Slavery
SlaverySlavery is something that should have never happened, but unfortunatly it
did. This
project is about the history of slavery in America, and the terrible unfair
reality that slaves had to
deal with.
When the Meso American, or the Middle American natives first encountered
the
Europeans, they were very familiar with slavery. Among the most advanced
civilizations in
Central America was the Aztecs and Maya. In these places slavery, although
not necessary, was
common. The Aztec used the the same methods for getting slaves as other
cultures. Slaves were
prisoners of war, criminals, debtors, and poor people selling family members
into slavery. The
most common reasons for becoming a slave was poverty, or not being able to
pay taxes to the
empire. Slaves in Aztec were not mistreated and were fed, housed and
clothed by their owner.
Slaves could marry, and have their own property, just as others could.
In Aztec, slavery was a reversible condition and if you were once a slave
you could
become a normal citizen again. Slaves could gain freedom by running away
from their masters
at the market, and if they made it to the rulers palace they were freed. No
one could stop the
slave or they themselves became a slave. Also they could buy their freedom,
or marry their
owner. Slaves were often used in sacrificial ceremonies. The removal of
the heart was a
practice of the Middle American civilization, the most common of their
sacrifices.
The Maya was a civilization who were known for architecture, artwork, trade
networks,
writings, mathematics, and the calendar. Like the Aztec, the Mayans aquired
slaves in the same
ways. In Maya, slavery was hereditary, the children of the slaves would
automatically become
slaves themselves. Slaves preformed hard manual labor for households. They
carried
merchandise on their backs, paddled canoes, gathered supplies, and pampered
their masters. The
slaves of an important person who died may be killed and buried with the
owner to become his
slave in the next life.
Two separate economies developed in northern and southern America. In the
north,
where there are many small farms and mills, slave holdings were small, and
most of the slaves
were domestic servants in coastal cities. In the south there was a
cash-crop economy based on
plantation. The north was creative in the development of the southern
economy because of its
domance in the slave trade that brought African labor to the colonies. The
trasatlantic slave
trade between Africa and North America lasted less than 170 years, even
though slavery existed
in the colonies and the new United States.
The constitutional delegates were able to reach a compromise on the issue
of slavery
representation. They decided that for the purpose of representation, each
slave would count for
three-fifths of a person. Several individual states would be allowed to get
rid of slavery in their
own time and in their own ways. The African slave trade would continue for
twenty more years,
until 1807. Although fewer than 500,000 of the 30 million slaves kidnapped
from Africa had
entered North American parts, generations of breeding had raised their
number in United States
to 4 million by 1860.
The invention of the cotton gin and spinning and weaving machines at the
end of the
eighteenth century sealed the destiny of thousands of Africans. Spinning
and weaving machines
could produce cotton cloth at low cost.
By the 1860's southern plantations were producing 75 percent of the worlds
cotton. This
meant that they needed more land, but also more hands to do the terrible and
painful labor. The
slave traders of New England and the native cheifs of Africa produced the
necessary slaves.
There have been two basic types of slavery in the past. The most common
was the
household slave or domestic slave. Although these slaves occasionally
worked beyond the
household doing work such as harvesting, most of the time they served their
owners in the house
or did any other work their masters wanted, like military service. Many
owners in the society
spent a lot of money on slaves.
The other was a productive slave. This slave worked hard labor, on the
plantations doing
agricultural work like harvesting sugar. Also, the mines had terrible
working conditions, in
which thousands of slaves lost their lives. In the house, they cleaned,
cooked, drew water,
shopped, and looked after the children.
Americans today have a diffucult time understanding how early Americans
justified
slavery with the Declaration of Independence and its message that "all men
are created equal."
All men, for some reason, did not include slaves. Slaves were property to
early Americans, not
people. They had no rights. A slave was like an animal, with an owner.
Although some slave
owners weren't certain of the idea of treating humans this way they
continued to do it
themselves. Many of the American Statesmen felt that slavery was a dying
insititution and they
hoped it would end as soon as possible.
When the Continental Congress met in 1787 to write a constitution for the
new nation,
many of the slaves were far from abolishing slavery. Many people were
disgusted by the
cruleties of the slave trade. By 1787 seven northern states had outlawed
slavery. Unfortunately,
because of the huge reliance on slaves for the plantation economics,
abolition was not an option
for most southerners.
A master and a slaves relationship was an area where very little law
consisted. A master
could kill his slave, and bury them when they died. Later the slaves had
the rights not to be
killed without reason. In most places, slaves had no marriage rights. The
slaves were sold at
markets, and before their sale the slaves would be washed and greased to
make their bodies
shine. Slaves were placed in cages after they were bought that were twenty
feet square. As
many as 150 slaves would be forced into the cages.
Slaves were expensive, and most families never owned one. Two well slaves
were worth
more than a man's land, his house, and everything in it.
Slaves who ran away faced torture, the lash, branding, or the selling of
their children if
they were caught. Free states were often hundreds of miles away from the
plantation that the
slaves worked on. Even if a slave made it to a free state, slave catchers
were everywhere,
anxious to capture slaves and get the rewards for turning them in, although,
there were people
waiting for those slaves fortunate enough to reach them. Free blacks and
concerned whites
developed a safe haven in their homes and barns between the middle states
and Canada. This
link became known to be the Underground Railroad. Travelling at night from
one station to
another, thousands of slaves reached freedom. Harriet Tubman, an African
American woman
and escaped slave, was one of the greatest heroes in the eyes of the slaves
by risking her life
many times to free slaves.
From the start of the 1840's, free blacks and whites have joined the fight
to abolish
slavery. They held public meetings to give speeches, published newspapers,
and supported the
Underground Railroad. In 1854, roughly 50 abolitionists met to organize a
political party. They
could not agree on what type of action to take against slavery. Some of the
men on the
committee was Henry Garnet, a former slave who preached violence against
slave masters.
Frederick Douglass and Sojauner Luth, used lectures and newspaper to voice
their opinions.
Also, Abraham Lincoln thought stopping slavery in the new states would cause
it to eventually
die out. The emmigration movement failed because there weren't enough ships
or money to get
the blacks back to Africa. As well, many had been born in America and didn't
want to leave.
The debate over slavery became stronger in the years before the Civil War.
The Civil
War officially began when the Confederate Artillery fired in the harbor of
Charleston on April
12, 1861. Although John Brown, an abolitionist, who was killed fighting,
had many slaves
fighting in his honor, in the war that would abolish slavery in America.
The southern states of America formed their own Confederate in 1860 and the
issue of
slavery was at the top of the agenda. The states that were for slavery
wanted to have the right to
choose if they wanted slavery. However, the newly elected president
Abraham Lincoln was
against slavery. After a long period of debate the Emancipation Proclamation
came into effect in
1863. This freed slaves in the Confederate States. The Union Army had to
conquer southern
territory for the slaves to feel liberated.
All the free blacks joined to fight in the war as they had in the previous
ones. Altogether
half a million fought, and thirty-eight thousand died in the war. Soon
after, the Confederate
Army surrendered. In 1865, the United States passed three constitutional
ammendments that
abolished slavery and finally gace the black slaves equal rights as
citizens.
People have enslaved others of their own nations, races, religions, and
families for many
years before us. Even slaves owned slaves, and in these cases not once has
it been right.
Thankfully, from events in the past, we enjoy equal rights and freedoms for
everyone.