Slavery in Colonial America - Essay Example

SLAVERY IN COLONIAL AMERICA Word count (1267) Slavery in the New York started in 1626 when 11 slaves from Africa were imported by the Company of Dutch in West India to New Amsterdam. Slave auction was first done in 1655 at New Amsterdam. Expansion of slavery use was done in 1703 by the British with over 42 percentages of households of New York held as slaves.1 On the other hand, in the society of southern colonies Slavery became dominant and its economy during the start of the 18th century. In the 1690, when the slave trade monopoly of the Dutch ended, British merchants started bringing slaves from the Caribbean and Africa in thousands to the colonies of the south to labor in the fields of tobacco. In the New York City and the Southern Colonies, the Dutch first introduced slavery which was later taken over by the English. The main difference was that the Southern Colonies stopped importing slaves. They laid strategies which increased the population of the slaves. They provided them with a health service, clothing, food and shelter conditions that were fair and encouraged them to reproduce. The number of American-born slaves increased in the southern colonies more than in the New York City. In the Dutch rule, slavery was introduced to the city of New York for the first time. Before this period, the Dutch agricultural laborers could work in Netherlands and get payment. It was not successful as the migrants desired to get more income in the well-paid fur trade and go back to their home nation in comfort. The company, therefore, preferred slavery and luckily, the Dutch colonies had established it in the Southern African, Southeast Asia, and Caribbean. Some Native Americans were first enslaved, followed by some Indians. However they could easily escape as they knew the terrains. The Americans also feared they could affect the lucrative fur trade if they continued enslaving the Indians. They opted for African slaves. The slaves’ principal works was to lay roads, clear forests and do other heavy work and services of the public colony. Over-reliance on African slaves by the company was due to lack of workers. The Dutch describe the African slaves as treacherous and proud, even though, the foundation of the coming of New York City was laid by the slaves. They started importing other seasoned African slaves from the Caribbean sugar colonies. The colony and the New Amsterdam were taken over by the English in 1644. There was a lot of work to be done, and they imported more slaves. The slaves from Africa performed both unskilled and skilled work in areas like agriculture and the burgeoning port city. Like other societies of slaveholding, the city developed slave revolt periodic fears. In 1741, in the New York Conspiracy, is when they thought that a revolution had started. City officials then arrested 20 white men and over 150 slaves over weeks when they were suspected of doing planned revolts. During this event, many blacks were executed after unjustly accused by the whites. In 1991, 400 Africans remains from the colonial era were discovered when excavating for the Foley Square Courthouse in Manhattan.2 The English became greatly involved in trading slaves and, therefore, they had the worlds biggest population of slaves in the colonies of America. African slavery stayed to be a trivial institute on the islands of British.3 Six million Africans were forced by the French and the English into slavery in the Southern Colonies. Some slaves went to Brazil and the West Indies. However, a large number went to the region of Chesapeake, in the 1700s as many as 100,000. A slave society emerged from a society to slaves as the slaves increased when they were imported to the southern colonies.4 After 1730, markets for tobacco grew stronger and, therefore, England signed contracts with France. It began selling tobacco to the French as much as it was in demand. It made the southern colonies that produced tobacco to increase production and take advantage because the prices were rising. The planters did not labor their slaves brutally like the West Indies in order to maintain and expand their system. However, the southern colonies’ slave masters began paying attention to the clothing, food and the health of the slaves. They did so not because they had a sense of humanity nut because they wanted them to be comfortable and increase in number through reproduction. They were economical and never desired to import more slaves due to cost factors.5 The outcome by 1750s was that slaves born in America became more than the slaves from Africa in the colonies in North America. Slaves were forced to work all day in the plantations.6 In some cases, the slaves were whipped on trying to rest when they felt tired. They were forced to overcrowd in the small rooms of ships, and some died on the way. On reaching the destination in the whites’ countries, they were forced to work on large plantations. They were denied most of their freedom. In some cases the slave masters sexually abused the women slaves. In both cases the enslaved Africans rebelled or resisted in a number of ways. Rebelling was the most bloody and dramatic way of enslavement resistance. They did it in many ways. One way was through robbing their owner or damaging his property. Some of the machinery, they damaged could take a lot of time to replace or repair and during this period work was avoided. Some women could kill their children before by abortion or after delivering instead of seeing the children grow into slaves.7 In some cases, they poisoned their masters. When slaves were noted that they wanted to kill their masters they were killed. Slaves also resisted through running away.8 Some after running away went missing for a long time. However, they were caught and severely punished. Slavery in the southern colonies was different from slavery in New York City. The southern colonies were economical and had more Africa American born slaves than the slaves in the New York City. They stopped importing more slaves and encouraged breeding amongst the slaves by proving them good conditions like shelter, clothing, food and medical care. Some got married as the settler had allowed for slave families to be initiated to increase their population. The only aim of the masters was to increase the population not that they had developed a sense of humanity. In New York City, slaves were imported to increase their population. Bibliography Foner, Give Me Liberty: An American History, Fourth Edition Chapter 2, Beginnings of English America, 1607-1660. Retrieved from: (2002). Web 8th April 2015. Harris, Leslie.  In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863. University of Chicago Press, (2004): 12-72. Read More