an essay on slavery

Slavery Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on slavery.

Slavery is a term that signifies the injustice that is being carried out against humans since the 1600s. Whenever this word comes up, usually people picture rich white people ruling over black people. However, that is not the only case to exist. After a profound study, historians found evidence that suggested the presence of slavery in almost every culture. It was not essentially in the form of people working in the fields, but other forms. Slavery generally happens due to the division of levels amongst humans in a society. It still exists in various parts of the world. It may not necessarily be that hard-core, nonetheless, it happens.

Impact of Slavery

Slavery is one of the main causes behind racism in most of the cultures. It did severe damage to the race relations of America where a rift was formed between the whites and blacks.

The impact of Slavery has caused irreparable damage which can be seen to date. Even after the abolishment of slavery in the 1800s in America, racial tensions remained amongst the citizens.

In other words, this made them drift apart from each other instead of coming close. Slavery also gave birth to White supremacy which made people think they are inherently superior just because of their skin color and descendant.

Talking about the other forms of slavery, human trafficking did tremendous damage. It is a social evil which operates even today, ruining hundreds and thousands of innocent lives. Slavery is the sole cause which gave birth to all this.

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The Aftermath

Even though slavery was abolished over 150 years ago, the scars still remain. The enslaved still haven’t forgotten the struggles of their ancestors. It lives on in their hearts which has made them defensive more than usual. They resent the people whose ancestors brought it down on their lineage.

Even today many people of color are a victim of racism in the 21st century. For instance, black people face far more severe punishments than a white man. They are ridiculed for their skin color even today. There is a desperate need to overcome slavery and all its manifestations for the condition and security of all citizens irrespective of race, religion , social, and economic position .

In short, slavery never did any good to any human being, of the majority nor minority. It further divided us as humans and put tags on one another. Times are changing and so are people’s mindsets.

One needs to be socially aware of these evils lurking in our society in different forms. We must come together as one to fight it off. Every citizen has the duty to make the world a safer place for every human being to live in.

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271 Slavery Topics and Essay Examples

✨ tips for an essay, research paper or speech about slavery, 🏆 best slavery titles for essay, 🥇 most interesting slave trade essay topics, ⭐ good titles for slavery essays, 💡 slavery writing prompts, 🔎 simple & easy slavery titles, ✍️ slavery essay topics for college, ❓ research questions about slavery.

Writing an essay on slavery may be challenging as the topic brings up negative emotions to many people.

This issue is related to differences between social positions and their negative effects. In addition, slavery reveals racial disparities in society and damages race relations in many cultures.

Good slavery essays discuss the aspects and problems that are important and relevant today. Choose slavery essay topics that raise significant problems that remain acute in modern society. Slavery essay titles and topics may include:

• The problem of human trafficking in today’s world
• Why is it hard to stop child trafficking in today’s world?
• The aspects of plantation life for slaves
• The development of American slavery
• Was slavery inevitable?
• Differences and similarities between slavery in the US and serfdom in Russia
• The ineffectiveness of peaceful means against slavery
• Destructive aspects of slavery
• The link between slavery and racism
• The differences between the impact of slavery on women and men of color

Once you select the issue you want to discuss, you can start working on your paper. Here are some tips and secrets for creating a powerful essay:

• Remember that appropriate essay titles are important to get the readers’ interest. Do not make the title too long but state the main point of your essay.
• Start with developing a structure for your essay. Remember that your paper should be organized clearly. You may want to make separate paragraphs or sections for the most important topics.
• Include an introductory paragraph, in which you can briefly discuss the problem and outline what information the paper will present.
• Remember to include a concluding paragraph too, in which you will state the main points of your work. Add recommendations, if necessary.
• Do preliminary research even if you feel that you know much about the topic already. You can find useful information in historical books, peer-reviewed journals, and trusted online sources. Note: Ask your professor about the types of sources you are allowed to use.
• Do not rely on outside sources solely. Your essay should incorporate your knowledge and reflections on slavery and existing evidence. Try to add comments to the citations you use.
• Remember that a truly powerful essay should be engaging and easy-to-understand. You can tell your readers about different examples of slavery to make sure that they understand what the issue is about. Keep the readers interested by asking them questions and allowing them to reflect on the problem.
• Your slavery essay prompts should be clearly stated in the paper. Do not make the audience guess what the main point of the essay is.
• Although the content is important, you should also make sure that you use correct grammar and sentence structures. Grammatical mistakes may make your paper look unprofessional or unreliable.
• If you are writing an argumentative essay, do not forget to include refutation and discuss opposing views on the issue.
• Check out slavery essay examples online to see how you can structure your paper and organize the information. In addition, this step can help you to avoid possible mistakes and analyze the relevance of the issue you want to discuss.

Do not forget to check our free samples and get the best ideas for your essay!

