Compare and Contrast the development of slavery in the US to the development - Essay Example

Comparison and contrast between Slavery in the United s and the Latin America Introduction The term Latin America is generally used to refer to the nations that speak Portuguese or Spanish and are located to the south of the United States. It has been approximated that the percentage of slaves that ended up in the United States that were imported from Africa is only 6 percent (Franklin and Alfred, 13). The majority that ended up in the new worlds were tasked with laboring in tobacco, coffee, sugar or other subtropics products plantations.

By the year 1860 it was approximated that two thirds of the slaves spent their lives in the Southern parts of American.ContrastAccording to Nellis (20), slavery in Latin America was characterized as being less cruel and harsh as contrasted to the slavery in the United States and especially in the Southern America. This contrast was mainly due to the influence that the Catholic Church had in the Latin America where it advocated for slaves to possess rights such as seeking relief in the event a master is cruel, having marriage rights and being allowed to purchase freedom to work in their own plantations of sugar or other products.

The Spanish and Portuguese colonists were also largely viewed as being less affected by prejudice associated with race as when compared to the United States (Finkelman, 34) and this is one of the main issues that stood out as a contrast. Furthermore, it was believed that the Latin American slavery was less affected by pressures associated with the capitalist economy that was competitive and dominant in the United States lave owners to demand a lot in plantation workings.In many circumstances it was viewed that the Latin American slavery was also harsher and cruel to some extent.

This was mainly due to the inability of the courts and the Catholic Church to be able to offer the much required protection to the Latin American slaves as contrasted with American slaves that did not depend on the church for protection. In Latin America there were also many incidences where slaves were tied down and flogged for about ten consecutive days when they failed to deliver the amount of tasks expected of them in the plantations (Digital History, 1).Franklin and Alfred, (20) suggest that when observed from a different view slavery in Latin America seemed even more harsh than slavery in the United States.

Latin American Slaves were forcefully required to wear Iron masks when working in the plantations so as not to tamper with products such as sugarcane and tobacco or to engage in alcoholism this incidence was not reported among American slaves. United States slaves had a bigger birth rate even though the death rate was quite high. This managed to have them disassociate from Africa since by the nineteenth century the number of slaves born from Africa in the United States was very few (Digital History, 2).

In contrast the number of slaves in the nineteenth century in the Latin America was still quite high.ComparisonThe quantity of the units of plantations that the slaves were held on in the United States was much smaller when compared to the ones in the Latin America. For example in the south of the United States, it was approximately 40% blacks on each unit. The average number of population on each unit usually ranged from 30-50 slaves in the United States. This helped the slaves to have much contact with the white masters as opposed to the Latin America where the approximate number of black slaves was much higher.

Furthermore, in the south of the United States the owners of the slaves lived on the plantations together with the slaves. This factor ensured they interacted with their slaves regularly hence the development of an understanding between them as opposed to Latin America. Additionally, duties such as the plantations management, supervision of black drivers and supply of purchasing were usually placed in the hands of the blacks in the United States as opposed to Latin America where they were under the slave owners (Nellis, 98).

In the United States the slave masters usually interfered with the slaves lifestyles since they lived on the same plantations. But the medicine, diet and food was good, and was provided for the slaves, when compared with Latin America the slaves had to produce their own food (Digital History, 1). In Latin America racial mixing was tolerated, this was mainly brought about due to shortage of European women. In contrast, in the United States racial categorization was mainly in a two category system where anyone with a black mother was viewed as black (Finkelman, 44).

Work CitedDigital History: American Slavery in Comparative Perspective. 2014. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=2&psid=460Finkelman, Paul. Encyclopedia of the New American Nation: The Emergence of the United States, 1754-1829. Detroit, Mich: Charles Scribners Sons, 2006. Internet resource.Franklin, John H, and Alfred A. Moss. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2000. Print.Nellis, Eric G. Shaping the New World: African Slavery in the Americas, 1500-1888. , 2013. Internet resource.