Incarceration Vs. Slavery

Throughout time, in all places, there is an upper class and a lower class. During the 16th to 19th century in America people came from all over Europe. People from Europe found America as an escape from their life; a new start. Some could not afford to take a boat ride across the Atlantic with their whole family. Because of this, some people became indentured servants. Later on, the South revolutionized America by bringing in black slaves and getting rid of indentured servitude. Slaves generated the economy for the South, but was also the main cause of the civil war. Both slaves and indentured servants were treated badly, however, black slaves were much more expensive and had to work for life,

The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast the American Slavery and the Holocaust, in terms of which one was more malevolent than the other. Research indicates that “the “competition” between African-American and Jews has served to trivialize the malevolence which both has suffered” (Newton, 1999). According to L. Thomas “A separate issue that contributes to the tension between blacks and Jews refer to to the role that Jews played in the American Slave trade.”

The documentary 13th featured on Netflix discusses the heavy topics of slavery and mass incarceration in our Criminal Justice System. The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution freed the slaves and prohibited slavery, unless it was a punishment for a crime. Making criminals an exception to this protection made them slaves to the state, again. There has been an immense continuation of slavery through the criminalization of behavior of African Americans in our society and through our Criminal Justice System practices. Convict leasing, lynchings, disenfranchisement, Jim Crow, and the War on Drugs are all systems of oppression that can be seen in today's practices that allow for this perpetuation of slavery, currently recognized as mass incarceration.

During the time prior to the twentieth century our world accepted slavery as a normal part of life. Aphra Behn and Phillis Wheatley, both female authors born about 100 years apart, had their own views of slavery and wrote poems and stories about the subject. These women were physically different, Aphra was a Caucasian, and Phillis was an African American, and their lives were rather different as well. Aphra was a spy and playwright, who lived the middle class life and Phillis, was a slave who was taken from her homeland, brought to America, sold into slavery, then later freed. I believe that both writers’ views were difficult to figure out, especially by just reading their works.

What is slavery? Slavery is forced labor and this forced labor is what built America and made them become more developed. “Africans peoples were captured and transported to the Americas to work. Most European colonial economies in the Americas from the 16th century through the 19th were dependant on enslaved African labor for their survival.” Many claim that enslavement was very necessary in order for America to thrive and not die off for it is now one of the best countries in the world. However, slavery was not necessary in the Americas it was just a mechanism that just stripped Africans of their human rights, giving the slave masters the “right” to abuse them. Slavery was not necessary in the Americas because without slavery America would

Virgina has differences and similarities when it comes to slave narratives. To explain further, this is why the details and experiences that these ex-slaves gave in describing the institution of slavery and the practice of slavery are tremendously important because Virginia became a royal colony, the first in English history. However, the English kings were occupied with affairs at home, the Virginia house of burgesses was able to continue its functions and won formal recognition in the late 1630s. Thus, representative government under royal domain was assured. By 1641, when Sir William Berkeley became governor, the colony was well established and extended on both sides of the James up to its falls.

In 1739 Hutchinson's store was robbed for their ammunition and guns. Two shopkeepers were killed. Plantations were burned down. The African armies destination was Fort Mose. There was 20 men. While marching, they played drums to gain more Africans in their army. Nearly 100 people joined by the Afternoon. They never made it to fort Mose because an armed group caught up to them and the Africans faced a brutal death. South Carolina banned drumming and education for slaves, and made gruesome punishments for runaway slaves because of this incident.

During the 16th and 19th centuries, slavery was widespread throughout the world. It was practiced by African and European countries to facilitate labor in their colonies abroad. These cultures, who were economically dependent upon the slave trade, also utilized slaves to fill vacancies wherever the citizenry failed to meet the needs of labor. The areas that are experienced in the primary sources are the English colonies of North America, Spanish colonies that spanned from Florida through the Caribbean Islands, and Africa, the European source for slaves, which utilized slaves similar to livestock headed for the market. Whether one was a slave of the English, Spanish, or Africans, slaves were treated differently based on control such as personal agency and use of religion.

From that day in 1619 at Jamestown, Virginia when the first African slaves were brought to aid in crop production there has been a driving force that has always had a hand in making America the place that it is today. When those first slaves were brought here there wasn’t rally a plan or model for slavery they were treated as indentured servants, the only difference was they weren’t citizens and not subject to the rules they followed. The profitability of the farming industry in the colonies and the loss of workers as the indentured servants worked off their debts, in 1641 blacks became personal property of the people who had originally bartered for them.

In a time like today, everyone who has ever received minimum wage could agree that it is not ideal, nor is it fair in most cases. However, to compare the brutality of minimum wage to that of slavery is preposterous! In slavery, especially the slavery that occurred in America, human beings lacked more than just proper compensation for their labor. Along with not being fairly rewarded: families were ripped apart by slave trades, dignity could never be gained, scare tactics and inferiority were at an all time high, women were raped, people were beaten almost to death, and the list goes on. There is no way to downplay minimum wage. People work

In the 18th century, the Spanish considered bringing as many native people as possible to the virtues of Catholicism; therefore, in 1769, the first mission was founded at San Diego, and many followed toward the north to attempt to change all the aspects of the native people’s lives. To accomplish this, native people were taken away from their ‘undisciplined’ lives and concentrate at the missions, making it easier to control them for labor. Once baptized, the Indians moved to missions. Because baptism was voluntary and the labor demands were modest, this was considered free labor of Native Americans.

The institution of slavery dates back before written records. The term slave was originally a derivative from the historical French and Latin medieval word for Slavic people of central and Eastern Europe. [ (wikipedia, 2010) ] In North America, the class system is systematically at the root of every socioeconomic and political issue resulting in Super companies, multibillionaires and the formation of lobbyists and special interest groups; there always has and always will be the have and have-nots. Unfortunately, for African Americans who have historically been the have-nots, that does not seem to have changed as evidenced by recent events like the Jenna 6. African Americans have a history uniquely

For Edmund S. Morgan American slavery and American freedom go together hand in hand. Morgan argues that many historians seem to ignore writing about the early development of American freedom simply because it was shaped by the rise of slavery. It seems ironic that while one group of people is trying to break the mold and become liberated, that same group is making others confined and shattering their respectability. The aspects of liberty, race, and slavery are closely intertwined in the essay, 'Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox.'

In order to talk about the abolition of slavery it is necessary to know the meaning of slavery and abolition. According to Dictionary.com the word “Slave means: a person entirely under the domination of some influence or person and abolition means: “the legal prohibition and ending of slavery, especially of slavery of blacks in the U.S.” Now that both words were defined we can begin. “It is said that the first African slaves were brought to the United States near the English Colony back in 1619 to Jamestown, Virginia by some Dutch traders. If we were to discuss the origins of slavery we would have to start not in the United States, but we would have to shift gears to Brazil were they were the biggest slaves traders of all times” according to History.net

It’s common knowledge that slavery was made illegal in the United States by the 13th amendment to the constitution, in 1865. However, it is less widely known that the 13th amendment still allows slavery as a punishment for crime. If a person commits an illegal act, it is perfectly constitutional to enslave them. This forced labor is one of the most profitable industries to the United States. The blatant exploitation of prisoners by the U.S. government must be put to an end.