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African slave trade 1500-1800
Slavery during 1500s to 1800s
Slavery during 1500s to 1800s
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Recommended: African slave trade 1500-1800
Many colored individuals were forced into slavery and each and everyone of the slaves had a different experience with their master. The slaves were treated as if they were nothing, a piece of property that the white people owned. They were not allowed to learn how to read or write; only needed to know how to do their chores and understand what their master was saying. They were just an extra hand in the house that had no say or existed in the white people world. The slaves’ job was to obey their master or mistress at all times, do their chores and take the beating if given one.
According to the story Kindred by Octavia Butler during the antebellum South, the slaves were treated very badly such as being forced to work for the white people. According to the story of Camp 14 in the 60 Minutes video, the prisoners were treated harshly as well. But they were not like the slaves because they were prisoners and they only worked for the government (camp). The slaves and prisoners both tried to escape from where they were at.
The times of slavery had only brought sadness and despair for all African-Americans in the United States during the times of the Civil War. People were treated as property, denied a proper education, and overall treated as expendable and inconsequential pieces of trash. The one thing that was done so that we could understand the pain that these slaves had gone through was the slaves explaining their experiences through writing to be studied throughout history. However, there are very distinct differences between the writings in how they are made and written.
Equiano writes how the white men would throw the dead over board as if they were basically trash, slaves were beaten severely if they refused to eat or tried to escape. These severe acts of punishment
In the 1700-1800’s, the use of African American slaves for backbreaking, unpaid work was at its prime. Despite the terrible conditions that slaves were forced to deal with, slave owners managed to convince themselves and others that it was not the abhorrent work it was thought to be. However, in the mid-1800’s, Northern and southern Americans were becoming more aware of the trauma that slaves were facing in the South. Soon, an abolitionist group began in protest, but still people doubted and questioned it.
Slavery’s inhumane codes and punishments, raise Africans resistance and escapes, which causes more cruelty from
Beatings of slaves were common along with awful living spaces. There were even metal contraptions that some slaves would wear on their head that would prevent them from lying down on the job. The slave owners had a mentality of white superiority that allowed them to think it was okay to treat slaves like this because they were not worth as much. Laws were passed in the colonies that allowed slavery and blacks to be treated as property, instead of other human beings. As slaves began escaping laws and punishments only became crueler, all in order to maintain economic stability through the abuse of slave labor.
Southern slavery is most well-known for its violence and abuse. Among the countless other issues surrounding it, slavery is defined by brutality. Of course, not all slave owners were cruel and harsh, but the vast majority were that way. The abuse slaves experienced was physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Most often times it was dealt out by their master, but also by the general population of free white Americans.
Human nature for the first Americans was based on their desire for a better life than what they had in Europe. While they may have initially been looking for freedom- be it religious, political or financial- as time passed, it became more about control. Their desire for freedom put them in conflict with first the Native Americans, then the slaves, then the countries that controlled the lands surrounding their original thirteen colonies. For the Americans to maintain their freedoms, they had to suppress those of others. At the root of these conflicts was land.
Slavery can easily be determined as one of the most blatant acts of dehumanization. In the narrative titled “Narrative Of The Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass is easily able to portray this by quoting, “I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be brought to that only when he ceases to be a man”, Chapter 10 page 45. The quote overall does illustrate to the reader the narrator’s reflection to slavery as a whole as he states they were deprived of not only their basic
Throughout the 19th century Native Americans were treated far less than respectful by the United States’ government. This was the time when the United States wanted to expand and grow rapidly as a land, and to achieve this goal, the Native Americans were “pushed” westward. It was a memorable and tricky time in the Natives’ history, and the US government made many treatments with the Native Americans, making big changes on the Indian nation. Native Americans wanted to live peacefully with the white men, but the result of treatments and agreements was not quite peaceful. This precedent of mistreatment of minorities began with Andrew Jackson’s indian removal policies to the tribes of Oklahoma (specifically the Cherokee indians) in 1829 because of the lack of respect given to the indians during the removal laws.
Treatment of Native Americans Vs. Canadians The Natives, the people in North America long before the settlers arrived. The indigenous people that had ruled the lands long before any other, but they are treated terribly. Native Canadians and Americans have always been subject to discrimination, racism, and just overall have been treated wrong.
Slavery, the War on Black Family While slavery in America was an institution that was started over 400 years ago, the affects were so horrific that it is still felt today by modern day African Americans. Many families had to deal with the constant stress of being sold which made it difficult to have a normal family life. Slaves were sold to pay off debts, an owner dying and his slaves were sold in an estate sale, or when an owner’s children would leave the home to begin a life of their own, they would take slaves with them. Often times, children were not raised by their parents, other family members of someone designated to watch the children because the mother and father had to work long hours and the children were too young to join them.
For a native american, life in the colonies would probably be scary at first. New people you have never seen before are coming bringing diseases and taking your land. The diseases killed countless numbers of Native Americans because they weren’t immune to them. Other than the diseases, and their land being taken, some tribes were very helpful to the colonists. They would teach them things, and also be a good trading partner with them.
By using this reference, it illustrated the severity of the alienation of blacks in the Southern United States. In 1619, a Dutch ship “introduced the first captured Africans to America, planting the seeds of a slavery system that evolved into a nightmare of abuse and cruelty that would ultimately divide the nation”. The Africans were not treated humanely, but were treated as workers with no rights. Originally, they were to work for poor white families for seven years and receive land and freedom in return. As the colonies prospered, the colonists did not want to give up their workers and in 1641, slavery was legalized.