Slavery In America Research Paper

Slavery in America began when the first African slaves were brought to the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, to aid in the production of lucrative crops such as tobacco. Slavery was practiced throughout the American colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries, and African-American slaves helped build the economic foundations of the new nation. The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 solidified the central importance of slavery to the South’s economy (Slavery in America). By the mid-19th century, America’s westward expansion, along with a growing abolition movement in the North, provoked a great debate over slavery that would tear the nation apart during the bloody Civil War. Though the Union victory freed the nation’s four

At first white slave traders went on kidnapping raids, but this proved to be too dangerous for the Europeans(Arrival in the Americas). Instead, they established hundreds of forts and trading stations along Africa’s West Coast. The local African rulers and black merchants delivered captured people to these posts to sell to European ship captains. Once they were on board, men and boys were stripped naked and shackled two-by-two at wrist and ankle. They would then be prodded into the dark, unsanitary hold of the ship. On the other hand, women and children remained unchained and spent the voyage in separate quarters, but all slaves slept on bare, rough wood. There were two different loading philosophies known as the “loose packers” and the “tight packers”. The loose packers believed that by carrying fewer slaves, more would survive to be sold in America; the tight packers thought that more money would be made by overcrowding the slaves on board the ship, even if it meant they were to die of poor health conditions (Arrival in the

The slaves aboard the ship became unwitting symbols for the antislavery movement in pre-Civil War United States. It wasn’t until 1949 when Harriet Tubman escaped and became one of the most celebrated members of the Underground Railroad (Brunner). This had a major influence of fellow African-Americans and helped propel towards the freedom of slaves. Many slaves began seeking out ways to escape to the Northern states, which would make them “free”. This continued to become an ongoing occurrence so slave owners began to put up bounties for the capture and return of their slave. The Civil War broke out between the North and South over the rights of slaves. This is considered the bloodiest four years in American history, and, once done, Abraham Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared “that all persons held as slaves” within the Confederate states “are, and henceforward shall be free”