Slaves Of African American Independence

When black slavery first started in the United States, all the slaves were being imported from Africa. Slowly overtime slaves were being born in the United States instead of solely being brought from Africa. The birth rate of the slaves was not high enough to depend on the reproduction of slaves in the south though. This resulted in a combination of both American-born slaves and African-born slaves on plantations. Eventually, there was a division between the two groups of slaves in the Southern part of the United States.

Throughout American history slave has resist their master, the system and the idea of slavery. These resistance has became of a key stone in the history of slavery. To understand what these resistance is, we will look at incident of the past to analyze how slave in the past resisted their master, the system and the idea of slavery.

In this assignment I will be taking a further look into the history of slavery. When thinking of slavery the immediate thought that comes to mind is all the negative aspects of the system. Prior to this research, I was unaware of slave systems that were not based on the long labor hours and the torture of slaves. Granted, there were still forms of slavery that practiced these brutal rituals, where slaves were treated as animals and were malnourished. One prime example of this, is the book titled “Am I Not A Woman And A Sister”, looks at the history of a Bermudan slave named Mary Prince. Another example of slavery that will be incorporated in this paper will come from a source about a woman slave named Semsigul, born in Caucasus an area that

A valid point Howard Zinn wrote in A People's History of the United States was that African Americans were "ensnared" into American slavery for many reasons, those of which include desperate settlers, the helplessness of Africans outside their home country, the greed of colonists, the control against rebellion, and the consequences of black and white collaboration. I believe he makes a very valid point, for all his reasons have historical evidence to back them up.

Compare the treatment of black indentured servants and white indentured servants leading to the legalization of slavery. Give at least three comparison points from the reading.

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.

Back when there was Slavery it was unfair to some people, at least to the African Americans. By unfair I mean the whites, like most of us would torture the Africans. Some of the things the owners did was made the slaves work in fields without pay and they had no control over their own self, their owner did. But, if they were not doing, that the owners would do something bad like whip them with a whip with metal on the end.

Throughout history, African Americans both free and enslaved were not treated equally nor permitted with the same rights as white men. African Americans were enslaved and not allowed to vote or hold public office. Since the 15th century, African Americans have been treated less than human, some even experienced brutal punished for justifiable mistakes. The use of African American slave labor was an enormous contribution to agriculture and labor. It became a part of southern state’s economy within America. Additionally, African Americans were forced or born into slavery where they endured harsh working conditions with zero pay and often times were punished by their masters. Even slaves that became emancipated or paid for their freedom were also treated differently than whites. Notably, blacks did not have the same privileges as whites and were forced to carry a “freedom card” wherever they went. Failing to do so would lead to severe consequences, such as being forced back into slavery. Once African Americans were considered free, they faced additional discriminations such as not being able to vote or serve as a figure in public office. Due to this and additional factors, African Americans were almost entirely incapable of defending themselves against whites. Since the start of the 17th century, African Americans, free and enslaved were punished for their skin color and were considered the lowest scale by not being allowed to the same opportunities and rights and white men.

The Europeans tried to enslave the Native Americans but found it to be very difficult as it was easy for them to escape and rejoin their tribes and in such a time, there were power in numbers. On the other hand, it was not so easy for Africans to escape and travel back to Africa, and if they did attempt to escape, the punishment in most cases was death. Slavery was profitable and the slaves were sustainable to the tobacco plantations. The African were physically able to work under harsh conditions and another key aspect is that although the African slaves were from Africa they came from different parts of Africa and were diverse in language and skills. The diversity especially in language made it hard for them to rebel. Since, they spoke different dialects it made it hard for them to communicate with each other, rebuttal, and more importantly made it hard for them to organize and to stage any form of rebellion.

Even with the gains from Reconstruction, African Americans continued to struggle because they could not easily be economically independent. There were limited opportunities for paid labor and they were subjected to racial segregation and slave codes as well as sexual violence from white men, especially their employers.1 Freedpeople’s economic independence was undermined when assailants seized their land, stole their means of support, burned their homes, wrecked their possessions, and denied them access to land. This limited the ability for African American men to work and support their families.10 Violent gangs regulated and coerced black farm laborers. Many African Americans worked for their former masters in conditions that were slave-like, meaning harsh, brutal work, and long hours. Since white men had to be the employers, they set low wages and forced all blacks including men, women, and children to be laborers.18

As a student of United States history, I have learned new information concerning certain subject matters. My prior knowledge of US history about these certain topics, such as, indentured servants and the institution of slavery was minimal. The reason for this is most of my prior knowledge of these important topics were forgotten. The question I always asked myself what was the difference between indentured servants and African slaves? Through my personal studying on the subject matter, I have discovered new information that clarified all my misconceptions about historical topics like, indentured servants from Europe, African slavery, and finding the similarities and differences of these two types of labor.

Manumission was one of the many hopes that African American slaves had during the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Manumission was not only a way to freedom for slaves, but also a way for many slaveholders to rid, of their older slaves who were no longer useful. To say that manumission was agreed upon all states and slave-owners would be an understatement. Not all states or slave-owners thought of manumission as being a good or equal trade for a slave’s duty of work. To many slave owners manumission was disfavored, but to many, including the slaves, manumission was an act of an individual doing what is right and just for another human being, for this many favored manumission.

Anthropology findings continue to educate people on how human beings before our time used to live and run their societies in the past. While searching online for an article, I was able to find a recent anthropology related article on slave findings at the Magnolia Plantation in Louisiana. The name of the article that I found was called Slave Culture Research Showcased at New Smithsonian Museum written by Katelyn Kenny. This article interested me the most because I am very interested in African American culture and the history of African Americans and how they were treated as slaves, which is why I choose to write about this particular article for my extra credit assignment.

Slavery had also been present in New York from the earliest days of Dutch settlement. As their role expanded so did slavery in the city, 30 percent of its laborers were slaves. Most came from different cultures, spoke different languages, and practiced many regions. Slavery allowed different individuals who would never otherwise have encountered, their bond was not kinship, language, or even race, but the impressment of slavery. They eventually came together an created a cohesive culture and community that took many years, and it processed at different rates of speed in different regions.

Dave the potter was an African American slave that went through many hardships during his life just like any other slave. We look at slavery as a whole picture most of the time and don’t give very much thought to the political, economic, and racial factors that influence slavery, even in modern time. Of course, we know that slavery in the 1800’s was extremely racial in that only blacks were enslaved. However, looking at the statistics as we talk about slavery, it has become widely apparent to me that slavery is largely associated with specific races as well as economic status. In today’s world there are also other types of slavery, such as child trafficking, forced labor/debt bondage, criminal exploitation, ect. And each of these types of slavery has their own race majority. Throughout this essay we may find ourselves asking if there will ever be an end to slavery. That answer will not be known but there are steps we can take to minimize the population of slavery in our world.