HISTORY OF SLAVERY
Instructions:
Introduction
There is a common misconception that associates black folk, particularly Africans, as slaves and white folk, particularly Americans, as slave masters. The concept came about when Africans were shipped by their colonial masters to the West to act as free laborers in the vast cotton fields and other plantations. The colonialists also forced the civilians of their colonies to work in poor condition then profited from their struggles. Other people believe that Christopher Columbus introduced slavery through the slave trade, and forcing the natives of the countries he captured to work in mines and plantations. Slavery existed long before colonialism and Columbus’ voyages. It originated from civilization which happened centuries before European colonialism in Africa. Moreover, slavery still impacts modern society despites its abolishment.
Literature Review
Slavery refers to an economic or legal system which applies the property law principles to humans. These principles allow slave owners to own, buy and sell slaves. Slaves, in this case, lack any rights and cannot leave these arrangements. Societies practiced slavery long before its evils were exposed. During the biblical times, kings had subjects who acted as slaves. A good example is during Moses’ era when the Israelites were slaves to the Egyptians. African societies such as Egypt also owned slaves in the pre-colonial period. War periods saw the triumphant parties capture the strong and non-disabled men and present them to their Kings or the rulers as peaceful gestures and war captures.
Gascoigne (2011) states that Babylonian slavery featured slaves as the valuable property of their owners in the eighteenth century BC. These slaves could own property and did not receive brutal treatment. During the 7th century, Greece relied deeply on slavery. The slaves lacked any rights, and their conditions varied based on the work they did. Slave owners mistreated miners to the point of death either through suicide or conditions such as insufficient food, brutal punishment, unsanitary conditions and work accidents. Slaves who occupied upright positions like in the police force or worked at homes as concubines, stewards or looked after children experience better treatment than the other slaves. Romans also owned slaves from the 2nd century BC and treated them like Greece slave owners. The above provides evidence that most societies practiced. Slave owners treated slaves inhumanely denying them basic right. The wealthy and those in high positions owned slaves while the poor or war conquests from other countries acted as slaves.
Slavery impacts the modern
society despite its eradication. Slavery bred racism (Acharya, Blackwell, &
Sen, 2016). Some people still view white people as more superior to their black
counterparts despite the campaigns for equality and the Universal suffrage that
enabled voting rights. More so, the citizens of these countries view
African-Americans, Mexicans and people from the countries that acted as slaves
as criminals and lowlifes. Some of the Mexican and African-American workers
still do menial jobs for minimum wages in European countries. To date, a
fraction of Blacks is contemptuous to the Whites because they blame them for
the slavery deeds. Slavery conceived the notion that the strong can control the
weak and that some are superior to others. The conception explains why some
people continue to practice slavery discreetly through human trafficking,
hiring people for poor wages and terrible working conditions. More so, some
American businesses relocate their factories to developing countries where the
worker enumeration is minimum wages. People worldwide still practice slavery
directly or indirectly despite its abolition.
References
Acharya, A., Blackwell, M., & Sen, M. (2016). The Political Legacy of American Slavery.
Gascoigne, B. (2011). HISTORY OF
SLAVERY. Historyworld.net. Retrieved 12 January 2017, from
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ac41
References
Gascoigne, B. (2011). HISTORY OF SLAVERY. Historyworld.net. Retrieved 12 January 2017, from http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ac41
Acharya, A., Blackwell, M., & Sen, M. (2016). The Political Legacy of American Slavery. Scholars At Havard.
Solution.
Annotated Bibliography.
Slavery has been a matter of great interest amongst the general public and it is a practice that is largely frowned upon. In some instances, slavery has been brought about due to the innate need for civilization. In other cases, war has been the reason for the defeated party to be carted away into slavery. This annotated bibliography looks at two different works and how the writers depicted the slavery in the different societies. We see that civilization and development are the main reasons why slavery came into the scene.
Gascoigne, B. (2011). HISTORY OF SLAVERY. Historyworld.net. Retrieved 12 January 2017, from http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ac41
The writer, Gascoigne, depicts slavery as a by-product of civilization that started occurring very long ago. The writer takes a historical approach by looking at how different civilizations made use of slaves. He serves to show that slavery was present from a long time ago.
During the hunting and gathering times, it made no economic sense to own a slave, but once people started settling in towns and engaging in trade, slavery started. Wars were the main way to acquire slaves since the vanquished people were captured and taken away to be used in manual labor. In this case, the non-disabled people faced the highest risk of being carted away into a life of slavery. The writer is not very clear on slavery in Babylonian times, but the Code of Hammurabi is used to show that slavery was present. The slaves were even allowed to own property in Babylon during the 18th century BC. The writer takes us to Greece and shows us how the two states, Athens and Sparta, viewed saves. Slaves in Sparta are original owners of the land that has been conquered, and hence they enjoy individual rights. In Athens, slaves have no right, and some of the most unfortunate ones tend to be the miners who are forced to work in inhumane conditions. Others might be lucky to get the easier jobs such as concubines or even the police (the 300 Scythian archers). According to the writer, slavery was practiced in ancient Rome and there, just like in Greece, were free slaves there too. Secretarial staff belonging to the emperor were apparently treated in a better way compared to other slaves who worked the fields and mines. It is clear that slaves were the workhorses that helped the Greeks and Romans to build their empires since they practiced it quite extensively.
Acharya, A., Blackwell, M., & Sen, M. (2016). The Political Legacy of American Slavery. Scholars At Havard.
The authors bring out the state of slaves and their owners in the American south. The role played by slaves in the cotton fields as well as the repercussions of that on the political arena are explained in the paper. The authors attempt to explain slavery in America and how it relates to the different politics that are practiced in the country.
Despite its
abolishment, the writer explains why slavery is not yet over since it keeps
manifesting itself in various ways. Counties found in the American South were
the most notorious for using and owning slaves in their farms. According to the
authors, whites who live in areas that were predominantly owned by slave
masters tend to be conservative and show more resentment towards the blacks
compared to their counterparts from other different regions. Most prominent
whites who owned the ‘Cotton Belt’ were interested in maintaining the status
quo since it meant that their farms had sufficient labor. Some of them were
powerful congressmen since cotton had a huge bearing on the political landscape
at the time. The fact that whites used blacks as slaves tends to harbor
historical animosity that emanates from the latter’s view on the past
injustices. Even after the Civil Rights movement and other campaigns on
equality, some people still consider whites to be superior due to the history.
The white slave masters were not pleased by the change since slaves ceased to
become their property and now they had to pay them some wages (p. 633). Blacks
were also able to start voting, and this did not sit down well with the slave
masters who feared the rising influence of the black community. According to
Dubois (p.633) blacks had become used to being treated as an inferior people
over a very long time and hence the stigma was always a lingering presence.
Modern day slavery is evident in the fact that menial jobs are still performed
by blacks and Mexicans since they occupy the lower levels of the income scale.
References
Gascoigne, B. (2011). HISTORY OF SLAVERY. Historyworld.net. Retrieved 12 January 2017, from http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ac41
Acharya, A., Blackwell, M., & Sen, M. (2016). The Political Legacy of American Slavery. Scholars At Havard.