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Slavery in America

Slaves arrived in the New World around 1502. In 1690, one out of every nine families in Boston owned a slave. In New York City, 1703, two out of every five families owned a slave, (mostly house servants). But 3/4th's of southern families owned no slaves in 1860. Slaves in the South worked on farms and plantations growing of indigo, rice, sea-island cotton, and tobacco. Tobacco was the number one seller for a while. Then Cotton became huge crop in the 1790s. It's a long growing season as well. It grows in the Lower South; South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. Slavery carried an effective consequence for the future. By assuming positions taken by an underclass of unruly and despised white servants, black slaves helped to create a worthy "free" and wealthy society of whites. During the 1700s, enslavement of Natives was common. Many of the Native slaves were transferred to the Sugar Islands, (and other colonies as well).

The transformation from indentured servitude to racial slavery happened gradually. In 1619, the first record of African slavery in Colonial America is a Dutch ship which brought twenty blacks and sold them to the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia as indentured servants. Indentured servants sold their labor willingly for so many years, (4 to 7 years). Indentured servitude was a technique of increasing colonists, (mostly in British colonies). In 1640, the Virginia courts had sentenced at least one black servant to slavery. There's not any law in slavery in the history of Virginia. Some of the British colonies attempted to stop the international slave trade, fearing that Africans would be violent and disruptive. Virginia's Acts to that effect were voted by the British Privy Council. Rhode Island declined the importation of slaves all together in 1774. Georgia declined as well but the laws were later repealed. In the 1750s, Quaker gatherings attempted to persuade their members that they should not own slaves but some who resisted were expelled.

There was fear and hatred between the slaver owner and the slave. Slaves risked losing members of their family because they were usually traded to pay debts. On large plantation, slave owners were allowed to abuse them if they won't comply. Some slaves avenged by murdering their owners. Most likely to burn down barns and killing horses. Slaves were not cheap. They have to be fed, (mainly cornmeal and salted pork), clothed, medical attention, and housed to stay alive. About 20% of the slaves were sick at any given time. Such diseases as beriberi and pellagra. Usually slaves live as long as 20 to 22 years. Slaves get two set of coarse clothing; one for winter and one for summer. In most households, lighter-skinned slaves had better clothing and food while darker-skinned slaves had to work in the fields. The cabin they stayed in were typically a 15-by-15 foot one room for 3 to 6 people. The cabin had no windows to open and with a chimney made of sticks and mud. Slaves did get bonuses as well, usually around Christmas time, and they would use that money for gambling. One slave did win the lottery. His name was Denmark Vesey and he bought his freedom using his winnings. Many Europeans held their racism inside before the establishment of the institution of slavery. They mostly held blacks as evil, unholy, and dangerous.

The American Civil War led to the ending of American Slavery. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, 1863, was a move that promised freedom for slaves that had not already returned to Union control. It was very controversial in the North. It wasn't passed by Congress but Lincoln had presidential power. At first, it had only affected for the people who escaped to the Union side till' the Union armies took over the South; hundreds and thousands of slaves were free each and every day. Estimated around 4 million slaves. There were still slaves in Texas though. The word got out the collapse of the Confederacy in 1865 so they were freed. But was slavery over yet or is it still out there? In 1867, debt bondage was happening in New Mexico. The Supreme Court ruled out debt bondage of black Americans.

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