African American Slavery

After America was founded in 1776 many people decided to colonize and live in this unfamiliar land. The land already had their own natives, but most of the travelers that colonized there did not respect or care about them or their land. The people wanted to make this land their property and country. To have a strong country people needed power and one thing that made that power more accessible was enslaving the natives and making them their property. Enslaving natives later become part of their culture and it later spread to enslaving African-Americans. African-Americans were seen as people that were stronger and more hard working than the Native Americans. This led to African-Americans getting captured and being sent to America to work.

At first Africans were not slaves but servants. Anthony Johnson is an example of African servant who acquired lands and servants (even white servants) after he managed to become free. Due to development of famers in America tobacco in particular settlers needed more labors, and since lands were limited and most of former indentured servants were not able to receive a land, so they were did not want to go back to work, settlers saw African as a good opportunity for cheap labors. Since Africans were not England citizen, they had no rights to claims, as a result, settlers were able to work them for their whole life. Slavery became profitable especially in Virginia, soon rules were made to make slavery legal, and took away any rights that slaves had. Based on the documentary, for a Virginia plantation it was more profitable to work a slave to death and buy a new slave than let slaves to work in a humane condition. Another reason for development of racial slavery was Englishmen projected slaves as aliens and inferior, as Blight stated “as an outsider”, in different factors such as: color, religion, and

In the 1680’s most Africans were working on plantations. As Mintz explains how black slavery become the dominant labor, “ 1680’s that Black slavery became the dominant labor system on plantations ” (2, Mintz). The colonists wanted the africans because they would work the best on plantations. This quote demonstrates the colonists gained power because more slaves were sold and The colonists gained more profit. In the Colonial America the slaves were being carried to the New World. As Olaudah Equiano illustrates how the slaves were brought to the new world, “ These filled me with astonishment which was soon converted into terror ” (1, Equiano). He was scared and like he never experienced slavery in his life. This quote demonstrates that the colonists gained power because the slaves were afraid of them and if they were afraid of them they wouldn’t

In the beginning Africans would be sold in the colonies as indentured servants. Unfortunately, the need for workers grew, assemblies began to pass laws making slavery legal. Later in time, slavery became a part of their life, in the colonies. In the mid-1700s, slavery was legal in all 13 colonies. These laws said that the children of enslaved people would also be slaves. Saddly, families were normally split up and sold to different owners. Slaves often did whatever they could to resist, act against slavery, brake tools, pretend to be sick, or work slowly. These action were dangerous, slaves had to be careful to avoid punishment.

Thus, slavery began in the new land. The once Europeans wanted these slaves to be different from them so there was some sort of distinction, so they captured Indians, and brought in captured Africans to get the job done. Indians became difficult to in-slave and some did not agree with the decision so Africans became the figure for slavery. During the first years and colonies in America, there was not many captive slaves, and those who were slaves worked with servants sharing the duties. Many slaves would also have the option for freedom at their master’s discretion, which would usually be after several years working for them.

Slavery was in North America before the English Colonies even settled there. The Spanish brought Africans to North America to replace the Native Americans that they had killed with their diseases (Lecture 1). The question is: why did Africans get chosen to become slaves, and why was slavery an underlying cause of the Civil War? The answer to these question have to deal with the influence of: psychological limitations of whites, the second great awakening, and abolition.

Slavery in the American colonies had greatly shaped the nation as we know it to be today. After the discovery of the New World, Spanish conquerors intended to enslave Native Americans, but punishment, overwork, and diseases such as small pox and malaria decreased their population rapidly. The only solution was to kidnap African Americans from their homeland and transport them on ships under poor, unsanitary conditions, many of which died of yellow fever, dysentery, or suicide. Upon arrival, they were fed and oiled to make them more physically attractive so they can be purchased by wealthy landowners who forced them into labor. Here, plantation owners assigned task for each individual slave, working long hours in the field harvesting crops. At first, these African Americans held the status of indentured servitude, but as the demand for labor grew increasingly, treatment became much harsher. Additionally, African Americans were outnumbering plantation owners, and as a result, they were stripped of their freedom in fear of revolts. Although slaves have little to no rights, they played an important role in developing the economy despite experiencing racial discrimination.

Throughout the 1800’s, slavery was a very widespread and common thing in all of the United States. In Tennessee, though, there was a large amount involvement in slavery. Almost all the African Americans living in Tennessee were slaves, and about ¼ of all people living in Tennessee were slaves. Throughout the entire state of Tennessee there were more than 275,000 slaves, and they made up ¼ (25%) of the population. 25% of white families owned slaves, and while these families made a large portion of the population, most families owned a small number of slaves. There was one person in Tennessee who owned more than 300 slaves, 47 people owned more than 100 slaves, and more than ¾ of all slave masters held less than 10 slaves.

