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Essay On African American Slavery

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Slavery and the Making of America African Americans had a great role in constructing America. They had to endure a continuous fight for human rights, undergo unbelievable humiliation, and were treated extremely unkind. They had to sustain what was a test of the human soul and through it all they moved forward. This story describes what was endured during their fight to survive in America. The first eleven enslaved people, all male, were brought by the Dutch West Indian Company. They were owned by the company, not by individuals and were bought for the purpose of building the colony. The slaves did not know if they would be free again. In the settlements of Virginia, Massachusetts and New Amsterdam slavery was undefined. There were no laws, …show more content…

The most valuable workers were men younger than twenty, and the second most valuable were women younger than twenty. Children were young and inexpensive and they would grow up and live a long time. The slaves who had died on route were probably one quarter to one third of those who had actually boarded the ship. Those who finally survived were taken to Charleston where they were waxed down with oil, fed, and put on the auction block. Survival took many forms, for the slaves. Some pretended to be ignorant or represented their masters' interests. However, many refused to conform. They maintained their dignity by drawing strength from their spirituality and culture. The slaves may not have spoken the same language, or been rivals in their homelands, they would come together in the new world. Slavery was probably unique in every region.it flourished, in Massachusetts, New York, Virginia and Barbados. But South Carolina was probably the most industrial form of slavery, the slaves were almost worked to death. They usually went to work in the morning at sunrise and a day's task in the field would be to hoe a quarter of an acre, which was 105 feet square. The more money being made by the white elites, the more it was in their interests to make the slave system something that would maintain the comforts of the few. So the incentive was for those who ran the society to set up extensive policing

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