African American Slavery Case Study

Slavery was one of the darkest periods in African American history. Africans were taken from their homes in West Africa and brought to America to work on plantations. However, slavery was not something new, as it existed in Africa before Europeans partook in it, but slavery in Africa was very different from slavery in America. During their voyage through the Middle Passage many slaves perished. Those who survived were sold and subjected to the harsh life on the plantations. When this happened, their authentic cultures were drastically changed from the way of life in their native homelands in Africa to life in the plantation society of the American colonies.

What does it mean to be a slave? Ask any human being, and they will state that they too have been a slave. Being a slave to addiction, to a slave in a relationship, a slave to anxiety, a slave to work, maybe a slave to mental illness, and a slave to one's self-being. Sure, there may be moments in one's life that makes them feel like they have no other choice but to give in. However, there are some things that these people have that is a privilege, the right to say "no," the liberty to decide, and the freedom to act on decisions, to prohibit the temporary entrapment of, obstacles. African American slavery twisted the definition of what it was to be a slave. It meant that one is a product, and a tiny element apart of a more significant something,

Life under slavery was harsh, and during the mid-1800s, it was the main way of living in the South. Unlike the North, the South had very few industries, but made up for this with plantations. They then gained wealth by using slavery as they pleased, but under slavery, African- Americans were treated brutally. Under this kind of treatment, slaves made many ways to endure this pain and even sometimes then rebel.

What role did prison labor play in labor disputes and strikes in the mines? What role did race play in government opposition to the United Mine Workers

Slavery is fundamental to the economy. It can be said that slavery is as old as civilization. It started in the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia, 1619, to aid in the production of such lucrative crops as tobacco. The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 solidified the central importance of slavery to the South’s economy. African-American slaves helped build the economic foundations of the new nation. White slave owners did not understand or allow the practice of African traditions and customs. Slaves were forced to find new forms of expression.

With the legalization of the practice, many Africans were taken as slaves and transported through the sea to provide labor in the American plantations. The process of slavery was performed in a very inhuman manner. In the slave trade, the blacks were regarded as trade goods and thus, they had no rights. At the dawn of the American Revolution, more than 20% of the population in all the American colonies was of African descent (Amadu, 2007). Robin, (2000) argues that, during the era of the revolution, more than half of all the African Americans lived in Maryland and Virginia. In Chesapeake, the black people made up to 60% of the total population. The majority of the African Americans were slaves. According to the official US census taken in 1790, only 8% of the black population was free (Dorsey, 2007). However, whether free or enslaved, the blacks in the American colonies established familial relationships, survival strategies and various forms of resistances to their conditions. As indicated above, the slaves were like farming tools to their owners and thus, their survival depended explicitly on the will of the plantation owner. The conditions of slavery were that, the workers got very low pay for great amounts of work done. Therefore, the African Americans formulated survival techniques to curb the effects of their worse conditions (Charles, 2003).

The African Americans sustained many hardships and had very bad lives as slaves.They were beaten and not fed, and most starved to death.When or if they died they would be thrown overboard the ship and fed to the sharks.If they did make it they would be forced to do hard labor without pay and very little food. They were given poor sleeping conditions. When the slaves were brought from Africa they were auctioned to the buyers and were split up from their families, and they were treated unfairly. In addition to this, they were whipped and beaten as punishment. The slaves worked on the fertile lands of North America, where they grew rice, cotton, indigo, and tobacco.On the plantation the slaves cleared the land, timber, and worked the fields

Slavery in America presented many different horrifying events that enfolded during what is considered one of the worst times in human history. The first time Americans used African Americans as slaves was in 1619 to boost the American economy. The enslaved African Americans all had their own stories and their stories would differ on a very large and individual scale. African Americans during this time were subject to treatment that an animal on a farm would receive, they were chained, beaten, sold, and subject to prejudice by the white Americans. Their stories are told through history and more specifically their culture that offers people today a perspective of life. The original calling for African Americans in American slavery was because

Black slavery did not began in America, but actually existed in Western Africa before it existed in the colonies. The African chiefs who traded their countrymen to the Europeans had no idea of the atrocities and the brutality their people would be forced to endure as slaves in America. African slaves would be brought to America from Africa by the Europeans, sold as property, forced into labor, and denied their human rights.

African slavery provided cheap labor for the proprietors, however most of the slaves suffered terrible conditions from the moment they were captured until their life ended. They lived and worked in horrible conditions. Many families’ lives were destroyed when they came to the Americas, and they had an enormous lack of rights and freedoms, such as a simple education.

In the early years African slaves were treated much like the indentured servants from Europe. Some even gained their freedom after a few years of service. However in the later 1600’s they were relied on more in the South as lifetime labor sources. “Slaves were most economical on large farms were labor-intensive cash crops, such as tobacco, could be grown.”

Large plantations that covered the southern part of America required intense labor that African slaves provided. The hostile working conditions and life-threatening social isolation of the African slaves explore the root of the deep-seated racial prejudice. While the indentured whites previously provided manpower, they were replaced by blacks that were deemed to be stronger. The working environment and terms showed the skewed value towards life

Before the Civil War, nearly 4 million black slaves toiled in the American South. The life of a slave in the south was horrible. Their daily life for a slave was incredibly difficult. Slaves, especially those in the field, worked from sunrise until sunset. Even small children and the elderly were not exempt from these long work hours. Slaves were generally allowed a day off on Sunday, and on infrequent holidays such as Christmas or the Fourth of July. Slaves would work all day and night for little pay and most of the time no pay. They would have set jobs and a set amount of work they have to get done in an allocated amount of time. Their living conditions were not good at all. Slaves were whipped by their masters to be “broken”. Being broken

Summary: The website shows a timeline of Slavery in America. The first ship that captured Africans was called the White Lion and it was a Dutch ship. Before there were slaves in America there were indentured servants. An indentured servant was a laborer who had a contract with their master for a period of time. Once they finished their time as a servant they received a piece of land. There was a very gradual change in the status to African Americans from indentured servants to chattel slaves. In 1640 a Virginia court sentenced the first black indentured servant to slavery. Although slavery was alive and well in the South the North started Emancipation.

Slavery was one of the biggest and most heartbreaking situations of racial discrimination. It put an intense and overwhelming feeling of inferiority over African American people that has stuck with them through many decades. Slavery had an extremely severe impact on the development and creation of the new African American culture. The maltreatment and brutality that they were forced to endure and overcome was not the only thing that affected the unfolding of the new and separated community. One major factor that greatly affected the new development of the culture includes the traumatic event of being torn from their home land and removed from all senses of normalness, familiarity and comfort. Their original ways of life and initial