The War Between the Races
.......By Anthony Iacovone
How did Slavery Begin
Slavery Began when the European merchants started the triangular trade. The Trade that impacted the Slaves were the transatlantic slave trade. It was used from the 16 century and the early 19 centuries, it carried slaves , cash crops, and manufactured goods between West Africa, Caribbean or American Colonies and the European colonial powers , with the northern colonies of British North America, especially New England, sometimes taking over the role of Europe. One of they wanted slaves were to grow cash crops so they could export it to Europe. Sometimes, European goods could be used as payment for a slave or slaves, in which were brought on the sea line west of Africa to the Americas, thus, the Middle Passage. Slave Ships were horrid ships that transported slaves. Since the demand for unpaid labor to work plantations was high, Slave trading was a profit goldmine in business. In order to make a better profit, slave ship owners divided their hulls into holds with very little headroom, so that they could move as many slaves as possible. Since they had unhygienic conditions, this caused dehydration, dysentery, and Scurvy, therefore it led to high rates of mortality,Since the demand for unpaid labor to work plantations was high, Slave trading was a profit goldmine in business. In order to make a better profit, slave ship owners divided their hulls into holds with very little headroom, so that they could move as many slaves as possible. Since they had unhygienic conditions, this caused dehydration, dysentery, and Scurvy, therefore it led to high rates of mortality, either may it be 15% or a third of the ships passengers. Often, Ships known as Guineamen, transported hundreds of slaves, who were chained tightly to wooden plank beds. For example, Henrietta, a slave ship, carried about 200 slaves on the long Middle Passage. They were confined to cargo holds with each slave chained with little room to move. The most significant routes of the slave ships led from the north-western and western coasts of Africa to South America and the south-east coast of what is today the United States, and the Caribbean. As many as 20 million Africans were transported by ship. The transportation of slaves from Africa to America was known as the Middle Passage. Because cultivating the 'cash crops'... that were the main reason for the colonization of the 'new world' in the first place was extremely labor intensive. In the new world they had an environment where they could grow the Sugar, Tobacco, Cocoa, Coffee and Cotton that people in Europe would pay very high prices for. But growing them was very labor intensive, especially sugar. It required many workers and the work was back-breaking, so the money they earned would soon have to be paid to any workers employed. So initially they used the indigenous peoples either bought or captured/imprisoned. But this was far from ideal given the likelihood of rebellion and the poor work output. With the Portuguese trading posts already well established in West Africa which was home to a well-established slave trade, it made sense to start importing slave labor. Furthermore the West Africans were well suited to the labor both by their physical attributes (of resilience and fast-twitching muscles) and by their docile demeanor.
How did slavery end in America?
It took until 1865 for slavery to be illegal in the United States with the 13th amendment to the U.S Consititution. In 1804, Haiti’s revolutionists free all slaves and kill all whites that do not flee. Gain independence from France and establish Haiti. Many whites that flee emigrate to Baltimore. Tobacco Slave Narrative "On the Potomac, if a slave gives offence, he is generally chastised on the spot, in the field where he is at work, as the overseer always carried a whip- - sometimes a twisted cow- hide, sometimes a kind of horse- whip, and very often a simple hickory switch or gad, cut in the adjoining woods. For stealing meat, or other provisions, or for any of the higher offences, the slaves are stripped, tied up by the hands- - sometimes by the thumbs- - and whipped at the quarter- - but many times, on a large tobacco plantation, there is not more than one of these regular whippings in a week- - though on others, where the master happens to be a bad man, or a drunkard- - the back of the unhappy Maryland slaves, is seamed with scars from his neck to his hips. In 1805, Ohio- The legislature enacts the first of the "Black Laws" restricting the rights and movements of Blacks. Other Western states soon follow suit. Illinois, Indiana and Oregon later have anti-immigration clauses in their state constitutions. In 1805, Virginia General Assembly passed legislation giving free Blacks one year to get out of Virginia once their freedom had been gained, though modified in 1846 so that local courts could grant a free blacks the right to remain if he had performed some extraordinary good deed or if he were known to possess a good character and be peaceable sober, orderly and industrious person. In 1806, Freeing blacks in Virginia occasionally acquired slaves as gifts or as inheritance from whites. During the 18th century, these unique slaveholders usually freed their bondsmen after holding them for brief periods. The state's repression of free blacks after 1806 altered this arrangement. Subject to expulsion from Virginia at the whim of county officials, those free blacks who owned slaves now held them for longer periods as a means to demonstrate their reliability to the state. They also fully realized that their charges, a group that often included family members, would as slaves be insulated from the dangers that confronted the state's free black population. Based on Virginia county tax records and secondary sources. In 1808, Slave importation outlawed. Some 250,000 slaves were illegally imported from 1808-60.