Negative Effects Of Slavery In The South

Slavery in the South Slavery in the south was a very negative experience for the Africans that were forcefully enslaved and brought over to North America more specifically Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. The journey across the Atlantic was treacherous many didn’t survive due to sickness, starvation, or merely being murdered like cattle and thrown overboard. Eventually the sharks started following the ships for food because slaves were being thrown over so frequently, the sharks didn’t have any reason to hunt. After arriving in Virginia initially slaves were forced to help with crops like tobacco and cotton until the cotton gin was invented in 1793 by Eli Whitney, the main focus began to shift solely to cotton because of its enormous profit. Slaves
didn’t just work outside in the fields either there also were slaves inside the homes to tend to day to day responsibilities such as cooking, cleaning, and taking care of their masters children. Slavery in the south was dehumanizing and depriving. Slavery lasted for about 245 years and during that time many lost their culture, family and identity as humans. The negative impact of slavery remains to haunt the decedents of those Africans, the African Americans of today. The Emancipation Proclamation of Jan. 1, 1863 was written and signed by President Abraham Lincoln liberating slaves in the south. Juneteenth Day commemorates June 19, 1865, when all African-Americans finally learned of the Emancipation Proclamation and their freedom (Loohauis, 1996 para. 3). The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution officially abolished all slavery in America, and it was ratified on December 1865. But for almost two years slaves still didn’t realize that they were free. First, slavery in the south was dehumanizing because of the many oppressions slaves had to face daily. These people were made slaves and were forced to work for free regardless if they were capable of the work or not. Slaves were raped, beaten, and made to fight like animals all for the entertainment of their “masters”. Slaves were punished for numerous reasons such as not taking on their slave name, working proficiency, and running away. Some may argue that slaves didn’t mind slavery but if that was accurate then why so many of them were running away. Things where so chaotic that federal laws were put into place to regulate the problem. The Fugitive Slave Acts were a pair of federal laws that allowed for the capture and return of runaway slaves within the territory of the United States. Enacted by Congress in 1793, the first Fugitive Slave Act authorized local governments to seize and return escaped slaves to their owners and imposed penalties on anyone who aided in their flight (History, 2009 para. 1). So not only were these humans look at as property, whoever decided to help them escape to become free where punished as well. There where was the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 and also the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, these laws where greatly enforced and had severe consequences. Second, slavery was very depriving for many reasons but being stripped of their culture and not allowed education are very important.
For many years there were laws in place that prohibited slaves from education. One statute in particular, passed in North Carolina in 1830, articulated that “any free person, who shall hereafter teach, or attempt to teach, any slave within this State to read or write, the use of figures excepted, or shall give or sell to such slave or slaves any books or pamphlets, shall be liable to indictment in any court of record in this State” (Williams, 2005 para. 2). It was illegal for Africans to learn despite already being a slave. These laws were put in place to keep the slave master in power and the slave in the dark. Slave masters didn’t want their slaves to have education because it would make them more conscious of the situation they were in, would create dissatisfaction in their minds, and provide them with more clever ways of rebellion. The slaves where already running away with little to no education, so teaching them how to read would aid them on what areas to seek refuge and which areas to stay away from. Most slaves where illiterate so keeping education away from them was also a tool of psychological control for the slave
master. Last, slaves were stripped of their culture and forced to adopt one that wasn’t their own. They had to adopt the religion, language and name their master gave them. Religion is important and many slaves became Christians because the religion was forced upon them others because it was a way to cope through the horrible experience. Slaves were from Africa and didn’t speak English so they had to abandon their language and learn the one of their master. Taking away someone’s name is taking away their identity and that’s exactly what the slave masters did. By forcefully renouncing your name and taking on one given is damaging psychologically. They stole the slave’s identity and punished them if they rebelled sometimes to death as an example to the other slaves. In conclusion, slavery in the south was a dehumanizing and depriving experience for the Africans that had to endure hate and loss of identity at the same time. They were stolen from their home, given new names, raped and murdered but yet the people survived. The impact of slavery still haunts the decedents of those slaves because many still don’t have a since of identity, heritage or culture and slavery is all to blame for that.