Howard Zinn'sSlavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom?

From 1641 up until 1865 Africans were captured by slavers and sold into slavery on Southern American plantations. British colonials viewed them as no more than personal property, as the Africans were not under British rule and were not protected under British law (History). Thus, during this time period blacks in slavery did not hold any rights at all (History). Those who were able to buy their freedom were treated as second-class

In America, the lives of Africans did not get any easier. Once the demand for labor began increasing dramatically, more and more Africans were imported to America. Originally, white people and black people worked together in the plantations. As a result of the increase in Africans in these British colonies, less white people took jobs on plantations. Eventually, enslavement became based on race. Numerous slave codes were developed, which included denying slaves the right to be out past sunset and denying slaves the right to meet in groups of three or more. These Africans forced to live enslaved in America were treated as if they were inferior to white people. It is discouraging to think about the fact that this country, though it was long ago, once accepted this kind of social injustice.

The introduction of Africans to America in 1619 set off an irreversible chain of events that effected the economy of the southern colonies. With a switch from the expensive system of indentured servitude, slavery emerged and grew rapidly for various reasons, consisting of economic, geographic, and social factors. The expansion of slavery in the southern colonies, from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 to just before America gained its independence in 1775, had a lasting impact on the development of our nation’s economy, due to the fact that slaves were easy to obtain, provided a life-long workforce, and were a different race than the colonists, making it easier to justify the immoral act.

The first African Americans that were put to work in Jamestown were not treated in the way that people traditionally think of early slavery. In fact they were treated just as the indentured servants that had come from England were treated. This does not mean that they were treated with any sympathy or given easy work, but that they just were not discriminated by the color of their skin. In the beginning of the 1600s all servants had the same dream, to one day be free. In 1641, a black slave by the name of Anthony Johnson, was freed and given his own land to start his new life as an American (Johnson et al, Africans, 39). At this point in time the only things that separated people were if you were an owner or a servant and if you were a Christian or not. At some point in the mid 1700s something changed the way that the colonists saw things. All of a sudden there was no longer equal treatment of white and black slaves, the darker the color of ones skin was the worse off their life became. In 1640, three slaves tried escaping to Maryland but were unsuccessful, when they were brought upon the court two of the

The institution of slavery was meant to be a permanent condition for Black males. This condition lay the historical outline for structural and societal racism resulting in a degrading formation of identity within Black. Africans were imported to the United States as purchased goods beginning around 1620. By 1770, almost 700,000 people, nearly 18 percent of the Americans were slaves. By the time of the Emancipation Proclamation, that number had exploded to over 4 million Davidson, J., DeLay, B., Heyrman, C., Lytle, M., & Stoff, M. (2011). Blacks were systemically dehumanized for hundreds of years, a practice that had unique social and psychological effects on men. They worked and were whipped in fields like animals. Any resemblance of pride, any call for justice, and any measure of manhood was tortured, beaten, or sold out of them. Most were forbidden from education, which included learning to read and write Davidson et al. (2011).

During the 1800’s slavery was a prevalent source of easy income and labor and used all across the southern parts of the United States. In this time before the legal revolutions for African Americans, Africans were kidnapped and sold into the Slave trade for countries including America (who is most known for this). Life as a transporting slave was difficult and cruel including being packed tightly onto giant ships and even slave life in America was equally as hard and terrorizing. The lives that were led by slaves was merely the beginning of the spark for the legal revolution for African Americans. The start of the African Slave trade actually developed the idea of how Africans are a lower race than whites, “The European Myth of African inferiority

Slavery is defined as the state of a person who is a chattel of another1. When must people hear this term they think about African Americans struggle in early American history. They conjure up visions of the American Civil War and the iconic image of the great emancipator himself, President Abraham Lincoln. The truth to be told though, slavery in United States history predates those events and figures. It actually started before the United States was even founded. Slavery in the United States actually was rooted in Colonial North America. As different nations raced to settle North America they used the cheapest labor to progress their cause economically. But, the

