Slavery in the History of the United States of America

Name Professor Course Date Slavery in America The modern day America is famed for being a place where the rights of the people are respected and everyone is under the protection of the law. That is, everyone has the right to make his decisions and live as a free citizen who has the right to enjoy his rights. However, this has not always been that case. For the period running from 1808 to 1865, America was one place where gross violation of the human rights took place (Head, 1). This is the peak period in which slave trade was the in-thing, and the plantation owners in the American lands wanted slaves to work on their plantations. The slavery heightened when Eli Whitney came up with the cotton gin, a machine that could be used to separate the cotton seed from the fiber. This drove the need for more production of cotton to a high note, which in effect meant that more labor was needed, which meant that more slaves had to be brought into the country. This essay seeks to prove that the slavery in the Americas, especially the Northern America, was the worst form of slavery in the world. By use of literature review and real life examples, the paper will seek to prove that there was gross violation of the human rights. The violation of these rights starts right away from the capturing of the slaves, shipping them to the Americas and finally selling them to the American masters. It will also highlight how the slaves suffered at the hands of their masters. Through this analysis, the thesis of this paper will be proven by use of evidence. Capturing of the Slaves More often than not, people know of hunting in terms of wild animals. It is hard to conceive that the same can be said of human beings. However, during the trade period, the same was happening to human beings. The shippers who bought the slaves from the coast of Africa were in collaboration with the kings or leaders of the African communities (Religious Tolerance, 1). These kings would send their men into the interior where they would raid the communities not for wealth or animals, but so that they could capture the strong men and women so that they could sell them to the shippers. As such, the manner in which the slaves were captured was quite dehumanizing. The strong members of the society could be taken away, leaving behind the weak and those that were not fit enough to be taken up as slaves. Of course, this was an act of sheer brutality as a lot of bloodshed was involved in the captures. Again, this act led to the annihilation of the African communities in various ways. For instance, the strong people who could provide for their families were taken away, leaving the children with no one to take care of them. as such, the suffering that these children underwent was untold. As if that is not enough, the reproductive members of the society were taken away, and many others were killed. As such, the populations of the societies were greatly affected in the negative way. Of course, the Americans might claim that they were not responsible for the brutal captures, but this does not exonerate them. if, in the first place they did not value the slaves so much, then the African communities would not have raided each other and sold out their brothers as slaves. This was a supplier-consumer relationship, where the suppliers had to provide the slaves. If only the Americans stopped buying the slaves, it is with no doubt that they could have stopped the sufferings of the African people. Another act of human abuse that resulted from the trade is the manner in which the slaves` dignity was stripped of them, and they were treated just like tools of trade, rather than people who had feelings and who could get hurt. Religious Tolerance observes that the American traders who shipped the slaves exchanged the people for beads, salt, cloth and guns. This guns, of course, would be used for more attacks that led to more deaths and accelerated the brutality. There is no crime bigger to humanity than stripping a man of his human nature, and relegating him down to an object or piece of asset that could be owned and traded for. This was beyond what a human can take in and it is quite touching that the slaves had to endure all that. Shipping of the Slaves Mayell describes the story of Priscilla, an African slave that was sold to North America. All along, from her capture to her time as a slave, she documented her voyage and the revelations of what the slaves went through were horrible (2). Priscilla`s documents indicate that during the shipping, the slaves were treated just as cargo rather than people who had feelings and who could suffer from sicknesses. They were chained together and then tied to the rails in the ship. Most of the people died from the poor conditions within the ships as they crossed the sea. It is estimated that about 50% of all the slaves who were in a ship as it left the dock never made it to the other side. They could fall ill but the merchants had no time to attend to them. the places in the ship where they were transported were unhygienic, overcrowded and inn poor condition, which accelerated the possibility of catching infections. This went unnoticed to the merchants who were just keen on delivering their cargo to the other side. Mayell (3) indicates that the slaves had such a rough time that they often opted to dive into the sea and die courtesy of the sharks, rather than survive the harsh conditions that they had to endure in the ships. From this description, it can be seen that the slave trade brought untold suffering to the people as they went across the ocean to America. It is agreeable that being chained onto a ship cannot be a comforting idea to the slaves. Rather, it is so dehumanizing such that when the ship docks on the other side, the only feeling that an individual had is great grief, fear, intimidation and a sense of self-worthlessness. For this reason, it ...