• Slavery in To Kill a Mockingbird Novel The introduction of Tom by the author is a plot device to represent the plight of the slaves in the state.
• Sethe’s Slavery in “Beloved” by Toni Morrison In spite of the fact that the events depicted in Beloved take place after the end of the American Civil War, Sethe, as the main character of the novel and a former slave, continues to […]
• Analysis of Themes of Slavery in Literature The paper will be concentrated on the analysis of the works ‘The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano’ by Olaudah Equiano, ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass’ by Frederick Douglass, and ‘Incidents […]
• Metaphoric Theme of Slavery in “Indiana” by George Sand In her novel about love and marriage, Sand raises a variety of central themes of that time society, including the line of slavery both from the protagonist’s perspective and the French colonial slavery.
• Slavery in the Roman Empire The elite were the rich people, and majority of the population that comprised of the common farmers, artisans, and merchants known as the plebeians occupied the low status.
• John Brown and His Beliefs About Slavery John Brown was a martyr, his last effort to end slavery when he raided Harper’s Ferry helped to shape the nation and change the history of slavery in America.
• Freedom in Antebellum America: Civil War and Abolishment of Slavery The American Civil War, which led to the abolishment of slavery, was one of the most important events in the history of the United States.
• Protest Against Slavery in ”Pudd’nhead Wilson” by Mark Twain Pudd’nhead Wilson is the ironic tale of a man who is born a slave but brought up as the heir to wealthy estate, thanks to a switch made while the babies were still in the […]
• Economic Impact of Slavery Growth in Southern Colonies 1 The need to occupy southern colonies came as a result of the successes that were recorded in the north, especially after the establishment of cash crop farming. The setting up of the plantations in […]
• Impact of Revolution on Slavery and Women Freed slaves and other opponents of the slave trade in the north agitated for release and freedom of slaves in the south.
• How “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” Addresses Slavery The insensitivity in this mistreatment and dehumanization of Black people is pervasive to the extent that Jim considers himself “property” and was proud to be worth a fortune if anyone was to sell him. To […]
• Chapters 4-6 of ”From Slavery to Freedom” by Franklin & Higginbotham At the same time, the portion of American-born slaves was on the increase and contributed to the multiracial nature of the population.
• “Slavery and the Making of America” Documentary According to the film Slavery and the Making of America, slavery had a profound effect on the historical development of American colonies into one country.
• Slavery and Identity: “The Known World” by Edward Jones Moses is used to this kind of life and described by one of the other characters as “world-stupid,” meaning he does not know how to live in the outside world. He has a strong connection […]
• Concept of Slavery Rousseau’s Analysis Rights and slavery are presented by the thinker as two contrary notions; Rousseau strived to provide the analysis of rights in their moral, spiritual sense; the involvement into dependence from the rulers means the involvement […]
• “American Slavery, 1619-1817” by Peter Kolchin The concluding chapter details of the demise of slavery on the onset of the Civil War and Reconstruction. The period of American Revolution was a “watershed “in transforming the vision that portrayed slavery was justifiable […]
• Globalization and Slavery: Multidisciplinary View Globalization is an exciting concept and maybe one of the greatest achievements of the modern world. A case of the multidisciplinary nature of slavery is also evident in Pakistan, where slavery thrives on religious grounds.
• Impacts of Slavery and Slave Trade in Africa Slavery existed in the African continent in form of indentured servitude in the previous years, but Atlantic slave trade changed the system, as people were captured by force through raids before being sold to other […]
• “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and Slavery It is said that “the book is a very inadequate representation of slavery; and it is so, necessarily, for this reason, – that slavery, in some of its workings, is too dreadful for the purposes […]
• The “Slavery by Another Name” Documentary The documentary highlights how the laws and policies of that time enabled the exploitation of Black people and how the legacy of slavery continued to shape the racial dynamics of the country.
• Human Trafficking: Slavery Issues These are the words to describe the experiences of victims of human trafficking. One of the best places to intercept human trafficking into the US is at the border.
• The Slavery Experience: Erra Adams Erra Adams indicates that he was the oldest of the children and his task was to plow the land. The formerly enslaved person noted that the death of the master was a real grief for […]
• Abraham Lincoln: The End of Slavery Lincoln actively challenged the expansion of slavery because he believed the United States would stay true to the Declaration of Independence. It is worth considering the fact that Lincoln was not the only advocate for […]
• Recreation of Slavery in “Sweat” Book by Hurston Perhaps the best-portrayed theme and the most controversial one is the recreation of slavery on the part of Afro-Americans who have just been freed of it.
• California’s Issues With Slavery However, the report and the book indicate this point and emphasize that the concept of free land was made in favor of white people but not in the interests of African Americans.
• Sexual Slavery and Human Smuggling They were the only people in the house, and it appeared that her parents were not home. The social worker’s job in Tiffani’s life is to look into her past, from her childhood through her […]
• Were the Black Codes Another Form of Slavery? Slavery in the United States has been a part of the nation’s history for hundreds of years, and yet it did not end abruptly.
• How Slavery Makes Sense From Various Perspectives Given that there is a historical precedent for the “peculiar institution,” it would be erroneous to dismiss slavery as something that is new. Thus, the institution of slavery is found even in the Bible, and […]
• Slavery in The Fires of Jubilee by Stephen Oates Apart from the story being arranged in chapters, the layout and approach suggest that the author has described the area of events narrated and then given the narration.
• Modern Slavery in Global Value Chains: Case Study The main reason for accusations of forced labor is that most of the factories Nike owns are in Vietnam, and they provide the lowest possible wages.
• Differences of Slavery: Oklahoma Writers’ Project vs. The Textbook Today, many sources discuss the characteristics of slavery, its causes, and the outcomes and describe the conditions under which the Civil War began. In the accounts and the textbook, different opportunities for slaves are given […]
• Autobiography & Slavery Life of Frederick Douglass This essay discusses the slavery life of Frederick Douglass as written in his autobiography, and it highlights how he resisted slavery, the nature of his rebellion, and the view he together with Brinkley had about […]
• The American Civil War: Pro- & Anti-Slavery Forces The pro-slavery forces argued that slavery was the right thing to do, promoting abolitionists and the anti-slavery forces as terrible villains because they wanted to abolish slavery.
• Slavery: Historical Background and Modern Perspective Despite the seemingly short period of contract slavery, people did not have the right to marry without the owner’s permission while the contract term was in effect.
• Irish Immigrants and Abolition of Slavery in the US The selected historical events are Irish immigration to the United States in the 1840s and 1850s and the movement for slavery abolition, which existed in the country at the same time.
• Irish Immigration to America and the Slavery Despite the fact that the Irish encountered a great number of obstacles, the immigration of Irish people to the United States was advantageous not only to the immigrants but also to the United States.
• Irish Immigrants and the Abolition of Slavery Irish people, though not as deprived of rights as the enslaved Africans, also endured much suffering and fought slavery to the best of their ability.
• North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free States: 1790 – 1860 The book North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free States: 1790 1860 by Leon Litwack is an illustration of how African Americans were treated in the northern states just before the start of The […]
• Modern Slavery and Its Emergence The author turns to the examples of three European countries and, through the analysis, reveals the piece of the effects of the slave trade and the modernization of its forms.
• Moral Aspect of Slavery from a Northern and Southern Perspective Pro-slavery, non-expansionist, and abolitionist perspectives on the moral foundations of slavery identify both differences between the North and south of the US and the gradual evolution of the nation’s view of African people.
• Thomas Jefferson on Slavery and Declaration of Independence Additionally, with the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson set the foundation for the abolition of slavery in the future. Thus, the claim that Jefferson’s participation in slavery invalidates his writing of the Declaration of Independence is […]
• Europeans’ Interest in Sugar and Slavery Hence, in the Atlantic world, it was also a significant factor, contributing not only to the well-being of the affected populations in Europe but also to the growth of slavery in the region.
• Self-Reflection on John Adams: Slavery and Race This could demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages of the freedom of speech limitations that are considered in modern America. Therefore, I would like to know the perspectives of different political parties on the events of […]
• Slavery and Indentured Servitude Slavery practices were perceived to extend in Boston, which is believed to be the first place where someone tried to force enslaved people to have children to earn money. To summarize, the practice of slavery […]
• Indentured Servitude and Slavery The slave population in the North progressively fell throughout the 1760s and 1770s with slaves in Philadelphia reducing to approximately 700 in 1775.
• Critical Response: The Origin of Negro Slavery Considering that individuals of all races were involved in slavery in the New World, racism emerged as a consequence of forced labor and was not originally connected to the targeted discrimination of African Americans.
• Chesapeake Colonies and Development of Slavery The given trend was similar to the Middle and Chesapeake colonies, proving specific attitudes to slavery peculiar to people of that period.
• American Slavery Arise and Abolition In this regard, the new slaves were not truly emancipated, as they were still dependent on a source of resources for subsistence.
• Analysis of Slavery in United States The main points highlighted in the lecture are focused on the socio-economic differences between the two systems, the actual life of slaves, and methods of blacks’ rebellion.
• Review of Slavery Topic in “Never Caught” Thus, the former’s relationship to this institution was guided by humanity towards the slaves and the development of legal methods of improving their lives that did not exist in the latter case.
• Prohibiting Slavery in the United States In other words, the original ideas incorporated the considerations of sexual immorality due to the abuse of the affected persons and the practice of breeding people for sale. The contributions to the discussion were also […]
• Slavery Experience by Abdul Rahman ibn Ibrahim Sori Abdul Rahman continued talking about his family and status, but his royal priorities were not enough to confirm his identity and return to his family.
• Discussion of Slavery in Focus For this reason, the audience that reads about cases of slavery in some of the third-world countries has the feeling of encountering the past something that, in readers’ understanding, is already a history.
• New Slavery in “Disposable People” by Kevin Bales The immense increase of the population after World War II and the influence of development and globalization of the world’s economy on traditional families in developing countries have led to the increment in the gap […]
• Analysis of Documents on Greek Slavery The passages will be examined and evaluated better understand the social and cultural history of the period and learn more about the social order in Ancient Greece. It can be asserted that the issue of […]
• Discussion of Justification of Slavery As a result, such perceptions gave rise to the argument that the latter people are inferior to Europeans and, thus, should be in a position of servitude.
• The Industrial Revolution, Slavery, and Free Labor The purpose of this paper is to describe the Industrial Revolution and the new forms of economic activity it created, including mass production and mass consumption, as well as discuss its connection to slavery.
• Expansion of Freedom and Slavery in British America The settlement in the city of New Plymouth was founded by the second, and it laid the foundation for the colonies of New England.
• Should the U.S. Government Pay Reparations for Slavery Coates tries to get the attention of his audience by explaining to them the importance of understanding the benefits of the impact the slaves faced during the regime of white supremacy.
