassia the slavery occurred in the region, mainly by trapping. At the root of discrimination in the United States was the racial principle, in Circassia this is based on the religious principle. The position of slaves had their similarities. A slave was powerless property of his master, there were certain unwritten rules governing the relationship, slave owners were reluctant to bring slaves to the extreme and etc. The important similarity between the US and Circassia was the presence of their territories with a strong slave system, where slaves constituted more than 30 % of the population. In the US, it was the territory of the slave-holding South, and in Circassia – the slaveholding Ubykhia.