Slavery Of American Life In The 21st Century

It has been over one-hundred and fifty years since African-Americans have been liberated from the hardships of slavery. Even though the United States of America and its citizens have undergone many modern changes since slavery and its abolition, the effects of enslavement and oppression are still evident today. Many works such as Rituals of Blood: The Consequences of Slavery in Two American Cities, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, and Nothing But Freedom: Emancipation and Its Legacy all explain a common conclusion; the chattel enslavement of African-Americans left a profound effect on former slaves and their descenders. In 1903, W.E.B. DuBois wrote in The Souls of Black Folk, “the problem of the Twentieth century is the color line”. The problem

and got a job as a waiter. Soon after this period of time he got a

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).

only 7, and he left home when he was only 14. He went from town to town doing

At the age of 11 (in 1805), Vanderbilt dropped out of school to work for his father for a few years by providing transportation services. These services were low level, but in 1810, they proved to be very profitable for Vanderbilt. Using a loan from his parents, he started his own passenger and freight service, he beat a lot

age of fifty after suffering financial difficulties. Three years after the death of his father and at

He then left school to practice as a lawyer when he was nineteen (“Jefferson” 323).

worked driving a grocery wagon at the age thirteen to help support his family. He had eight

other jobs such as janitor,fry cook,and field hand. He learned his work ethic at a young age from his grandmother these things helped him pay for college. He eventually

seven or eight he could drive a team and began hauling all the wood used in the house and

When he was 21 he moved to New Haven. In time he became a prosperous merchant

He became a shoemaker at a young age, and created his own business. Shortly after he married Sally Sumner, a 17 year old laundry lady, and their

It was at the age of 14 that Hugh decided sitting behind a desk was not his calling in life so he left school and ventured off to find his first full time job.

He went to work when he was sixteen, and for the next forty years he worked in a coal factory. Then he worked in a steel mill for another twenty years. He stopped working only because the steel mill closed and he was too old to find another job.

From the day that high school started, he had to work to support his seven siblings and his mother. Along with his father he worked hard to support his family while at the