Slavery: Slavery in the United States and Slaves Essay

Slavery There are many different types and points of views on slavery. Back when slavery first began many or almost all European Americans believed that having slaves or that slavery in general was okay. Slavery originally began in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. The first slaves were brought here from Africa, they were brought to America to work for white companies to help in the production of crops and tobacco. Slavery lasted for over 200 years in the 17th and 18th century, slavery was one of the biggest reasons that the economy grew in a positive and negative way. Slavery also brought upon many disagreements and arguments including a partial part of the American Civil War. A lot of people don’t know that Europeans were not the first ones to actually have slaves. In fact several Native American tribes had slaves, the groups that we know of are the Klamath, Pawnee, Yurok, Creek, Mandan, and Comanche tribes of North America. The Indian woman Sacajawea who led the Lewis and Clark expedition was a captured slave for the Mandan tribe. Another thing people don’t really pay attention to is that Africa actually enslaved each other as well. In the 18th century the royalty of Africa Kings of Dahomey started a war with their “neighbors” which resulted in capturing 10,000 of their people and using them as slaves. In another part of Africa, King Tegbesu made £250,000 a year for selling slaves. Now I am going to talk about the European-American slave trade and slave owning in America. When slavery first began the Europeans saw what they were doing was giving the Africans the chance to become a Christian. The slavery in North America varied by place and by region. In the middle colonies, more up north, slaves were treated with more respect than they were in the south. They were able to associate with white folk, and they had more freedom of choice, like picking which job they wanted to work. The African slaves also had better living conditions and food sources as well. in Virginia and Maryland slaves were kind of treated the same as they were further up north except they weren’t aloud to choose where they got to work, it was decided for them by their owners, but they were still able to associate to whites as well, they had a lot of different jobs that could be worked more than in the northern colonies. Often slaves were born into American colonies which caused Africans to be a minority In these states. In Georgia and South Carolina however, they had more choices or more freedom, they mainly had this much freedom because they took up most of the population in both states. In these states Africans were able to bring some of their own culture to the farms or the factories such as, music, speech, language, crafts, and stories. (http://sites.google.com/site/redwolfnation/home/ap-us-history/chapter-3---growth-of-the-american-colonies-1689-1754) although they didn’t have much contact with many whites because of the over population of blacks they still came in contact and were treated with decent respect. For the most part Slaves had their own small, wooden sleeping cabin and were given seeds for them to grow their own food. On their down time they would do work around their cabin. They had friends, they sang to pass time, told stories to the children and others, they played games and tried to make the most out of their lives. They all knew too, what the most important thing to them was, their families and their religion. Most Slaves were lucky in a way that they still kept living as a family. Though they had to share a small cabin together they were at least together. Some also feared that their loved family members would be sold off and taken away and that they would never see them again. Many people tried to revolt against slavery like Gabriel Prosser in 1800, or Denmark Vessey in 1822, unfortunately many of these attempts failed. The biggest most memorable revolt was led by Nat

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