• Antebellum Slavery’s Role in Shaping the History and Legacy of American Society The novel tells the story of two different times, the 1970s and 1815s, and shows other conditions of the heroes’ existence due to gender and racial characteristics.
• View on the Slavery in the State of Mississippi According to Mississippi’s “Declaration of Causes,” slavery is “the greatest material interest of the world” and “these products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions”.
• Alexander Stephens on Slavery and Confederate Constitution The speaker remarks that the persistent lack of consensus over the subordination and slavery of the “Negro” between the South and North was the immediate reason why the Confederates decided to secede and establish their […]
• Origins of Modern Racism and Ancient Slavery The diversity of African kingdoms and the empires were engaged in the slave trade for hundreds of years prior to the beginnings of the Atlantic slave trade. The working and living condition of slaves were […]
• Isaac Burt: Modern-Day Slavery in the US Therefore, the author begins with the critical review of data on the notion of human trafficking, including sex and labor trafficking forms, which often use immigrants and women as vulnerable populations.
• How Violent Was the Slavery? Ask African American Women The book significantly impacted American literature due to the writer’s roots and the problems of slavery addressed in a detailed manner.
• The Role of Slavery for the American Society: Lesson Plan Understand how the development of slavery could influence the social and economic life of the Southern states and the role of the plantation system in the process.
• Colonialism and the End of Internal Slavery The Atlantic slave trade was considered among the main pillars of the economy in the western region between the 16th and 19th centuries.
• The History of American Revolution and Slavery At the same time, the elites became wary of indentured servants’ claim to the land. The American colonies were dissatisfied with the Royal Proclamation of 1763 it limited their ability to invade new territories and […]
• The Expansion of Slavery: Review Their purpose was to track and catch runaway slaves and return them to their masters. The work of slaves was primarily agricultural.
• Abolitionist Movement: Attitudes to Slavery Reflected in the Media One of the reasons confirming the inadmissibility of slavery and the unfairness of the attitude towards this phenomenon is the unjustification of torture and violence.
• Slavery and Social Death by Orlando Patterson As a result, relatively same practices of social death were applied to indigenous American people, which proves Patterson’s point of view that this attitude was characteristic not only for the African slave trade.
• Antebellum Culture and Slavery: A Period of History in the South of the United States The antebellum era, also known as the antebellum south, is a period of history in the south of the United States before the American Civil War in the late 18th century.
• Slavery and Society Destruction Seduced by the possibility of quick enrichment, the users of slave labor of both the past and the present, betrayed their humanity due to power and money.
• Trans-Atlantic Chattel Slavery and the Rise of the Modern Capitalist World System The reading provides an extensive background of the historical rise and fall of the African nations. The reading gives a detailed account of the Civil War and the color line within its context.
• Modern Slavery: Definition and Types Modern slavery is a predatory practice that is being utilized by businesses and organizations, some seemingly legitimate, worldwide through the exploitative and forced labour of victims and needs to be addressed at the policy and […]
• Human Trafficking as a Global Crime Industry: Labor, Slavery, Sexual Slavery, Prostitution, and Organ Harvesting As members of the society, every individual has to be aware of this glaring issue, and do their part in preventing human trafficking. This project will present an in-depth analysis of various aspects and perspectives […]
• Slavery in “Disposable People” Book by Kevin Bales The key point of his book is that the phenomenon of slavery is impossible to be eradicated. He has studied the current economic and political situations of the countries presented in his book that help […]
• Late Slavery and Emancipation in the Greater Caribbean The epoch of slavery defined the darkest history in the evolution of the civilization of humanity; the results of slavery continue permeating the psychology of very “far” descendants of the slaves themselves.
• Transatlantic Slave Trade and Colonial Chesapeake Slavery Most of the West African slaves worked across the Chesapeake plantation. This paper will explore the various conditions and adaptations that the African slaves acquired while working in the Chesapeake plantation.
• Slavery and Secession in Georgia The representatives of the State of Georgia were worried because of the constant assaults concerning the institution of slavery, which have created the risk of danger to the State.
• Slavery of African in America: Reasons and Purposes Since the beginning of the sixteenth century, the African slaves were shipped to Europe and Eastern Atlantics, but later the colonies started demanding workers and the trade shifted to the Americas.
• Slavery in Charleston, South Carolina Prior to the Year 1865 Charleston is a city in South Carolina and one of the largest cities in the United States. It speaks about the life and origin of the slaves and also highlights some of their experiences; their […]
• Verisimilitude of Equiano’s Narrative and Understanding of Slavery The main argument in the answer to Lovejoy was that the records could clarify the author’s true age, which is the key to the dismissal of the idea that Equiano is a native African.
• The Case for Reparations: Slavery and Segregation Consequences in the US Ta-Nehisi Coates, in his essay The Case for Reparations, examines the consequences of slavery and segregation in the United States and argues the importance of reparations for black Americans, both in a financial and moral […]
• Critique of Colin Thies’ “Commercial Slavery” The goal of the article was to evaluate the economic and political situation of the African slave trade and avoid other aspects according to which people were considered as oppressed and enslaved.
• Fredrick Douglas Characters. Impact of Slavery The institution of slavery drove and shaped the enslaved people to respond and behave in different ways in that Fredrick Bailey was forced to flee away from slavery and later changed his name to Fredrick […]
• Litwack’s Arguments on the Aftermath of Slavery This paper seeks to delve into a technical theme addressed by Leon on what kind of freedom was adopted by the ex-slaves prior to the passage of the 13th U.S.constitutional amendment of 1865 that saw […]
• Slavery, Civil War, and Abolitionist Movement in 1850-1865 They knew they were free only they had to show the colonists that they were aware of that.[1] The slaves were determined and in the unfreed state they still were in rebellion and protested all […]
• Slavery History in North America in the Middle 1830s I was born in a small village in Georgia, in the middle 1830s, a time when the United States was going through a lot of slave trade activities, and to many, the trade was accommodated […]
• The Major Developments in Slavery During 1800-1877 Several states in the South, in 1877 beginning with Georgia, took gain of this by issuing a succession of laws and a tax was put on voting.
• Slavery in America: Causes and Effects Slavery in America was a period in which people were caught and taken to do manual work in America from various parts of the world as a result of colonization.
• Slavery as an Institution in America This paper will look at the factors that enhanced the expansion of slavery as an institution in America during this period and further highlight the views held by the southern on slavery about its social […]
• The Literature From Slavery to Freedom Its main theme is slavery but it also exhibits other themes like the fight by Afro-Americans for freedom, the search for the identity of black Americans and the appreciation of the uniqueness of African American […]
• Slavery in New Orleans and Charleston This paper is going to establish this claim by making a comparison of the lives of the slaves who lived in the urban areas such as the New Orleans and Charleston with those slaves that […]
• How Slavery Has Affected the Lives and Families of the African Americans? This paper will focus on how slavery in the earlier years has affected the lives and families of the African Americans in the year 2009.
• Du Bois’ “The Soul of Black Folk” and T. Washington’s “Up From Slavery” Du Bois in the work “The Soul of Black Folk” asks the question, why black people are considered to be different, why they are treated differently as they are the same members of the society, […]
• Slavery as One of the Biggest Mistakes And the last important thing which caused forming the institution of slavery for such a long period in the judgment of Winthrop D.
• Colonial Economy of America: Poverty, Slavery and Rich Plantations This topic deals with life in the colonial economy of America and the approach of white people towards black people. Mainly through natural production, the people became wealthy and they led a typical way of […]
• African Slavery and European Plantation Systems: 1525-1700 However, with the discovery of sugar production at the end of the 15th Century to the Atlantic Islands and the opening up of the New World in the European conquests, the Portuguese discovered new ways […]
• The Theme of Slavery in Aristotle’s “Politics” He notes that the fundamental part of an association is the household that is comprised of three different kinds of relationships: master to slave, husband to wife, and parents to their children.
• “Slavery and African Life: Occidental, Oriental, and African Slave Trades” by Patrick Manning The author’s approach of examining the slavery issue from the lens of economic history and the involvement of normal Africans living in Africa is then examined.
• Slavery and Democracy in 19th Century America In the 19th century when white folks are busy building a nation and taking part in the more significant aspects of creating a new future for their children, Negro slaves were still doing a backbreaking […]
• Abraham Lincoln`s Role in the Abolishment of Slavery in America In this speech, Lincoln emphasized the need for the law governing slavery to prevail and pointed out the importance of the independence of individual states in administering laws that governed slavery without the interference of […]
• Cotton, Slavery, and Old South The early nineteenth century was a time that was as significant for the south as it was for the north. If the south was to be divided into the upper south and the lower south, […]
• Slavery in Latin America and North America In the French and British Caribbean colonies, slaves were also imported in great numbers and majority of the inhabitants were slaves.
• Betty Wood: The Origins of American Slavery Economic analyses and participation of the slave labor force in economic development are used to analyze the impact and role of slave labor in the development of the American economy.
• “American Slavery an American Freedom” by Edmund S. Morgan The book witnesses the close alliance between the establishment of freedom rights in Virginia and the rise of slavery movement which is considered to be the greatest contradiction in American history.
• Lincoln and African Americans’ Role in the Abolition of Slavery This paper seeks to compare and contrast the role of Abraham Lincoln and the African Americans in bringing slavery to an end in the US.
• Western Expansion and Its Influence on Social Reforms and Slavery The western expansion refers to the process whereby the Americans moved away from their original 13 colonies in the 1800s, towards the west which was encouraged by explorers like Lewis and Clarke.
• How Important Was Slave Resistance as a Cause of Abolition of Slavery? This was particularly evident throughout the history of slaves in the Americas, and across the historical geography of slavery, from the time the slaves were seized from Africa through to the life they were subjected […]
• “Up From Slavery” by Booker T. Washington Each morning it was the duty of the overseer to assign the daily work for the slaves and, when the task was completed, to inspect the fields to see that the work had been done […]
• U.S. in the Fight Against a Modern Form of Slavery Since the United States of America is the most powerful nation in the world it must spearhead the drive to eradicate this new form of slavery within the U.S.and even outside its borders.
• The Profitability of Slavery for the Slave Master What is missing from this story is the fact that in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, North American colonies had to buy African slaves on a world market at prices which reflected the high profitability […]
• Slavery in the United States There was a sharp increase in the number of slaves during the 18th century, and by the mid of the century, 200,000 of them were working in the American colonies.
• Sociology, Race & Law. Cuban Form of Slavery Today Castro was benefiting alone from the sweat of many Cubans who worked abroad and in Cuba thinking that they could better their livelihood.
• African American Women’s Gender Relations and Experience Under Slavery When the New England Confederation was formed in 1643 to promote matters of common concern for the New England Colonies, one provision of the compact was for the rendition of bondservants.
