Slavery

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Slavery

Slavery in America brought about a successful south but also proved to be one of the most terrible things done by humans to humans. Slavery became a way of life in early America. Eight out of the first twelve presidents owned slaves. People in the south benefited from slaves the most. Harvesting those huge cotton fields took many hands. That’s were the slaves became key to the success of the south. Slaves were predominately black Africans. Africans made up the majority but they were not the only ones. Native Americans and even English indentured servants made up the rest of the people put into slavery.

There are two different kinds of slaves. There are slaves that stayed in the house and took care of the families, and there were the slaves that worked the land. Domestic slaves were usually women and children. Mean and young boys made up the farm hands. These men worked from sunrise to sundown. Working outside was by far the worst of the two. Some slaves didn’t fall under these to types there were slaves that served as guides, trappers, craft workers and nurses. Jobs that people do not relate slaves with. Slaves had different jobs depending on what of the country they were sent to. Slaves in the north generally worked in the mills and clearing forest. Slaves in the south worked the farms all year. Up north slaves only had to work the farms in the summer months because of the rigorous winters they went through. Domestic slaves stayed in the house picked up after the family, cooked and served meals, cleaned and kept up with the daily chores of the house. It was easier than working outside.

Slaves were treated as property. Owners had the right to do whatever they wanted to them. They were property, not people. Owners would have the white farm hands stand in the fields and make sure the slaves were working as fast and hard as they could. If they weren’t working as hard as they could and a white farmhand saw it. The slaves would be beaten, and sometimes in severe cases killed.

When the owner wasn’t around slaves could interact with each other. Families that came over on the boats were ripped apart at the auction blocks. They were thrown together not knowing each other and had to form some kind of structure to their personal lives. Younger men and women and children looked up the older men and women as parents. Slaves would be put in...

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...hat captains could get their hands on. The owners of the ships had to keep the slaves in pretty good shape to get top dollar for them. The white deck hands would bring the slaves on deck and go through and exercise they called “dance.” The men were forced to jump until the shackles broke they skin on their ankles. The women and children who were not shackled could dance to a rhythm. Slaves enjoyed their exercise because it was the only time they were aloud to move around. If the slaves refused to dance they were beaten with whips. The whips were called “cat-o-nine-tails” they were made up of nine cords covered with tar; each cord had a knot at the end. When bad weather hit it became very rough for the slaves. The slaves were not aloud to come up on the deck. This is where disease and filth ran through the slaves.

In conclusion, slavery although was a big part of the rise of this country. It was looking back, one of the most terrible things done by humans to other humans. Learning from our mistakes took a long time. The Civil War was the point in our history where everyone realized that you could not treat people like animals. That everyone is looked upon as equals.

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