The Effects Of Slavery On African American Communities

” For many, the economic structure of slavery still held strong and it established status in British America. Slavery had begun in the later half of the 17th century and in many ways, it had made Atlantic commerce and overseas settlement possible. Thousands of Africans had been shipped overseas to work in the fields of staple crops. In the years leading up to the American Revolution, high concentrations of slaves remained in the southern colonies where they continued to labour on cotton and tobacco plantations. Of the thirteen colonies, Georgia, Virginia and the Carolinas held the highest concentrations of slaves. In 1775, it is estimated that of the 2.5 million people living in the thirteen colonies, 500,000 were blacks. The vast majority of these blacks were slaves, with many labouring for their masters under harsh conditions. Although their experiences were difficult, blacks rarely revolted or staged rebellions against their masters. This has often been associated with the plantation system, and the role it played in severing blacks’ ties to one another. As highlighted by historian Silvia Frey, “The North American plantation organization, with the dominating presence of the master, inhibited the development of the tribal cohesiveness that characterized the islands’ plantation organization and produced widespread violence against whites by black guerrilla bands.” However, despite the absence of any significant

Britain’s colonies in North America went from a society with slaves to a slave society. Owning slaves became a key part of everyday life for many plantation owners by the end of the period. Throughout the period, the focus shifted from indentured servitude to slavery because slaves proved to be more profitable. Slavery in the colonies stayed so popular because it was based on racial, social, and economic values. It changed the way that plantation owners did things, and they wanted to keep their own profits

Bacon’s Rebellion helped originate slavery in Jamestown, Virginia in the Chesapeake region. Nathaniel Bacon was a white land owner in this town who brought together indentured servants and other poor whites to overthrow their elites due to the

In the 1700 Africans made up most of South Carolina population. The African gave labor on sugar and rice plantation. This is important because it proved that the locked up Africans was a more tightly controlled labor force than the white written contracted servants whom they slowly replaced. In 1739 a slave known as the Stono Rebellion happened in a low county of South Carolina. Many blacks along the Stono River tried to march to Spanish Florida. The group of armed people militia was called in to put down the

By the middle of the 18th century slavery was widely accepted in the colonies. There was no way to hide it, between 1680 and 1750 the proportion of slaves in America grew from 4.6 of the population to over 20 percent. In the southern colonies slavery went from about 5 percent to 40 percent of the population. Throughout most of the colonial period, opposition to slavery among white Americans was virtually nonexistent. Settlers in the 17th and early 18th centuries came from sharply stratified societies in which the wealthy savagely exploited members of the lower classes. Lacking a later generation’s belief in natural human equality, they saw little reason to question the enslavement of Africans. As they sought to mold a docile labor force, planters resorted to harsh, repressive measures that included liberal use of whipping and branding. That way of thinking would change, as the colonies would move toward war.

Epictetus, the great Greek philosopher once said, “only the educated are free.” Epictetus was born a slave in Greece, and gained his freedom as he acquired knowledge. To those who are oppressed by the chains of slavery, education is a rarity. To oppressors, keeping slaves ignorant is ideal. African-American social reformer, Frederick Douglass, experienced the bondage of slavery and the influence education held in regards to gaining his freedom. Education was a major force for social change with regard to to slavery and African-American rights.

Slavery began in 1619 when a Dutch ship brought 20 African Americans ashore to Jamestown, Virginia. However, they were not slaves, they were indentured servants. These first 20 African Americans were not slaves because they made a deal with their “master” whether it be for

It is undeniable that slavery has affected the American culture, our ancestors who either choose to be in America or were transported here less than 400 years ago. Over an estimated 300,000 slaves were transported to freshly colonized home, laden with diseases and new ordeals (Voyage, 2013). They were forced to work long and hard while their whip-torn bodies lay as an omen to what our freedom is built upon. An omen to how their very own freedom and basic rights are taken all for the advancement of a society that they were marginalized and systematically excluded from. This is the heritage that all Americans, especially African Americans, are so familiar with today. Though African Americans are no longer in the fields being beaten, but the underlying affects of this treatment of their race is irrefutable. Ever since slavery began, African Americans have had to

The enslavement of Africans in the Americas was such a gruesome time in history that we often generalize it into one event not being careful to look closely at the effects it had on the African people: During the course of those 400 years slavery as we knew it single handily shaped the early African American. Starting with the export of the first wave of African Slaves the impact of this would profoundly affect descendants hundreds of years later. Europeans who decided to enslave African people thought only of what monetary value they would be as they were their property who didn't deserve the decency of being anything more. The enslavement destroyed life as they knew it in their native Mother Africa. There they thrived with resources they

African Americans played an important role in the Revolutionary War. The slaves fought against their race and more. At this time slaves had no human rights, because of that, some ran away. Enslaved people could not legally marry in any American Colony or State. Slaves had to fight for their lives and rights. Some colonial states like Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut still considered African Americans as property at this time.( National Humanities Center.org). Another affect the slaves faced was being separated from their families.

During the seventeenth century, the growth of tobacco, rice and indigo crops created a high demand for land as well as manual labor; two problems thought to be solved by the introduction of indentured servitude. Throughout the seventeenth century, the majority of Europeans coming to the America’s were Indentured Servants. Incentives were high for both employers and servants and this type of contract slave labor quickly became the method of choice for plantation owners. Increasing manual labor and land was critical to the colonies economic success, however time would eventually uncover the problems indentured servitude would create for the colonies, the land and ultimately farmers would prefer traditional slave labor to indentured servants.

Further down in the South a majority of slaves lived and also worked on cotton plantations, which consisted of 50 or fewer slaves, with some of the largest containing hundreds. Cotton at this time was among the leading cash crops, however rice, and corn, and sugarcane, and tobacco also were raised by African American workers on plantations. lots of different types of work also took place on plantations or on farms. slaves were to clear new land, to dig ditches, cut/move wood, livestock, and repair building tools. Black women carried the burden of caring for their families. Some slaves were able to work indoors, carrying out services for the master's and their families. Know as house servants. They were constantly under surveillance of their

Slavery had an immense impact on African American families, as the familial dynamic of the African American family was in many ways responsible for the stereotypes surrounding black families in the present moment. Not only were families the sole property of their slave owner, but there were laws restricting their rights and privileges. However, despite the fact that the African American slave family existed in a perpetually tumultuous state, there were cohesive slave families, but they faced many struggles and challenges. In particular, black women were faced with incredible hardships with regard to sustaining the familial structure. This paper explores aspects of the African American family structure during slavery, considering the effect that slavery had on black women. The legacy of slavery in the present moment is also considered, in addition to whether slavery continues to exist.

The Atlantic slave trade dismantled Africans family structure, because it was legal to sell husband, wives, and children separately. Due to the U .S law not recognizing them as humans or families. Also, when children were taken from their parents, they loss their primary connection with their African culture. This left them with no reliable opportunity to obtain their beliefs, and values of their origin. Consequently, as they grew older they were unable to provide their children with enough knowledge of their culture, because they did not receive nor experienced it themselves. According to activist Assata Shakur “Black Americans have no genealogical blueprint from which to draw a family history or bloodline, no accurate records kept, and no way to effectively trace our roots without hitting a dead-end of red tape or a white family tree.

During the development of the colonies and the nation as a whole, slaves were utilized in order to produce the crops and perform laborious tasks that were “below” white people. In the 1660s, there was an increased demand for tobacco products as well as indigo and rice in England (“African American Slavery in the Colonial Era, 1619-1775”). In order to fulfill the demand, there was a spike in interest in purchasing slaves. More and more slaves were needed to produce larger amounts of crops for the plantation owners.