Racial Slavery

Chattel slavery, so named because people are treated as the personal property, chattels, of an owner and are bought and sold as commodities, is the original form of slavery. When taking these chattels across national borders it is referred to as Human Trafficking especially when these slaves provide sexual services.

Researchers found that more than ten thousand people are in forced labor across 90 US cities. These people are forced to work in sweatshops, clean homes, work on farms, or work as prostitutes or strippers. Many of these cases are accumulated in areas with large immigrant populations, like California, New York, and Florida. Most of the victims of forced labor are “imported” from 38 different countries. China, Mexico, and Vietnam top this list of countries (Gilmore 1).

People used religion as a way to justify the act of slavery. They believed that God determined people’s places in life, so slavery was considered a “misfortune” controlled by God and not a social evil (Shi and Tindall, 91). Africans were also seen as “heathens” which lead people to believe that they had the right to enslave the Africans (Shi and Tindall, 92) The Africans brought the skills they had in Africa with them which made them very desirable in the American economy. Also, there was the creation of the slave code allowed slave owners more control over their slaves activates and movements (The Virginia Slaves

Slavery was like an addiction that the south could not break. Although it provided economic benefits to both the north and the south, the addiction or “curse” bound the people to the downfalls of slavery as well. Slavery created an oligarchy of which a small aristocracy of slave-owners would dominate political, economic, and social affairs of both blacks and whites. The institutions negative impact on the South, and even the entire nation would eventually lead to a great tragedy: the civil war.

"Once a man has tasted freedom, he will never be content to be a slave." (Disney, 2016) Laborers were needed for the cultivation of crops in America so that the British empire could expand and remain victorious. The Bacon's Rebellion was a prominent event; Africans took the place of indentured servants and became the only laborers in America. Slavery has been in existence since the beginning of the history of humans. North American slavery was based on agricultural endeavors. This resulted in large numbers of laborers under the power of one person. "Prejudice by itself did not create American slavery" (Foner 132, 2014). Economic, social, and cultural factors played pivotal roles which created slavery in America.

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

In the 1680’s most Africans were working on plantations. As Mintz explains how black slavery become the dominant labor, “ 1680’s that Black slavery became the dominant labor system on plantations ” (2, Mintz). The colonists wanted the africans because they would work the best on plantations. This quote demonstrates the colonists gained power because more slaves were sold and The colonists gained more profit. In the Colonial America the slaves were being carried to the New World. As Olaudah Equiano illustrates how the slaves were brought to the new world, “ These filled me with astonishment which was soon converted into terror ” (1, Equiano). He was scared and like he never experienced slavery in his life. This quote demonstrates that the colonists gained power because the slaves were afraid of them and if they were afraid of them they wouldn’t

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

Thus, slavery began in the new land. The once Europeans wanted these slaves to be different from them so there was some sort of distinction, so they captured Indians, and brought in captured Africans to get the job done. Indians became difficult to in-slave and some did not agree with the decision so Africans became the figure for slavery. During the first years and colonies in America, there was not many captive slaves, and those who were slaves worked with servants sharing the duties. Many slaves would also have the option for freedom at their master’s discretion, which would usually be after several years working for them.

The process of Emancipation in the United States dismantled what was known as Chattel slavery, but didn’t initially prohibit the actions taken to work around this. African Americans were still struggling with a system of oppression that sought to keep them in other forms slavery. The south at this time was still known as a “landed aristocracy,” meaning that those who owned land held majority of the wealth. The idea was to redistribute confiscated lands to African Americans to grant them economic independence, since their labor was the foundation of all the generated profits. The Sherman Field Orders would grant this for the African American population, only to later be dismantled by state legislation. Generally, the Black community wanted

Slavery in the American colonies had greatly shaped the nation as we know it to be today. After the discovery of the New World, Spanish conquerors intended to enslave Native Americans, but punishment, overwork, and diseases such as small pox and malaria decreased their population rapidly. The only solution was to kidnap African Americans from their homeland and transport them on ships under poor, unsanitary conditions, many of which died of yellow fever, dysentery, or suicide. Upon arrival, they were fed and oiled to make them more physically attractive so they can be purchased by wealthy landowners who forced them into labor. Here, plantation owners assigned task for each individual slave, working long hours in the field harvesting crops. At first, these African Americans held the status of indentured servitude, but as the demand for labor grew increasingly, treatment became much harsher. Additionally, African Americans were outnumbering plantation owners, and as a result, they were stripped of their freedom in fear of revolts. Although slaves have little to no rights, they played an important role in developing the economy despite experiencing racial discrimination.

The idea of slavery naturally associates with race. People automatically categorize masters and their slaves as either white or black. Though slavery existed hundreds of years ago, slaves never belonged to or corresponded with a particular race or culture. Before slavery in America turned into racial servitude, land and property owners used indentured slaves to meet their economic needs. The reason that the indentured servitude system was ineffective was because of its temporary nature. The colonial elite wanted a permanent solution to slavery. Many landowners also felt threatened by newly freed servants because of their demand for land. The colonial elite realized the problems of indentured servitude and decided to find an alternative method to the

Back when there was Slavery it was unfair to some people, at least to the African Americans. By unfair I mean the whites, like most of us would torture the Africans. Some of the things the owners did was made the slaves work in fields without pay and they had no control over their own self, their owner did. But, if they were not doing, that the owners would do something bad like whip them with a whip with metal on the end.

Enormous changes swept through nearly every facet of American society in the years between the American Revolution and the Civil War, and the institution of slavery was no exception to this rule. Prior to the Revolution, slavery existed in every American colony. The growing population of settlers was founded on and maintained by notions of inequality, in which indentured servants and slaves provided the necessary manpower for the development of a largely agricultural economy and the settlement of an ever-diminishing frontier. First- and second generation whites began to equate race and servitude as white indentured servitude waned and black slaves came to represent the primary source of forced labor in the Americas. In the

“Yes Lawd! I have been here so long I ain't forgot nothin'. I can remember things way back”