The Darkest Periods Of African American History

Slavery by definition is the act of working extremely hard without appreciation and is mostly practiced by one person controlling and owning the other. How African slaves were treated in United States was against every right of humanity. Their treatment was characterized by brutality, inhumanity and rape for the innocent women. This treatment however varied with the place. For instance slaves in the upper Southern states had better working conditions compared to slaves in the Deep South.

Slavery was a dark time in America’s past. Not only did slavery separate millions of families, it destroyed the white man’s reputation to African people. Many slave owners treated their slaves well, many did not. They forced their slaves to live in deplorable conditions. Malnutrition and overworking often led to death. If you were a slave, would you risk it all and try to run away? You might not have a choice if you wanted to stay alive.

Becoming a slave was terrible; someone was either born a slave or kidnapped. When slavery first started, white Europeans went into Africa and kidnapped African Americans. As the years went on this

During the 1800’s slavery was a prevalent source of easy income and labor and used all across the southern parts of the United States. In this time before the legal revolutions for African Americans, Africans were kidnapped and sold into the Slave trade for countries including America (who is most known for this). Life as a transporting slave was difficult and cruel including being packed tightly onto giant ships and even slave life in America was equally as hard and terrorizing. The lives that were led by slaves was merely the beginning of the spark for the legal revolution for African Americans. The start of the African Slave trade actually developed the idea of how Africans are a lower race than whites, “The European Myth of African inferiority

Life under slavery was harsh, and during the mid-1800s, it was the main way of living in the South. Unlike the North, the South had very few industries, but made up for this with plantations. They then gained wealth by using slavery as they pleased, but under slavery, African- Americans were treated brutally. Under this kind of treatment, slaves made many ways to endure this pain and even sometimes then rebel.

That is why I have chosen the time period “The Old South and Slavery 1830-1860”. Slavery is the first historical event, under which a slave along with different implements of production becomes the private property of the slave owner. In other words, slavery converted Africans from being a human being into being a “thing” or even some kind of consumer item. In today’s generation, blacks tend to look at slavery as something in past that really hurt our people as a whole. Many say that they could survive being a slave, but in reality they do not really know hard it was to be a slave. Hearing stories from family members or friends does not really show them or make them understand how had it truly was being a slave. When many slaves arrived they spoke different languages for they

From the birth of America, up until 1865 an evil was very prominent, this evil was slavery. Slavery in America didn't really kick off until the early 1800's. From 1790 to 1810 there was a 70% increase in slaves in America (Groleau, Mizell, Benedict, Africans in America, PBS). This was a result of the creation of the cotton gin, it made cotton farms a lot more profitable. During the reform period, there was a reform group called abolitionists. Abolitionists wanted to abolish slavery, they also helped enslaved people to become free. Eventually, the South wanted the expansion of slavery to the West. The want for expansion of slavery was creating more and more sectionalism between the North and the South. Sectionalism is "excessive regard for sectional or local interests; regional or local spirit, prejudice, etc."(Harper, Sectionalism, Dictionary.com). This sectionalism eventually lead to a civil war. In the time of slavery, a free slave Frederick Douglass wrote an autobiography about his experiences as a slave. Frederick Douglass life shed light on the absolute evils of slavery through the mental and physical abuse he endured, and being deprived of his natural rights.

Slave trade to the Americas was a long, brutal journey where many Africans died, and those who made it to America were stripped from their human rights and converted to Christianity

The practice of one person legally owning another is older than this great nation. Using people of color as chattel, a bad habit picked up from our mother country Britain, who got the idea from the Portuguese around the 1400’s (Carey, 2000), was an international affair. There were different types of bondage back then, some even amicable. In “The Rise and Fall of Indentured Servitude in the Americas: An Economic Analysis (1984),” David Galenson writes how the indentured servant labor force was a barter system whereby a person of little means might sign on to work on a farm, mine, or even received passage on a ship for a period of time or till the debt is paid and then that person was free to go live her life as a free citizen. With the discovery of the new world, British companies had to invest money up front to get the laborer physically to the work site of the Americas. Galenson poses the use of indentured servants initially in colonial America was out of the pressing and lucrative need for a workforce to tame [the ill-gotten and continue the ongoing capture and occupation of] the now the United States. By as early as 1617, there was a definite belief in the importance of the laborer in the settlement of the Americas and getting laborers to the colonies from Great Britain was quite the

The African-American History from the Late 19th Century through the Present course was very informative and educational. This course offered a broader view at looking and analyzing the history of African-American in the United States. Though, I have read extensively and possessed a small collection of books on the subject, this course has affirmed what I have already knew as well as elevating my knowledge on the subject. The course also opened up new ways to look and understand certain facts about African-American’s experiences since Reconstruction.

Imagine yourself looking at the world in fear and no understanding of hardships. Everyday,slaves had felt those feelings as if they were unwanted or were worthless. Since the time of slavery, slaves faced multiple challenges such as splitting families up for hard labor,having miniable food, and fighting against the eye of death. To begin,people had been forced to leave their families in Africa to become slaves.During the time period of the 1800’s, in order to have slaves,people from ether America, Europe, and many more would send out ships to capture the people in African.Once heading back they bored about 12.5 million Africans and only about 10 million survived. Most slaves were no able to handle the intense boat ride. Additionally, slaves

First, African Americans sustained many hardships and had very bad lives as slaves.They were beaten and not fed, and most starved to death. When or if they died they would be thrown overboard the ship and fed to the sharks. If they did make it they would be forced to do hard labor without pay and very little food. They were given poor sleeping conditions. When the slaves were brought from Africa they were auctioned to the buyers and were split up from their families, and they were treated unfairly.

As it was common for large amounts of African slaves to live on one plantation, families began to become prevalent among slave communities. Slave owners actually encouraged marraige because it generally meant better moral among the slaves and thus less opposition, as well as, because slave marraiges meant children which would become the slave owner’s next generation of laborers. Therefore, slave families grew quickly and became a key aspect of slave culture. Instead of relying on friends on the plantation, slaves had their families to go back to. Black mothers found great joy and happiness in their newborns, even though childbirth deaths were common, but

America, the land of the free and the home of the brave has been plagued with slavery for hundreds of years and to this day many are still enslaved. Slavery from the past and modern- day slavery share many similarities and differences. In the past, millions of Africans were captured by Europeans and were forced to move to the U.S in which they began a horrifying life as slaves. These slaves only had one job and that was to do what their masters saw fit. There were usually two types of slaves; the house slaves and field slaves.

African slavery started at the 16th century and ended in the 19th century. Slave life was the most brutal and disrespected period of America. When Africans first stepped foot on the slave ships coming to America things were bad. The white man beat, raped, and treated the black men like animals. Life on the plantation wasn’t any better. The slaves didn’t work for a paycheck, they worked for their lives. The black man had difficulties adapting to the environment, learning another language, and being a monogamous.