The Effects Of Slavery

1368 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effects of slavery on slaves

"Perhaps worse than the physical pain was the psychological damage done to the slaves who were whipped" (Currie 47). If a person wasn't born a slave, they were forced into being one. Slaves were commonly captives from the losing side of a battle, even the defeated soldiers' families could be enslaved. People would also sell their children to pay off a large debt. Once a slave was captured, there was a journey to survive. They were transported in large cargo ships named slave ships. Here, they would travel up to months while suffering from mental and physical abuse. While on board, each slave was stripped naked and inspected by the captain or a surgeon. Men were shoved under the deck and fixed with heavily painful leg irons. At times, they were not even able to move, or stand, from being too crammed together. The women and children were kept in w different section of the ship. Occasionally, they would be let onto the deck of the ship to move around. Although, this often brought them sexual abuse from the crew. On days with good weather, slaves would be woken up in the middle of the morning to exercise on the deck. Usually, slaves were fed twice a day, but if they refused to eat they would be force fed ("Life" 2-3). Also, horrible hygienic conditions meant they were in constant risk of getting infected with diseases. A harmless disease could easily turn into a deadly one on a slave ship, and if a slave were to die, their dead body would be thrown overboard.
When a slave ship was known to arrive, they were numerous posters and advertisements plastered everywhere. Slaves were then moved into pens, and cleaned to be more appealing. They were also covered in grease or even tar in order to appear healthy. After all, the healthier the sla...

... middle of paper ...

...ites. They had separate bathrooms, water fountains, even medical care and restaurants. Blacks and whites lived together, but apart. Abolitionists also played a huge part in ending slavery. These include well known people like Harriet Tubman who lead countless slaves to freedom time and time again. Other important abolitionists were William Lloyd Garrison, and Arthur and Lewis Tappan who formed the American Anti-Slavery Society. They spoke to try to convince whites that slavery was inhuman, and they created numerous petitions in the hopes of putting a final end to slavery. Slavery was definitely a learning period for the United States. Americans learned to not degrade other human beings especially ones with different races. Even though there is still some racism today, Americans as a whole have come a long way from slavery and segregation to acceptance and equality.

Show More
Related

  • The Slave Ship Marcus Rediker Summary

    911 Words  | 2 Pages

    The slaves not only suffered from physical pain, but emotional and mental pain as well. For example, they were chained and shackled. Their spirits were crushed on multiple occasions and anytime they even thought about rebelling, they were tortured and that thought was beaten out of them. Some even refused to eat and those that did were beaten until they changed their

    Read More

  • The Midnight Rising Sparknotes

    1135 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...lived, but that didn’t just change a little, it changed a LOT. In the south it was a custom to have a maid and people to do your farming for you, a stay in nanny, a cook, etc. All of that was “slave work” and since generation after generation was used to seeing slaves doing things for them, it stuck around and became a part of the culture. On the other hadn there was the north, which had become more industrialized and more self reliant and independent and, more educated and growing and moving forward kind of people, so to them slavery was far from being a part of culture it was just something horrible to anyone a part of their community. This huge divide between the two communities/societies is what led to the ultimate clash in all the US history, it was a huge deal and it itself was one of the biggest examples of sociological imbalance between a society/societies.

    Read More

  • Reversing the Master and Slave Role in Benito Cereno

    1088 Words  | 3 Pages

    conditions aboard ship were dreadful. The maximum number of slaves was jammed into the hull, chained to forestall revolts or suicides by drowning. Food, ventilation, light, and sanitatio...

    Read More

  • How Slavery Affected Colonial America

    998 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slavery was a practice in many countries in the 17th and 18th centuries, but its effects in human history was unique to the United States. Many factors played a part in the existence of slavery in colonial America; the most noticeable was the effect that it had on the personal and financial growth of the people and the nation. Capitalism, individualism and racism were the utmost noticeable factors during this most controversial period in American history. Other factors, although less discussed throughout history, also contributed to the economic rise of early American economy, such as, plantationism and urbanization. Individually, these factors led to an enormous economic growth for the early American colonies, but collectively, it left a social gap that we are still trying to bridge today.

    Read More

  • Chapter 16: Diving Further into American Slavery

    1012 Words  | 3 Pages

    Slavery shaped the lives of both black and whites alike in ways such as social reforms, marriages, and economic stimulation. Radical abolitionism was a way many people fought back against slavery. The southerners, though, had reasons to believe slavery to be good. There were also repercussions, such as the Civil War, that shines slavery positively. Slavery was a complicated problem that we have grown past.

    Read More

  • Slavery’s Dehumanizing Effects on American Slaves and Slaveholders

    1652 Words  | 4 Pages

    Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, brings to light many of the social injustices that colored men, women, and children all were forced to endure throughout the nineteenth century under Southern slavery laws. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. Yet, while Douglas’s narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. Aside from all the physical burdens of slavery that he faced on a daily basis, it was the psychological effects that caused him the greatest amount of detriment during his twenty-year enslavement. In the same regard, Douglass is able to profess that it was not only the slaves who incurred the damaging effects of slavery, but also the slaveholders. Slavery, in essence, is a destructive force that collectively corrupts the minds of slaveholders and weakens slaves’ intellects.

