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Slavery And Violence

Decent Essays

The article “ how slavery affected african american families” was about how slaves lived. Slaves were pulled apart from their families which caused pain, frustration, disruptions, etc. Slaves were not allowed to legally marry, but most slave owners allowed it. The paper states “ Many of them reasoned that having families made it much less likely that a man or would woman would run away, thus depriving the owner of valuable property.” In 1866, following the civil war after slavery ended, many previous slaves set out to find their children and legally get married. A man named james Mckim wrote in his journal that one day everyone would realize slavery is wrong. The article then states “ It did not take long for Mckim’s prediction to come true …show more content…

In fact, it could be said that we are still dealing with the after effects of slavery, such as our contemporary problems with racially-biased police violence. Stephen Mihm’s essay, “Where Slavery Thrived, Inequality Rules Today”, argues that there is a long way to go before the vestiges of slavery are fully and finally made a thing of the past, especially when it comes to black protestors and a white police force. But the research Mihm cites may help the rest of us grasp how the solutions to persistent inequality lies in more focused policies. Mihm notes that Winters “found a robust correlation between past reliance on slave labor and both economic underdevelopment and contemporary inequality.” In effect, this means that the gains of the abolitionist era has not resulted in curing racial problems and that these problems continue to this day. Mihm also quotes another author, Write, saying: “ Correlating one variable with another across the centuries [...] is not the same as writing history” and that “if you do not connect the dots, you are just groping.” In other words, Write is saying that people cannot just jump to conclusions and make 1:1 comparisons of the modern age to those that came before. In fact, it is erroneous to simply say that that history is happening all over; rather, you have to research and determine why things happen the way they do, what has gone wrong, and what motivations have

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