Interpretations of Slavery Essay

Slavery was created in pre-revolutionary America at the start of the seventeenth century. By the time of the Revolution, slavery had undergone drastic changes and was nothing at all what it was like when it was started. In fact the beginning of slavery did not even start with the enslavement of African Americans. Not only did the people who were enslaved change, but the treatment of slaves and the culture that each generation lived in, changed as well.

Slave as defined by the dictionary means that a slave is a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another; a bond servant. So why is it that every time you go and visit a historical place like the Hampton-Preston mansion in Columbia South Carolina, the Lowell Factory where the mill girls work in Massachusetts or the Old town of Williamsburg Virginia they only talk about the good things that happened at these place, like such things as who owned them, who worked them, how they were financed and what life was like for the owners. They never talk about the background information of the lower level people like the slaves or servants who helped take care and run these places behind the scenes.

Since the beginning of writing, literature has played a pivotal role in shaping the history of the world. The same holds true when referring to the early American history topic of slavery. Many abolitionists wrote in hopes that their views will persuade people in America to take a stand against slavery. While there were many authors that led the anti-slavery movement, the most successful writers were the slaves that lived through this atrocious time period and were able to recall their experiences. Two prominent authors during this time period were Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs. While the two writers shared many common experiences due to their time being a slave, they also had had a variety of differences. Harriet Jacobs wrote mostly wrote in a way that appealed to people’s emotions and focused on what a woman goes through as a slave; whereas Douglass focused on freedom and manhood.

     Slavery caused a great impact in the evolution of history. Slavery was the cause of many wars and disruptions along the time line that dates to the present twenty--first century. People of color were deprived of having a life of their own and going about normal ways because of the greed that consumed society. The role of slavery in society attributed to the desperation and anger the slaves felt and lead them to strike against their owners in many occasions. Despite the threats and the unfair treatment, many people of color retaliated and firmly stood up for their rights as equal human beings. It was absurd how society based their government on religion at one point and still managed to dispossess people of

This was the period of post-slavery, early twentieth century, in southern United States where blacks were still treated by whites inhumanly and cruelly, even after the abolition laws of slavery of 1863. They were still named as ‘color’. Nothing much changed in African-American’s lives, though the laws of abolition of slavery were made, because now the slavery system became a way of life. The system was accepted as destiny. So the whites also got license to take disadvantages and started exploiting them sexually, racially, physically, and economically. During slavery, they were sold in the slave markets to different owners of plantation and were bound to be separated from each other. Thus they lost their nation, their dignity, and were dehumanized and exploited by whites.

In American history, every event and person plays a part in the future. For example, rich plantation owners helped America advance their economy. However, that would not have been at all possible without the help of their slaves. The time and institution of slavery is a time of historical remembrance. It played a primary role during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. The treatment, labor conditions, and personal stories of these slaves’ treatment and labor conditions are all widely discussed around the world to this day.

Slavery, especially in America, has been an age old topic of riveting discussions. Specialist and other researchers have been digging around for countless years looking for answers to the many questions that such an activity provided. They have looked into the economics of slavery, slave demography, slave culture, slave treatment, and slave-owner ideology (p. ix). Despite slavery being a global issue, the main focus is always on American slavery. Peter Kolchin effectively illustrates in his book, American Slavery how slavery evolved alongside of historical controversy, the slave-owner relationship, how slavery changed over time, and how America compared to other slave nations around the world.

What was the purpose of slavery from the earliest colonial times until 1865? Well, as we all know, slavery existed in the United States during the early colonial times. While this was going on you had millions of women, men, including children who were being stripped or should I say disproved mostly from all their basic rights. Once they became slaves, they automatically had given up their rights to have freedom nor did they have the right to obtain any kind of power.

Examining slavery from a functionalist point of view, the functionalist perspective would be that slavery is needed in agriculture and will benefit food businesses by keeping the cost of food down, with the slave owner still able to make a profit. This is of course only one example of a certain type of slavery, since slavery can be used for in agriculture. By keeping the cost of food down the businesses that are buying the foods worked by slaves are not having to pay as much, therefore their profits are higher and they are able to pay their employees more. Another way that slavery is needed in agriculture is in most countries families will sell their children in order for the family to survive. Being able to sell their children to slavery not only benefits the individual buying them, but also now the family has stability with the money from selling the child.

Slavery has been documented and has been part of the world for a very extensive time. Slaves as well-defined by numerous of individual’s state that slaves were a group of individuals who were legally bought and soon after, became the property of an owner and were forced to obey. No one knows when slavery actually came about, but we do know that it existed.

Slavery is forced labor where the slave is considered property and can be bought and sold. Slavery is something that has affected many parts of the world and mostly the people there. It is interesting to dig into the past and see what was going on when many people that are living today weren't a part of. People have a lot of questions about slavery; Why did people become slaves? What countries were involved in slavery? Were their different types of slavery? Some of these questions may never be fully answered. This paper may help you understand a little bit more about slavery.

The purpose of slavery really has no meaning if you really think about it, but it does however point to important clues in which we can learn from. For instance to some the purpose of slavery was for the Africans to not be free until they could change the color of their skin. To others it was for free labor for crops and other stuff people grew in order to make money and have power over others. The most common reason for slavery was the money in buying and selling because it was in today’s money a million dollar industry. The other purpose is power. Every man wants power and this is what slavery did for them.

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.

Slavery can be defined as legal or economic systems where the property law was applied to humans and were considered as property so that they can be owned, bought and sold accordingly. When a person was a slave, the owner could entitle to the slaves labor without any remuneration. Sometimes the rights and protection of the slaves were regulated by laws and customs. A person becomes a slave from the time of their capture, purchase or birth. This system of slavery existed before the written history. United States of America was considered to be one of the slave state. Slavery in United States was a legal institution of human chattel slavery which existed in 18th century. From early colonial days the slavery was practiced in British North America

Despite the horror of the word slavery we have to admit that slaves have played a big role in rising big empires. For example the Egyptians used slaves to build their majestic pyramids, the Chinese and Indian used slaves for large-scale construction and agricultural and the Hebrews also used slaves. Slaves were brought from Africa to the British American colonies to work in agriculture and farming, which among other factors made the British colonies in America become so strong and prosperous.