The Horrific Effects Of Slavery On African Americans

Slavery was a harsh system that consisted of forcing other human beings to work in harsh conditions; as well as restrict their freedom to the point where they had none. Slavery was first introduced into Colonial America in 1619, and lasted for 245 years. During those 245 years, slavery harshly affected those who were involved in its system. The institution of slavery has profoundly influenced and shaped multiple aspects of Colonial America and the United States. Slavery influenced the 13 Colonies and the U.S. by the growth in sales for Cotton, and farming. Slavery shaped Colonial America and the United States culturally, by proving to the slaves that white people were far more superior than African Americans, religion and Cult of Domesticity. Lastly slavery shaped Colonial America and the United States politically by causing rebellions, and abolitionism.

The thirteenth and fourteenth amendments attempted to establish the freedom and rights of former slaves, but was not entirely successful in its goals. Legally, former slaves gained their freedom in 1865 when the Thirteenth Amendment was passed, and received “equal protection of the laws” as well as other privileges in the Fourteenth Amendment, passed in 1868. (Document A) The years following the Civil War brought on many changes for both former slaves and former slave owners. While slavery was prohibited in the United States, white landowners found ways to twist the laws and create a system beneficial to themselves. The Reconstruction era was filled with a changing economy, a large predicament for white landowners, and unfair situations for

Following The Civil War, close to four million slaves were freed, but they were still faced with the systematic oppression of their past. Due to President Johnson’s support of state’s rights, many white southerners were able to place authority over newly freed slaves by establishing Black Codes, the KKK, and segregation. The new freedoms gained by African Americans following the civil war were insignificant because white superiority was heavily present. After the passing of the 13th amendment, which abolished slavery, Black Codes enabled white southerners to legally control blacks.

Slavery has existed for eons in human history, as we can trace slavery back to Babylonian times. The African Blacks were definitely not the first to be enslaved. However, it seems as if they were indeed treated the worst by their white masters than had any slaves before them been treated. The stories of the horrendous treatment endured by many slaves for the simple wish to be free are horrendous and heartbreaking. I believe there is no person better qualified to inform the world of the horrors of slavery, and to stand behind the idea of abolition, besides a former slave. This man was able to rise above every adversity thrown at him, he taught himself how to read, he observed everything going on around him, and learned from those experiences.

Slavery and Its Impact on Both Blacks and Whites Slavery and Its Impact on Both Blacks and Whites The institution of slavery was something that encompassed people of all ages, classes, and races during the 1800's. Slavery was an institution that empowered whites and humiliated and weakened blacks in their struggle for freedom. In the book, the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, slave Frederick Douglass gives his account of what it was like being a slave and how he was affected. Additionally, Douglass goes even further and describes in detail the major consequences the institution of slavery had on both blacks and whites during this time period. In the pages to come, I hope to convince you first of the mental/emotional and

Through the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the constitution, the republicans tried to protect and establish black freedoms. At the same time southern state legislators were passing laws to restrict free blacks’ freedoms. Through the use of black codes and vagrancy laws, the south attempted to keep blacks in a state of slavery. These laws were worded in a way such that blacks rights would be so restricted that it would remain impossible for them to gain any real freedom.

“For the next several decades, at least, we will suffer this racial future of colorblind white dominance” Ian Haney-López argues in his book White by Law, however America today, though colorblind as America may be, is in a much better place than the times of the Black Codes and Jim Crow laws. These laws restricted the freedoms of African Americans living in the United States that just became free men and women after the turn of the Civil War.

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

During the war, some slave owners ran businesses as well as owning plantations. In addition, African-Americans mostly worked in the fields plowing, weeding, planting, taking care of the tobacco, corn, cotton, sugar cane, tomatoes, and other vegetables. (Appendix 13). The slaves did the majority of work in the households they were assigned. When the slaves were assigned to a home that had less than five people, they were treated like family. When they were placed in a household with hundreds of slaves, they were treated more strictly with a great deal of discipline. 3 However, being an African-American during this time was rough. Slaves were not allowed to read and write as their white slave-owners thought they would pass messages along with slaves on other plantations and start a revolt.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, brings to light many of the social injustices that colored men, women, and children all were forced to endure throughout the nineteenth century under Southern slavery laws. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. Yet, while Douglas’s narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. Aside from all the

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

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.

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

While the geographical distance between The City of London and a plantation in Virginia may have been vast, financially they could hardly have been closer. The commodification of human beings was a development in financial engineering that connected commercial centers of the world directly to the enslaved humans working on plantations. By way of bonds, mortgages, insurance policies, and purchase orders, non-slave holding individuals not only enabled the continuation of slavery, but helped it grow and shape our modern economic system.

Imagine being forced to work for people who have bought you, and not being treated equally due to your race. Well this act occurred during the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth century. This was known as slavery. African Americans were sold to Caucasians, where their freedom would be taken away from them. It was a consistent struggle to fight through the discrimination, that was occurring. African Americans who were willing to risk their lives had the ability to have freedom. However, it was a long crucial journey for people on the underground railroad. Even so, freedom wasn’t always guaranteed. Caucasians did awful things to African Americans, which will never be forgotten. The Pledge of Allegiance says “ … one nation, indivisible…” however, at one point we were not a nation. We were divided. To this day and in one hundred years we will always have that division, based on the act of slavery.