African American Slavery

This paper intends to discuss the daily life of African American slaves in the nineteenth century. The first Africans landed in 1619 in Jamestown, Virginia. By this time numerous accounts of slave life were published. The origins of slavery in the United States can be traced to colonial America where there was an abundance of agricultural land but not enough labor. In responding to that, this paper will also discuss, first, the importance slavery played on the economic and political development of the United States; second it will explain the daily life of African American slaves; and lastly defending that slavery is not “a positive good”. In conclusion I will explain what led me to this topic, why this subject is important to world history and how it’s changed my perception.
To begin with the most fundamental fact: Slaves were not things. Whatever the law said, they were in reality human beings. A plow could not be evasive at work tasks, or burn down the barn, or escape – nor would it bleed when whipped, or develop for self-protection an elaborate courteous politeness when dealing with a master. An indicate complex of informal customs and “rights” sprang up because the slave was a person”. The institution of slavery has played an important part in the economic and political development of the United States since colonial times. North America developed race-based plantation slavery. The colonization of North America could not of formed without the use African slaves. The demand for workers increased due to the tobacco cultivation. Unlike indentured servants, African slaves were not protected by the English common law. They could never be free, and their kids would be born into slavery. The English saw that African slaves were accustomed to heavy agriculture labor and unlike the Indians they were able to surpass various diseases that were spreading in Europe.
“As the value of African workers increased the gradually ceased to be treated at indentured servants.