• How African Men and Women Experienced Slavery? The book Ar’ not I a Woman, the author portrays that life of a woman in plantation was more difficult that life of a man because of different duties and responsibilities assigned to a woman-slave.
• Abraham Lincoln and Free Slavery Moreover, he made reference to the fact that the union was older than the constitution and referred to the spirit of the Articles of the Constitution 1774 and Articles of Confederation of 1788.
• Origins, Operations, and Effects of Black Slavery in US However, the impact that the enslavement of the vast numbers of Africans brought to America was phenomenal. This was a major effect of the slave trade.
• “Slavery Isn’t the Issue” by Juan Williams Review The author claims that the reparation argument is flawed as affirmative action has ensured that a record number of black Americans move up the economic and social ladder.
• Gender Politics: Military Sexual Slavery In this essay, it will be shown that military power and sexual slavery are interconnected, how the human rights of women are violated by the military, and how gender is related to a war crime.
• African Americans Struggle Against Slavery The following paragraphs will explain in detail the two articles on slavery and the African American’s struggle to break away from the heavy and long bonds of slavery. The website tells me that Dredd Scott […]
• Slavery in the World The first independent state in the western hemisphere, the United States of America, was formed as a result of the revolutionary war of North American colonies of England for Independence in 1775-1783.
• Slaves and Slavery in Ancient Rome The revolt of slaves under the direction of Spartacus 73-71 BC is considered the most significant event of the period of crisis of the Roman republican regime in the first century DC and is estimated […]
• Issue of Slavery in “The Known World” by E. P. Jones The slaves were remained in the custody of the white masters received the same treatment as that of bondage slaves. The book is a beautiful representation of pre-war life in Virginia and how the widespread […]
• Olaudah Equiano as a Fighter Against Slavery Equiano’s Narrative demonstrates a conscious effort to ascribe spiritual enlightenment to the political arena and hence ascertain the importance of the relationship between spiritual intervention, the amysterious ways of Providence’ and parliamentary decisions concerning the […]
• Lincoln as a Fighter Against Slavery It is while a leader of the party he made her first moves to fight slavery in the Illinois house where he argued that slavery was a social evil and ought to be dealt away […]
• Slavery in Early America Review However, the local population was dwindling with the influx of disease and abuse and this, combined with Spain abolishing the enslavement of natives in the Americas in the mid-1500s, necessitated a need to acquire Africans […]
• Slavery Without the Civil War: Hypothesis The demand for slaves and the positive effect of this in the slaveholders’ profitability as well as the fact that both slaveholders and the slaves need one another to survive saw to it that the […]
• Slavery: Central Paradox of American History Since the rise of United States as a nation, historians have long thought of the emergence of slavery and freedom in our society as a great contradiction. As the central paradox, slavery needed to emerge […]
• Brief History of Slavery in the United States In his article regarding the true sentiments of the slaves, Genovese suggests the reasons why the slaves were perceived as lazy was as the result of their more natural, rural lifestyle.”The setting remained rural, and […]
• Virginia After the Boom: Slavery and “The Losers” New labor force that came to Virginia “threatened the independence of the small freeman and worsened the lot of the servant”.
• Antebellum Slavery in Mark Twain’s World Twain’s depiction of Jim and his relationship with Huck was somewhat flawed in order to obey the needs of the story, and also by Twains’ interest in slave autobiographies and also in blackface minstrelsy.
• Slavery in New York City: Impact and Significance Blacks’ significance in the development of the city’s most critical systems, such as labor, race, and class divisions, makes it possible to conclude that the influence of slavery in New York was substantial. The effect […]
• Slavery In The United Stated Society In the above discussion, there is a short story of slavery in the USA. By abolishing slavery in the USA is the sign of democracy and human dignity.
• Black American Authors on Slavery Analysis The work is centered on the same theme that the Narrative the author tells the reader of her experiences as a slave and the way she managed to escape from it.
• Slavery Still Exists in American Prisons An examination of the history of the penal system as it existed in the State of Texas proves to be the best illustration of the comparisons between the penal system and the system of slavery.
• Ghana: The Consequences of Colonial Rule and Slavery One of the reasons for this dependency is that the country had been the foothold for the slave trade for about four centuries.
• Harriet Jacobs’s Account of Slavery Atrocities She wrote that she wanted the women living in the North to understand the conditions in which slaves lived in the Souths, and the sufferings that enslaved women had to undergo.
• Anti Slavery and Abolitionism Both gradual emancipation and conditional emancipation were not allowed, but free blacks from the North and evangelicals revealed their opposition in the form of the movement that required the development of social reform.
• Sexual Slavery in “The Apology” Film by Hsiung The documentary being discussed focuses on the experiences of three women, the survivors of military sexual slavery in China, South Korea, and the Republic of the Philippines.
• Slavery Resistance from Historical Perspective The lack of rights and power to struggle resulted in the emergence of particular forms of resistance that preconditioned the radical shifts in peoples mentalities and the creation of the tolerant society we can observe […]
• Slavery Abolition and Newfound Freedom in the US One of the biggest achievements of Reconstruction was the acquisition of the right to vote by Black People. Still, Black Americans were no longer forced to tolerate inhumane living conditions, the lack of self-autonomy, and […]
• Slavery Elements in Mississippi Black Code These are the limitation of the freedom of marriage, the limitation of the freedom of work, and the limitation of the freedom of weapon.
• History: Slavery in Southern States The strategy of pacification was especially prevalent during that time because wealthy slaveowners wanted to keep possible protests under control and prevent the rest of the white population from supporting the abolition of slavery in […]
• Slavery in “Abolition Speech” by William Wilberforce The following article is devoted to the description of the problem of slavery and the slave trade in Africa. The author also underlines the incompetency of the committee, which is in charge of the question […]
• Slavery History: Letters Analysis The letters analyzed in this paper give a piece of the picture that was observed during the 1600s and the 1700s when slaves from different parts of the world had to serve their masters under […]
• Social Psychology of Modern Slavery The social psychology of modern slavery holds the opinion that slavery still exists today, contrary to the belief of many people that slavery does not exist in the modern world.
• Slavery: History and Influence The slaves were meant to provide labor for the masters and generate wealth. During the day, they would sneak to breastfeed the newborns.
• Reformer and Slavery: William Lloyd Garrison The newspaper was published until the end of the civil war and the abolition of slavery by the enactment of the Thirteenth Amendment.
• Slavery Role in the American Literature Stowe has claimed that the anti slavery groups questioned the morality of the white Christians who were at the fore front in the oppression of the Black people.
• Slavery as a Cause of the American Civil War On the other hand, one is to keep in mind that many historians are of the opinion that the reasons for the war are not so easy to explain.
• Thomas Jefferson on Civil Rights, Slavery, Racism When I authored the declaration of independence of the United States of America, I was having a democratic perspective of the American people on my mind.
• Slavery, American Civil War, and Reconstruction Indian removal from the Southeast in the late 19th century was as a result of the rapid expansion of the United States into the south.
• Slavery in the Ancient World and the US Appearance age and attitude of the slaves acted as the determinants to the wage that they were to be paid for their services.
• Slavery in “Flight to Canada” Novel by Ishmael Reed In his novel Flight to Canada, Ishmael Reed blurs the boundaries between the prose and poetry as well as the past and the present to express his satirical criticism of the legacy of slavery even […]
• Slavery and the Southern Society’s Development The fact that quite a huge number of white people moved to the “Deep South” where cotton planting was among the most lucrative forms of income-generating activities, just goes to show that the whites relied […]
• Paternalistic Ethos During American Slavery Era The slave owner gains directly from the welfare of the slaves and the slaves gained directly from offering their services to the slave owner.
• The Book About Slavery by Hinton Rowan Helper He claimed further that those who supported abolitionism and freedom were the friends of the south while slaveholders and slave-breeders were the real enemies of the south.
• Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox Jefferson believed that the landless laborers posed a threat to the nation because they were not independent. He believed that if Englishmen ruled over the world, they would be able to extend the effects of […]
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• Blacks Role in Abolishing Slavery
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• Christianity, Slavery and Colonialism Paradox
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• Analysis of Slavery in American History in “Beloved“ by Tony Morrison
• History of Abolishing Slavery
• The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery
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• The Period of Slavery in the “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” by Harriet Jacobs
• Slavery in America: “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”
• Abolition of Slavery in Brazil
• Slavery Effects on Enslaved People and Slave Owners
• The Problem of Slavery in Africa
• Racial Slavery in America
• “Not For Sale: End Human Trafficking and Slavery”: Campaign Critique
• Colonial Portuguese Brazil: Sugar and Slavery
• Aristotle on Human Nature, State, and Slavery
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• Human Trafficking in the United States: A Modern Day Slavery
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• How Did the French Revolution Impacted the Issue of Slavery and the History of Santo Domingo?
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• The Evolution of American Slavery
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• Slavery: The Stronghold of the Brazil Economy
• Slavery, Racism, and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
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• Beloved by Toni Morrison: History of Slavery and Racial Segregation in America
• “Slavery and the British Empire: From Africa to America” by Morgan Kenneth
• African Americans: The Legacy of Slavery in the U.S.
• Sexual Slavery and Prostitution During WWII and US Occupation in Japan
• A New Dawn: The Abolishment of Slavery in the USA
• How Slavery Applies to Africans Within the Islamic World?
• Where Did Slavery Start First in the World?
• How Did Slaves Respond to Slavery?
• How the Germans Influenced Modern Day Slavery?
• How Did Slavery Change From the Arrival of the First Enslaved People in the 1600s to the Abolition of Slavery in the 1860s?
• How Did Slavery Encourage Both Economic Backwardness and Westward Expansion?
• Why Did Colonial Virginians Replace Servitude With Slavery?
• Did Slavery Create More Benefits or Problems for the Nation?
• What Was Slavery Like and How Is It Today?
• When and How Did Slavery Begin?
• What Were the Positive and Negative Effects of Slavery on the Americas?
• Is There a Difference Between Human Trafficking and Slavery?
• How Did Slavery Shape Modern Society and the Colonial Nations?
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• How Did Colonization Along the Atlantic Contribute to Slavery?
• What Degree Did Slavery Play in the Civil War?
• Modern Day Slavery: What Drives Human Trafficking?
• How Did Slavery Start in Africa?
• How Did Slavery Affect the Spirit of the Enslaved and the Enslavers?
• What Did the Haitian Revolution Do to End Racial Slavery?
• How Were African Americans Treated During the Slavery Period?
• What Created Slavery?
• How Important Was Slavery Before 1850? Was It a Marginal Institution, Peripheral to the Development of American Society?
• How Did African American Slavery Help Shape America?
• When Did Slavery Start in America?
• How Can the World Allow Slavery to Continue Today?
• What Were the Differences Between Indentured Servitude and Slavery?
• In What Industries Is Slavery Most Prevalent?
• How Was Slavery Abolished?
• Did the Atlantic Plantation Complex Create Slavery?
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What Is a Legacy of Slavery?

