User:Lizbef 54/History project

Slavery

Slavery is a well-known part of history. It is an act in which one group of people decides that a minority group is of lesser value and exploits them. This atrocity has been practiced since before the sixteenth century. Slavery is found in many different areas of the world. There was a time when it was prominent in The United States. During those times white people "ruled" the world with an Iron fist. They would sail to Africa and they would go into the tribes and take people from their homes and families and bring them to work for them. Another common area of slavery is in Asia. Many people, children included, are sold and forced to work. Many girls, as young as twelve, are sold by their parents into the sex trade for food. Young boys are sold to work in sweat shops. They make tennis shoes and other cheap clothing. In Africa they are most well known for children working for the guerrilla forces. They train the children to use guns and to become seasoned killers. The movie Blood Diamond is a good example of the way that the guerrilla forces would raze villages and take the children and use them for their nefarious causes.

Slave Life

Slavery in the 17th and 18th Centuries

Slaves have been a part of American since the seventeen hundreds. They would work for their masters on a plantation where they were treated horribly and were spurned and neglected. They were not allowed to have their own land or their own homes. They would live in the slave quarters of the estate where, at any moment, the owner of the land could have them removed. They had to suffer through back breaking labor, constant harassment, and abuse. " Slaves working lives were dominated by the demands of their owners. But during their free time, most did their best to establish family lives to help them endure the hardships." Many times slaves were required to ask their masters for permission before they were allowed to marry. They had no free will or any freedom to do anything.

The Slave Trade

The Slave Trade was an even more prejudicial and detrimental than the enslavement. "Slavery is no longer legal anywhere in the world, though human trafficking remains an international problem." When slaves were traded they were forced into difficult situations. The slave traders were racist and spiteful, they would bait the slaves knowing the slaves could not fight back. The conditions that they placed the slaves under were vile and unsanitary. They would be forced to ride on huge cargo ships like animals. They would be placed on top of each other on pallets, and stacked about eleven feet high. They could not stand or walk around on the slave ships, not even to use the restroom. "The relations of equality and self-respect that were formed in the early years of this long connection are reforged or once again in the making." Packed in the way that they were they ate, slept, and used the restroom where they were and if some one were to die the sailors would not move the body, so by the time that they got to the buyers they were filthy. Then they were sold, which was a demeaning and debasing practice.

Slavery in the South

Slavery in the South was more brutal than slavery in the North. The people in the South were strongly pro slavery. "Slavery flourished in the South, where large plantations grew cotton, tobacco, and other crops." The south wanted the slaves because they were a large contributor to the nations cotton and tobacco trade. they used the slaves to harvest, plant, and plow their crops. "The regarded slaves as property and treated them as such." Seeing how the white land owners were not accustomed to labor their crops would fail. Without the slaves to work then the plantation owners would be forced to work their own fields and then their crops would suffer.