Why Is Slavery Important In American History?

America’s upbringing was built off of the institution of slavery; the colonies would not have survived without the forced labor of the countless Africans who were stolen from their homeland and enslaved in this new foreign world. The overwhelming debt needed to be paid to Britain was the reasoning behind this inhumane, barbaric time in American history. These Africans were not only forced into performing back-breaking labor, but they were also subjected to constant humiliation by their owners. Most slaves were not allowed to travel freely, educate themselves, practice their religion, and in some cases—especially in regard to the females—have control over their own body and virtue. History has uncovered evidence of forced sexual relations between
The majority of the time these historians primarily focus on slavery in general, and the important law decisions that were being during this time period—including the start of what would become the two completely views of slavery and human rights that would split the nation in half. What was to come was a major turning point in our nation’s history: the abolishment movement and the American Civil War. The abundant dynamics in these counter culture movements were so influential and so imperative to shaping of our society today that more of attention is focused on the suffering and tribulations of the African American race as a whole rather than hyper focused on specific victims or instances. In my opinion, the reason for this is because there are very little verifiable accounts of these forcible ongoing and frequent relationships between some of the slave owners and their female slaves. The reason for the lack of these accounts is because of the stringent laws restricting such relationships, and the severe punishments the involved parties would undergo if caught. Moreover, the reprimands for the slave were often much more severe than the punishment of the slave owners. The slave owner would basically get a simple slap on the wrist and would be subject to distain by fellow townspeople, but if the slave was caught
My theory for why people did this was mainly due to the fact that it was very illegal to conduct in these kind a relationships with an African American female slaves. Another, reason could be that slave-owners would probably be ashamed because it went against most of their religions values to have sexual intercourse or encounters with these woman they were not married to. It was always speculated that relationships existed between slave-owners and their slaves but a blind eye was given to the subject. A reason that historians may not have uncovered these relationships earlier was because they did not want to tarnish the reputation of the respectable white slave-owners back then; especially when some of those slave-owners are prominent figures of our history (i.e. Thomas Jefferson). But once that DNA evidence regarding Sally Hemings was uncovered the flood gates opened, and historians found numerous other accounts of similar sexual exploitations of female slaves mainly through journals and by word of mouth from former