During the 1800’s slavery was a prevalent source of easy income and labor and used all across the southern parts of the United States. In this time before the legal revolutions for African Americans, Africans were kidnapped and sold into the Slave trade for countries including America (who is most known for this). Life as a transporting slave was difficult and cruel including being packed tightly onto giant ships and even slave life in America was equally as hard and terrorizing. The lives that were led by slaves was merely the beginning of the spark for the legal revolution for African Americans. The start of the African Slave trade actually developed the idea of how Africans are a lower race than whites, “The European Myth of African inferiority

Slavery, a corrupt period of time for African Americans continues to haunt our nation 's history till this day. Slavery initially started in 1691, when African Americans were brought to the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia. The main motive behind the forced migration of African Americans was for them to forcefully aid in the production of lucrative and profitable crops, such as tobacco. After the forced migration, slavery becomes a common practice throughout the American colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries. As time went by, African American slaves played a crucial role in the development of the economic foundations of the new nation and soon began to assimilate to the American culture.

Enslaved African Americans were treated like animals in the south, without any rights, received no pay for their long hours of daily work, could not have a day off unless their master allowed them to therefore they were very irritated, angry, rebellious, and attacked their masters for this. This is why the African Americans fled up north early before all blacks were granted

Tocqueville anticipated the future these three races. For the Native Americans, Tocqueville anticipated that they were bound to vanish. With a specific end goal to survive, they should be acculturated or begun a fight were one of the two races could vanish. What 's more, Tocqueville anticipated that they will be secluded by the whites. For the Negros, he anticipated the racial blend will extend Negros race everywhere throughout the country. Additionally, they will be more acknowledgeable of their rights and battles will occur between those two races. Moreover, the bondage will be passed from one era to the next residual disgrace and disrespect to the Black race and hate to the white. At long last, Tocqueville proposed that intermix of

Enslavement of African Americans was a common and legal practice in the United States from the 18th to the 19th century. Slavery of African Americans began in the American colonies when the British colonies in America bought slaves from Africa. It was a practice that was used as well as legal in all 13 colonies. It lasted in many states up until the end of the American Civil War. Slavery lasted longer in some states then it did in others. In the north slavery was abolished earlier then it was in the south. Reason being is in the south, there was more plantations and farms that needed tending to. Many young slaves were exposed to harsh conditions, having to pick cotton on farms or work in the plantations for their owners who treated them poorly.

In the beginning, Europeans were the ones who were viewed as the servants, slaves, and essentially a cheap labor force for the U.S colonies. Soon after, the drought and shortage of slaves worried and caused the people to turn to another source which could supply them with slaves. In result, African American slaves were brought to the U.S to facilitate life and work together with the European workforce. These African Americans came from a multitude of places including Africa and the Caribbean. From this day forth the lives of all African Americans changed, having an everlasting effect on their lives. After this, African Americans were viewed as slaves and it was the norm back then, which was a harsh, cruel reality. This is how life was and to change it would be revolutionary. People, the Nation, productivity, economy, and much more revolved around the work and importance of the slave. As time went on, some people realized that these people were human too, not only just property, and many outbreaks and revolts started to arise. From these small scale matters arose much greater matters, and it finally would end up to be revolutionary. While the Nation grew, so did the interests of individuals and industries. The South, otherwise known as Confederacy was a place where the economy was based solely off agriculture, which required the work of the slaves. Rather in the North, there was a blast of industrialization and the work of slaves was no longer really required. With many other

When you’re in an environment and everything around you is disorderly, clearly low funded, under law blockade, and the neighborhoods are infested with drugs and weaponry; then you’re at war. African people have been at war with society, and in spite of the fact that their weapons has slightly been adjusted over the years, it still remains the same endless war we’ve been facing since the settling of African people in the Americas. African people could never fully integrate with the shared heritage and experience within the African identity. Wars have been going on for times on end, from Emmitt Till to the Rosewood Massacre. In an unrelenting war, tactics such as black rationalization, cultural justification, mass propaganda, and or indoctrination brought among us from this war. As to improving a solution to this war, Marcus Garvey proposed, “The Negro will have to build his own government, industry, art, science, literature, and culture, before the world will stop to consider him.” In continuance, one Negro has to compel his own way of life, not to become an anarchist in society but for him not to be an outcast in societies’ standard social system.