An essay by david blight.

Because slavery is so central to the history of the United States—its origins, economic development, society, culture, politics, and law—it has left in its wake a wide array of legacies that seem ever-present yet ever-changing in our world. Sometimes the question of slavery’s legacy seems out-of-focus, inaccessible, or expressed in fuzzy language. Other times the legacy of slavery and emancipation may confront us when we least expect it. In 1961, in an essay in the  New York Times  titled “As Much Truth as One Can Bear,” James Baldwin observed that when Americans reflect on their history, the “words are mostly used to cover the sleeper, not to wake him up.” Indeed, the living meanings, surviving challenges, and sometimes seemingly intractable problems born of great events or vast human practices and systems from the past are what make history matter. This is why legacies matter. And that is why the Council of Independent Colleges and the Gilder Lehrman Center have launched the Legacies of American Slavery project….

What then is a legacy? A historical legacy can be an idea or an eternally recurring question at the root of a dream—for example, “Why is human equality so hard to achieve?” A legacy can be emotional, manifesting itself in habits of thought, assumptions, behaviors, and lasting psychological patterns of struggle, action, or expectation. A legacy can be political, emerging in voting tendencies and recurring public policy issues. A legacy can be economic, evolving in patterns of growth and access or lack of access to material goods, services, human capital. A legacy can exist in law, in court decisions, in government policies that change when challenged or revert to older practices in times of reaction. Legacies can be laid down and commemorated in stone, in bronze, in musical traditions, in all manner of artistic forms. Legacies can be embodied in a very literal sense, as patterns of health and disease that can be traced to past experience through medical research. A legacy might be as local as a family story passed from generation to generation, or as big as a national origin narrative. Legacies can be institutional, growing as part of organizations that exist to educate, advocate, preserve, protest, or advance a set of ideas….

An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species

• Thomas Clarkson (author)

The first of many anti-slavery tracts written by the Quaker Thomas Clarkson. This one began as a prize-winning Latin dissertation submitted to Cambridge University in 1785. In it he examines the history of slavery, the slave trade, and the nature of slavery in the European colonies.

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An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, particularly the African, translated from a Latin Dissertation, which was Honoured with the First Prize, in the University of Cambridge, for the Year 1785, with Additions (London: J. Phillips, 1786).

The text is in the public domain.

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An Unholy Traffic: how the slave trade continued through the US civil war

In a new book, Robert KD Colby of the University of Mississippi shows how the Confederacy remained committed to slavery

W hile the civil war is associated with the end of slavery in the US, the so-called peculiar institution survived throughout much of the Confederacy right to the end of the conflict. That’s the thought-provoking narrative of a comprehensive new book by Robert KD Colby, a history professor at the University of Mississippi.

“Many Confederates saw slavery as indelibly bound up with their bid for independence, and used the slave trade to try to build a world around an independent slaveholding republic,” Colby says.

In An Unholy Traffic: Slave Trading in the Civil War South , Colby cites a shocking statistic. Between 80% and 85% of people enslaved in the Confederacy on the eve of war in 1861 were still enslaved when Gen Robert E Lee surrendered in Virginia four years later. The number of Black people who were bought and sold over that span is estimated in the thousands.

And the Confederacy didn’t merely defend slavery within its borders.

“Essentially, anytime the Confederacy invaded a place where slavery was either more tenuous or people had fled from slavery, it absolutely took people back into slavery … many times, people who had not been enslaved at all,” Colby says.

Colby first came across hints of the overall story when he was a PhD student at the University of North Carolina, about a decade ago. That time period coincided with an outburst of scholarship on the domestic slave trade and capitalism. But while he admired such historians’ insights, Colby noticed that most such narratives ended with the civil war. This was understandable: slavery was tied to the cotton economy, which was destroyed by the war. Yet something prodded Colby to look into slavery during the war and what he found surprised him.

“I just found example after example, moment after moment, of people being bought and sold,” he says. “The more I read, it seemed to coalesce into broad themes,” including “how people experienced the civil war, how the slave trade shaped Confederate expectations of what their project was supposed to do, and how enslaved people pursued freedom during the war”.

As Colby explains, the slave trade underwent a reorientation. The antebellum practice was to sell enslaved people from the upper south to the lower south and the so-called “Cotton Kingdom”. Early in the war, this was no longer possible due to the Union capturing major markets such as New Orleans, Natchez and Memphis. Thus, enslaved people were sent to places where confidence in the south ran high.

The Confederate capital, Richmond, was prominent on that list, along with the original capital, Montgomery, Alabama. In another Alabama city, Mobile, slave traders advertised their heinous industry with an 1863 travel guide. Those engaged in the trade included major firms such as the Richmond-based Hill, Dickinson & Co and also ordinary citizens, such as an Alabama husband and wife, Nimrod and Queen Long, who debated selling an enslaved woman, Ellen, during a brief moment of Confederate military resurgence.

“For the most part,” Colby says, the trade “persisted in the places where the Union forces weren’t. It was squeezed into smaller and smaller areas. In those areas, it continued, for a variety of reasons.”

Where there were shortages of food, enslaved people might be sold to avoid “excessive mouths to feed”. When conscription into the army caused labor shortages, enslaved people could be acquired to “make up the difference”.

“Of course, plenty of people’s desire to continue buying and selling enslaved people was shaped by the degree of faith they had resting on the Confederacy. Confederates [bought] enslaved people almost as a bet on the prospect of Confederate victory.”

Colby addresses the grim narrative of women and children who Confederates anticipated would have a lifetime of labor and child rearing in a postwar nation. Colby sees the narrative of Kate Drumgoold as an example. When she was about eight, her enslaver in Virginia turned down what Drumgoold recalled as an unprecedented offer to sell her. But two of her 10 sisters were sold, as was their mother.

Despite the formidable apparatus of slavery, Black people found ways to resist, notably by escaping, as in the case of Mary Pope in Virginia. Pope’s husband, Joe Dardin, had been sent to slave traders early in the war. When her enslaver threatened to sell Pope and her four children too, the family fled to a Union camp for freedmen in the port of Norfolk. In Charleston, South Carolina, the hub of secession, William Summerson and his wife knew it was time to escape once they were appraised for sale. Hiding in barrels, they made their way to a Union gunboat.

