Slavery in America
Introduction
Slavery is the act of being denied freedom. This may happen in many forms
depending on who is being slaved. It has spread almost every part of the world. The notion
about slavery in America has reached to a certain point being termed as any situation in
which one person controls the life, freedom, and liberty of another person. All forms of
slavery are now mainly known by immoral behavior and through evil actions. The sanction of
complete control of certain person for the advantage of other person through the social media
platforms and the emerging of technologies has facilitated the growth of slavery in modern
world. In today’s world slavery is categorized into many modern ways such as forced
prostitutions, child slavery, and forced Labour.
The American legacy of slavery started in the early seventeenth century by the
colonizers from the European nations. However, in the United States, slavery was established
as early as the fourteenth century, when the rich states of Spain and Portugal started to arrest
Africans for enslavement in Europe. When Spain, Portugal, and other European countries
occupied and laid claim to the New World of the Caribbean and West Indies in the late
sixteenth century, they brought along the practice of slavery. Finally, slavery extended to the
American nations. The main cause of slavery such as shortage of Labour, failure to find
alternative sources of Labour, the legal positions, racial attitude, religious factors, military
factors.
Causes
The colonization led to slavery since Africans were the immigrants to the new places
for their colonizers that needed no choice in their destinations. First African Americans that
arrived in Jamestown in 1619 on a Dutch trading ship were not slaves, nor were considered
free. They served time as indented servants until their duties were complete. Although these
lucky people lived out the rest of their lives as unrestricted men, the transitory decades would
make this a rarity. Despite the lack of a slave tradition in mother England, slavery gradually
replaced indentured servitude as the chief means for plantation labor in the Old South.
The Virginia city became the first British colony to officially accept slavery. Other
states like Maryland followed to slavery. In states like Georgia which resisted the slavery
later gave up on the pressure from the citizens which led them to practice slavery. Laws were
passed in some areas that condemned that all children of Africa to have lifetime slavery. This
led to all northern and middle colonies to have their own slaves. This was facilitated by the
myth of British that African served their Labour best as compared to Americans leading to
more importation of slaves. Number of slaves kept rising up to the eighteenth century.
Due to this influence, in the 16th century, millions of Africans were enslaved,
kidnapped, and were shipped through the Atlantic Ocean to the American continents under
horrifying conditions. An estimated number of two million people died during the unbearable
journey. The black people in America within a period of time created a lot of wealth,
prosperity, and opportunities to millions of American people. As American slavery grew, an
elaborate and continuing tradition about the inferiority of Black people was formed to
genuine, perpetuate, and guard slavery.
The slavery in British colonies during the colonial period which used the triangular
form of trade. Africans where taken from their continent to the European countries which
transported them to the American states. The agricultural farms facilitated importation of
Africans slaves since there was increased Labour in the farms. The South parts of America
established an agricultural economy reliant on product crops. Its planters quickly acquired a
significantly higher number and percentage of enslaved people in the inhabitants overall, as
its product crops were labor-intensive.
The increasing slave trade for the African slave and commodities trade. The colonial
governments passed laws that allowed the trading of slaves from the Africans parts. This
more so increased in the mid-Atlantic colonies. This increased the number of slaves is the
Virginia and Maryland cities making the Britain leading exporter for slaves. During the 18 th
century American merchants tried to challenge the company that was involved in African
trade by enforcing the rule for independent traders to break the monopoly. This led to
massive slave trade.
