Slavery Roots In Humankind History

“The real names of our people were destroyed during slavery. The last name of my forefathers was taken from them when they were brought to America and made slaves, and then the name of the slave master was given, which we refuse; we reject that name today and refuse it. I never acknowledge it whatsoever.” Malcolm X. Slavery roots are dated back into history to the ancient time in BC. The concept of slavery originally enrolled in humankind history through various ways; but the two most prominent ones have been either with civilizations founded in new big cities or countries which needed numerous labor force to work in the different parts of these lands, and to be paid the least of money and to live with the lowest living standards; or

it came through wars which were the major known way of slavery in ancient times. The massive Greece civilization pioneered the first meanings of slavery that have remained since then and has continued over centuries. At the early stages of America, slavery was obviously presented through bringing the West Africans by force to work in the American colonies in the new world as slaves. When they were brought to America, they had to be separated from their families which broke down and were lost. One of the families that were torn was the family of the great poet Phillis Wheatley.

Phillis Wheatley was born in 1753 in west Africa.

When she was seven years old, she was taken from her family and brought to America during the American revolution wrapped in a filthy carpet on board a slave ship in 1761, and she was purchased by a Boston merchant as a gift to his wife Susanna Wheatley. She was given her first name of the slave ship on which she was brought "Phillis", and her surname after her master’s family name “Wheatley"; at first, she spoke no English, but because she was Mrs. Susanna’s best servant of all the other servants for her intelligence and eagerness to learn; thus the Wheatleys afforded her with a high level of education equivalent to any free Native American in Boston at that time. She learned English, Latin, and the bible and she became Christian. Phillis started writing her first poetry when she was a teenager, and she was encouraged by Mrs. Susanna who helped her publish her first poems in the newspapers, and shortly she gained a great reputation for her poetry. An entire book of her poems combined different moral and religious subjects was published in 1773. "On Being Brought from Africa to America" was a poem of this book. Phillis Wheatley was the first black African American poet to publish a

book.