Paradox Of Slavery

Slavery can not be seen as a good thing. Supporters of slavery had no right to deprive slaves of their freedom, and make them properties and assets. There may be times when the Africans were powerless to prevent justice, but there must never be a time when they fail to protest. Thanks to the Quakers and other Abolitionists, we are leaving peacefully without any war. It has already been done and since nothing can change it, all we have to do is accept it.

The Two Princes of Calabar, written by Randy L. Sparks, is a book about two African American brothers who were kidnapped and sold in to slavery and written in much more detail than a regular history book. This is largely due to the fact that two brothers who were captured as slaves, named Ephraim and Ancona Robin John, documented a story that showed what is was really like to be a slave and to be handled as property during the eighteenth century. This book is written in the first person which gives it an extra edge in not only sharing information with the reader, but realistically portraying the emotions of the two slaves. The book goes into detail on how Africans used to capture other Africans and sell them for profit by detailing the journey of these two brothers.

While colonial slavery didn’t start in the North, their acceptance of it (even if only until the Civil War) along with also using slaves, clashes directly with their fundamental reason for fleeing England: freedom to live as they wish (in this case its religiously). It won’t be until later when England’s salutary neglect ends that the Northern (and Southern) colonies see a new contradiction arise which arguably unites them with the Southern colonies. Unlike the Northern colonies, the Southern colonies did not develop out of people seeking a safe haven from persecution, but rather as a direct result of the Age of Expansion and Conquest (c. 1450-1650) which was essentially the geographical, political and commercial expansion that occurred as European nations attempted to discover a new trade route to the Orient.

In the words of the First Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Eric Williams, “Slavery was not born of racism; rather, racism was the consequence of slavery.” Slavery began in the 16th century when Europeans had the so-called “Slave Traffic” involving African Americans, prisoners of war, and people unable to pay back debt to others. During this time there was no such thing known as “racism” but it slowly began to show as the Europeans began judging the differences of the African Americans. Everyone believed that if you did not have the same characteristics or act the same way as a certain group then you didn’t deserve the same rights as they had. People need to open up their eyes and see that slavery is abolished and along with slavery being gone, so should racism.

Slavery developed into a highly addressed and matter during the Revolutionary era, which resulted from important political figures such as Thomas Paine, and more importantly by the Revolutionary War. As the war began it became clear that in order to obtain victories the British would need to employ uncommon tactics to recruit more soldiers. The British army did this by offering slaves liberty in exchange for their service to the British army. The colonies, however had multiple tactics in gaining more soldiers as well, such as buying the slaves’ freedom or by paying them to fight in the war. Slavery also during the Revolution resulted in individuals beginning to question slavery and whether it was morally acceptable to continue its practice.

Moreover, as the number of indentured servants declined the reliance on slave labor grew almost exponentially. Consequently, these slaves became known as chattel, in which they were treated as sole property of an owner that could be sold and bought. However, with the passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments the intention to create first- class citizenship for all backfired. In actuality, slavery was still present in a way, this time completely legal, but this time under different names. Furthermore, with the southern whites reluctant to let go of their slaves, many people tried to find a legal way around the amendments.

Machines such as the cotton gin required extensive labor and African Americans had supplied the labor. There were many more jobs which required inexpensive labor. This is when slavery had raised again after the constitution of 1787. The main issues during the age of realism was slavery. Slaves were forced to work for their master in order to survive, they went through harsh punishments and abuse.

In 1776, on July 4th, the 13 English colonies officially declared their freedom from England. However, as the years progressed, slavery became incorporated into everyday American life. In 1852, former slave Frederick Douglass gave a speech to celebrate America’s independence; however, instead of praising the country, he censured Americans for saying they were a “country of the free”. In the speech, Hypocrisy of American Slavery, Frederick Douglass declares that Americans should not be celebrating their freedom when there are slaves living in the country. To convince his audience that Americans are wrong celebrating freedom on the 4th of July when slavery exists in their country, he uses emotional appeal, ethical appeal, and rhetorical questions.

In Jill Lepore's New York Burning and Lynda Day's Making a Way to Freedom, both authors detail the varying political and socio economic realities that impacted the slave trade in New York, the growth of ruling powers and the every day lives of enslaved people. Day illuminates readers on slaves who left their impact during their time such as Elymas Reeve and Blind Betty. Both of whom, despite their status as enslaved people, were highly esteemed and recognized during their time. By shining light on lesser known historical figures, Day honors these unsung heroes. Day's reports on the 'triangular trade' are particularly enlightening.

The Africans who were enslaved were generally prisoners of war or captives from slave raids. “As the demand for slaves grew, so did the practice of systematic slave raiding, which increased in scope and efficiency with the introduction of firearms to Africa in the 17th century. By the 18th century, most African slaves were acquired through slave raids, which penetrated farther and farther inland.” Those unlucky enough to be captured in certain invasions were forced to march certain paths, sometimes for a few hundred miles, to markets on the coast to be traded for simple materials in return. From the mid-fifteenth to the late-nineteenth century, European and American slave sellers obtained roughly 12

It points out how the Patriots desire for independence goes against their ways of not giving freedom to thousands of slaves. All in all, the war demonstrated the democratic ideals of the Patriots while showing how many Patriots went against their own fighting reason by owning slaves. There fighting reason would be to gain independence and freedom. However, they did not give these rights to others, as you can see this in the Connecticut Slaves Petition for Freedom. As important as the war was, there were some flaws in the way many of the Patriots

Possibly the group of people most significantly impacted by the American Revolution was to the slave population of North America. Before the American Revolution, not much thought was given to the contradiction of fighting Britain for freedom and owning a man as property. After the American Revolution, the northern colonies started to see the irony in the two policies and made it legal to manumit their slaves(Shultz, 2010). These freed slaves congregated in the Chesapeake region to form colonies as free people. This made it easier for slaves from the south to escape and blend into the Chesapeake colonies of

They shaped the Civil War by having the Emancipation Proclamation, the fourteenth amendment, and the fifteenth amendment. The consequences would be that at first the newly freed slaves wouldn’t have a place to go, because they never had no money and they didn’t have all their rights yet. The Emancipation Proclamation helped the slaves because they should be free. The Emancipation never really freed any

She used the newly printed Declaration of Independence in her argument. She stated from it, remarking,” All men are created equal.” She later asked,”Won 't the law give me my freedom?” {Doc. 3} Because of her, Massachusetts became slave free. This also declined the slaves in

One issue they faced concerned how they would count slaves for legislative purposes. The free North states thought slaves shouldn’t be counted at all because it would give the slave states an unfair representation due to the high slave population. However, the South disagreed for they feared the Northern states would have a substantial population advantage if the slaves were not counted. They worried that the Northern states would use such an advantage against them to regulate or even abolish slavery. To appease the slavery states they enacted the Three-Fifths Compromise.