Racism in America

By~Ashlee Hettmansperger

Slavery in America

slavery began when European merchants started the Triangular Trade. The Triangular Trade was a system in which slaves, crops, and manufactures were traded between Africa, the Caribbean, and the American colonies.A slave ship is a ship that provided an average of about seven square feet per slave and how slaves were purchased. In the New World many slaves were needed because land was distributed and the new landowners founded plantations to exploit the "riches" which included sugar, tobacco, cotton, rum and other profitable commodities and in order to produce goods at a profitable rate, cheap labor was required to work the plantations they could not leave the plantation without permission . there where more slaves in the Southern part of our country because Before the Civil War, nearly 4 million black slaves toiled in the American South,they were also stolen into slavery and forced to work. The cotton gin invention freed slaves from the arthritic labor of separating seeds from the lint by hand.

Slaves in America were treated poorly. Slaves only get about a few hours of sleep or whenever they are awoken by there master. Slaves were punished by whipping, shackling, hanging, beating, burning, mutilation, branding and imprisonment. Slaves were forbidden to learn to read or write and making it a crime who teaches them.Slaves were not usually allowed to attend church services because they feared that slaves might interpret the teachings of Jesus Christ as being a favor of equality.Slaves were not allowed to marry at their own free will,Slave marriages had neither legal standing nor protection from the abuses and restrictions imposed on them by slave - owners. In antebellum times,slaves were married by an ordained minister or simply by a ceremony called "jumping the broom" or "jumping the broomstick". Slaves were often forced to have children for their masters , even against their own will. The treatment of slaves in the United States varied by time and place, but was generally brutal and degrading.if slaves were caught trying to escape, the punishment could be very severe. runaways would be beaten and forced to do exceptionally hard work or sold to a different slave owner further south so its harder for them to escape.

It took until 1865 for slavery to be illegal in the United States with the 13th amendment to the U.S. constitution. In 1776 the Deceleration of Independence declares that "All men are created equal."in spite of that, slavery remains legal institution in all 13 of the newly-established states. 1787 the Northwest ordinance bans slavery in the Northwest territory ( what becomes the state of Ohio,Indiana,Michigan, and Wisconsin). the ordinance together with the state emancipation laws create a free North. 1863 President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring "that all persons held as slaves " within the confederate state "are, and henceforward shall be free. 1865 The Civil War ends. Lincoln is assassinated. The 13th amendment abolishes slavery throughout the United States.On June 19th slavery in the United States effectively ended when 250,000 slaves in Texas finally received the news that the Civil War had ended two months earlier. At the 1860 Republican National Convention, Abraham Lincoln became the Presidential nominee. The Republican platform specifically pledged not to extend slavery and called for enactment of free-homestead legislation, prompt establishment of a daily mail service, a transcontinental railroad and support of the protective tariff. Three Candidates opposed Lincoln: Stephen Douglas (Northern Democrat), John Cabell Breckenridge (Southern Democrat) and John Bell (Constitutional Union Party). Lincoln won almost half a million votes more than Douglas, his closest rival, and he won the election garnering 39.8 percent of the popular vote. This election firmly established the Republicans who held onto the Presidency for 60 of the next 100 years. Shortly thereafter, the first shots of the Civil War were fired (scarcely a month after Abraham Lincoln's inauguration).President Lincoln had first proposed the Emancipation Proclamation to his Cabinet in July 1862, but Secretary of State William Seward suggested waiting for a Union victory so that the government could prove that it could enforce the Proclamation. Although the Battle of Antietam resulted in a draw, the Union army was able to drive the Confederates out of Maryland – enough of a “victory,” that Lincoln felt comfortable issuing the Emancipation just five days later.Up until September 1862, the main focus of the war had been to preserve the Union. With the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation freedom for slaves now became a legitimate war aim.