American Slavery

Development of American Slavery Colonial Period First, American slavery has been credited with the persistent racism especially targeting the black people or African Americans. It is worth noting that one of the key aspects of slavery during the colonial period revolved around consideration of Africans as inferior human beings whose intellectual capabilities were regarded lower than those of other races such as whites. Indeed, African Americans could only be used for carrying out the tasks that did not require much intellectual aptitude, for example, working on farms, cotton mills, and quarries. Unfortunately, as much as slavery in the United States was abolished, these stereotypes have continued to plague the relationship between African Americans and whites. Different scholars note that the racial discrimination that has persisted well into the 21st century can be traced back to the slavery period in America, during which black people were considered inferior. In addition, the legacy of American slavery may be examined from an economic perspective. It has to be underlined that the differences in economic wealth between blacks and whites find their grounds in the slave period. This is so, especially considering a key aspect of slavery that prohibited blacks from acquiring or even owning any form of property. Sociologists argue that the most crucial indicator of racial inequality is wealth rather than income, education, or employment. Disparity and variations in inherited wealth and family assets are responsible for a large proportion of racial inequality between whites and blacks across varied outcomes such as earnings, jobs and housing, as well as family structure and associated behavior like premarital childbearing. Since family wealth is closely connected to the socioeconomic status and life chances in general, it goes without saying that the heritability of wealth comes as a plausible mechanism that may have caused inequality peculiar to the slavery