History of Slaves Final Paper

Introduction

Slavery is the ownership of one human being by another and it has existed throughout history and thus it is by no chance people are found mistreating others. The issue of slavery began in the 1960 where Africans were being transported to North America as slaves. On arrival, they would then be forced to work on plantations or mines while there are those who were forced to be servants in homes. Additionally, most of the slaves could money which they used to buy their freedom, other could get married, while there are those who could testify in courts and as a result they would earn land illegally. In 1600, the African American also started becoming slaves in the American colonies and most of the laves were found in the south due to the fact that this is where land plantations of cotton were found as well as other crops that were grown here and needed people to take care of the land (Davis, 2016). However, the north did not need many slaves. This essay will examine the history of slaver, where it began and how the slaves were treated and finally when it came to an end.

In 1800, the plantation workers were referred to as the field hands since their duties including picking and planting cotton. This was among the most tiring and longest job because they picked cotton form morning to evening. Moreover, the slaves that worked in the homes of their master were called servants and their duties included cooking and doing laundry (Eltis, Engerman, Drescher, & Richardson, 2017). On the other hand, other slaves were trained to do different kinds of jobs and they were only trained as the white people did not want them to learn how to read and write because they thought that when the black learned, they would be encouraged to run away.

Additionally, there were the slaves’ masters who supervised the slaves and the works that they used to do. Some of the masters were very kind and they could even reward the slaves for the good job by giving them money and gifts while other masters were very cruel since they could punish the slaves and treat them very poorly (Gaffield, 2016). To add to that note, the slaves who worked in the mines and in the cotton plantations were treated very poorly as they were most of the time punished. However, the servants in the homes were treated as one of the members of the family that they were serving. Some of the slaves could sometimes be lucky due to the fact that they could be freed upon the death of their master who could leave behind a will that led to the freedom of the slaves. Once they were free, the slaves created their own common language as well as music and their religion assisted them to get through the rough times and most of the religion that was used by the slaves was the African and the Christian beliefs. The African continued worshipping as they did while they were in their homes.

Moreover, there was the Underground Railroad which the slaves tried to use to escape so that they can earn their freedom. The Underground Railroad was only known by the slaves and they used it as a code name and they used it to try and get their freedom. The slaves used to hide during the day and could only move at night so that they were not caught. Majority of the slaves escaped to the north and once they were found they could be sent back to their masters (De Groot,2016). The states that had the slaves had one third of the south’s population and this was about four million slaves by 1860. Notably, one economic benefit of the slaves is that it had created incentives for the farmers in the south as they had found substitutes for free labor as well as mechanize agriculture. Individualism, capitalism as well as racism were economic factors and the slaves were very profitable during the years that slavery was exercised. There were also the sugar plantations where more than the African Slaves were employed. In 1793, cotton gin was invented and this gave most of the slaves a new life. The slave shift economy from the upper south to the lower south that is from Virginia and Maryland was given by a comparable shift of the enslaved African population to the lower south as well as the west. Thus, every plantation is part of the larger national as well as international political economy. The American and their shipping industries depended on the cotton that was being produced by the slaves. Cotton plantation economy continued to expand throughout the south region where slaves could be used to purchase items and one of them was that they were used in the payment of debts. The ownership of slaves allowed the British men to have more power as well as wealth. With slavery, there was political power which was used to define the political interests for the individuals and also for the states.

In South Carolina, African slaves were 3000 while the Native American slaves were 1400. Unfortunately, there was an outbreak of small pox and yellow fever which killed most of the Native Americans and there wasn’t a way of getting enough servants who would provide the colony with the needed labor. In 1777 however slavery was banned by Vermont and in 1779, New Hampshire also banned slavery Goff et al. The antislavery movement was formed and it was funded by John Hopkins and most of the people who believed in religion joined in the movement. During the late 1700, the south lessened their enthusiasm regarding slavery. Legal individual strength on individual manifestation was removed in Virginia in 1787. Additionally, the cotton gin was invented in 1773 by Eli Whitney. As a result of the industrial revolution, the cotton gin was produced which was responsible for separating the seeds from the fiber. As a result, the economics changed the policy and thus slavery was starting to be favorable.

By 1819, Free states were eleven and so was the slave states and by 1860, there were over 3.9 million slaves in America. However, in august 1791, the black slaves turned on their captors and many of the white planters were killed on Island San Domingo. Additionally, during the industrial revolution in 1776, many people living in the north outlawed slavery. On the other hand the African slave trade happened in 1788 where they would be kidnapped and eventually be sold to become slave (Taussig, 2018). In the process of being bought, the buyer would examine them and ensure that they were healthy and free from any disease and upon acceptance by the buyer they were boarded in the ship. In the ship, the buyers would sometimes be in shortage of food and they would pick the weak slaves and throw them overboard. The weak ones would not be fed but instead they were left out and would just watch others eat. The African slaves were taken against their will and were taken to work on the plantation or they would become indentured servants. Most of them were beaten to death and they were also mistreated. While on board, they were chained from neck to toe without clothes and luckily, in 1820, the American colonization established a colony to free all the slaves and Hedi is the only successful slavery in the world.

References

De Groot, J. (2016). Consuming History: Historians and heritage in contemporary popular culture. Routledge.

Goff, P. A., Eberhardt, J. L., Williams, M. J., & Jackson, M. C. (2008). Not yet human: tacit knowledge, historical dehumanization, and contemporary consequences. Journal of personality and social psychology, 94(2), 292.

Taussig, M. (2018). Mimesis and alterity: A particular history of the senses. Routledge

Davis, K. C. (2016). In the Shadow of Liberty: The Hidden History of Slavery, Four Presidents, and Five Black Lives.

Eltis, D., Engerman, S. L., Drescher, S., & Richardson, D. (2017). ˜Theœ Cambridge world history of slavery: Volume 4.

Gaffield, J. (2016). The Haitian Revolution: a documentary history. Slavery & Abolition, 37(1), 228-229. doi:10.1080/0144039x.2016.1132611