“There was not one story of emancipation but thousands of smaller stories, thousands of individual stories of how people chose to pursue or chose not to pursue freedom during the war,” Colby says. “I hope the book speaks to just how complex the process of African American pursuit of freedom was during the civil war, and the magnitude of obstacles standing in the way – including and not limited to the threat of being captured and sold as they pursued their freedom.”

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T he Confederacy was not the only place where slavery existed during the war. It also existed in the loyal “border states” of Delaware, Maryland, Missouri and Kentucky. Here too there was a reorientation away from the lower south. Colby estimates that hundreds, perhaps thousands of enslaved people were sent from Missouri, which was rent by violence, to Kentucky, which was largely undisturbed in the final years of the war.

As the Union made deeper gains, the pace of emancipation accelerated. Colby documents the impact of Gen William T Sherman’s capture of Atlanta and march through Georgia in 1864. Union forces liberated enslaved people from jail; members of a coffle freed themselves from the traders Blount & Dawson. Yet the domestic slave trade continued into the war’s final moments.

Hill, Dickinson & Co made more than $1m from selling enslaved people between October and December 1864. A Virginia trader, Robert Lumpkin, attempted to bring 50 enslaved men, women and children out of Richmond in its last days as the Confederate capital. Lumpkin sought to transport the group for future sales, wherever Lee’s army might find refuge.

Colby chronicles the triumph of emancipation – and the future life of freedmen. Many sought to reunite with family members who had been sold into slavery. Sometimes they were aided by the newly established Freedmen’s Bureau. There were success stories: Kate Drumgoold vividly recalled a reunion with her mother. Others, however, issued calls for lost loved ones for decades after the war.

Colby notes that in attempting to reunite their families, formerly enslaved people sometimes sought help from the very people who might have once enslaved them: former slave traders.

Of the latter, he says, “Some were deeply spiteful and resentful of the way the war destroyed their business … [but] I found one or two who were actively helpful in the process of reuniting families. I think it speaks to, on the one hand, the opportunities that the end of the war and emancipation provided to formerly enslaved people, and also the limitations of this.”

An Unholy Traffic is published in the US by Oxford University Press

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Topic: Slavery in America

Slavery used to be an important resource in America, and the first workers were imported to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. There the African slaves were used to aid in the tobacco and cotton productions. There were many different opinions on this subject, but slavery was here to stay, at least for the next couple of centuries. Around the 1860s, the bloody Civil war broke out and Abraham Lincoln, as the president, ratified a law which would eventually free the nations four million slaves. Five years later, the North won the Civil war, the slaves were freed and slavery was abolished. Even though black people were free at last, life would not be easy for them.

Slavery had always had its critics in America, so as the slave trade grew, so did the opposition. The slave labor enabled the colonies to become so profitable, that in 1660 England’s King Charles the second established the royal African company to transport humans from Africa to America. When England finally outlawed its slave trade in 1807, America relied on its own internal slave trade. By 1860, millions of slaves were still moved and sold in the colonies, but no new slaves were imported into the US after 1808. In 1820, the Missouri compromise banned slavery in all new western states, this concluded mostly the southern colonies. The country began to divide around the 18th century over the North and South issue.

When Abraham Lincoln was elected for president in 1860, he convinced many southerners that slavery would never be permitted to expand into new territories acquired by the US. He also declared the emancipation declaration during the war, in 1863. Though Lincoln’s antislavery views were well established, the central Union war aim at first was not to abolish slavery but to preserve the United States as a nation. Eventually, the confederate surrendered in 1865 and the Northside won. The 13th Amendment officially abolished slavery, but freed blacks’ status in the post-war South remained problematic.

Opinions were based on your beliefs and how the world around you evolved. In the North, people were against slavery, but in the South, they thought something else. In the South, people were taught to think that slavery was a natural concept. The defenders of slavery meant that they could not end servitude, considering that slave labor was the foundation of their economy. They also meant that freeing the slaves would lead to anarchy and chaos, and that slavery had existed throughout history and was a common state of mankind. The Northside didn’t rely on slave work as much as the Southside did. The Northside did not like slavery and meant that it was heartless. Other groups (religious groups), thought that it was gruesome and inhuman, while others were busy thinking about their beliefs.

The life of an African-American, after the Civil war, was a world transformed. There were no more of the brutal beatings and the sexual assaults, the selling and forcible relocation of family members, the denial of education, legal marriage, homeownership and so on. Congress enforced laws that promoted civil rights and political rights for African-Americans. The three most important laws the Congress passed was the Amendments. There was the thirteenth amendment which ended slavery, the fourteenth amendment which gave African-Americans the rights of American citizenship, and the fifteenth amendment which gave black men the right to vote. Life after the years of slavery would also prove to be difficult. The South established laws known as the black codes, which meant that they had no right to own land, there were own laws for punishments, they had no rights to carry weapons, no rights to vote and it was illegal not to have work. Most of the African-American, though free, lived in severe poverty.

Slavery began in America when the first slaves were brought to Virginia in 1619. The slaves would aid in the production of crops such as tobacco and cotton. Slavery was of central importance to the South side’s economy. The differences between the South and the North would provoke a big debate, that would tear the nation apart in the gruesome Civil war. Slavery ended after the North won the civil war in 1865 after Abraham Lincoln ratified the thirteenth amendment law. There were many opinions, especially in the South. The southerners meant that slavery had always been around and that it was natural. The Northside meant that it was not right, while other religious groups thought it was horrific. After the Civil war, problems would still appear for the freed slaves. Despite that the beatings, the sexual assaults, and the selling were long gone, life would not be easy for the African-Americans. The South made new laws, known as the black code. It indicated that «negroes» were not allowed to do certain things such as own land, or even carry weapons. Although it was a new law and a new era, it would not change peoples hearts.

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Assimilation in African American Culture

This essay about the assimilation of African Americans explores the multifaceted relationship between historical events, societal challenges, and cultural identity. It discusses the impact of slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Harlem Renaissance on African American identity and their struggle for inclusion while maintaining cultural distinctiveness. The text highlights the ongoing challenges faced by African Americans, such as racial injustice and stereotypes, emphasizing the dynamic nature of their cultural and societal integration.

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The journey of assimilation for African Americans is intricately interwoven with the threads of history, society, and culture. From the dark legacy of slavery to the nuanced race relations of today, it represents both a pursuit of integration and a fight to preserve unique cultural identities.

The impact of history is deeply felt in the experiences of enslaved Africans, who were forcibly stripped of their identities through the harsh realities of slavery. Despite these bleak conditions, they cultivated pockets of resistance, maintaining their heritage through clandestine gatherings, oral traditions, and spirituals that envisioned a liberty beyond their physical confines.

After slavery, African Americans encountered a changed yet challenging landscape. The early promise of Reconstruction was quickly darkened by the imposition of Jim Crow laws, which curtailed their newfound hopes. Nevertheless, African American communities flourished, creating robust networks within churches, schools, and organizations that protected cultural enclaves against adversity.

The Harlem Renaissance marked a significant cultural resurgence, with African American art and thought flowering spectacularly. Icons like Langston Hughes and Duke Ellington celebrated and critiqued African American identities, challenging and redefining the distorted narratives imposed by prejudice.

Despite strides in progress, resistance persisted. The Civil Rights Movement marked critical advancements and deep sacrifices as African Americans fought for equality amidst systemic racial injustices. This era spurred a growing consciousness fueled by unyielding activism and an intrinsic demand for rights.

Later, the pulse of African American culture continued to resonate through innovations like hip-hop, born in the urban settings of New York City. Combining poetic prowess with rhythmic expressions, this music genre voiced the aspirations and frustrations of its creators, becoming a cultural movement that challenged conventional ideas of assimilation and reshaped the American cultural landscape.

Although African American influences have increasingly blended into the mainstream, full assimilation is still obstructed by structural inequalities, persistent racism, and enduring stereotypes. The rise of the Black Lives Matter movement emphasizes the ongoing struggle for racial justice, igniting important conversations about identity, privilege, and power.

The narrative of African American assimilation is complex, marked by both progress and setbacks—a tale of resilience and resistance. This enduring spirit of defiance and solidarity continues to influence, bridging societal divides and enriching the American cultural tapestry.

Overall, the assimilation of African Americans is a dynamic and evolving process shaped by historical developments, community resilience, and cultural vitality. From surmounting the brutal legacies of slavery to dealing with the complexities of contemporary society, African Americans have navigated a unique route toward assimilation, characterized by enduring perseverance and a rich cultural heritage that continues to shape future generations.

