Slavery in U.S. History

Slavery in U.S. History Slavery had a impact of the economy and its development in America before the Industrial revolution. The Atlantic Slave trade took place between the 16th to the 19th century which had millions of Africans separated from their families, enslaved and transported to America. They were enslaved in America for labor to grow agricultural products for the benefits of their economy. With all their rights denied even after the fundamental establishment of government in the U.S. by the founders, that gave people rights and freedom to Americans. Until the abolitionists started to have antislavery movements that created tensions with southerners. The secession in the South formed the Confederate states, where they continued slavery for their economy as opposed to the North with abolition and no free labor that created more tensions between them, which led to the Civil War. Before slavery, indentured servitude was used for Europeans to be shipped to colonial America in the 17th century, where indentured servants would be paid for travel, food and accomodation by their masters in exchange for their labor. They would work usually for a five year terms and legally had rights but some would die in service due to disease, extreme hard working conditions or extended service. In the Atlantic Slave Trade, there were about 10-15 million enslaved Africans that were shipped from West Africa to the Americas. They were sold to Europeans by other Africans. They differentiated them from indentured servants with their race, since they were not seen as human beings, slavery was inheritable to their children and given no legal rights who had to provide free labor to their masters. There were slave codes passed that gave restrictions to slaves such as not being able to leave the land without the master’s permission inorder to have them obey their master and feel inferior to them. Although Africans practiced slavery, it was usually “a temporary condition rather than a lifelong sentence and unlike the New World slavery, it was typically not heritable” (US History). The slaves who lived in the American colonies had a tough life being overworked, living in poor conditions with little to eat, some starved and died of disease. They were also separated from their families being sold to different masters and probably had no chance of seeing their family members again. “Why are parents to lose their children, brothers their sisters, and husbands their wives?”....thus agravates distress and adds fresh horrors to the wretchedness of slavery” (Constructing the American Past 50). During the colonial period, the masters depended on the slaves mainly for agriculture to grow tobacco, sugar, rice, and cotton inorder to be transported to English ports which resulted to economic growth in England. The british benefited from this system until the late 18th century, when the colonists declared independence against them, since they felt restricted under their rule and felt they needed more freedom. After independence, everyone was given rights to freedom except African Americans because the thirteen colonies compromised that they were three-fifths of a man. Even though, Thomas Jefferson felt that blacks were people as well with a different culture, he felt it would be hard for them to get freedom due to the color of their skin. “The unfortunate difference of their colour...is a powerful obstacle to the emancipation of these people. Many of the advocates, while they wish to vindicate the liberty of human nature, are anxious also to preserve its dignity and beauty” (Reconstructing the American Past 98). After the age of expansion in the early 19th century, the South got more land to expand slavery since they were not industrial as the North and they needed slaves to benefit their economy because it was their main source of profit. The masters felt that slaves were incapable of working with machines. Therefore, the South was dependent on the North for their industry to treat their crops for more profit since they had the most staple crops to provide for the whole country. When it came to religion, slaves related to the suffering of the enslaved Israelites in Egypt but practiced in secret because preachers would mostly talk to them about obeying their master. The masters used it to justify slavery since they felt that they bought them for their protection and to be part of the family inorder for the masters to feel good it. During the rise of the abolition movement, the American Colonization Society formed in 1817 and were moderate to make masters get compensated for the loss of their property and African Americans to be deported to Africa but most refused since they considered themselves Americans. They were about 1400 sent back to Liberia by 1830. The tensions were rising with southerners, when abolotionists were taking a radical approach towards the issue by publicizing “the atrocities committed under slavery and aimed to create a society characterized by the equality of blacks and whites” (Openstax US History). Lincoln tried to negotiate with Davis and the southerners to stay but failed leading to secession and formation of the Confederate states. When Licoln had Fort Sumter in 1861, a Union fort in southern territory, the confederates fired shots and he gathered troops to attack marked the beginning of the Civil War. Although slavery ended in the aftermath, it still brought new laws such as black codes in place to keep African Americans inferior even though they have freedom. The southerners were upset they lost the system that was their main source of income. Southern democrats were angered by this which led to the formation of the Ku Klux Klan that terrorized African Americans in their homes to prove their dominance but by the 20th century they managed to fight for their rights and got the Civil Rights Act passed that has benefitted them with more freedom for the modern society.