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Mistreatment Of African Americans Essay

1797 Words8 Pages

The Importance of Mistreatment Regardless of Gender and Age

“Did our Creator make us to be slaves to dust and ashes like ourselves?” (Walker 19). Regarding the Atlantic Slave Trade, there were numerous amounts of women and men traded across the United States. Regardless of the age of the individual, mistreatment was prevalent in various aspects, shown to the public eye as the inequity of African people. The abuse of enslaved people is crucial when learning about American history and the reasoning behind the dramatic decrease in African-American culture and people. As stated in a formerly enslaved individual account, Olaudah Equiano depicts the initial process of numerous Africans being taken away from their homes to be enslaved. He states, …show more content…

The law of Partus Sequitur Ventrem is a great example of enslaved people being mistreated in terms of their birthright of enslaved people. Cited in Wikipedia, the law of Partus Sequitur Ventrem “was a legal doctrine passed in colonial Virginia in 1662 which defined the legal status of children born there; the doctrine mandated that children of slave mothers would inherit the legal status of their mothers.” (Wikipedia). A law created to benefit enslavers rather than the enslaved, caused a crucial shift in the African-American population and the abuse of enslaved women’s bodies for the creation of children. In a source written by Jennifer L. Morgan, she states, “Enslaved women’s maternal possibilities became a crucial vehicle by which racial meaning was concretized.” (Morgan 14-15). Before the creation of the law, the abuse of African-American enslaved women’s bodies was crucial when attempting to understand African American history considering that the overuse of Black women caused an increase in sexual abuse of enslaved women and also an increase in enslaved children. “Racialized reproduction for enslaved women, and the implication of such experience [caused] both enslaved and free black women [to] grapple immediately with the dangers attendant to racial inheritance.” (Morgan 14-15). If the abuse of …show more content…

Works Cited

Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. Standard Publications, Incorporated, 2007.

Hinks, Peter P., editor. David Walker's Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2010. Accessed 29 April 2023.

Jacobs, Harriet Ann. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Edited by Lydia Maria Child, Pub. for the Author, 1861.

Morgan, Jennifer L. Partus Sequitur Ventrem: Law, Race, and Reproduction in Colonial Slavery. vol. 1, Duke University Press. 22 vols. Duke University Press, https://blogs.law.columbia.edu/abolition1313/files/2020/08/Morgan-Partus.pdf. Accessed 29 April 2023.

Wikipedia. “Partus sequitur ventrem.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partus_sequitur_ventrem. Accessed 29 April

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