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Evolution of Slavery Essay

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“A person who is the property of and wholly subject to another”; this is the definition of a “slave”. Over a span of 400 years 12 million Africans were captured, brought to the “New World” by approximately 40,000 ships and then enslaved. That’s 80 or more slaves per day. The perspective of white Southerners, Northerners and persons of color has evolved and are different.
The slave trade into the United States began in 1620 with the sale of nineteen Africans to a colony called “Virginia”. These slaves were brought to America on a Dutch ship and were sold as indentured slaves. An Indentured slave is a person who has an agreement to serve for a specific amount of time and will no longer be a servant once that time has passed, they would …show more content…

Then there was the “Curse of Ham” from an English man name George Best. His beliefs stemmed from Genesis 9, “Genesis 9:18-29 has been popularly understood to mean that Ham was cursed, and this understanding has often been used to justify oppression of African people, the descendants of Ham. Since Ham is regarded as the father of African people, this belief implies that Ham's offended his father Noah and because of this his descendants are also cursed” (Rice 1999).
The Portuguese began the slave routes. Europeans built sixty forts along the African coast for defense, trade and slavery. During the marches from inland Africa to the coast, approximately one-thousand miles, there was only a fifty percent survival rate. The slaves would be valued at: male – full price, female- half price and a child would be sold at quarter price. The taking of Africans and the transportation to the “New World” is called the Middle Passage. This was the most cruel and tortuous trip anyone could imagine. Africans would be forced to march up to one thousand miles to the coast line. There was a fifty percent survival on this march. Once on the ships the slaves would be bound together, made to lie side by side. Disease was rampant aboard the ships, because of the vomit, feces and death. If you were fortunate enough you would receive two meals a day which would include rice beans and maybe a piece of meat. Slaves were forced to exercise so they would appear to be healthy when

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