The Captivity Of Slavery In America

Slavery is the captivity of another person for servitude without that person willing consent. Slavery made its mark on American History. The pain that slaves endured was cruel and harsh. They gave their lives so that we, African Americans could live in this world but many of us take that for granted. My interpretation of what slavery was is a simple, people being apart from their families and being owned and told what to do and being put to work for little of no wage. Slaves had no rights. Some people don’t understand what slaves went through on a daily basis. Owners could do whatever they liked with their slaves. Often this included inflicting harsh punishments. A slave would be punished for resisting slavery, not working hard enough, talking too much or using their native language, stealing from his master, murdering a white man, trying to run away.
Slaves were whipped, branded, drowned, put up for sale, kicked and tied up.
When they tried to run away, slave owners had them chased by dogs. When and if they returned alive they were whipped, hit with paddles or body parts were cut off and that was considered the death penalty. The only way for slaves to avoid severe punishment was for them to do what they were told to do, when they were told to do it. Whipping was mainly used to control the slave’s behaviors. The number of lashes that a slave received depended on the seriousness if the offense. Other punishments included being shackled, being in various contraptions, being chained to the ground, being hung and being forced to walk a treadmill. Plantation owners often made the other slaves watch the punishment to prevent them from slacking at work or trying to run
away.
Lizzie, Reenie, Sweet and Mawu endure and suffer every imaginable event, from dressing up in fine white women clothes, to eating and dancing in the formal dining room, to being able to sleep in beds all night with their men and take baths, to rape, public beatings, and situations so unmentionable that I won’t mention here. Throw in the thoughts and plans for escape, the manipulations these men do to them daily, and worst of all the guilt and fear of leaving their lovers and their children behind. It is hard to imagine, to me, that many people there felt it was ok to “own” African-Americans, let alone force them to work, starve them, beat them, kill them, hate them, and force the women to be their sex slaves, often getting them pregnant . I remember learning in school about the 3/5ths of a person rule in our Constitution and at that moment I didn’t know what to feel. These slave owners didn’t consider their slaves as human, but it was ok to count their property as 3/5 of a person for tax purposes. What, besides ignorance and opportunity, ever gave that first very first person the idea to decide to force someone to do whatever they wanted while calling them their property. What a world we live in.