The Life of a Slave during American History

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The cause of slavery is very important to the history of America for some. Many think that capitalism started slavery. With this form of civilization, religion and economy were involved, making church and state ruled together when they should be ruled separately. Most slavery was based on the racial differences, another part of capitalism, but it also said that blacks, or otherwise known as “Negroes,” were impersonal. Capitalism started as evil was spreading in the South and soon made its way to the New England and Middle colonies. This lifestyle didn’t work as most of the people were of the gentry class, and were sybarites, wanting people to do the work for them. There were first indentured servants to do the jobs, but they wouldn’t stay forever to work on the farms and plantations. The indentured servants would only stay until they had payed of what they owed when the upper class paid for their trip to America. Mostly farmers and plantation owners wanted slaves because they would be people who would work for them until their death. They didn’t want those who would end up leaving after a while, so slavery ended up starting. People were importing blacks from Africa and imported them by using the Middle Passage. Slavery soon became a big importance in America, and the slaves were given certain occupations instead of becoming free like everyone else who came to America from Europe.

Slavery occupations were very difficult in the colonial times, but most of the difficulty depended on where the slaves were located. There were three types of slaves during this era. They were plantation slaves, farm slaves, and urban or household slaves. Each of these jobs was similar and different in many ways. The most widely contribut...

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...didn’t have much of a constituency. In 1862, after one of the Union’s victories, Lincoln issued a preliminary decree saying that slaves were to be set free unless the rebellious states returned to the Union, but no confederate states took the offer. Finally, President Lincoln soon issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation decreed that all states not under Union control must set their slaves free. This did not set all of the slaves free, but most of them. The proclamation also allowed blacks to become soldiers as many soldiers were needed. Another issue tied into the posting was slavery and war, letting the war also fight against slavery. Although the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t set all the slaves free, it helped the nation to become safer and better in terms of government and many other issues it used to have.

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