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An Essay on Slavery: An Unpublished Poem by Jupiter Hammon

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Julie McCown

This article examines the writings of eighteenth-century poet and essayist Jupiter Hammon, focusing on his use of natural imagery and modes of vision and perception. Hammon’s use of vision and perception help reinforce his spiritual worldview, making it more palpable and accessible to a wide variety of readers and audiences, literate and illiterate, free and enslaved. My analysis of Hammon’s deployment of vision and perception in his writing attempts to answer recent calls to account for broader facets of early African-American literature generally and Hammon’s work specifically; I also aim to move away from the frequent emphasis on firstness as the sole or most notable trait about Hammon, situating his work within a broader context of early American writings, including discussions of how early Americans configured and experienced the natural world.

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A common-place book containing two previously unknown poems connected to Phillis Wheatley is a significant recent discovery that sheds fresh light on Wheatley’s reception and participation in the local manuscript culture of Boston. The poems, entitled “Slavery” and “To Mrs. Eliot on the Death of her Child,” reveal that poetic coteries in Boston, and specific manuscript poets in particular, were more active in Wheatley’s career than has been understood. This essay introduces the lately uncovered poet Ruth Barrell Andrews (1749-1831) and two of her poems that relate directly to Wheatley.

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The major problem of this study is the English anti-slavery poetry rhetoric from 1780 to 1865 that leads to abolishment of slavery, slave trade and racial discrimination in the United Kingdom, its domains and America. Accordingly, this thesis focused upon ten antislavery poets. The researcher has used the formalistic and deconstructionist approaches to analyse and interpret their poems: William Cowper, Hannah More, by William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Phyllis Wheatley, Laurence Dunbar, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes. This research has found that the bone of contention of slave trade and racial discrimination is colour and that only the whites who introduced and abolished slave trade and racial discrimination. In addition, Africans have proved being faithful believers in the God’s decision and fates because they did not resist slavery, slave trade or racism but show tolerance, piety and forgivingness and endurance of every mistreatment and oppression.

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An Essay on Slavery, proving from Scripture its Inconsistency with Humanity and Religion

By Granville Sharp

We must acknowledge, say they, that the branch of trade here under considera­tion, is a species of traffic which we have never been able to reconcile with the dic­tates of humanity, and much less with those of religion. The principal argu­ment in its behalf seems to be, the neces­sity of such a resource, in order to carry on the works in our plantations, which, we are told, it is otherwise impossible to perform. But this, though the urgency of the case may be very great, is not by any means sufficient to justify the prac­tice. There is a farther consideration which has a plausible appearance, and may be thought to carry some weight; it is, that the merchant only purchases those who were slaves before, and possi­bly may, rather than otherwise, render their situation more tolerable. But it is well known, that the lot of our Slaves, when most favourably considered, is very hard and miserable; besides which, such a trade is taking the advantage of the ig­norance and brutality of unenlightened na­tions, who are encouraged to war with each other for this very purpose, and, it is to be feared, are sometimes tempted to seize those of their own tribes or families that they may obtain the hoped for ad­vantage: and it is owned, with regard to our merchants, that, upon occasion, they observe the like practices, which are thought to be allowable, because they are done by way of reprisal for theft or damage committed by the natives. We were pleased, however, to meet with a pamphlet on the other side of the ques­tion; and we entered upon its perusal with the hopes of finding somewhat ad­vanced which might afford us satisfaction on this difficult point. The writer ap­pears to be a sensible man, and capable of discussing the argument; but the li­mits to which he is confined, rendered his performance rather superficial. The plea he produces from the Jewish law is not, in our view of the matter, at all conclusive. The people of Israel were under a theocracy, in which the Supreme Being was in a peculiar sense their King, and might therefore issue forth some or­ders for them, which it would not be warrantable for another people, who were in different circumstances, to observe. Such, for instance, was the command given concerning the extirpation of the Canaanites, whom, the sovereign Arbiter of life and death might, if he had pleased, have destroyed by plague or famine, or other of those means which we term na­tural causes, and by which a wise Provi­dence fulfils its own purposes. But it would be unreasonable to infer from the manner in which the Israelites dealt with the people of Canaan, that any other na­tions have a right to pursue the same me­thod. Neither can we imagine that St. Paul's exhortation to servants or slaves, upon their conversion, to continue in the state in which Christianity found them, affords any argument favourable to the practice here pleaded for. It is no more than saying, that Christianity did not particularly enter into the regulations of civil society at that time; that it taught persons to be contented and diligent in their stations: but certainly it did not forbid them, in a proper and lawful way, if it was in their power, to render their circumstances more comfortable. Upon the whole, we must own, that this little treatise is not convincing to us, though, as different persons are differently affected by the same considerations, it may prove more satisfactory to others.

IN another place they observe, since we are all brethren, and God has given to all men a natural right to Liberty, we al­low of no Slavery among us, unless a per­son forfeits his freedom by his crimes.

THAT Slavery is not consistent with the English constitution, nor admissable in Great Britain, appears evidently by the late solemn determination, in the court of King's Bench at Westminster, in the case of James Somerset, the Negro; and why it should be revived and continued in the colonies, peopled by the descendents of Britain, and blessed with sentiments as truly noble and free as any of their fellow subjects in the mother country, is not easi­ly conceived, nor can the distinction be well founded.

IF natural rights, such as life and Li­berty, receive no additional strength from municipal laws, nor any human legistature has power to abridge or destroy them, un­less the owner commits some act that a­mounts to a forfeiture; If the natural Liberty of mankind consists proper­ly in a power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or controul unless by the law of nature; being a right inhe­rent in us by birth, and one of the Gifts of God to man at his creation, when he en­dued him with the faculty of free will: If an act of Parliament is controulable by the laws of God and nature; and in its consequences may be rendered void for absurdity, or a manifest contradiction to common reason: If Christianity is a part of the law of England; and Christ expressly commands, 'Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them,' at the same time declaring, for this is the law and the law and the prophets, And if our forefathers, who emigrated from Eng­land hither, brought with them all the rights, liberties, and privileges of the British constitution (which hath of late years been often asserted and repeatedly contended for by Americans) why is it that the poor sooty African meets with so different a measure of justice in England and America, as to be adjudged free in the one, and in the other held in the most abject Slavery?

WE are expressly restrained from mak­ing laws, "repugnant to," and directed to fashion them, as nearly as may be, agreeable to, the laws of England. Hence, and because of its total inconsis­tency with the principles of the constitu­tion, neither in England or any of the Colonies, is there one law directly in fa­vour of, or enacting Slavery, but by a kind of side-wind, admitting its existence, (though only founded on a barbarous custom, originated by foreigners) attempt its regulation. How far the point liti­gated in James Somerset's case, would bear a sober candid discussion before an impartial judicature in the Colonies, I cannot determine; but, for the credit of my country, should hope it would meet with a like decision, that it might appear and be known, that Liberty in America, is not a partial privilege, but extends to every individual in it.

I MIGHT here, in the language of the famous JAMES OTIS, Esq ask, Is it possible for a man to have a natural right to make a Slave of himself or his posteri­ty? What man is or ever was born free, if every man is not? Can a father super­sede the laws of nature? Is not every man born as free by nature as his father? a There can be no prescription old enough to supersede the law of nature, and the grant of God Almighty, who has given to every man a natural right to be free. b The Colonists are by the law of na­ture free born, as indeed all men are, white or black. No better reason can be given for the enslaving those of any co­lour, than such as Baron Montesquieu has humourously assigned, as the foundation of that cruel Slavery exercised over the poor Ethiopians; which threatens one day to reduce both Europe and America to the ignorance and barbarity of the darkest ages. Does it follow that it is right to enslave a man because he is black? Will short curled hair like wool, instead of Christians hair, as it is called by those whose hearts are hard as the nether mill­stone, help the argument? Can any lo­gical inference in favour of Slavery, be drawn from a flat nose‖ a long or a short face? Nothing better can be said in fa­vour of a trade that is the most shocking violation of the laws of nature; has a direct tendency to diminish every idea of the inestimable value of Liberty, and makes every dealer in it a tyrant, from the director of an African company, to the petty chapman in needles and pins, on the unhappy coast.

To Those who think Slavery founded in Scripture, a careful and attentive perusal of the Sacred Writings would contribute more than any thing to eradicate the er­ror, they will not find even the name of Slave once mentioned therein, and applied to a servitude to be continued from parent to child in perpetuity, with approbation. —The term used on the occasion in the sacred text is Servant; and, upon a fair construction of those writings, there is no necessity, nor can the service, consistent with the whole tenor of the Scripture, be extended further than the generation spo­ken of; it was never intended to include the posterity.

