Causes Of Slavery In America

America was founded on the principles of freedom. Some of the first settlers came for religious freedom, and people today still immigrate for various types of freedom not present in other countries. But back in the 18th and 19th centuries, not everyone was free. Slavery had existed in America since the founding of the country. The South mainly used them for work on plantations, and the North used them for various things, like housekeeping and working in factories. Many people in the North became against slavery, and by the late 1700’s many states in the North had outlawed it. Slavery went on in the South for almost another century until it was finally banned. This did not make free Blacks free to live like everybody else, though. Free Blacks

In a high school graduation speech in New York in 1819, an unnamed Black who graduated at the top of his class said, “Pardon me if I feel insignificant and weak… Where are my prospects? To what shall I turn my hand?” (Doc C). Even though this Black graduated at the top of his class, he feels dismal about his future. No company will want to employ him, and no White would want to work alongside him. Shortly after that in his speech, he says, “Drudgery and servitude, then are my prospective proportion. Can you be surprised at my discouragement” (Doc C). This young man is highly qualified to work wherever, but because of his race, no one would want to work with him. He will be stuck doing a job he is completely overqualified to do, whether it is some menial labor or a job of servitude. In this way Blacks did not have economic freedom because they could not always work wherever they

According to the chart of voting and jury rights of Blacks in the North in 1860, only five out of sixteen northern states allowed Blacks the right to vote (Doc A). This shows that even though fourteen percent of the population of America at the time was Black, they did not always get to vote. They cannot vote for people to represent them in government. This leads back to when Britain was taxing the colonies even though they had no representation in the British parliament. The Blacks are being taxed, yet they have no representation in government. The same chart also shows that only one of the sixteen northern states allowed Blacks the right to serve on juries (Doc A). This is a simple right given to all Americans that Blacks do not get to have. Juries are supposed to be a fair representation of the population, yet a whole fourteen percent of the population cannot serve on them. Blacks in the North had very little political freedom because they were not guaranteed the right to vote and could not serve on