The colonists did not choose Africans for slavery simply because they were unease by their alien skin tone or because they belittle the people’s lack of civilized background. In fact, the first Africans to arrive from abroad in 1619 were treated the same as the white indentured servants, who could earn their freedom, even a few acres of land, within agreed years of labor. Since cash crops are the fastest and most stable way to wealth, the demand for

n Colonial Virginia, members of minority communities (such as the African Americans) were often seen as disparate to their European contemporaries (Watkins 2013:600-601). The slave-owners would force them into various skilled and unskilled labor positions, such as cotton and tobacco production (Neiman 2008:165). Decisions about these individuals were based on degradation and profit – the amount of labor achieved with least profit lost; a commodity to be purchased or spent with no moral obligation to give them the benefit of education or payment (Shackel 2003:139). Their identities were stripped, creating intense emotional dilemma and carelessness for their own lives (Snyder 2010:48), and the slave quarters were sparsely decorated and designed

Historically, the era of slavery in the early United States is defined by its impacts on the African-American community, yet the origin story of slavery seems to be forgotten. Slavery was started through the practice of indentured servitude, which allowed poor Europeans to immigrate to the colonies in exchange for being servants. This practice, known as indentured servitude, would end up being the first step in the evolution of what later became American slavery. Yet, though the first step towards slavery began with white servants, the connection between white servitude and black slavery seems to be forgotten in history. With both black slaves and white servants suffering from similar practices and the fact that indentured servitude developed

Eventually this practice evolved into the race-based slavery that is familiar today. African slaves imported from Africa were cheaper than indentured servants, and they had little to no voice in their treatment. Hence the first part of the title of Howard Zinn’s book “Slavery Without Submission”. The African people sent to America might have been slaves, but they never lost hope in their eventual freedom. Hymns, protests, and spirituals, kept the freedom fervor alive in the

Throughout the history of early United States, there was never complete equality or freedom, but up until the 1650’s (when slaves began to arrive in the Chesapeake), the playing field was slightly more even. Up to that point in time, the lowest status anybody in the colonies could get was being an indentured servant. Even then though, after their terms of service was up, indentured servants had a life to live still and could possibly make a living for themselves. When the Africans began to arrive more often and increase in numbers, they became more inferior than the indentured servants ever were. Taken complete advantage of by the colonial planters, African slaves were practically scraped everything; after all, with slaves there was no terms

Slavery was a large problem in the 1500’s. Although not all African Americans slaves, only about half a million African Americans lived in freedom. Slaves were not thought of as human beings, but referred to as “property.” Slaves were treated awful, with no respect or caution whatsoever. They woke up in the morning, had a mouthful of corn or cornbread, and began their dreadful day

“Between the arrival of the first Black American in Jamestown in 1619 and the end of the civil war, the dark cloud of slavery cast it’s shadow over much of this nation’s history”. Slavery has had a big impact for centuries on Black Americans, it is a sad truth that we must face, although we may not want to blame ourselves for it it is our race that started it. Hate is a big word but, it meant so little back then and even sometimes now Black Americans are hated throughout the world. There are many causes as to what provoked the uprising of slavery, even Blacks who are free are not truly free. First and foremost Blacks are restricted under certain rules they must follow and are outlawed among everyone. The cause of this is their social standing, they are not wanted by anyone but, their own race. They did have some disadvantages but, their economic rights were restricted. They

The United States, which is now perceived as a free country, began as a slave society. Slavery or the legal or economic system under which people are treated as property sprouted in the 1600s when African Americans were brought to Jamestown, Virginia to aid in the production of tobacco. Because we have studied multiple cases dealing with slavery, I was interested in unearthing whether there is a lingering effect today. Slavery was the terrible price that Africans paid to come to America. Europeans turned to African Americans as a cheaper, more plentiful labor source than indentured servants. Slavery was spread through the American colonies, and an estimated 6 to 7 million slaves were imported to the New World during the 18th century alone. America’s westward expansion, along with a growing abolition movement in the North, would provoke a great debate over slavery that would tear the nation apart in the bloody American Civil War (1861-65). Though the Union victory freed the nation’s 4 million slaves, the legacy of slavery continued to influence American history, from the tumultuous years of Reconstruction (1865-77) to the civil right movement that emerged in the 1960s, a century after emancipation.