Slaves In Industry
Slaves in Industry
American history in the 19th century revolved around the controversy of slavery. As early as 1784, there were blacks living, as free men in the north, but the south grew far more limited to their slavery-run economy. These free and enslaved blacks had many complaints, limitations, successes, and opportunities in this shaky era of our nation's past. The people and the events of the 1800's would change America forever.
The first Africans to land on American soil arrived in Virginia in 1619. In Europe, the Portuguese and the Dutch had already been dealing in the African slave trade, traveling back and forth across the Atlantic for over half a century. Shortly afterward the French and the British took over this trade industry. America was growing and was in need of cheap labor for economic, geographic, social and agricultural reasons, especially in the southern states. In the south, the climate and soil was very helpful to farming and the plantation owners needed a great number of men to work the land consequently making it the majority importer of slaves. Between 1700 and 1810, the slave traders had carried close to 7 million Africans to America to fulfill the requirements of these tasks. The high demand of the slave trade industry would change African tribes and cultures significantly. In America, these captives would develop new cultures and lifestyles of their own. After our country won its independence, our nation would endeavor to find a new form of self- government; the northern states had conflicting views on the commerce and ownership of slaves while the southern states endorsed slavery. Since the turn of the 19th century, the morality issue of the slave industry had become very controversial.
In 1784, Massachusetts became the first state to abolish slavery, therefore making it illegal to own or trade slaves. Twenty years later, every state north of Delaware would ratify similar laws. Some laws consisted of a gradual...
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