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Slaves In America

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands on the back of nearly 4 million beaten, run-down African-American slaves that made up the foundation of this great country. A people ripped from their families and the place they called home to suffer through 2 centuries of injustice. There were larger forces that shaped the experience of African-American's in the time of slavery in the U.S. A huge factor was the white slave owners want of free labor. Another force that shaped their experience was the fear of god instilled in their minds by their slave owners. A final force was the white person's fear of a revolt, or uprising, in the slave community. Another aspect of slavery that will be talked about was the kinds of strategies or behaviors the African-American used to shape their own destiny. Many free African-Americans used their ability to write petitions for the courts or to give speeches in a public forum. The enslaved African-Americans used songs, in which they called them Spirituals, and also they told folk tales in the slave's quarters to communicate with one another. A final strategy that will be talked about was a rare occurrence when a slave took his destiny into his own hands and went on a murderous rampage with some followers.
When settlers first came to the soils of, what we now call, America they brought with them indentured servants. Some were white and some were black. The indentured servants would work the land for whomever they owed debt too, and after so many years of labor their debt would be paid off, and they'd be freed. This last only as long as the white man's fair and equal treatment lasted. The white property owners realized they could enslave just black me and women from Africa for no pay, in order to turn nothing but profit on whatever their trade. Alas, the start of slavery in America. White men did not pay these people anything, in a document written by Solomon Northup, a...

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