Slavery

Cory Martin
Dr. Stephens
American History I
4/18/13
Essay 5: Slavery One of the most controversial subjects of all time is the idea of slavery. Slavery by definition is a system by which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and forced to work. This system is scene and performed most during the years leading up to the civil war. In the United States slavery was viewed in two very different ways. One view of slavery was that it was against human rights to treat slaves like some were treated, and on the other side of the equation, slavery was viewed as part of the American economy and not seen immoral at all. Looking at slavery from both sides of the argument can help us understand what slavery is all about. To begin, let’s look at how slavery was seen to be wrong by most in the north and some even in the south. Most people in today’s culture think of slavery as being wrong, and personally it’s hard for me to imagine that people used to actually own other humans. Not only did they own slaves (mostly African American) but they also often would treat their slaves with little to no care at all. Most slaves worked on large cotton plantations, however some worked in other types of agriculture like tobacco, hemp, and corn.(Child 1) Often times slaves worked in terrible conditions and a few slaves even died from malnutrition and lack of medicine. However, that wasn’t the case for some slaves. There were slaves who actually enjoyed their owners and would be taken care of by their owners. Because of the investment in slaves some owners felt that treating your slaves with kindness would produce more money for you and could be a win-win situation for both sides. Looking at the other side of slavery can be hard sometimes because we grow up thinking that slavery is just the worst thing in American history, but slavery actually had some major benefits for America. Slavery is thought to have boosted the efforts to create and invent several agriculture

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