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Similarities And Differences Between Ancient Rome And America

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Slavery began in some of the earliest civilizations and continued to be around for over a thousand of years after that time. During this time, people of various races were forced to work for those above them and were treated almost as less than human. Two areas where slavery is best displayed is in Ancient Rome and in America prior to the Civil War. When comparing and contrasting slavery in these two places, one can see similarities and differences in how the slaves were acquired, treated, freed, and the type of labor they had to undertake. Even though these two societies were over a thousand years apart from each other, Ancient Rome and America can be compared to see the changes that occurred in slavery during this time and the ideas that …show more content…

During the 1600s, a small number of African American slaves worked on plantations because, until the end of this time, it cost the slave owners less to buy white servants than slaves. However, this changed by the end of the 17th century as the African American slaves became set apart as a different group than the white servants and cost a substantial amount less than that of a white servant slavery (“The Roots of Racism”). At this point slavery was, like in Ancient Rome, based off of economic reasons and did not involve any racial discriminations. This idea of slavery changed over time as rebellions broke out. These rebellions, such as the Bacon’s Rebellion, brought on full-scale racial slavery (“The Roots of Racism”). This began the process of African Americans being thought of as “subhuman” and strengthened the idea of white supremacy. This showed a major development between the two societies as the Romans developed slavery to have their work done for them, but this idea gradually changed into an almost entirely racial act, as shown in America. Slavery in America did benefit those who owned slaves, but unlike in Ancient Rome, the slaves were based off certain races and was used to almost punish those who were

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