Slavery in America

Image: Revolution or Barbarism - WordPress.com

Undoubtedly, the United States is known for defending racial equality and the freedoms of all people, but since when has it been like this? Before the 20th century, this great nation, defender of freedom, was undoubtedly one of the countries where there were more slaves, all of them being brought from Africa. In this lesson from a TEACHER we bring you a summary on slavery in the United States, in which we will see the various stages they went through, before defending the freedom of all people.

Index

1. The colonial era
2. Slavery as a legal institution
3. The independence of the United States
4. Index of freed slaves after the war

From the XVIII S North America began to be colonized by England. This nation dedicated itself to forming a series of colonies on the coast to, in this way, trade with the Spanish colonies of South America. south (although they had to do it illegally) and in turn trade or exploit the resources offered by the new lands that were presented.

Thus, between the 18th and 19th centuries we will find a domain of England on the coasts of North America. During this colonizing process, slave labor, which was brought directly from Africa through the Portuguese merchant ships, since it was these that had the monopoly of the slave trade.

This labor would be used to work in the industries and in the fields of cultivation, although we will also find domestic slaves.

Image: Slideshare

Is it legal to judge the events of the past from our ethics? The answer to this question is no. Slavery has been an institution in force in Europe since the Roman EmpireTherefore, it was legal and not frowned upon to own slaves. It is true that, with the arrival of Christianity, the Church encouraged the lords that, after their death, their slaves would be free as an action to enter paradise.

Already entered the Middle Ages, slavery among Christians was frowned upon and, in this way, the number fell to a great extent because we will find some Muslims in the Christian cases and vice versa.

Continuing with our summary on slavery in the United States, we must know that the fourteenth century opened another stage, since the beginning of the exploration of Africa by the Portuguese brought into contact with Europe a new mine of labor, the black labor.

These were kidnapped in their own villages by other belligerent groups in the areas and later were sold to the Portuguese. From that moment on, Portugal became the only one that could carry the slave trade.

Continuing with our summary on slavery in the United States, We must place ourselves in the year 1776, at which time the US War of Independence takes place over the British Empire. During that time, the first differences began between the various states that made up the alliance:

• NorthThese states based their economy on commerce and industry, enacting better deals on people of color. And within these ideas, the thought of abolishing this institution in the nation that was to emerge after freeing itself from the imperialist yoke was already widespread.
• South: without a doubt they were the most rural territories, although the richest, since it was where most of the cultivated fields were located, one of the most important being cotton. In these huge plantations, the lords used slave labor, whose living conditions were appalling. From the beginning they were reluctant to accept its abolition.

In 1861, after having won the War of Independence, the recent free states of North America started another war, this time a civil war that would remain until 1877, the year that Louisiana, South Carolina and Florida were integrated.

It is necessary to know that the war was started by political and social confrontations due to the differences between the northern and southern states in the area of ​​slavery. For this reason, the southern states, known as confederates, began a break with the northern states creating a new nation, in which slavery was allowed.

This was taken by the other side as a declaration of war and the confrontations began that ended with the victory of the north over the southerners, forcing them to accept abolition. In the same way, these landlord lords had to hire their former slaves, now as free labor, losing much of the income to which they were previously accustomed.

Image: History diagrams and concept maps - blogger

To conclude with the summary on slavery in the United States, it has been estimated that between the years 1861-1865 were freed about four million slaves, who were repatriated to their places of origin, that is, to Africa.

The problem was that, although their ancestors came from that continent, they had been Americans for generations and They did not want to leave their native places, so in time they would return to America to start their lives anew.

We must know that, although slavery was abolished, racism in North America grew even more taking place great confrontations that have arrived until our days (although very diminished). One of the highlights came with Martin Luther King who fought for the rights of the black people since they were in the position that they could not vote and should be confined in ghettos.

If you want to read more articles similar to Slavery in America - Summary, we recommend that you enter our category of Story.