    Read More

  • the development of slavery in America

    1202 Words  | 3 Pages

    Slavery was the main resource used in the Chesapeake tobacco plantations. The conditions in the Chesapeake region were difficult, which lead to malnutrition, disease, and even death. Slaves were a cheap and an abundant resource, which could be easily replaced at any time. The Chesapeake region’s tobacco industries grew and flourished on the intolerable and inhumane acts of slavery.

    Read More

  • Middle Passage

    1311 Words  | 3 Pages

    Also, the ship’s crew often treated the Africans badly; they often whipped them because many of the people resisted and tried to escape from the cargo ship.

    Read More

  • Give Me Liberty By Eric Foner

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Since a slave could be sold in America for twenty to thirty times the price in Africa, men, women, and children were crammed aboard vessels as tightly as possible to maximize profits” (Foner, Seagull 4th, 134). Some ships were capable of carrying more the 600 slaves. Slaves would be squashed in dark, hot and airless holds that were below deck, and would be left there for most of the voyage. One slave trader wrote, “the heights, sometimes, between decks was only eighteen inches, so that the unfortunate human beings could not turn around, or even on their sides… and here they are usually chained to the decks by their necks and legs” (Finer, Seagull 4th, 134). Some of the voyages could last up to several weeks, and not surprisingly, some slaves died on the horrific journey across the Atlantic. When reaching America slaves would be traded off for valuables such as rum, tobacco, cotton and sugar- white gold. These items would then be shipped back to England, where they would be sold for a very profitable price. This is how some of the people and economy of Britain profited from the slave trade. The consequences of these actions were good and bad. The good part was that many people benefited from the profit, but the bad part was that the benefit from profit was from destroying people's lives such as the

    Read More

  • African American Slavery

    1777 Words  | 4 Pages

    The beginning of African American slavery in America in 1619 deeply impacted the culture of African Americans. The overall experience that African American slaves encountered throughout their journey to freedom is a tragedy. As a whole, they were continuously disrespected and treated poorly by nearly all white people. Regardless of what type of slave or which geographical area the slave resided in, they were considered property and were never capable of being equal to whites. Nearly two and a half centuries later in 1865, slavery was abolished with passing of the 13th amendment. African American slaves may have been severely mistreated on a daily basis, but they were able to deal with the circumstances that were laid out in front of them by turning to religion and coming together as a family (House).

    Read More

  • How Did Slavery Affect The Family

    394 Words  | 1 Pages

    Slavery was a lifestyle in the South. Under slavery, enslaved African Americans encountered many hardships but they were able to create family lives, religious beliefs, and a distinct culture. African-American slaves were treated cruelly and in an inhumane way. In the 1800s, life for slaves in the South from involved resistance and survival.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Falconbridge's Account Of The Slave Trade And Middle Passage

    223 Words  | 1 Pages

    One element of the slave trade that was graphically portrayed was the way slaves were transported and held. The nature of how these people were held and treated is soul-breaking. I believe the next line quoted gives but a glimpse of the slaves’ condition. “The confined air, rendered noxious by the effluvia exhaled from their bodies and being repeatedly breathed, soon produces fevers and fluxes which generally carries off great numbers of them.” (Falconbridge

    Read More

  • The Role Of Slavery In The North And South

    411 Words  | 1 Pages

    A slave is defined as a person who is legally owned by another and is forced to work for that person without pay. Slavery is something that played a major role in the North and South. The south depended on slaves to help grow cash crops and pick cotton. In the south slaves were owned by masters and had no rights. They worked long hours in the fields for no pay. They often endured harsh beatings if they disobeyed their master at any time. They were traded and sold and separated from there families. They were referred to as “human cattle” which was basically saying that they were animals and not human. When the slaves were being traded they were examined by the purchaser. If the slave had any markings on his or her body it meant he or she was

    Read More

  • Enslave women experiences

    573 Words  | 2 Pages

    If there were not sufficient slaves to transport or if the ships were on other voyages the wait period at the slave castles were extended. Slavery for these people, men, women and child, were a horrific experience. Yet the enslaved women experiences of enslavement were different in during the voyages, in the seasoning camps, auctions and on the plantations.

    Read More

  • Slavery's Dual Impact on Early American Economy

    507 Words  | 2 Pages

    Consequently, the slave owners paid insurance premiums to the insurance firms. Like in the case of savings, the insurance firms used the premiums paid to reinvest in other activities whose outcome was economic growth. Thus, slavery generated more economic activities leading to overall economic growth. These included loans, credit, mortgages, insurance, transport, and agricultural lines of business (Post 617). These can be counted as factors which were positively impacted by slavery in America. “There is no question that profits from slavery and the slave trade flowed into banking, insurance, and ship-building throughout the colonies ” (Post 618). Although there are many positives to slavery, there were also negatives impacts on the American

    Read More

More about The Effects Of Slavery

Open Document