The Effect of the Abolition of Slavery on Lives of Black People

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The Effect of the Abolition of Slavery on Lives of Black People

There are many reasons to whether the abolition of slavery improved

life for black people or not. Some say life for black people is still

the same but others say it has improved. Some of the main factors are

what it was like to be a slave, how black Americans reacted to the end

of slavery, the views of different black leaders and the advantages

and disadvantages blacks faced after the Civil War. I will look at

each point in detail and then finally decide whether the abolition of

slavery improved life for black people or not.

It was a very hard life for slaves as they had to do a lot of hard

work and had extremely harsh punishments. Some of their punishments

include having their head chopped off, salt and peppering their skin

and getting a spike in their mouth. Slaves had a very hard life; they

started off as being normal people and just living their life in

Africa. Then one day someone would have come and captured them while

they were at home minding the house, next they would have been tied up

and taken onto a slave ship. The slave ship would have been quite big

but because of the huge amount of slaves taken on it, it was a very

cramped living condition for the slaves. Whilst they were on the ship

they were given certain amounts of food and drink. The living

conditions on the ship were very wrong and harsh and many slaves died

even before they got to America. When the rest of living slaves got to

America then were sold at a slave auction along with other goods. Then

the slaves would have been taken to their new owner's house and would

continue their life from there, whether it was good or bad.

At the end of slavery black Americans reacted happily. After many

years of slavery finally over, they felt releaved, with their freedom

finally to themselves, where as at the same time they felt they wanted

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