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Effects Of Slave Families On African Americans

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From the 1600’s to 1885 American was definitely not “the land of the free.” African Americans were enslaved on farms in the South. The slaves were separated from their families, physically abused and were not even viewed as actual people. Although the whites were free to do whatever they wanted, African Americans had to work on farms for most of their lives. At slave auctions all over the country, wealthy plantation owners from the South would buy slaves. However, the owners would not always buy the whole family, families were split up at the discretion of the buyer. Occasionally, slaves would get married to each other, “Slave marriages had no legal basis… most slave owners encouraged this practice, but nonetheless did not usually hesitate to divide slave families by sale or removal” (www.History.com). If slaves were married, the owners would split them up anyways. Consequently, the remaining family members at auctions would beg the buyer the buy them to so they could stay with their families. …show more content…

Because of this, slave families were unrecognized by the auctioneers and buyers which lead to families being separated. The Owners fed the slaves and clothed them, but what they needed to survive. Some people who lived in the North did see African Americans as actual people, in fact, they tried to help them escape. They did this by creating the Underground Railroad, a system to help slaves escape. In the North, slaves were free, but did not have equal rights, they had lower pay and were targeted by groups such as the

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