apush slavery essay

apush slavery essay

The Impact of Slavery on American History

1. Introduction

The result of this was the destruction of the South and the ending of Atlantic slavery, yet it was not the end of racism that was felt by African Americans. They were disappointed with the outcome of the Civil War, expecting to receive retribution for what they had suffered. The compensation was very vague and the freedom that was granted had its limits. The southerners that had lost their slaves now treated them as second-class citizens, despite what was to be expected in the North with the wage of slavery. The slave owners even still felt that the North had a debt to repay them. The harsh reality added to the fact that the slaves and the lower-class whites had lost their political power that was up until the Civil War. They felt that they had been betrayed by the nation, a bittersweet patriotism.

The early 19th century had a lot of pressure put on many, and this led to what is known as the “waving of the bloody shirt”. The secession of the South was to free them, being only half of the democratic nation, a slave nation. The North blamed the South for trying to destroy the United States and democracy, and for giving the western pro-propaganda, a democratic slave society, a fair chance. Hostilities erupted due to the fact that the South felt victimized by the attacks and that not only were they losing face, but political power. This led to the Civil War and the test of the democratic right of states to supersede the federal government.

The American Revolution was not just a revolution for the nation, but for the future of slavery in the northern states. It was the basis for creating an anti-slavery prospect. Abolition began in America before the revolution, but there weren’t many changes. A larger push for change was prompted by the Enlightenment and the Quakers, who were long-time opponents of slavery. This push was for the end of the African slave trade and the need to integrate these people into American society, not only as free people, but as equals.

Slavery in the South was a very controversial topic. People argued that it was beneficial to the Europeans and that how they treated the slaves was humane. Thinking this, the Europeans were not well informed about how the African people were being treated in the colonies.

2. Origins of Slavery in America

The quick wealth they were in search of often came in the form of gold. Particularly in the Spanish territories, there was some success in this, but the English colonies did not have markings nearly as attractive as those in South and Central America. In areas such as Jamestown, the colonies would take to growing and exporting such products as tobacco. Though it was valuable and in demand, tobacco farming does not require a large amount of labor. Due to the limited success in finding wealth in the New World, one common tactic was to use the colonies as a place to dump those who were unwanted in Europe. The Scottish and Irish, who often had great difficulty finding acceptance in England, would find the colonies a good place to start a new life. Even this would provide limited use for slavery, as it was not until the settlers began to find ways to get rich and start their own American legacy that the ideas of importing large quantities of Africans for slave labor shifted into place.

As these countries began to expand their colonial holdings into the Caribbean as well as what would later become the United States, they initially did not look to slavery as the chief method of obtaining colonists. For the most part, particularly in the early period of colonization, the colonies were seen as an opportunity to make quick wealth and then return to Europe. Although there would prove to be much more profit in the New World than in the old, the initial thought for many was to extract some resource which they could take back to Europe.

By the time the English were exploring various areas of the New World in the 1600s, much of the work was already done for them. The Spanish had established a powerful empire on the west and central areas of the New World (the area that would later become South and Central America), building their empire primarily on the toil of local natives. With the New World holdings of England and France more to the north, these countries had very little experience dealing with either the African or the Indian races. Both France and England, before founding New World colonies, had some minor slave trade relationship with the Spaniards, but it was minimal at best.

3. Slavery’s Role in the American Economy

Plantation slavery and the slave trade developed rapidly during the late 17th and early 18th century. The early colonists, in a land of opportunity, saw slavery as a way to make a better living. In fact, many smaller farmers went into slavery because they could not compete with the productivity of the larger plantations using slave labor. Slavery spread throughout the American colonies fairly rapidly, and slaves were employed in a diverse set of economic activities. Although slave labor was most important in the cultivation of staple crops, it also achieved a high level of importance in the production of cash crops and livestock. This allowed for a great degree of occupational diversity amongst the slave population, and also a great degree of self-hiring their own time. In turn, this and possibly other factors led to the eradication of the importation of white indentured servants. This transition from indentured servitude to race-based slavery had slowly taken place during the late 1600s and early part of the next century. It was a very gradual process and an early form of racism helped rationalize the trade.

4. Abolitionist Movement and Its Effects

In the North, there was a powerful moral and religious incentive to the abolitionist movement from its beginning in the Revolutionary period. By the end of the 18th century, even the Southern churches were showing some disposition to condemn slavery, and it seemed for a time that it might die out in connection with the freeing of t

The movement to abolish the institution of Negro slavery in America began in the period after the Seven Years War. It gained a head of steam in 1783 and was a powerful, though not always predominant, force in securing an eventual end to slavery. Often intermingled with it, and at times an integral part of it, was the movement for the return of the American Negro to Africa. The political phase of abolitionism was a long struggle to reach the power necessary to abolish slavery, to interpret the War as a struggle against slavery, and later to move from the negative act of abolition to positive action to establish the Negro in society as the equal of the white.

5. Legacy of Slavery in Modern America

One demonstrable feature of the legacy of slavery in the United States is the lingering inter-racial animosity from the days of slavery and the hundred years of “legal” segregation that followed. Race relations continue to be a contentious issue in America as exemplified by the inner-city riots in Los Angeles during the second half of the 20th century. The breakthrough for the civil rights movement came in the mid-1960s with the landmark Civil Rights Act – legislation that outlawed various forms of racial segregation and effectively ended years of Jim Crow. Another feature of the legacy of American slavery is the gap it created in the social and economic conditions of blacks compared with whites. For the descendants of American slaves, the history of indentured servitude and moves towards equal rights are a story of upward mobility and increasing assimilation into the surrounding society. For American blacks, many of whom are progeny of the “post-slavery” wave of immigration from the Caribbean, this contrasts with their history of being marginalized and excluded from mainstream society. A final feature of the legacy of American slavery discussed in this essay is the lasting cultural impact, predominantly on the music and sport of the nation. African-Americans have had a massive influence on American culture as a whole. For example, blues, jazz, gospel, and rock ‘n’ roll music styles all originated from black musicians. Today, hip-hop music is a dominant genre in America, and it is also a global cultural phenomenon. These cultural forms are commonly seen as having a positive influence and are a testament to the perseverance and resilience of the descendants of African slaves in North America.