Slavery In Colonial America

Slavery in America began in 1600s, the majority of the African slaves were brought from Africa, to North America. At that time, In the North, slavery was legal, but not as common as it was in the south. So, over a period, people in the North were for the abolition of slavery. People in the North agreed it was unfair to classify human beings as property and was forced to work for nothing. However, people in the South disagreed. Slaves were sold to colonist and forced to work for free. The majority of enslaved African-Americans were working in tobacco and cotton fields. At that time, the demand of cotton products in the south were soaring, and the south was responsible for producing the world's most cotton. Ultimately, slaves were the reason
If slave masters saw fit that it was beneficial to split up a family, he did just that. Ultimately, these are Just some examples for the increase of single motherhood at that time. After females had their children taken away from them, it was common for them to inherit other people's children who were taken from their families. Another example of inhumane treatment, “Physical sexual abuse of women and girls under slavery ranged from acts of punishment to expressions of desire and from forms of forced reproduction to systems of concubinage. Slavery violated the masculinity of black men who were denied the ability to protect vulnerable female dependents”. (2) Black men were sexually abused and emasculated deprive men for their role and identity. The purpose behind slave owners abusing black men, was to weaken their mind, and create homophobia within them. Besides slaves being abused, they were overworked, working 15 hours a day, physically beaten, often times receiving whippings for misbehaving, and living in terrible living conditions. In the south, there were a such thing as “slave codes” they were rules written for
Slave owners discouraged the use of reading and writing, but encouraged slaves to learn the bible thoroughly. Actually, slave owners used the Bible as a weapon on black people. Most of the time using scripture to explain that slaves should respect their master because the Bible advises them too. Without the ability to read or write, slaves were unable to communicate with family members and other slaves who left the plantations. This ruined each slave psychological because you never knew if your child or family member was still alive. This added to the inhumane treatment, although individuals were being overworked, whipped, living in terrible conditions, none of these examples were worse than not being able to communicate with a loved one, after were removed from the planning. If some slaves were lucky enough, messages were sent through people if they got an opportunity to leave the plantations for errands. After two-hundred and forty-five years, slavery was abolished by Abraham Lincoln in 1865 with the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all blacks from being