Early American Slavery Research Paper

515 Words3 Pages

Enslavement of Africans and the creation of the concept of racism were two very poor choices made by the early American colonists. Africans were captured by traders and used for American slavery, causing massive consequences for the future of the western world. Shortly after the American continents were discovered, Europeans began colonizing it. For the lack of productive farmers in the New World, colonists began to trade with Africa, which gladly accepted American goods in exchange for African slaves, who had been captured. American traders then loaded the slaves aboard their ship and set off to go back to America. From there, the slaves were sent on a harsh journey across the Atlantic Ocean, which lasted about six to nine months. They were rarely fed, got small amounts of water -- barely enough to survive on, and were never cleaned. The slaves’ journey was horrible, though their daily life didn’t get much better when they got to leave the ship. After the traders arrived in America, they unloaded their slaves from the ship, and not long afterward, were put up for sale at an auction. Thence, wealthier people would attend slave auctions and bid on a slave (or multiple slaves) they wanted. Afterward, many of the people who won an auction would send their new slave to work, usually in a mine or …show more content…

Colonists liked this idea and intended to use it to keep slavery legal for as long as possible so that they could have someone to run their plantation for them, and make a profit simultaneously. As a result, slavery lasted a very long time, and didn’t even end until quite some time after the United States became independent of England. Eventually slavery had become illegal, and the African-Americans were given some, although few, rights. Though, no laws prevented racism, which many white Americans still believed