Slavery In African American History

Slavery was a horrible thing, maybe even one of the worst the US has done over its entire lifetime. Bought and sold, beaten, no freedom, no pay, there were many bad things about it, nothing good because the only good thing that happened was that they brought different forms of food, religion, and music that they introduced to the US. The Slave trade in the Atlantic World had many factors that were put in and were even taken out; the way that slaves were taken, what they contributed to our lives, this single event changed so much history that would have never happened if this did not occur. Slaves were brought to the US to satisfy people’s wishes for free labor. Being the best type of labor the system of Triangular Trade did make sense, even …show more content…
Many styles of these ideas that exist today are because they had inherited themselves into the backbone of the United States, African Americans and their ideas, beliefs, and inventions did contribute to what has shaped the United States into what it is today. Religion was a part of the African history. Their original religious practice was animism, or the belief of spirits, but at the time of slavery and trade, Christianity and Muslimism was becoming fairly common. These religious beliefs would also affect their song singing. Since there was no way for slaves to listen to music, they either had to have someone play music for them, or sing themselves, and that is why most of the songs that slaves sang were called field hollers, or just songs that slaves sang while working in the fields. One of the foods that they introduced to us is, rice. Because of the demand for this crop at the time, slaves were mostly taken from rice growing regions, just to name one, was the region of Casamance. They also brought Black Olives. This was brought over because it was what they fed the slaves on the trade ships for their journey across the Atlantic …show more content…
These slaves would be moved on large boats, some even large enough to hold 600 slaves. With no room for much else, they were packed together like sardines. There were three legs to this journey: the first, was from Europe to Africa for the trade of goods for slaves; the next, was the moving of the slaves to the Americas; the third, was for goods from the Americas to Europe. The boats used to carry these slaves were horrific. There were slabs of metal or concrete for the slaves’ sleeping areas, where they were so tight they were shoulder to shoulder, and maybe another foot or less above them was another slab for more slaves. This kind of trade was cruel. Humans, taken from their families and their homes, being shipped across an entire ocean, and forced to work day in and day out, for no pay, and no way of escape. Trade in the Atlantic World occurred because of many things: the Triangular Trade, the way slaves were taken from their homes, and even what they brought to the US. The contributions of music, religion, and food were only some of the ideas and items that they have introduced. Their travel on the slave boats was not incredible either. The accommodations were cramped, foul-smelling, and disgusting. This form of slavery was cruel, horrific, and full of misery for all