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African Slaves Vs Serfs

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Recommended: Slavery a world history

Throughout history, slavery has been a common method of labor production. Globally, many countries have a history of using harsh labor to assemble goods and services. The Russian Serfs and African Slaves are comparable examples of forced labor. Although both serfs and slaves were put in similar positions, the most notable difference between the two was the difference in reasoning behind the labor. A Russian Serf was a peasant farmer who was “bound” by law to the land he was born. This is the land where they would work and that their masters owned. The practice of serfdom in Russia lasted for several hundred years before Alexander II issued a decree that emancipated serfs. Alexander II believed that “It is better to abolish serfdom …show more content…

The slaves were brought over initially to help the production and meet the demands for cash crops such as tobacco and cotton. African slavery in the U.S started as a tool for agriculture production and developed into a huge racial divide between caucasians and African American that is still prevalent today, years after slaves were emancipated in the U.S in 1863. In the book “Capitalism and Slavery,” author Eric Williams claims that "Slavery was not born of racism; rather, racism was the consequence of …show more content…

During the time of African enslavement, the difference in race fostered the belief that Africans were inferior which was what justified it at the time, besides the demand for labor. The lords did not see the serfs as inferior because of a difference in race, but a difference in class. Culturally, Serfs were also similar to their lords, especially because they were both from relatively the same place, unlike the African American slave and Europeans. In America, the cultures of the slaves was dismantled as much as possible by European settlers. In addition, the Russian serf was not separated from their family like a slave typically was. Both types of labor in the U.S and Russia were also hereditary as well, and typically lasted a lifetime. The African Slave Trade was a relationship with Portugal, Europe, Africa, and the U.S while Russian Serfdom only involved

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