In mid 1800's, the ancestors of many African Americans were brought to America not as free migrants but as slaves. The promises of the Declaration of Independence, "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" were denied to them. They were ignored by the original constitution. Slavery has been in existence since European mariners started bringing African Americans to America as slaves. Slave trade was not new to Europe or Africa. In the 18th century, Moorish merchants traded humans as merchandise throughout the Mediterranean. Many west African people kept slaves as well. The capture and sale of Africans for the American slave markets were often lethal. In America they were sold at auctions to plantation owners. Despite these hardships, slaves …show more content…
In the 18th century small numbers of slaves were introduced into Spanish America as early as 1501. Since the Africans seemed to survive longer than the native Americans, the Spanish began to look for a new source of slave labor. In 1578, King Charles V is Spain granted the first license to sell African slaves in the Spanish colonies of America. While most slaves were concentrated on the plantations, there were many slaves living in urban areas or working in rural industry. Although over 90 percent of American slaves lived in rural areas, slaves made up at least 20 percent of the populations of most Southern cities. In Charleston, South Carolina, slaves and free blacks outnumbered whites. The standard image of Southern slavery is that of a large plantation with hundreds of slaves. Slavery also gave the yeomen, a group of people to feel superior to. In the lower south, most slaves worked on cotton plantations. Most of these plantation had fifty or fewer slaves although some major slave plantations held …show more content…
She gave birth to her own son in a field with the goats and her son immediately became the property of her master, just as she had. In early eighteen hundreds, Old Slavery was legal while Modern slavery is "Illegal to own slaves". In the old days of slavery masters take pride in slave ownership whereas in modern slavery, slaves are considered disposable and replaceable. Old slavery was centered on racial and ethnic background unlike now its "Equal Opportunity Slavery" which comes in all races, all types of ethnicities. The early form of slavery roughly one million slaves were brought to the Americas while in our time there are 4-27 million worldwide mainly women and children. Before it is termed as "Slavery", now it's called "Human Trafficking". Though there are several differences between Old slavery and Modern slavery, they both bring about physical, psychological abuse on slaves. They are sexually exploited by their masters, owners or drivers and in our time it's through illegal prostitution. Likewise, slavery though hundreds of years in difference still carries it's trait of