Slavery History In America

Abraham Lincoln is referred to "The Great Emancipator". Lincoln began his career by claiming that he was "antislavery"- against slavery's expansion; not calling for immediate emancipation. However, he who began as "antislavery" eventually issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in states that were in rebellion. He supported the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery throughout the United States and in the last speech of his life - he recommended extending the vote to African Americans.

Women faced the same challenges as slaves did back then. Women worked in domestic sites when slavery existed more than men did. Also, back then Women didn't have rights and men controlled them and could do whatever they want with them. Even men could have as many wives as he liked and women couldn't do nothing about it.

Source: http://www.nps.gov/liho/historyculture/slavery.htm
http://www.history.org/almanack/people/african/aaintro.cfm

Slaves in U.S. History (Slavery)

Cape Coast Castle, Inner Courtyard, Ghana, 1986 

Slaves were imprisoned here in appalling dungeons prior to departure. Today, it is a popular tourist attraction along with nearby Elmina Castle and the Maison des Esclaves (slave house) at Gorée Island, Senegal.

Cape Coast Castle, Door of No Return

This was the door leading to the slave ships. When a slave walked through this door he was leaving his African homeland forever.

Slaves had to do the tasks that they were required to do (had no say on the tasks they were required to) and they had no control over how long they worked. Slaves were used in northern states in factories to produce manufactured goods but most slaves worked on plantations in southern states.

Slaves were used on plantations for a variety of tasks which were picking cotton, harvesting sugar cane, planting and harvesting rice, harvesting tobacco, growing and harvesting coffee, building railroads, working in the dairy, weaving, carpentry, washing clothes, cooking, and butchering and preserving.

The Underground Railroad were secret routes that helped fugitive slaves in the United States escape to the North and to Canada.

Harriet Tubman was a slave herself too but then she escaped from slavery and helped other slaves escape.

Harriet Tubman was one of the most well-known "conductors" of the Underground Railroad's. During a ten-year span she made 19 trips into the South and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom. And, as she once proudly pointed out to Frederick Douglass, in all of her journeys she "never lost a single passenger."


Sources: http://www.slaverysite.com/index.html
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/99/railroad/tl.html#top
http://www.historyonthenet.com/Slave_Trade/slaveryexplain.htm
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1535.html

Slaves (Slavery) in U.S. History

Punishment
There were very harsh punishments for slaves. There was a law that provided slaves with virtually no protection from their masters. On large plantations the power was delegated to overseers - refer to the 1st post to what overseers were. Slaves were under considerable pressure from the plantation owners to maximize profits. Plantation owners did this by bullying the slaves into increasing productivity. The punishment used against slaves were the use of whipping. Sometimes slave-owners physically abused (mutilating) and used slaves as a symbol or calling them names (branding).

Education
In the early 19th century there were no schools in the southern states of America that admitted black children to free public schools. Some brave teachers in North Carolina, ran secret night schools. There was a teacher, who was caught teaching black children in Norfolk, Virginia - the teacher went to prison. In 1834, Connecticut, passed a law making it illegal to provide a free education for black students.

"In 1849 Charles Sumner helped Sarah C. Roberts to sue the city of Boston for refusing to admit black children to its schools. Their case was lost but in 1855 Massachusetts legislature changed its policy and declared that "no person shall be excluded from a Public School on account of race, colour or prejudice."

Source: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAslavery.htm

Slaves (Slavery)

This is a photograph showing a group of Slaves. The photograph was taken in May, 1862 in Cumberland Landing, Virginia.

Source: http://www.infoplease.com/timelines/slavery.html

Slavery is a system in which people are the property of others. Slavery in the United States was a form of unfree labor which existed as a legal institution in North America and continued in the South for more than a century. When the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution in 1865 was brought, it ended slavery.

Slaves can be held against their will from the time they were captured, from birth, purchased, wanting to leave but can't leave - to refuse to work, or slaves demanding money to be paid for the work they do. In some societies it was legal for an owner to kill a slave. In others it was a crime to kill a slave. The number of slaves today remains 12 million to 27 million. Most slaves were Black and were held by Whites. Some Native Americans and Blacks also held slaves and there were also a few white slaves as well.

The First English Colony in North America - Virginia, first imported Africans in 1619. Slavery spread to areas where there was good-quality soil for large plantations of high-value cash crops. The majority of slaves were in Southern United States. Large groups of slaves were thought to work more efficiently if directed by a managerial class called overseers - usually white men.