Essay On Slavery In America

Slavery in America, especially in the South, was a very important way to support the United States economy. It was also the subject of a huge controversial debate between separate regions of the US. Not only was this the main way of life for many people, but it was also discrimination, selling Africans as a profit.

Life as a Slave
Living as a slave in the south had many harsh factors. They were needed for daily jobs such as farming, blacksmithing, carpentry and many other difficult ways of labor which made the process of buying and selling throughout the country “easier”. Slavery denied the rights of all genders and ages. Most were torn from their families, and all were taken from their homeland through ships from many different countries.
During the Atlantic Slave Trade, which lasted from the 1500’s-1800’s, 12.5 million slaves were shipped from African countries to others. Out of that large number, 10.7 million slaves were sent to America to work on plantations or fields. During the first shipments, many of the slaves sent were disproportionately male since they were expected to have more strength than women. After slave owners realized that many were being shipped to the West Indies for sugar cropping, they purchased more female hands. Women were cheaper to buy, and were also well needed for field work. However, the most important reason for women was for motherhood. Master’s wanted a system called the “slave cycle”. The average African woman would be encouraged to have her first child at age nineteen, and start a cycle of giving birth to a new child every 2-3 years. Masters wanted this to ensure an efficient production of new slaves for the future. Children as young as age two would help their families work out in fields. The lifestyle of a slave family was very rough. Most slaves lived in very small shacks with dirt floors and little or no furniture. Few slaves actually worked in the plantation homes, but they received a lifestyle nicer than the ones who didn’t. Slaves who worked or lived in plantation homes had nicer rooms, cooked food, and clean clothing.

The North and Abolitionists
Even though there were many downsides to the time of slavery, some lived a free life in the northern states.
The north was against laws of slavery and many northern citizens owned safe houses for slaves who managed to escape their plantations on their journeys to freedom. By 1810, 75% of all Africans living in the north were free, but this percentage wasn’t good enough for many abolitionists in the northern states. Southerners argued that black people, like children, were incapable of caring for themselves and that slavery was an institution that kept them fed, clothed, and occupied which is what most disagreed with. The voices of Northern abolitionists, such as Boston editor and publisher William Lloyd Garrison, became increasingly violent. Educated blacks such as escaped-slave Frederick Douglass wrote serious heartfelt attacks on the situation. Abolitionism seemed to have been fueled by the religious movement known as the Second Great Awakening. A large amount of Union members advocated for immediate emancipation. Later on during the late times of slavery, the Confederate states attempted to secede from the Union due to heated disagreements between the split country.

Many asked this question: “To keep slaves or not?” The Civil War lasted from April 12th, 1861- April 9th, 1865. The process of banning slavery was a long and hard fight, but eventually, slavery was banned through the hands of our 5th president, Abraham Lincoln. Slaves were finally set free by the power of belief and
strength.