Slavery Of The United States 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.

In the early ages of the United States, slavery was a key component in its success in regards to manufacturing for the south. However slavery was a form of horrible labor that blacks had to deal with. They worked long hours in the field, had no freedoms, were not considered citizens, and mistreated by their masters. As time went on slaves began break free from slavery after the civil war and during the reconstruction period where the 13th,14th,and 15th amendments were added to the constitution. During the period of 1775 to 1830, though it was a short time, was a high point for slavery in that change was starting to happen before the civil war.

Slavery was held out until 1865, but during this time period abolitionist are trying to do anything to stop slavery. The reason being is because slavery wasn’t slavery anymore. Slavery was beginning to become more advance due to technological innovation. The Abolitionist are people that were against slavery and would boycott anything to get rid of slavery. The argument that the Abolitionist had during this time period was its conditions as violating Christian’s principals and rights to equality. The abolishment of slavery was a significant change in the history of slavery, because of all the technological innovation that was making the slaves jobs easier. In the American Revolution war slavery played a role in which they began a sequence of abolishing slavery. Slavery played a role in the American revolutionary war to begin to grant themselves freedom, liberty, and rights. Slavery changed in 1808 due to a bill that abolished the slave trade. The westward expansion divided the nation because the north and the south weren’t coming into agreement of change going on in the United States. The abolitionist had a plan and that plan was to abolish all slavery throughout the whole United States. These are some of the main things that would lead to the abolishment of 1865.

When the New World began to evolve, the new European settlers were hungry for power and wealth. The Europeans were desperate to prove that they too had the ability to flourish as a nation. Though settlers throughout the American colonies struggled to survive due to famine and disease, they quickly found a solution that would generate immense amounts of income and quickly turn America into a world threat. With the addition of slavery to the American workforce, profit increased and improved. Slavery brought the Europeans exactly what they wanted; power and money. During the period of 1607-1763, slavery grew dramatically due to Bacon’s Rebellion and the Atlantic Slave Trade, causing it to develop into an essential for Europeans settlers in

Edmund S. Morgan’s famous novel American Slavery, American Freedom was published by Norton in 1975, and since then has been a compelling scholarship in which he portrays how the first stages of America began to develop and prosper. Within his researched narrative, Morgan displays the question of how society with the influence of the leaders of the American Revolution, could have grown so devoted to human freedom while at the same time conformed to a system of labor that fully revoked human dignity and liberty. Using colonial Virginia, Morgan endeavors how American perceptions of independence gave way to the upswing of slavery. At such a time of underdevelopment and exiguity, cultivation and production of commodities were at a high demand. Resources were of monumental importance not just in Virginia, but all over North America, for they helped immensely in maintaining and enriching individuals and families lives. In different ways, people in colonies like Virginia’s took advantage of these commodities to ultimately establish or reestablish their societies.

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 the American colonies, Virginians switched from indentured servants to slaves for their labor needs for many reasons. A major reason was the shift in the relative supply of indentured servants and slaves. While the colonial demand for labor was increasing, a sharp decrease occurred in the number of English migrants arriving in America under indenture. Slaves were permanent property and female slaves passed their status on to their children. Slaves also seemed to be a better investment than indentured servants. Slaves also offered masters a reduced level of successful flight.

Throughout the history on Earth, slavery had existed for thousands of years. In times of shortage in labor, people are needed to get work done. Most nations and empires looked at slavery for needed labor. Slavery has been in American history ever since the Dutch traders that came to North America unloaded the first group of African slaves in 1619. In the 1800s, slavery played an important role during this time. The tension between the North and the South grows as the two sides of the nation argues with one another. The North’s moral principles and the South’s economical greed tore the nation apart which led to the Civil War in 1861. During the Antebellum period, both of the pro-slavery and anti-slavery activists verbally fought with each other

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.

Slavery originated as early as the 1600’s when Britain shipped 3.1 million Africans to British owned colonies in the Caribbean. The new idea of slavery brought controversial ideals and created a historical movement that effected even the peoples of today. Slavery is a form of manipulation that was excused as a conscious way to provide economic growth in Caribbean and European colonies. It then revolutionized itself into a much bigger issue; many didn’t anticipate it could also revolutionize the world. The Haitian Revolution of 1759 evoked a social change that transformed the Caribbean countries, Cuba and Haiti, while slowly expanding the idea of the abolition of slavery. Through traumatic social events, slavery was justified as a way to sustain economics while it simultaneously harmed the lives of the enslaved.

Slavery is a popular word in our history books because of its past and presents. What are slaves? Slaves are individuals who are legal property of another being and is obligated to obey them. There are different types of slavery, enforced labor, sex slavery, child slavery, and domestic servitude. Enforced labor was a type of work or service that is forced to be done against their will with the warning of some sort of punishment, which mostly every type of slavery uses punishment. Sex slavery is when all genders of slaves were used for an act of sexual activity even if the slave didn’t want to. Child slavery, type of slavery used when children are to be sold when a family is not stable with money or anything else when its in the need. When the children were bought they would be used for some kind of work as well. Domestic servitude is when slaves were to be placed in homes for the master or others to preform house work. Slavery is indicated to an ailment in which persons are owned by others, such as who controls where they live and at what they are to be done for work. Slavery had many good things coming from, it helped the economy in many ways. They harvested various types of crops, which later were used to be sold for cash. It didn’t only exist in the United States of America but in other places around the world too. Slavery had its effects on the American economy from its wealthy southern landowners of a free labor force to potentially restricting the economic growth in

Historian Edmund Morgan wrote that "the rise of liberty and equality in America was accompanied by slavery" (5). Although it may sound absurd now, he spoke from the observations of the time he lived in. The 19th century was a time of development and new inventions in the United States. The American industry was just beginning to blossom, the economy was rising due to plantations in the south, and the demand for free labor was increasing. According to Census, in 1860 there were approximately 4 million slaves living in the United States, nearly all in the south(3,4). The slaves worked anywhere from the fields to inside households. Unlike other impoverished citizens in the community, the majority of the slaves never had a chance at freedom; it was lifelong bondage. In order to understand slavery better I am going to look at a few things. My main idea is to look at daily life, however daily life was different for slaves depending on if they were men or women, what kind of work they did, or even where they were working

     Slavery in America stems well back to when the new world was first discovered and was led by the country to start the African Slave Trade-Portugal. The African Slave Trade was first exploited for plantations

South Carolina was one of other numerous states in the United States of America that supported slavery. Many citizens that lived in southern states during this time were in support of slavery because the southern economy was based on it during this time. Slaves traveled to America from West Africa through the Middle Passage. In addition, if they survived the travel through the Middle Passage they were placed in an auction in a few days after they were cleaned and fed. The West Africans were brought to America because of their knowledge on how to produce and cultivate rice (“African Slaves on South Carolina Plantations”). On the southern plantations the slaves did most of the labor on the plantations. Even though they did most of the work they were often treated harshly by their master. Slavery lasted for over hundreds of years until Abraham Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War. Although he passed the Emancipation Proclamation the slaves were not freed until years later after Reconstruction. In the South Carolina many people owned plantations and slaves. The slaves had strict rules to follow and often were treated harshly. In an attempt the make the African American lives better Abraham Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation in order to set all the slaves free and give them equality, although for many this did not happen until years later.