The explotation of slavery from colonial times to 1877 - Essay Example

Slavery was a problem in the world from its birth. People who are sold, then asked to work ruthlessly and do not have any rights of their own are known as slaves. To build up the economy of America they needed people who could work according to what they required and thus at this time the African people were targeted and used as slaves. By the sixteenth century the use of these servants had become common and this made a way for the Africans to enter America. Agreements were made with these slaves, which stated that they would be bound to work for their master for some years.

And after the specified period of time these slaves were set free. These were known as the contracted or indentured servants. During this era many of the African people who were bound with their masters for some years got free and started working as traders or land owners. At this time there was a greed for more land and a stabilized economy and thus this raised the demand graph of the slaves in America. At this time the slaves of Africa became popular and were highly charged for their services.

Most of the Southern America needed workers for the plantations of rice, tobacco, cotton etc. These slaves were also used for other purposes such as crafting and personal servants. While on the other hand in Northern America these slaves were mostly used in trade, factories and farms. The demand of the slaves in America grew by a very significant rate and by the 17th century there were an estimated 180,000 African slaves working on the American soil. Sooner this number increased even further and in some states the black slaves consumed most of the population of the state.

In the sixteenth century states like Massachusetts made new laws which made oppression as lawful servitude. This worsened the conditions of the Africans who were living in the American soil. They thus turned into chattel slaves who could be sold and purchased only by their owners. The people from Africa were known for their work in mining farming agriculture and other skills. People from Portugal were the first to start slave trading. Sudan was the basic area where slaves could be found. The wars which took place between different tribes in Africa gave way to the selling of tribes as the side which won kept some of their prisoners as captives and further sold them to other people.

Many other people were kidnapped by the hunters which were then used as slaves. These slaves were very important for the economy of America as they were good at planting different agricultural goods. The rise of the slaves got on its peak when there was seen a rise in the demand of basic agricultural goods like cotton, tobacco and coffee. This trade of slaves gave so much profit that in the sixteenth century Royal African Company outdated other traders in term of profits. Slaves at a time were also known as the Black Gold.

At this time many people from Europe moved to America to practice their religion with freedom. But on the other hand Slavery was to be justified as it provided such a boost to the economy of America. Therefore to defend that slavery was correct and legal, people started to justify it by classifying the group of blacks as substandard, low-grade and fated to be slaves. Even at those times the churches did not take up this issue seriously and did not try to eliminate slavery. Even some