Dehumanization of the Slave Trade Essay examples

John. W. Blessingame, The Slave Community: The Plantation Life in The Antebellum South (Oxford University Press, Inc: 1972, 1979).

Being fully aware of the benefits of the slaves, the British elevated their importation and by the turn of the eighteenth century African slaves numbered in the tens of thousands in the British colonies (1). As the demands in tobacco increased, labor increased. Like the simple law of supply and demand. Ending of Royal African Company’s monopoly in 1698 encouraged more traders to enter the slave business -- thus making African slaves more accessible (4). As a result of their increased expense, their masters were stringent and determined to get as much out of them as possible thereby working them mercilessly (Faragher 2009, p. 83). Initially, the cost of slaves may have been more expensive but in the end the masters were able to keep them enslaved.

During 1619 where slavery fist appeared in Virginia, a Dutch warship brought more than twenty African men and women that were obtained as slaves in the Caribbean. There were many laws that Virginia created restricting freedom of African slaves. For example, Virginia passed a law that restrained Africans from carrying weapons (Jones, 82). It seemed as if Virginia created laws year after year restricting African men and/or women into doing/not doing particular things. During 1643, a law had passed that taxed productive field hands of African American women but not white women. Again, in Virginia, planters passed a set of laws that improved differences between slaves working for a specific period and they consigned to

The cause for this shift in social policy cannot be accurately traced through the events of the 17th century, but several clues to this alteration in slave treatment can be found. It is often presumed that racism led to the inevitable slavery acts in the 18th century, but this rationale is rather unfounded based on the idea that many African-Americans were in fact free and maintained their own farms in Virginia. The cause of slavery is much more subtle than a prejudice view of racial differences.

t realize that these people were, in fact people, and that drove them to this

whereas the lifetime of AN bound servant was harsh and restrictive, it wasn\'t slavery. there have been laws that protected a number of their rights. however their life wasn\'t a straightforward one, and also the punishments administered to folks that wronged were harsher than those for non-servants. AN bound servant\'s contract may be extended as social control for breaking a law, like deed, or within the case of feminine servants, changing into pregnant.For people who survived the work and received their freedom package, several historians argue that they were at an advantage than those new immigrants United Nations agency came freely to the country. Their contract could have enclosed a minimum of twenty five acres of land, a year\'s price of corn, arms, a cow and new garments. Some servants did rise to become a part of the colonial elite, except for the bulk of bound servants that survived the treacherous journey by ocean and also the harsh conditions of life within the New World, satisfaction was a modest life as a citizen in an exceedingly burgeoning colonial economy.In 1619 the primary black Africans came to Virginia. With no slave laws in situ, they were at the start treated as bound servants, and given constant

After the Thirty Years War, Europe’s economy was depressed leaving many laborers without work. A life in the “New World,” gave European Immigrants a new sense of hope. Indentured Servants were people who sold their labor voluntarily in exchange for free passage to the “New World,” and given housing upon their arrival. They were willing to enter an agreement to work for a specified amount of time, nor were considered the property of the contract holder. Alike in certain aspects, however, divergent in many areas of Indentured Servants, in the early 1600’s Slavery began in America when the first African Slaves brought to the colony of Jamestown, Virginia. Virginia was one of the first states to acknowledge slavery in its laws, to aid the production of lucrative tobacco crops. In 1670. The law that defined which people could be enslaved declared, “all servants not being Christians imported into this colony by shipping shall be slaves for their lives.” (Norton, Mary Beth. (2015). Initially, slaves were treated as Indentured Servants and given much freedom until eventually slave laws were passed. When the slave laws were passed this had seized any freedoms that might have existed for African Americans. The colonies began to reflect contradictions between Indentured Servants and Slaves. “More important, the laws began to differentiate between races: the association of “servitude for natural life” with people of African descent became common.” (Law

Freedom is a gift that came with America and was given to its citizens. However, that’s not always how it used to be especially in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the 17th century there were over 30,000 enslaved African Americans in North America . Many indentured servants were brought to the New World to help with growing crops and other duties. However, they were never a good fit for the new and wild America they had come to. In this essay I will be addressing the comparisons and contrasts of African American slaves and indentured servants in America.

