The transatlantic
slave trade which began in the 16th, 17th and
18th centuries forever changed the demographic
structure of the United States. It introduced
an ethnical race which was treated in ways that
violate every tenet of present day United Nations
human rights charter and the US law. However,
such treatment of African slaves was common and
lawful during the 17th and 18th centuries and
slaves were mainly the source of unfree labor
in the agricultural South of the United States.
These very slaves who were forced to migrate from
their homes in Africa became the main reason for
social and political change in America. The impact
of African slavery was such that America’s
only civil war was fought for their liberation
and emancipation. A century later the Civil Rights
Movement of the 1960 caused much change in the
US social structure, law and ideologies; and central
to the Civil Rights Movement was the issue of
‘black freedom’.
The origins of slavery in the US can be traced
to colonial America where there was an abundance
of agricultural land but not enough labor. During
the colonial era Native Americans and indentured
servants from Europe were used as agricultural
labor. However, Native Americans were inefficient
and were more profitable if sold to Caribbean
planters. The number of poor Europeans who served
as indentured servants started declining towards
the end of the 17th Century due to improved economic
conditions in Europe. Also, European immigrants
found that more money can be made in the North
where they were taught skilled labor and worked
in factories. Labor in colonial America became
scarce and plantation owners especially in the
South demanded another source of unfree labor,
African slaves. Towards the end of the 17th Century
the population of African slaves began increasing
at a formidable rate and when England assumed
superiority in the transatlantic slave trade the
African slave population increased to 40 percent
of the population in Southern mainland colonies
and laws were made in 1660 which provided that
black slaves and children of slave women would
serve for life.
As an unfree source of labor slaves were used
for various tasks but essentially they were used
as agricultural laborers. African slaves worked
in large numbers for big plantations which grew
cash crops such as tobacco, rice, wheat and sugar
for the market. In the North however, such massive
use of slave labor was not made in principal because
the soil and climate were not good for agriculture
and most European immigrants worked in the factories
in the North. By the mid 18th century more than
90 percent of African slaves lived in the South.
Another reason for the regional differences was
that the English masters of plantations actively
participated in the day to day running of the
plantations. These slave masters stuck to plantation
style farming. While the English masters became
Americanized so did the African slave population.
A natural growth in population of African slaves
occurred after the banning of slave imports in
1808. The slave population began to increase at
a phenomenal rate in the South and soon surpassed
from a minority to a majority in population.
Slave masters saw themselves as benevolent providers
to the slave populations; however, their violent
and harsh use of punishment caused much discontent
in the slave population. Moreover, slaves resented
the fact that they had little control over their
lives because it was their masters who decided
who should marry who and the masters even had
power to break families by selling the slave children
in auction blocks. The continual misappropriation
of human rights prompted egalitarian thinking
amongst white Americans and gradual laws to abolish
slavery were passed. During the American Revolution
many slaves were set free in the South and many
more ran away from their masters. The antislavery
movement during the revolution and after achieved
emancipation of slaves in the North but no impact
on slavery in the South.
During the Antebellum era cotton kingdoms were
founded and huge numbers of slaves worked in the
cotton plantations in the South. Slavery had a
new economic purpose, not only was slavery essential
to the growth of the US economy by exporting cash
crops and cotton, it was also central to the whole
agricultural environment of the United States.
Slave owners mostly left the day to day supervision
of slaves to overseers who treated the African
slaves like animals. Although slave owners took
care of their slaves by providing adequate food
and clothing, most civil liberties were not available
to slaves. The mistreatment of slaves and the
repression of civil liberties sparked fierce debates
between the North and the South. The North advocated
abolition of slavery in the whole of United States
but the South with considerable investment in
slaves saw this social movement as uneconomical.
The debate became more intense when Dred Scott
was granted freedom under the Missouri compromise
but later declared as property in the Supreme
Court in 1857.
While the North was transformed by the industrial
revolution, the South enjoyed an expansive cotton
export trade. The era however, was about equality
and liberty and the slave South was looked upon
as backwards in a social sense. Politically, the
South claimed that slavery was the backbone of
its society and a practical necessity, this view
was contested heavily by the North.
The slavery debate eventually transformed into
civil war and during this war many black slaves
ran away from their masters to areas under federal
control. Also during this war many people in the
South began to think on an egalitarian basis.
After the confederates lost the war, Abraham Lincoln
made the historic proclamation of emancipation
which essentially freed all African slaves in
the United States.
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