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Slavery In America

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Slavery is, to this very day, an issue that almost everyone in the United States ponders about. It seems to penetrate into any discussion that deals with race relations. Some people want to forget about it, while others want it remembered, claiming that its wounds still exist. In order to conceptualize this complex matter, the best solution would be to go back to the start of slavery’s roots. From the 17th century, slaves became the primary focus of trade between Europe, America, and Africa. Europe’s colonization of North and South America together with the Caribbean islands from the 15th century onward caused an insatiable demand for African slave laborers, who were considered fit for working in the tropical conditions. The numbers of slaves …show more content…

It is always natural that a nation with economic dominance has power as well. This was precisely the situation in America and Europe. The slavery has caused a boom in the economy of the two nations. “Slavery was a national enterprise, but the economic and political center of gravity during the U.S. 's first incarnation as a slave republic was the South.” (Jones, 2013, p.1). Eventually, the south became very powerful. “However, the invention of the cotton gin took the South 's national economic dominance and transformed it into a global phenomenon.” (Jones, 2013, p.1). At that time the south became really influential. “Thus vital links developed between the profit motive which led to inhuman efforts to dehumanize Africa slaves, and the conception of the New World as an environment of liberation, opportunity, and upward mobility.” (Bordwich, …show more content…

It was this forceful nature of blacks’ migration into America that caused their ever growing separation from the white labor force and led to the establishment of a slave society. The way European white immigrants were being treated, began to improve, so as to attract more white settlers to the colonies. As the status of white migrants rose, the role of Africans became more clearly outlined by legislation that separated them from white settlers. All this fueled the intense racism that eventually grew explosively. Slavery of the blacks was a direct result of the race and class consciousness of the slaves and planters and not the materialistic advantage that buying and selling the slaves would earn them. Once the black skin origin was linked to slavery, racism took power and continued even after slavery came to an end, till today. Slave trade was reinforced by the racist ideology that claimed the superiority of whites over the blacks, currently termed as white

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