The colonists’ labor supply problems created an opportunity for English recruiting merchants who were increasingly being asked to cast their net more widely for bound labor. Initially, the merchants tried to fulfill the demand from Europe by luring Irish women, convicts, homeless and orphans. However, these efforts did not pan out. The would-be migrants no longer considered indentured servitude in a far destination as attractive as opportunities at home. To fulfill the unmet labor demand, the merchants then turned to a new source: sale of slaves transported directly from Africa. The Royal African Company enjoyed a monopoly in the lucrative business of selling African slaves to North American colonies. However, in 1698, the British Parliament

In 1619, when enslaved Africans were brought to the colony of Virginia, they did not initially suffer the racism and oppression that would soon engulf their race. The idea of poor whites and slaves joining forces would become a shock one hundred years later. Masters would abuse their servants with hard usage and oppression. Due to the fact that the New World land was boundless and cheap labor was limited, Virginia planters found enslaved Africans to be a more efficient source of cheap labor. Because African salves entered the colonies as aliens, they became a working class fit for maximum exploitation and capable of only minimal resistance. In the next 250 years, American laws tried to reduce black people to a class of untouchables. Laws

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, brings to light many of the social injustices that colored men, women, and children all were forced to endure throughout the nineteenth century under Southern slavery laws. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. Yet, while Douglas’s narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. Aside from all the

Slaves were valued more for work and not their personality and to keep them happy, slaves were granted rights such as owning their own property and the ability to cultivate it, they also had the ability to marry other African women, and they are were not segregated by the white endentured servants, in fact it was very common for white servants and slaves to bond and form relationships at taverns ( The downward Spiral). As a result of the demand of Tabaco in the Chesapeake bay, more slaves were brought into the New World. After the 1640s people began to be distinguished by the color of their skin rather than their social status, causing a lot of hostility towards the people of dark color and severing the bonds and relationships between servants and slaves. Life for any free slave was hard, especially for a freed woman. Most of the time, women would sacrifice their freedom and become a servant and bind their children to be servants in order to survive.

In the movie, 12 Years a Slave, there are many scenes where it shows that slavery had a dehumanizing effect on slaves and slaveowners. One specific scene that shows the dehumanizing effect is when Patsey gets whipped. In this scene, Master Epps strips Patsey of her clothes and ties her to a stake. After Master Epps ties her to the stake, he then attempts to whip her, but he finds that he cannot because his emotions overtake him due to the fact that he is having an affair with Patsey. Instead of whipping Patsey himself, he makes Solomon, another slave, whip Patsey.

Prior to the publication of any slave narrative, African Americans had been represented by early historians’ interpretations of their race, culture, and situation along with contemporary authors’ fictionalized depictions. Their persona was often “characterized as infantile, incompetent, and...incapable of achievement” (Hunter-Willis 11) while the actions of slaveholders were justified with the arguments that slavery would maintain a cheap labor force and a guarantee that their suffering did not differ to the toils of the rest of the “struggling world” (Hunter-Willis 12). The emergence of the slave narratives created a new voice that discredited all former allegations of inferiority and produced a new perception of resilience and ingenuity.

Imagine, if you will, rising earlier than the sun, eating a mere “snack”- lacking essentially all nutritional value - and trekking miles to toil in the unforgiving climate of the southern states, and laboring until the sun once again slipped under the horizon. Clad only in the rags your master provided (perhaps years ago), you begin walking in the dark the miles to your “home.” As described by the writers Jacob Stroyer and Josiah Henson, this “home” was actually a mere thatched roof, that you built with your own hands, held up by pathetic walls, over a dirt floor and you shared this tiny space with another family. Upon return to “home,” once again you eat the meager rations you were provided, and fall into bed