The beginning of slavery began as punishments for crimes in Africa, leading to Europe wanting them. Which also lead to the United States also wanting them because of economic problems which started the triangular trade. Free slaves came to happen because of the Confiscation Act of 1862, but even when freed, they were still discriminated and lacked choices to choose from to live their lives. Also, the freed slaves didn’t know what to do to survive on their owns. Slaves were better off than freedmen because they had food and shelter, some slave owners were kind to the slaves, and slaves knew what they had to do.
It was intended to last only one year after the civil but lasted longer due to surprising support and need for its services. This was a very large help to black Americans as it gave them basic living conditions even thought they had very little money after living as slaves. Sharecropping was a system where a landowner allowed a tenant to use some of their land in return for some of the crop produced there. This, for many black Americans, would have been like slavery again except that they could not get whipped for working slowly, but it would show off in their pay of crops. The advantages of this were that ex-slaves would have a chance of a job, and the fact that women could work on arable land, where the rights would only be available to male.
A People’s History of the United States: Reflection Chapter 9 Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom To summarize this chapter, it covers the aftermath of the Emancipation Proclamation as well as the slaves’ points of view. He explains that in the same way that having slaves grew the economy and advanced technology and society, the freeing of slaves by Abraham Lincoln also was a decision which bettered the American way of life. Zinn explains, “Thus, while the ending of slavery led to a reconstruction of national politics and economics, it was not a radical reconstruction, but a safe one—in fact a profitable one,” (Zinn 172). My reaction is similar to my reaction on the numerous other chapters that cover the subject of slavery. I still stand amazed at the conditions the slaves had to live in and the crowd of politics that surrounded the issue.
Some of the major problems included: No compensation They had no money They were still considered inferior Laws were passed to ensure they didn’t have access to lands They receive low wages. It’s important to note that although emancipation was the end result of the slave trade and slavery in the British Caribbean, only children less than six years old were to be freed immediately everyone else could be made to serve apprenticeship if assemblies thought it necessary. Apprentices would have to work 40 and half hours a week without pay for their former enslavers, but beyond that they could demand a wage or hire themselves to another planter. (Claypole & Robottom, 2009) As freedom for slaves became inevitable, the pro-slavery lobby switched tactics to request compensation for the human ‘property’ that was to be taken from Plantation owners. Daniel O’Connell an abolitionist of slavery had opposed to compensation for the planters.
The Slave Trade had a big impact on Europe, Africa, The West Indies, and almost the rest of the world. But towards the end people started to believe that the slave trade wasn’t such a good thing. This was for more than one reason. For example: • It was believed that paid slaves worked harder than slaves who had been captured and forced to work, or had been bred into slavery. Also, if you hired slaves, you didn’t have to pay for their housing or food, and so people started to think that paid saves were cheaper and more profitable.
The racial divide in virginia happened through an unthinking decision that happened over time due to logical practicality.The english settled in the Americas in a national chauvinistic manner. They had slaves and servants. Over time their sense of power, the need to protect that power grew and as that grew so did the African American population. They were both visually and mentally different, so much so that the English planters [and others] deemed them lower beings and allowed the division to happen. In 1607, Great Britain sent forth people to the Americas, hence creating Jamestown.
This slavery is by far one of the more difficult subjects to look upon when discussing American history and its influences. Slavery shaped this nation, for bad and for good, and this country would not be the same without this dark stain that influenced so much. Yes it was a terrible thing that went on in this country for years, but good did come out of it. It may have taken time, even after slavery was abolished, but it started a movement that changed the world and the rights of all people, of all races, to come. Most people don’t realize that slavery didn’t start in the United States, it was actually started sometime in the 16th century, but the first Africans were sold in Jamestown around 1619.
It organised education, health care, orphanages, and found reasonable work for ex-slaves. It also helped 21% of people read and write, although if you could read you weren’t allowed to vote and some of the schools were burnt down and pupils were beaten up.- this shows that even though the law of it was a really good idea, racism was still an issue as the whites and blacks were mixed together. Sharecropping was where slaves were made to work for their original slave masters on the plantations and instead of being constantly paid with money, the slaves would get given a third of the crops, but only if enough crops were harvested so slaves would have to rely on good harvesting if they wanted to get paid. However, if there was not enough rain, the crops wouldn’t grow properly so the slaves would have no food for however long, meaning that some wouldn’t be able to survive. Not only would they not survive, but it wasn’t very helpful to their lives later on because they fell into debt so there wasn’t much point of it.
Organized labor did indeed try to succeed, few goals were achieved, but too many impediments stood in their way of significantly improving their positions. The public’s opinion was a major contributing factor in overruling labor unions. According to The New York Times, the public was sympathetic towards the strikers of Baltimore and Ohio Road (Doc B). However, during the year of that editorial, there was the Panic of 1877. Most people at that time were actually just starting to get suspicious of organized labor.
Slavery, which was a major uproar from colonial America to the civil war, is the racial epidemic of the enslavement of people for money and cheap labor with extensive abuses. The question that could be asked is were the slaves dignified, did they still keep their dignity? The word dignity is the conducting of self-respect as a person sees himself or herself rather than, how others perceive that person. Slavery has been around for years and slaves have been treated unfairly for countless of reasons and situations. Did they still keep their self-respect?