The account of African people in America starts with, and still conveys the legacy of, one of the most inhumane oppressions throughout US history, the establishment of slavery. African people were brought to America initially in 1619 (A History Of Slavery: 1619-1865. (n.d.)). At that time, slavery had not yet formed; the first Africans who were in America through the 1680s are believed to have been indentured servants. The earliest Africans were seen in the same light as indentured servants from Europe.
Each slave was expected to cultivate about two acres of tobacco a year, which meant a lot of hard work almost every day. Laborers had to work six days every week, and were allowed one day off, which was Sunday. On these days off, laborers would usually either tend to their own personal gardens, go hunting or go fishing to try to supplement their meager diets. South Carolina was the same way in term of working and living conditions for
In the early as the 15 century, England passed from raising sheep and producing wool, an agricultural activity, to manufacturing cloth. This signaled the beginning of capitalist production. It is in capitalist production that we can locate the basic cause of the slave trade. The slave ship sailed from the home country with a cargo of manufactured goods. These were exchanged at a profit on the coast of Africa for Negroes, who were traded on the plantations, at another profit, in exchange for a cargo of colonial produce to be taken back to the home country.
Response to Slavery and The Making of America The first episode of Slavery and the Making of America discussed the beginnings of African enslavement in America and how it slowly became a “downward spiral.” In the beginning, the Dutch West India company was very dependant on the labor of their slaves, so the slaves did have room to negotiate for things like better wages and were treated much better and had more rights than we would typically imagine slaves back then to have. Many of the first eleven slave men that came to “Dutch New Amsterdam” were Christian, had mixed European and African ansestry, were Christian, literate, and spoke many different languages. It was surprising to me how such educated and literate people could have been enslaved and made to work from dawn to dusk like that. I feel that since there were so few slaves at that time, the company was always very afraid that they would loose all the fruits that came from these slave's hard labor so they had to make sure the slaves were content and had to let them negotiate. The hard work of these slaves made the early infrastructure of America.
Slavery in the spanish colonies first started when settlers enslaved natives using then to work on local labor. When the portuguese had an increase in the demand of agricultural products they needed workers but many lives were being talke from native slave, they were not working hard, and diseases from the new world were killing them. this was when they noticed that Aficans were immune to the conditions and diseases. Being a slave in Africa was good for some but ever since the Portuguese came in to the slave trade, life for a slave became harsh. The main reason why the portuguese enslaved aficans was so they can have men to work on plantations.
Also, Africans lost the right to work for themselves and were forced by the Europeans to labor in mines or collect rubber and other plants from the jungle. If the Africans were unable to fulfill the demands of the European soldiers, they were punished severely; many had their hands or ears cut off and some were killed. Another negative effect was that many Africans were brought to the Americas to
In past history, enslavement of another was usually the result of an unpaid debt, the spoils of a victorious war, or the consequences of a crime. Enslavement of another human life without reason, however, is a critical sign of the downfall of humanity. In American history, slavery warped from being temporary servitude of any immigrant or unemployed citizen in the hopes of helping them in the end into lifetime enslavement of Africans with no pay and very little hope of escaping the harsh conditions employed by enslavement. Not only did enslavement of the Africans occur, but the harsh racism that formed towards them only worsened their conditions, with the white society’s hate being expressed negatively towards the slaves. Since the time of slavery, many scholars and historians have studied the American enslavement of the Africans to further understand the cause.
It was very hard to look at and see all the cruelty and things that went on with the slaves after they had been captured, due to the fact they had been minding their own business a significant amount of years and then someone comes along, suggest that Africans are not to be treated inhuman and turned into a slave. Finally once had reached to their destination, slaves would be auctioned off. I learned from this movie that slaves fought back. They realized what was going on with their lives and took control of that. I was not aware that they actually went to court and was faced with murder, didn’t know that this happened.
In Africa, as in other places around the world, the vast majority of slaves were war captives, criminals and individuals banished from their clans. Slavery in Africa followed lines similar to those in other places in the fact that once a person was bonded into slavery he had no personal rights. He had no say in the type of work he was ordered to do and had no right to personal belongings. He could be punished at anytime for any reason, or for no reason. They could be bought or sold as property in the same way one would sell beasts of burden.
But a much different slave trading than the one created by the Europeans. The Africans that were enslave by their own country were the one who committed a crime, had unpaid debt and the ones that were prisoners of war. However; the Europeans held innocent Africans captive for their own purpose. They even viewed them as a piece property and treated them as if they were wild beast. Unfortunately because of the struggle to survive the African people adopted slave trade and started capturing and trading their people for European goods.