African American Slavery Research Paper

666 Words2 Pages

Frank Martin II
Mr.Kelaher
U.S History
October 12, 2014
Slavery From Africa to America
Abraham Lincoln once said,"If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong." Slavery is a cruel part of history that the United States is not proud of at all. Kidnapping innocent Africans from Africa migrating them to the states and making them do inhuman work for more than likely the rest of there lives. Cruel beatings and treating human beings like animals is something that will never be forgotten in the eyes of every single African American today. Those 300 years of slavery truly changed the African person.
First of all, the first people to migrate to Africa in search of natural resources and other goods were the Europeans. European traders captured some …show more content…

Slavery was practiced throughout the American colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries, and African-American slaves helped build the economic foundations of the new nation of the United States. Alexis de Tocqueville stated,"Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.... The subjection of individuals will increase amongst democratic nations, not only in the same proportion as their equality, but in the same proportion as their ignorance." The slaves where taken off the ships separated into groups of male and females and children. Mothers and children cried because the white man would separate them and sell them to different owners. Fredrick Douglas stated,"I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness. Crying for joy, and singing for joy, were alike uncommon to me while in the jaws of slavery. The singing of a man cast away upon a desolate island might be as appropriately considered as evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the songs of the one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion." This moment was a very tragic moment for many Africans. They would never see there mothers, brothers, sisters, or fathers ever again. There new lives on plantations would soon begin. He'll for the rest of there …show more content…

For slaves, life on the plantation was grueling sweaty work, depending on their size, plantations were built of a lot of buildings: the homes of the master's family which was the biggest and nicest house, overseer or the disciplinary guard, and slaves who lived in small run down slums together, as well asbarns, and workshops. Large plantations operated like self-sustaining villages, and thus, were often isolated from the outside

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