Slavery

Kedzierski 1

Ramirez

American Civilization

3/16/15

Slavery in the United States

Every civilization or country has had at least one period of time in their history that everyone would rather just forget. America knows this feeling well, especially within the 19th century, the slave era. What we the people see nowadays as “inhumane” was the way of life back then and truly shows how much our country has grown from a slave nation to become known as the land of opportunity. Slavery appeared not only as a moral issue, but also affected the nation on an economic, social and legal level. Slavery became essential to the economy, and it had also established a way of life, which affected most African Americans. Even though slavery has been abolished, there is still some suspicion that there are slave owners down in the South.

America at the time of slavery was divided into the North and the South in which they did not agree on much. The north was generally against slavery and all for letting the African Americans roam free in a colony in Africa in which later was called Liberia. The South on the other hand viewed African Americans as tools that were essential to the economy and work, mainly for the production of cotton which was the most valuable form of cash (slavery & Constitution lecture). These slaves were to be bought and sold and driven until their breaking point, or possibly even death, just like every other machinery or tools used in todays farming/cropping. During the 19th century slavery grew as the cotton business grew. By 1860 there were over four million slaves in the southern United States. Slavery began to be the

Kedzierski 2

principle way to measure wealth in the south. The more slaves a man had the richer he was. As shown in the film 12 Years a Slave, Solomon Northup was forced into slavery after being a free man. When working for his master, he was forced to work out in the fields picking cotton and being graded by weight of cotton picked (12...