THE mistaken proverb which prevailed in that early age, The fathers had ea­ten four grapes, and the childrens teeth were set on edge, was rectified by the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who de­clared to the people, that they should not have occasion to use that proverb any more;—Behold all souls are mine, as the soul of the father, so the soul of the son, the soul that sinneth it shall die;—the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son;—the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. And the apostle Peter assures us, after the ascension of our Saviour, that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth him is ac­cepted of him. It is also remark­able, that at that time, an Ethiopian, a man of great authority, was ad­mitted to the freedom of a Christian, whatever we may think of the colour now, as being unworthy of it.

But admitting Slavery to be established by Scripture, the command of the Sove­reign Ruler of the universe, whose eye takes in all things, and who, for good reasons, beyond our comprehension, might justly create a perpetual Slavery to effect his own purposes, against the enemies of his chosen people in that day, cannot be pleaded now against any people on earth; it is not even pretended to in justification of Negro Slavery, nor can the sons of Ethiopia, with any degree of clearness, be proved to have descended from any of those nations who so came under the Di­vine displeasure as to be brought into ser­vitude; if they are, and those denuncia­tions given in the Old Testament were perpetual, and continue in force, must we not look upon it meritorious to execute them fully upon all the offspring of that unhappy people upon whom they fell, without giving quarter to any?

MANY who admit the indefensibility of Slavery, considering the subject rather too superficially, declare it would be im­politic to emancipate those we are possessed of; and say, they generally behave ill when set at liberty. I believe very few of the advocates for freedom think that all ought to be manumitted, nay, think it would be unjust to turn out those who have spent their prime of life, and now require a support; but many are in a fit capacity to do for themselves and the public; as to these let every master or mistress do their duty, and leave conse­quences to the Disposer of events, who, I believe, will always bless our actions in proportion to the purity of their spring. But many instances might be given of Negroes and Mulatoes, once in Slavery, who, after they have obtained their li­berty, (and sometimes even in a state of bondage) have given striking proofs of their integrity, ingenuity, industry, ten­derness and nobility of mind; of which, if the limits of this little Piece permit­ed, I could mention many examples; and why instances of this kind are not more fre­quent, we may very naturally impute to the smallness of the number tried with freedom, and the servility and meanness of their education whilst in Slavery. Let us never forget, that an equal if not a grea­ter proportion of our own colour behave worse with all the advantages of birth, education and circumstances; and we shall blush to oppose an equitable emanci­pation, by this or the like arguments.

LIBERTY, the most manly and exalt­ing of the gifts of Heaven, consists in a free and generous exercise of all the hu­man man faculties as far as they are compati­ble with the good of society to which we belong; and the most delicious part of the enjoyment of the inestimable blessing lies in a consciousness that we are free. This happy persuasion, when it meets with a noble nature, raises the soul, and rectifies the heart; it gives dignity to the countenance and animates every word and gesture; it elevates the mind above the little arts of deceit, makes it benevolent, open, ingenuous and just, and adds a new relish to every better sentiment of huma­nity. On the contrary, Man is bereaved of half his virtues that day when he is cast into bondage.

THE end of the christian dispensation, with which we are at present favoured, ap­pears in our Saviours words, The spi­rit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the bro­ken hearted; to preach deliverance to the captives; and recovery of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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Guest Essay

New York Is Turning 400. We Should Celebrate. But How?

By Russell Shorto

Mr. Shorto is the author of “The Island at the Center of the World” and curator of the exhibit “New York Before New York,” at the New-York Historical Society.

This spring is the 400th anniversary of the founding of New York — or, to be precise, of the Dutch colony that became New York once the English took it over. It’s a noteworthy milestone. That settlement gave rise to a city unencumbered by old ways and powered by pluralism and capitalism: the first modern city, you might say.

Don’t feel bad, though, if you were unaware of the birthday. Organizers of commemorative events have themselves been in a quandary about how to observe it — a quandary that has become familiar in recent years. Yes, New Netherland, the Dutch colony, and New Amsterdam, the city that became New York, created the conditions for New York’s ascent, and helped shape America as a place of tolerance , multiethnicity and free trade. But the Dutch also established slavery in the region and contributed to the removal of Native peoples from their lands. Where in the past we might have highlighted the positives, now the negative elements of that history seem to overshadow them, which may result, paradoxically, in the loss of a valuable opportunity for reflection.

A question that hung in my mind as I curated an exhibit about the founding at the New-York Historical Society continues to vex me, and not just in terms of that event. Are we allowed to celebrate the past anymore? Do we even want to?

Consider that in two years’ time the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and of the founding of our country, will be upon us. Efforts to commemorate the occasion have been slowed, in part, by controversy and confusion because we can’t agree on what our past means. And that’s because we can’t agree on our identity and purpose as a country.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m utterly convinced that the concerted effort of recent years to look deeply into the wrongs of our ancestors is vital. We are going through a national process of reckoning, a societal self-analysis that, if done right, just might result in a more open and honest culture.

But we’ve also become allergic to nuance and complexity. Some seem to feel that championing the achievements of the past means denying the failures. Others fear that to highlight those failures is to undermine the foundation we stand on.

The answer to this conundrum is really quite simple. You do it all. You do your best. In our exhibit, we highlight the contributions of the Dutch — they brought free trade, pluralism and (relative) tolerance, and in so doing they set the template for New York City. At the same time, we give cleareyed attention to the role the Dutch played in the dispossession of the Native people and the introduction of African slavery.

But we don’t stop there. It would be misleading and damaging to leave the impression that the Indigenous and African people in the story had no agency. They were active crafters of that history. Enslaved Black people worked assiduously to win their freedom. Some achieved it and became landowners in what is today Lower Manhattan.

In our exhibit, we feature a petition in which a free Black couple, Emmanuel Pietersz and Dorothea Angola, ask the governing council to guarantee Angola’s adopted son’s freedom. That wasn’t assured in the Dutch system, but they worked the angles, arguing that Angola had raised the boy “with maternal attention and care without having to ask for public assistance.” They won the case.

Members of the Lenape, as well as the powerful Haudenosaunee Confederacy to the north, meanwhile, were businesspeople who had complex relations with the Europeans in New Amsterdam and early New York: trading furs for manufactured goods, at times making war, and at other times negotiating complex peace treaties.

One of the most powerful and fraught items in our exhibit is the nearly 400-year-old letter, on loan from the Dutch National Archives, in which a Dutch official named Pieter Schagen wrote his bosses informing them of the settlement of Manhattan Island. Among other things, he said that their countrymen had bought the island from the Native people for “the value of 60 guilders.” A 19th-century translator would infamously convert that to $24. The Indigenous people probably saw the arrangement as an agreement to share the land. The Dutch went along with that, but eventually reverted to their narrower understanding of real estate transactions and began to push the Lenape aside.

The Schagen letter cuts both ways. It represents the foundation on which New York would be built. Without it, there would be no Broadway, no Wall Street, no Yankee Stadium or Katz’s Deli. It’s also a prime artifact of colonialism.

Such complexity runs through all our history. To add nuance to the exhibit, I invited a group of Lenape chiefs — descendants of the people who very likely took part in that event — to contribute a statement in reaction to the Schagen letter. In the centuries since that time, the Lenape have been systematically abused as America has prospered. The chiefs chose to address their unnamed forebear: “Ancestor, who could have known that a Dutch colonizer’s written words and 60 guilders would bring 400 years of devastation, disease, war, forced removal, oppression, murder, division, suicide and generational trauma for your Lenape people?”

The chiefs took this occasion to assert their people’s presence as part of America’s 21st-century landscape, and to declare that the injustice the letter represents won’t define them: “We will only allow it to highlight the resilience of our spirits, minds and body. We will not allow our stories to be forgotten or erased from history.”

The chiefs’ statement — complex yet packed with feeling — stands in the exhibit beside the historic letter and the brief text I wrote to contextualize it. Viewers can see the actual artifact upon which so much history has been built, read the accompanying texts and react as they see fit.

That is how we can advance the narrative: integrate previously marginalized voices and find our way forward. Some will continue to argue either that history should be put to the purpose of valorizing past events or that its principal aim should be to expose our ancestors’ misdeeds. We need history to support our foundations. But it can only do that with integrity if it exposes the failings.

Maybe the main thing we have to come to terms with in looking back is the simple fact that people of the past were as complex as we are: flawed, scheming, generous, occasionally capable of greatness. Four centuries ago, an interwoven network of them — Europeans, Africans and Native Americans — began something on the island of Manhattan. Appreciating what they did as fully as we can might help us to understand ourselves better. And that would be a cause for celebration.

Russell Shorto ( @RussellShorto ) is the author of “ The Island at the Center of the World ,” director of the New Amsterdam Project at the New-York Historical Society and curator of the exhibit “ New York Before New York .”

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